---
verdict: needs-attention
remediation_round: 0
---

# Milestone Validation: M009

## Success Criteria Checklist
- [x] **Homepage hero with tagline, value prop, how-it-works, CTA, popular topics** — S01 summary confirms all elements present. Build passes (46 modules, 0 errors). Source grep confirms h1, value-prop, how-it-works grid, CTA link, popularTopics fetch/render.
- [x] **About page at /about with what/how/who sections** — S02 summary confirms three sections (what Chrysopedia is, how content is extracted, who maintains it). Route registered in App.tsx. Build passes (47 modules).
- [x] **Footer link to About page** — S02 summary confirms About link added to AppFooter.tsx using react-router-dom Link.
- [x] **Featured technique spotlight on homepage** — S03 summary confirms random technique fetch, full summary display, creator link, topic badges, accent border styling. Graceful degradation on fetch failure.
- [x] **Enriched recently-added grid** — S03 summary confirms 2-column CSS grid, 150-char summaries, deduplication against featured technique, responsive collapse at 640px.
- [x] **Backend sort=random param** — S03 summary confirms sort query param added to list_techniques endpoint following creators.py pattern.

## Slice Delivery Audit
| Slice | Claimed Deliverable | Evidence | Verdict |
|-------|---------------------|----------|---------|
| S01 | Tagline, value prop, how-it-works, CTA, popular topic pills | Summary: all elements confirmed in Home.tsx + App.css. Build: 46 modules, 0 errors. | ✅ Delivered |
| S02 | /about page with what/how/who sections, footer link | Summary: About.tsx with 3 sections, route in App.tsx, link in AppFooter.tsx. Build: 47 modules. | ✅ Delivered |
| S03 | Featured spotlight + enriched recently-added grid | Summary: random fetch, dedup, 2-column grid, sort=random backend param. Build passes. | ✅ Delivered |

## Cross-Slice Integration
S03 depends on S01 (homepage hero layout and CSS custom properties). S03 summary explicitly confirms it consumed S01's layout. BEM naming consistent across slices (.home-hero, .home-popular-topics from S01; .home-featured from S03). No boundary mismatches detected.

S02 is independent — adds a new route and footer link. No integration concerns.

## Requirement Coverage
M009 is a UX/first-impression milestone. No active requirements are directly scoped to M009. The milestone advances the overall user experience but doesn't own any specific requirement from the requirements register. R005 (Search-First Web UI) and R015 (30-Second Retrieval Target) are tangentially related but already validated/owned by earlier milestones.

No requirement coverage gaps — this milestone is additive UX polish.

## Verification Class Compliance
### Contract Verification
**Planned:** Hero section renders correctly at desktop and mobile viewports. About page contains required sections.
**Evidence:** All three slices pass TypeScript compilation and Vite build with zero errors. Source code confirms all planned elements. Responsive CSS breakpoints at 640px present for how-it-works grid, recently-added grid, and about page.
**Gap:** No browser screenshot evidence of desktop/mobile rendering. Verification is code-level only.
**Status:** ⚠️ Partially met — code structure verified, visual rendering not proven.

### Integration Verification
**Planned:** Popular topics derived from real API technique counts. Featured technique pulled from real data.
**Evidence:** S01 fetches from existing topics API, sorts by technique_count. S03 uses list_techniques with sort=random. Both confirmed in source.
**Gap:** No runtime evidence of API calls succeeding against real data.
**Status:** ⚠️ Partially met — integration points coded correctly, runtime behavior not proven.

### Operational Verification
**Planned:** Deployed and accessible at ub01:8096. No broken links on homepage or about page.
**Evidence:** None. No slice summary mentions deployment or runtime access verification.
**Gap:** No evidence of deployment or broken link checks.
**Status:** ❌ Not addressed — this is expected since auto-mode builds/tests locally but doesn't deploy.

### UAT Verification
**Planned:** First-time visitor can articulate what the site does after 10 seconds. About page reachable from footer.
**Evidence:** UAT scripts written for all three slices with detailed test cases. No evidence of UAT execution.
**Gap:** UAT scripts are authored but not executed against a running instance.
**Status:** ⚠️ Authored but not executed.


## Verdict Rationale
All three slices delivered their planned output. Code compiles cleanly, builds produce correct bundles, and source-level verification confirms all planned UI elements, API integrations, and responsive CSS. Cross-slice integration is clean. The gaps are in runtime verification: no browser screenshots, no deployment proof at ub01:8096, no UAT execution. These are characteristic of auto-mode frontend work where builds are the primary gate. The gaps don't indicate missing functionality — they indicate missing proof of deployed behavior. This warrants documentation but not remediation, since the code changes are complete and correct.
