fix(KB-183): prevent dep-dropdown clicks from dismissing InlineCreateCard

- Add onMouseDown preventDefault on dep-dropdown and items to retain focus
- Extend focusout guard to check dependencies and showDeps state before cancelling
- Add useEffect dependency array entries for dependencies and showDeps
- Add tests for mouseDown preventDefault and blur-with-deps retention

packages/dashboard/app/components/InlineCreateCard.tsx

@@ -43,14 +43,14 @@ export function InlineCreateCard({ tasks, onSubmit, onCancel, addToast }: Inline
     const handleFocusOut = (e: FocusEvent) => {
       // relatedTarget is the element receiving focus — if it's inside the card, ignore
       if (e.relatedTarget instanceof Node && card.contains(e.relatedTarget)) return;
-      // Only cancel if empty
+      // Only cancel if empty and dropdown is not open
-      if (description.trim() === "" && pendingImages.length === 0) {
+      if (description.trim() === "" && pendingImages.length === 0 && dependencies.length === 0 && !showDeps) {
         onCancel();
       }
     };
     card.addEventListener("focusout", handleFocusOut);
     return () => card.removeEventListener("focusout", handleFocusOut);
-  }, [description, pendingImages, onCancel]);
+  }, [description, pendingImages, dependencies, showDeps, onCancel]);
 
   // Clean up object URLs on unmount to prevent memory leaks
   useEffect(() => {
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ export function InlineCreateCard({ tasks, onSubmit, onCancel, addToast }: Inline
                 )
               : tasks;
             return (
-              <div className="dep-dropdown">
+              <div className="dep-dropdown" onMouseDown={(e) => e.preventDefault()}>
                 <input
                   className="dep-dropdown-search"
                   placeholder="Search tasks…"
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ export function InlineCreateCard({ tasks, onSubmit, onCancel, addToast }: Inline
                     <div
                       key={t.id}
                       className={`dep-dropdown-item${dependencies.includes(t.id) ? " selected" : ""}`}
+                      onMouseDown={(e) => e.preventDefault()}
                       onClick={() => toggleDep(t.id)}
                     >
                       <span className="dep-dropdown-id">{t.id}</span>

packages/dashboard/app/components/__tests__/InlineCreateCard.test.tsx

@@ -67,6 +67,43 @@ describe("InlineCreateCard blur-to-cancel", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("InlineCreateCard dep-dropdown focus retention", () => {
+  const testTasks: Task[] = [
+    { id: "KB-010", title: "Task A", description: "First task", column: "todo" as Column, dependencies: [], steps: [], currentStep: 0, log: [], createdAt: "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", updatedAt: "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z" },
+  ];
+
+  it("dep-dropdown-item mouseDown calls preventDefault to retain focus", () => {
+    renderCard(testTasks);
+    // Open the dropdown
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByText(/Deps/));
+    const item = document.querySelector(".dep-dropdown-item") as HTMLElement;
+    expect(item).toBeTruthy();
+
+    // Fire mouseDown and verify preventDefault was called —
+    // this is the mechanism that keeps focus on the search input in
+    // real browsers and prevents a focusout with relatedTarget: null
+    const prevented = !fireEvent.mouseDown(item);
+    expect(prevented).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("does NOT call onCancel when focus leaves card with selected dependencies but empty description", () => {
+    const { props } = renderCard(testTasks);
+    const textarea = screen.getByPlaceholderText("What needs to be done?");
+
+    // Open dropdown and select a dependency
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByText(/Deps/));
+    const item = document.querySelector(".dep-dropdown-item") as HTMLElement;
+    expect(item).toBeTruthy();
+    fireEvent.click(item);
+
+    // Focus the textarea then blur out of the card entirely
+    textarea.focus();
+    fireEvent.focusOut(textarea, { relatedTarget: null });
+
+    expect(props.onCancel).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
+
 describe("InlineCreateCard dependency dropdown search", () => {
   const testTasks: Task[] = [
     { id: "KB-001", title: "Fix login", description: "Login page broken", column: "todo" as Column, dependencies: [], steps: [], currentStep: 0, log: [], createdAt: "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", updatedAt: "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z" },