--- title: "Rules: how OpenVibe decides · OpenVibe.Design" canonical: "https://openvibe.design/rules" updated: null --- # Rules: how OpenVibe decides · OpenVibe.Design HTML: [Rules: how OpenVibe decides · OpenVibe.Design](https://openvibe.design/rules) Rules # How OpenVibe decides. Every style, design and organization decision behind OpenVibe, one sentence each, with the day it was made and what went wrong without it. [Patterns](/patterns) show how a rule looks in a page; this says what the rule is and why. - rules: 168 - areas: 11 - last decided: 13 Nov 2026 Rules The register [The system map](/system) ## Decided lately The newest rules first; each links to its place below. 1. [13 Nov 2026 **A room's summary reads its public messages, minus people who turned AI off; a summary of a person needs their yes.**](#a-room-reads-its-room) 2. [13 Nov 2026 **An AI line about a room says its vibe first, then the specifics, never counts; an old one steps aside.**](#ai-lines-lead-with-the-vibe) 3. [13 Nov 2026 **What a message answers, quotes or changes is a part of the box, and Send is quiet until there is something to send.**](#context-lives-in-the-box) 4. [13 Nov 2026 **Working, the mark is still the logo: its own ring with a bright arc running round it.**](#the-wait-keeps-the-logo) 5. [13 Nov 2026 **A glyph sits inside its tile with room around it, and every tab's glyph fills the same box.**](#glyphs-sit-in-their-tiles) ## Honest pages 16 What a page shows is true, counted and sourced. ### [1Never show content that is not real.](#no-fake-content) 31 Oct 2026 No sample rows, invented counts, filler testimonials or "coming soon" sections dressed as content. An empty place says it is empty and offers one way forward. Why Placeholder sections and invented numbers made pages look full and told people nothing. See [One-line empty states](/patterns/empty-state) ### [2An icon name is checked against the set that draws it.](#two-icon-sets) 10 Nov 2026 There are two sets: a site’s own mark (live, chat, quest: drawn in the page) and the glyphs (wrench, heart, camera: drawn as SVG). A name from one written as the other draws the fallback mark, a bare "V". A page’s checks fail when it asks for a mark that does not exist. Why Most of Quest’s icons were a "V": glyph names written as site marks, and the check looked at the wrong list. See [Icons](/icons) ### [4Calm makes motion smaller and slower. Only Off removes it.](#calm-reduces-off-removes) 10 Nov 2026 Motion has four settings: Automatic (follows the device), Full, Calm and Off. Under Calm, and on a device that asks for less motion, every effect still plays: a third of the distance, no overshoot, endless loops at 0.6 of their speed. A page never stops an effect because motion is reduced; a rule that stops one belongs to Off (html\[data-ov-motion=off\]). A distance of 24px or more is multiplied by --ov-move. Only what starts by itself and fills the view (a video, a carousel) still waits for a tap under Calm. Why Reduced motion gave every animation no length at all, so Calm pages looked broken: the owner asked for motion reduced, not removed. See [Motion](/motion) [Your look](/look) Checked by openvibe-shared test: motion-setting ### [15A number counts exactly what its label says.](#count-what-it-says) 1 Nov 2026 A count next to a list equals the length of that list. "4 agents working now" must count agents at work, not the agent catalogue. Why A home page counted its catalogue as "working now". Checked by site sweep: count checks ### [16A missing number is left out or said in words, never shown or sorted as zero.](#missing-is-not-zero) 9 Nov 2026 When a source did not report a value, the page says "No traffic yet" or "Not measured", and sorting and picks skip it. In code, null must not become 0. Why A model with no measured speed was named "Fastest" because null had become 0 ms. See [A missing number is not zero](/patterns/missing-not-zero) [Open stats](https://openvibe.network/stats) Checked by Report test: picks use measured values ### [17Every number names its source, its date and how much it rests on.](#number-has-source) 9 Nov 2026 A rating says how many games; a price says whose page and when it was checked; a speed says it is from real traffic over seven days. One tap shows it. Why Comparison pages showed numbers nobody could check. See [A number names its source](/patterns/number-names-source) ### [18A starting value is not a result.](#not-a-rating-yet) 9 Nov 2026 A model with no votes shows "Not rated yet", not the 1000 every entrant starts at. The same goes for any score with no samples behind it. Why The leaderboard rated models at 1000 on boards that said "No votes yet". See [A starting value is not a result](/patterns/not-rated-yet) ### [19A column or section appears when something fills it.](#columns-earn-their-place) 9 Nov 2026 A table shows a column only when some row has a value for it; a section with nothing in it is not drawn. When everything is missing, one plain line says why and what would fill it. Why Twelve columns of "Not measured yet" buried the three numbers that were real. See [A column earns its place](/patterns/column-earns-place) ### [20Status is a word, never colour alone.](#state-in-words) 30 Oct 2026 A dot or colour helps the eye; the word carries the meaning for everyone. Why Colour alone made live, done and failed look alike. See [Status badges](/patterns/status-badges) [Status is a dot and a word](/patterns/status-dot) ### [21When the data cannot separate two things, they share a rank.](#bands-not-false-ranks) 9 Nov 2026 Ranks come with their uncertainty: overlapping intervals share a band ("1–3"), and a tie is shown as a tie. Why A rank order implied differences the votes could not support. ### [136A pack, a set or a playlist shows what is in it.](#groups-show-their-members) 12 Nov 2026 A group's card shows its first few members and how many more there are ("+4 more"); its page shows every member, each one opening on its own. A group is never drawn as its first member alone: that says one thing where there are eight. When a member's name is already written on it (a "Look up" button), the tile does not print the name again. Why The Elements gallery drew the eight-control LOOI pack as one "Look up" button, on its card and on its page. ### [140A list of changes reads as rows with their marks, never as one run of text.](#changes-read-as-rows) 12 Nov 2026 What changed (coins earned, things bought, quests done) shows one row per kind: its mark in a tile, a short summary ("Quests done ×10"), when, and the amount in its currency's colour. Repeats are counted, not repeated; every single change is one tap away in a fold, each with its own amount. Money and amounts keep the network's number style (a thin space between thousands, "+161k" when large, the full figure in the title). Why The owner, a phone screenshot of the wallet marked "UGLY": What changed read "for the quest Publish a video · for the quest Share a picture · …" as one paragraph beside "+161k". Checked by openvibe-shared test: wallet-chrome openvibe-shared test: purse-catchup-chrome ### [141An empty part says what will be there, with its mark, in a small card.](#empty-says-what-comes) 12 Nov 2026 When a section has nothing yet (no store items, no activity, nothing collected), it shows its mark, one line saying what will appear, and one quieter line saying how; never a bare heading over a grey sentence, and never an empty box. Why The wallet's Store showed a heading and "New items will appear here after review." in grey, marked "UGLY" by the owner. Checked by openvibe-shared test: wallet-chrome ### [151A burst of the same thing is one card, counted whole, and no card shows twice.](#a-burst-is-one-card) 12 Nov 2026 When a source delivers many items at once with no person behind them (a Deals poll, a News import, new jobs), the feed shows one card per site and hour, counted from the whole burst and named by its site, never "System"; a page that ends inside a burst moves past it, and a list never draws a card it already shows. Words are words: a source's Markdown is read as plain text and its first picture as the card's picture, from an address that loads. Why The owner, 11-12, marking the menu's Feed: "spam" over three "112 new deals" cards, and "broke" over a post printed as Markdown and a picture that did not load. Checked by OpenVibe.Network test: feed ### [157A service restarting on purpose says so, and nothing latches for it.](#a-planned-restart-is-not-a-loss) 12 Nov 2026 When Bot restarts for a deploy it closes every link with 1012 and waits for the replies, Link stops a robot's plugins with the cause link\_restart (not link\_lost), and a driver stops its motors without latching a stop of its own that a person would have to clear by hand. Every close is logged with its code and reason, or as a drop with no close frame. Why Maticus, 11-12: every Bot deploy meant Clear STOP, ARM and Go Live by hand on LOOI, and the logs did not say why the link closed. Checked by OpenVibe.Link test: TestServerRestartStopsWithLinkRestart OpenVibe.Bot test: restart-close ### [159Every number is drawn by ov-metrics, and a number nobody measured is a dash.](#numbers-drawn-once) 12 Nov 2026 Report, Exchange, Compare and the admin panel draw AI and usage numbers with openvibe-shared/ov-metrics.js (tiles, a trend line, ranked bars, percentiles, a split, a sortable table) and say them in its words: 540 ms, $0.0042, 86.0 tok/s, 99.4%. A percentile is the median and the 95th on one scale, with how many calls it rests on. Unknown is a dash, never 0, and a delta says in words whether it got better. Why The owner asked for tokens, caching, model, time and cost per task, tokens per second and time to first token on Report, Compare and Exchange, with the designs reused through openvibe.design. Three sites drawing their own charts would show one number three ways. See [Metrics](/components/metrics) Checked by openvibe-shared test: ov-metrics-chrome OpenVibe.Design test: changes ## Length without hiding 8 Pages get shorter by arranging, never by removing. ### [7A fold shows its first two and fades.](#a-fold-shows-its-first) 10 Nov 2026 A list shortened on a phone shows its first two items whole and fades into the third, with one button under it that says how many there are, opens the rest and closes them again. A closed fold that shows only a heading and a count does not read as something to open, and what is in it cannot be seen. Every item stays in the page. Why Community’s Questions was a heading and "6 questions": the owner did not see that it opened, or a single question. See [Patterns](/patterns) Checked by OpenVibe.Community test: home-short ### [22Shorten a page by arranging it, never by removing content.](#never-hide-content) 11 Nov 2026 No "newest only" cuts and nothing left out of the page's HTML. Use sideways rails, "More (N)" pagers, folds that show their count, and on a phone sections as tabs (next rule): every section stays in the HTML, each tab says its count. Why Pages made shorter lost their videos and clips; every cut had to be put back (10-31). The owner, 11-11: "consolidate these into tabs, self-contained tabs, so the page isn't so freaking huge … at least on mobile", with the HTML kept whole for search and AI crawlers. See [One card that is also a row](/patterns/card-or-row) ### [23On a phone, a page of sections is tabs; a wide screen shows them all.](#tabs-for-settings) 11 Nov 2026 At 900 px or narrower (600 on a front page) a page of sections shows one at a time: the tab strip names each with its count, the tab says what the section is so its own heading steps aside, a section loads the first time it is opened, and the choice works with no script where it can (radios). Every section is in the page's HTML. Settings pages keep server-rendered tabs, each with its own address. Why Content in tabs was content people never found (10-31), so the tabs now carry counts and the HTML carries everything; the owner, 11-11, on a channel's page of sections: "self-contained tabs". See [Tabs, not folds](/patterns/tabs-not-folds) ### [24A front page is a taste and a door: about six phone screens.](#taste-and-door) 29 Oct 2026 Two hero actions, figures as one strip, cards as sideways rows, explainers in one fold, and no closing call that repeats the hero. Why Homes ran to fifteen screens on a phone. ### [25Do not keep a section whose only content is that it has none.](#placeholders-are-not-sections) 9 Nov 2026 "Not published yet" four times is length, not information. Keep the sections that hold something; name what is pending in one line. Why A model page was mostly "not available yet". ### [26One choice, one control; one action, one button.](#say-it-once) 9 Nov 2026 A setting has a single control, and an action a single button on the page. When a picture of the choices can be pressed, the pictures are the control: no second switch beside them saying the same thing. Why Your look had the icon style as a row of three words and again as three screens; Themes asked people to sign in twice on one screen. See [Your look](/look) ### [118A long list of work folds by its state, with counts.](#lists-fold-by-state) 11 Nov 2026 A dashboard of jobs, tasks or runs groups them by state (running, queued, needs attention, today, earlier), each group a fold with its count: what is happening and what needs you open, the rest folded, the choice kept. A long group shows ten and a "Show N more"; what is running always shows whole. A search or a filter opens every group. Rows are one line of what and one of where it is. Why The owner, on the agent portal: the page was long; "collapsible elements … improve openvibe.design as well." ### [120A long directory folds by its natural group, and every entry stays in the page.](#directories-fold-by-group) 11 Nov 2026 Hundreds of entries (models, engines, sites) are grouped by what a person looks for first (the provider, the kind), each group a fold whose summary says how many, how many are free and from what price. A search, a filter or a short list opens the folds. Every entry is still in the HTML for crawlers and find-in-page; an entry is one line: its name first, then status, size and price at the end (under the name on a phone). Why Exchange's /models was about sixty phone screens: nine callable models, then 934 registry models as one plain list (the owner's provider card, ask 361). ## Loading and motion 13 Movement means something is happening. ### [5An effect is left out by what the device says, never by the size of its screen.](#effects-by-device-not-screen) 10 Nov 2026 A site may leave out an effect a device cannot afford, by what the device says about itself: 2 GB of memory or less (navigator.deviceMemory), or a person saving data (navigator.connection.saveData). It never does so because the screen is narrow or the pointer is coarse, and never by overriding the person’s Motion setting. What follows a pointer (a spotlight, a tilt) may be left out where there is no pointer; a layout rule under a width (a collage that has no room) is not a motion rule. Why OpenVibe.Live marked every phone "lite" and switched its home’s animations off whatever the Motion setting said: on a phone nothing moved, and the owner asked why with motion on. See [Motion](/motion) Checked by OpenVibe.Live test: home-lite ### [6A control that docks moves to its place.](#a-dock-travels) 10 Nov 2026 An action that pins itself to the screen’s edge while its real control is out of view rises into place, and when the real control comes back into view the pinned one travels to it and hands over. It never appears and vanishes in one frame. Once the page’s footer is on screen it rides above the footer instead of lying over it. With Motion off it is simply there or not. Why The Go live bar on a phone flashed in and out as the page scrolled, and sat over the footer at the page’s end. See [Motion](/motion) Checked by OpenVibe.Live test: golive-setup ### [27The only thing that goes round is the mark’s own O.](#no-spinners) 10 Nov 2026 A wait shows the shape of what is coming (a placeholder of the right size) or the mark at work: its O breaks into dots that go round, and three dots rise inside it while an agent thinks or writes. No borrowed spinner, and no ring chasing its tail round an icon. A finished or idle thing is still. Why Spinning rings round icons everywhere looked cheap and said nothing (2026-10-31). Then the mark only breathing did not read as loading, so its own O became the one thing that goes round. See [Loading](/loading) [The mark at work](/patterns/mark-system) Checked by test/no-spin.test.js ### [28A live list changes only where it changed.](#streams-hold-still) 30 Oct 2026 Patch rows in place, keep the reader’s place, follow the bottom only when they were there, and fade in only what is new. Why Rebuilding a stream on every event reset what people were reading. See [Patch in place](/patterns/patch-in-place) [Keep the anchor](/patterns/keep-anchor) ### [29Every site moves on the same timings and honours reduced motion.](#shared-timing) 30 Oct 2026 180, 260 and 360 ms with the shared curves; the system setting for reduced motion turns entrances off. Why Components used unrelated durations and felt like different products. See [Motion](/motion) ### [91A bar button turns into the tab it opens, and back.](#button-becomes-its-tab) 10 Nov 2026 The pressed button (the menu button, the bell, the picture, a balance) flies to its tab in the menu and becomes it, its picture fading into the tab's along one short arc; a count rides along; closing flies it home. Reduced plays it short and straight; Off removes it. A flying button stays pressable. Why The owner: "when you click this button, I want it to animate into the tab it becomes. Same with the other buttons … if you click notifications, it should merge into the notifications tab." ### [115A picture-in-picture goes anywhere, tucks aside and waits with the mark.](#pip-goes-anywhere) 11 Nov 2026 It follows the finger or the mouse each frame and lands with a spring; dropped over the player it sits in the player, anywhere else it floats over the page and stays on screen while it scrolls; a flick carries on; near an edge it snaps. Thrown past a side it tucks into it, a tab with its picture still going. While it connects or its picture stops it shows the mark at work over its last frame (never a black box) and tries again by itself. Its place is kept per slot, in the browser and in the account (newest wins). Why The owner: "move it anywhere … on mobile and desktop … more solid feeling … that black thing that’s just stuck there … use the OV animations … saved and synced to the OpenVibe account." ### [121A card plays its short preview when a person rests on it, and only then.](#cards-preview-on-rest) 11 Nov 2026 A video, clip or live card with a preview plays it, muted, inside its own picture: after a short rest of the mouse or keyboard focus on a computer, and for the one card that settles in the middle of the screen on a phone. The picture stays until the video really plays, the badges stay on top, a thin line shows how far it has played. Motion Off and Save-Data play nothing; Calm and reduced motion keep the rest-to-play but not the scroll one; an 18+ card never previews. Why Ask 355: Media makes six-second previews for every recording and clip; the cards had none (the owner: hover and centred previews). ### [129What moves looks exactly like what it came from.](#motion-copies-keep-their-look) 11 Nov 2026 A copy that flies, morphs or lands (the menu button into its tab, a card into a sheet) carries the source's own computed colour, size and state from before the press, and turns into the target's on the way. It never falls back to a default colour once it leaves its own CSS. Why The menu button flew whiter than it was idle: the copy lost the navbar's colour rules and caught the pressed state. ### [130A moving thing lands.](#arrivals-land) 11 Nov 2026 Motion that carries something somewhere ends with a landing the eye can read: a short give (a squash that settles) and a ring at the target, and the same on the way back. Calm keeps the path, short, without trail or glow; only Off removes it. Why The owner: "added animations and effects as well when it lands where it should, and improve both the open and close transitions." ### [144Tabs and switches are one segmented control whose ink slides to the chosen one.](#one-segmented-control) 12 Nov 2026 A set of tabs or a switch (You's Apps · Notifications · Recent, Vibe's Chat · Code · Agents) is one rounded track; the chosen one sits on an ink that slides there from the last one, and the content slides in from that side. Calm fades instead; only Off removes the movement. Arrow keys move along it. On a phone only the chosen tab says its name when the others would not fit; each keeps its glyph and count. Why The owner, 11-12, on Vibe's Chat · Code · Agents row: "these can be aligned more perfectly … bigger font size and better icon size … animations, effects to the tabs that look nice, both on mobile and desktop". Checked by openvibe-shared test: menu-places-chrome openvibe-shared test: menu-home-screen-chrome ### [149Back from a page you left through the menu opens the menu again, where you were.](#back-returns-to-the-menu) 12 Nov 2026 Following a link in the menu marks where it was (its place, its door, its scroll) on its history entry. Back to that page opens the menu there, whether the page returns from the browser's cache, loads again, or is swapped in place; it reuses that entry, so Forward still works, and closing it then leaves the page as it was. Links in the menu warm up as a finger lands on them. Why The owner, 11-12, on the menu: "fix the history back button so it properly brings you back to this GUI rather than the page behind it" and "when you click links … it loads async dynamically and is highly optimized". Checked by openvibe-shared test: menu-back-chrome ### [165Working, the mark is still the logo: its own ring with a bright arc running round it.](#the-wait-keeps-the-logo) 13 Nov 2026 The busy mark keeps the O at its full weight as a faint track while a bright arc runs round it, growing as it goes and drawing in behind; the V lifts a little in time and the glow behind breathes, one 1.25 s rhythm. Nothing is drawn thinner than the logo, and the V stays level with the O. Why The owner, 11-13: "improve the O so it actually looks like the original, aligned properly … a better cool animation". Eight thinner dots sat inside the ring's line and the V bobbed off it. Checked by openvibe-shared test: ov-mark ## Navigation and the Frame 26 One bar, one menu, the same on every site. ### [3The button that opens it closes it.](#opens-it-closes-it) 10 Nov 2026 A panel that covers the screen grows out of the button that opened it, and that button, in the same place, is its close button: the menu button turns into the close mark and back, and the panel folds back into it. The panel carries no second close button of its own; a different one somewhere else is a second answer to one question. Why A phone’s Dock slid up from the bottom carrying its own close button, while the menu button it belongs to sat untouched in the bar. See [The menu button, opening](/brand/explore#menu) [Motion](/motion) Checked by openvibe-shared test: menu-home-screen-chrome ### [8A place is named, not initialled.](#the-rail-names-its-places) 10 Nov 2026 A strip or rail of places a person switches between carries each place’s name: beside its mark where there is room (a phone’s strip is named chips), and as a label that follows the pointer where the rail is a column of tiles. Two initials in a circle are a mark, not a name. A place that can be managed opens its sheet when held, right-clicked, or tapped again while open: what it is, the person’s rank in it, and what that rank may do. Why Chat’s server strip was circles reading "O" and "T": the owner did not know what they were or how to remove one. See [Patterns](/patterns) Checked by OpenVibe.Chat test: shell ### [9A destination is offered once on a screen.](#one-place-once) 10 Nov 2026 Where a phone has the bottom bar, a strip above the page does not repeat the bar’s places, and one icon means one thing on a site: the globe is not both "Servers" and "Global chat". A link in a bar goes to a page that exists. Why Chat showed Vibe at the top and at the bottom, used the globe for two places, and its Activity button opened a page that had never existed. See [The Frame](/system) Checked by OpenVibe.Chat test: shell ### [30One menu button on every site.](#one-menu-button) 8 Nov 2026 The menu button at the top of the page opens the OpenVibe menu; there is never a second button that does the same thing. Why Two buttons opened the same menu, and the custom orb had been hidden. See [One menu button](/patterns/one-menu) ### [31One navbar per page, owned by the shared Frame.](#one-bar) 30 Oct 2026 A site’s own section links go in the page body, never in a second header under the bar. Why Page headers under the bar doubled the navigation. See [One navbar per page](/patterns/single-navbar) ### [32Six places in a site’s bar; the rest under More.](#six-places) 1 Nov 2026 Each place has an icon and one or two words that never wrap; the brand is the way home. Why Bars grew until labels wrapped and buttons shrank. See [Six places in the bar](/patterns/six-places) ### [33Signing in and out happens in the shared bar only.](#one-account-ui) 24 Sep 2026 A site’s own account links go into the bar’s menu; its own account bar exists only for no-JavaScript visitors. Why Sites showed "Sign in" while the bar said you were signed in. ### [34Your messages, balances and status are in every bar.](#your-things-everywhere) 1 Nov 2026 The same three things in the same places on every site, for anyone signed in. Why Each site showed a different subset, so nothing was where people looked. See [Your things in every bar](/patterns/your-things) ### [35A page that needs an account says why in one sentence and offers one button.](#ask-with-a-button) 1 Nov 2026 The button signs in and comes straight back to the same place. Never a bare link inside a sentence. Why Ten sites hid sign-in inside paragraphs. See [Ask with a button](/patterns/ask-with-a-button) ### [36The menu button opens on the site you are on.](#menu-opens-here) 10 Nov 2026 Its first tab is this site: its pages as tiles under "Pages on ", the page you are on marked. No tab is remembered between openings; only the picture asks for another tab (You). The current site is first in its group of sites. Why The owner: "this button should open the first tab so people can switch between pages on the site they're on … make it clear that those are pages on the site you're on." ### [37The menu and the Dock lead to each other and wear one head.](#menu-and-dock-meet) 10 Nov 2026 Under the menu's tabs a row opens the Dock on Vibe, Agents, Messages or Activity; the Dock's head has "Menu". Both open out of the same button, close with the same cross in the same place, and mark the chosen tab with the theme's accent. Why The owner, in the menu: "how are you supposed to get to the other menu from this area?" and, of the Dock's head: "buggy and kind of ugly … more consistent, cohesive." ### [38The balances are one pill that shows one balance at a time.](#one-pill-for-balances) 10 Nov 2026 Only the balances a person has, the largest first. It turns through them on the first page of a visit and now and then. When one changes, the pill turns to it, counts the number and its pieces fly in or out. Each currency has one drawn icon, used wherever that currency is named. Why The owner: "we just show one, but it can animate between all three … it only needs to show the things you have … nice icons that are animated, designed for the three currencies." ### [39The account lives in the menu's You tab, not in a dropdown.](#account-in-the-menu) 10 Nov 2026 The picture is the last thing in the bar and opens the menu on You: who you are, your other accounts, add an account, settings, sign out, this site's own items and Display. Why The owner: "this user drop down is just redundant … move it into the You tab of the menu … consolidate the two into one menu." ### [40The menu button is at the right end of the bar on every width.](#menu-button-at-the-right) 10 Nov 2026 The left end is the logo, which opens the network's sites, and the site's name, which opens its pages; the right end is the menu button and then the person. The same on a phone and a computer. Why The owner: "The menu button should be on the right, even on desktop … there's like a duplicated icon." ### [41The site's name in the bar opens that site's pages, Home first.](#the-name-opens-its-pages) 10 Nov 2026 One small list drops from the name, with each page's icon and the present page marked. It is the network's one dropdown, used wherever a short list opens from what was pressed. Why The owner: "clicking the actual name of the domain should have a sleek little minimalist drop down … that just shows the pages … have the home button as an option." ### [42The bar holds one row at every width.](#the-bar-holds-one-row) 10 Nov 2026 When the row is too narrow its last links step out whole into More, then labels shorten; nothing wraps under the bar and the site's name is never cut mid-word. Why Chrome's desktop mode on a phone put "Global chat" on two lines and dropped the bell under the bar. ### [43A count means it is for you; a dot means there is something new.](#two-badges-two-meanings) 10 Nov 2026 The bell carries a red number for things addressed to you. The feed carries a small calm dot in the theme's colour, with no number, that goes when the feed is opened. Why The owner: "don't make the badge red for the feed … the actual notifications bell … should be \[the\] red badge. The other one should be … not as bothersome to the eye." ### [44A change to the Frame is shipped when every site shows it.](#shipped-means-every-site) 10 Nov 2026 A release of the shared library is followed by its pin on every site the same day; the plan names any site still behind and why. Why The owner: "how come the new nav bar … aren't deployed to all sites? It's … a mix-match." Twenty-five sites were held back by a size budget. ### [92The menu's places: Here, Feed, Chat, Vibe, You; Vibe holds Chat and Agents.](#places-say-what-they-hold) 10 Nov 2026 Messages is called Chat (on openvibe.chat, whose own tab is Chat, it stays Messages so a row never shows one word twice); the AI place is Vibe, with a two-part switch Chat · Agents. Notifications live in You, whose tab carries their red count; the bell opens You. Why The owner: "instead of having this called AI as the tab, let's call it Vibe, and then under Vibe is Chat and Agents"; "rename this Chat"; "there should just be a notifications tab … in You … a badge … but it's red." ### [93A place's actions are icons, not rows.](#actions-as-icons-in-the-pill) 10 Nov 2026 New (+) and Open in Chat (↗) are icon buttons with a label for screen readers and a tooltip; inside the menu they sit in the search pill beside the close button, so they cost no row; a floating panel keeps one slim row of them. No heading that repeats the tab's name. Why The owner, on the Vibe list: "remove the text of Vibe conversations … the new conversation button can … move to an icon plus button that looks nice and integrated. Open in chat should be … a little button icon." ### [94A site's name opens its pages, and a way to every site.](#every-site-from-the-name) 10 Nov 2026 The dropdown under the name lists the site's pages, then "All OpenVibe sites", which opens the menu scrolled past this site's pages to the list of sites. Why The owner: "this drop-down menu should have … a way … to view all sites … past the list of pages … to the list of actual domains." ### [99The mark and the name are one button.](#the-brand-is-one-button) 10 Nov 2026 The bar's left end is one button: the Pair, the site's name and a chevron, 40 px tall (46 px to tap), opening the site's pages and then "All OpenVibe sites". A site's own lead button (a sidebar, back) matches the menu button on the right: its size, its corner, its stroke. Why The owner: "make it so this whole thing becomes the drop down, not … two separate buttons … especially the left sidebar button … make it kind of match the right side." ### [101Vibe holds Chat, Code and Agents, and they hand work to each other.](#chat-code-agents) 10 Nov 2026 The menu's Vibe place (and the Dock) has three parts in one row: Chat, Code (start a coding task, follow yours, stop one) and Agents. "Build it in Code" hands a chat's words to Code; Vibe opens again on the part it was left on. Why The owner: "you can do chat, codes, and agents all in the same place and in one area." ### [128A menu opens above everything, never inside the box that holds it.](#menus-escape-their-box) 11 Nov 2026 A menu, popover or tip that starts inside a scroller, a rail, a card or anything with a mask, a clip or hidden overflow opens in the browser's top layer (the Popover API; kit-web.js does it for a rail's ⋯ menu) and is placed under its button. No card or rail it came from may cut it. Why The ⋯ menu on Community's paste cards was cut off: the rail's edge fade is a mask, and it hid even a fixed menu. ### [139There is one menu; your chats, your AI and your agents are places in it, never a second panel.](#one-menu-places-not-panels) 12 Nov 2026 Everything a person carries from site to site (this site's pages, the Feed, Chat, Vibe with its Code and Agents, You) is a place in the one menu that opens from the bar's menu button, on a phone and on a computer alike. Nothing floats beside it: no pill in a corner, no second card with its own tabs, no window of its own. A place inside the menu has no header band of its own: its actions (+ for a new chat, ↗ to open it in its product) sit in the menu's search pill, and an open conversation keeps only a slim way back and its name. What a floating button used to say (an agent working or needing you, a timer) is a small status on the menu button. Why The owner, crossing out the floating Dock with its own Vibe · Code · Agents · Chat · Activity tabs: "there should only be the one unified UI … we're supposed to delete … that has the old tab system", and on the first version inside the menu: "part of the one UI instead of having two different areas." See [The chat component](/components/chat) Checked by openvibe-shared test: menu-places-chrome openvibe-shared test: dock-chrome openvibe-shared test: menu-home-screen-chrome ### [153Any button, link or address can open a place in the menu.](#any-button-opens-a-place-in-the-menu) 12 Nov 2026 A place in the menu has an address: a place, or place/part (you/notifications, you/apps, feed, here/live, or a door like vibe). An element with data-ov-menu="you/notifications" opens it on a click on any page with the bar, a page address ending #ov-menu=you/notifications opens it as the page loads, and OpenVibeNavbar.openMenu takes the same words. A link that has an address still opens elsewhere with a modifier key, and the address leaves the page's own once used. Why The owner, 11-12: "other tools and buttons can open specific areas of the menu". See [The menu](/components/menu) Checked by openvibe-shared test: menu-address-chrome ## Phones first 15 Designed on a phone, checked at 320 px. ### [45Every page fits a 320 px screen without sideways scrolling.](#works-at-320) 17 Oct 2026 Grids use minmax(min(N, 100%), 1fr); one-column grids use minmax(0, 1fr); long words may break. Why Six homes scrolled sideways on small Android phones. Checked by browser smoke at 320, 390, 768, 1280 ### [46Everything you can press is at least 44 px.](#targets-44) 30 Oct 2026 Icon buttons included; spacing is separate from the hit area. Why Dense icon rows were hard to hit on a phone. See [44 px targets](/patterns/touch-targets) ### [47What a button did is said beside that button.](#answer-beside-the-action) 9 Nov 2026 The line that says "Saved" or "Not saved" sits with the buttons it answers. On a phone, where the buttons are a bar at the bottom of the screen, the answer is in that bar. Why Themes answered a press on the bottom bar in a line two screens further down the page. See [Themes](/themes) ### [48Views of one thing sit side by side to swipe, with the next one showing at the edge.](#swipe-not-stack) 9 Nov 2026 Three previews of the same theme, or three sizes of one design, are one row on a phone: each a screen wide less a sliver, so the edge of the next says there is more. What you change stays one screen away from what it changes. Why Three stacked previews put the colours to edit 1,500 pixels below the theme they edit. See [Themes](/themes) ### [49Controls that act on a picture keep the picture in view.](#keep-the-picture) 16 Oct 2026 Camera and drive pad on screen together; the picture sticks under the bar while the controls scroll. Why Driving a robot meant scrolling its camera away. ### [50Watching or going live owns the phone’s screen.](#watch-owns-the-screen) 31 Oct 2026 No tab bar and no floating buttons over the picture; its own controls take the edges. Why Bars and buttons covered the stream. See [Watch and camera screens own the screen](/patterns/media-owns-the-screen) ### [51On a phone, a wide table becomes labelled cards.](#tables-become-cards) 30 Oct 2026 Each row is a card; its first cell is the title and every other value says what it is. Nothing is dropped. Why Phones cut columns or scrolled the page sideways. See [Wide tables become labelled cards](/patterns/labelled-cards) ### [52On a watch page the video is first, and stays in view on a phone.](#video-first) 10 Nov 2026 The player runs edge to edge under the bar and stays there while the page moves under it; an upright picture is not pinned. Lists of more to watch are rows beside the player on a computer and come last on a phone. Why The owner: "why is the video not at the top … more device aware and viewport aware." A list added the day before stood above the player. ### [53Every piece of a page has a named place in its one-column order.](#every-piece-has-a-place) 10 Nov 2026 A page that reorders itself for a phone lists every piece; a test fails when a new piece has no place, because a piece without one goes first. Why "More from this channel" had no place in the order and took the top of the page, above the video. ### [54A messenger on a phone has two levels: the list, then the conversation.](#two-levels-in-a-messenger) 10 Nov 2026 The list level has the rail of places, the list beside it and the app's bar. A conversation is the whole screen: the way back first in its head, the composer at the bottom edge, no strip of places and no bottom bar. Why The owner, with Chat beside Discord: "it's a little overwhelming having both the bottom and the side and top tabs." ### [55A video that keeps playing while you browse plays in our own small player.](#the-video-comes-along) 10 Nov 2026 The player's button takes the video along to the rest of the site, from the same second, with its title, a way back and a close. One sound at a time: a page's own video starting closes it. Why The browser's floating window sat over the page it came from. The owner: "should … actually \[be\] like YouTube where it moves that video." ### [98A player's controls are one row that never runs off the screen.](#player-row-never-runs-off) 10 Nov 2026 What does not fit steps out in a fixed order (speed and picture-in-picture, then the volume slider, then the length beside the position); play, mute, captions and fullscreen always show. Phone rules sit last in a stylesheet so a later sizing block cannot win over them. Why At 390 px the fullscreen button was cut off on openvibe.video: the phone rules lost to the bar's sizing block later in the file. ### [138A message's actions are one cluster at its corner, never in its words.](#message-actions-at-the-corner) 12 Nov 2026 Reply, edit, translate, copy and delete are icon buttons, each with its label, in one cluster that floats just above the message's right end: on hover or keyboard focus on a computer, on a tap of the message on a phone, where each is big enough for a thumb (44 × 40). Nothing about a message shows until asked for. Editing happens in the chat box, under an "Editing your message" bar (Enter saves, Esc puts back what was in the box), never in a browser prompt; replying shows "Replying to …" there. A changed message says "edited" once, quietly, right after its words, with the time as its title; never a line of its own. Every site's chat takes these from openvibe-shared (messages.js, ov-composer.js), so one fix reaches them all. Why The owner, with phone screenshots of a stream's chat: every one of your own messages carried a full-size "Edit" pill in its words, editing opened the browser's prompt box, and "edited · 06:49 PM" fell onto a line of its own ("The edit button needs improvement … so it never happens again"). See [The chat component](/components/chat) Checked by openvibe-shared test: messages openvibe-shared test: composer-v2-chrome OpenVibe.Live test: chat-msg-actions ### [161A box floating over the page tucks into a small handle at the edge, and grows as wide as the window.](#a-tucked-box-is-a-handle) 13 Nov 2026 Thrown past a side, a picture-in-picture or a floating panel folds into a 30 × 64 px handle (34 × 72 to a finger) at that edge, its picture still going behind the glass; a tap opens it where it was, a drag up or down slides it along the side, a pull brings it out under the finger. It grows to the window's width: past what its frame holds it lifts over the page and keeps growing. Each device keeps its own place, and a turn of the phone or a keyboard puts it back on the screen. Why The owner, 11-13: "a small button that lets you pop it in and out … aware where it was … doesn't allow it to be off screen" and "I can't even resize it bigger than it is on mobile". A tucked box left a strip as tall as itself hanging off the screen. Checked by openvibe-shared test: ov-float-chrome ### [163A full-screen layout reaches the bottom of the screen; room is kept only for what is shown.](#no-dead-bands) 13 Nov 2026 A layout that fills the screen (a live channel's chat, a robot's panel, an app view) ends at the bottom of the visible screen: it subtracts a bar's height only while that bar is on screen, and the page adds no bottom padding under it. A browser check measures it: the last box's bottom against the screen's, and no band of nothing at the bottom of a full-screen layout. Why The owner's phone, 11-13: "empty space at the bottom … should be using the full size, like full viewport". The chat ended at 804 of 844 px: a hidden tabs bar still took 40 px and the page kept 32 px of padding. Checked by OpenVibe.Live test: chat-sheet-fill ## Words 15 Plain words, true claims, names that mean something. ### [10A change is New, Improved or Fixed, and says so with a small mark.](#a-change-has-a-mark) 10 Nov 2026 A star for New, an arrow up for Improved, a tick for Fixed. An improvement shows the mark alone, because most changes are improvements and the word beside every row is noise. Never "Better". Why The owner, of Recent changes: "what is this confusing tag … better next to everything?" ### [11A hero does not say the site’s name above its title.](#a-hero-does-not-name-the-site) 10 Nov 2026 The bar already says which site this is. A line above a hero’s title is there only when it says something the bar does not: a state ("Live now"), a count, a date. A hero shows what the product does, with something real from it, before it describes it. Why openvibe.exchange opened with "OPENVIBE.EXCHANGE" over its title, under a bar that reads Exchange. See [Patterns](/patterns) ### [12A link to an @address says @name.](#a-handle-is-written-with-its-at) 10 Nov 2026 Where a row, a card or a link opens an /@name address and names it by the handle, the handle is written @name: the words are the address. A display name stays a display name, with the @handle on the second line where the row has one. Not in a chat line’s author and not in running text a person wrote. Why A profile listed "Maticus · Live channel" for a card that opens openvibe.live/@Maticus. See [Patterns](/patterns) Checked by OpenVibe.Network test: public-profile ### [56Use plain words; keep machinery out of people’s screens.](#plain-words) 9 Nov 2026 No runtime, harness, lease, placement or vendor tables on pages people use. Say what happens to them. Why A vendor table of runtimes confused the person it was for. ### [57Name things after what they are to OpenVibe, not borrowed jargon.](#meaningful-names) 24 Sep 2026 The navbar and footer are the OpenVibe Frame, not "chrome". Renames go through every layer at once. Why A half-done rename looked like the request was ignored. ### [58A site is named the way its address reads.](#names-say-the-domain) 27 Oct 2026 If the domain says VIP, the site says VIP. Why Names that differed from addresses made people unsure they were in the right place. ### [59An AI answer shows only the answer.](#the-answer-is-the-answer) 1 Nov 2026 A model’s self-check, its plan and its reasoning stay in a Details sheet, folded. Why Answers arrived wrapped in the model’s notes to itself. ### [60Say "we never" only where it is true, and say who decides.](#true-claims) 31 Oct 2026 Tell the truth about today, what we hope for later and who chooses. Friendly, and never a promise the code does not keep. Why Blanket "never" claims limited what people could choose to allow. ### [61What people come for stays in the first screen and the page’s title.](#headline-stays-visible) 28 Sep 2026 Going live from a browser with no OBS is Live’s headline: never folded behind a toggle, never dropped from titles in a redesign. Why It is what people ask assistants for, and what they recommend us for. ### [95A headline that finishes a sentence takes a doing word.](#a-sentence-finishes-with-a-doing) 10 Nov 2026 "Small tools that …" ends in what a tool does ("check a domain or IP address"), never in what it is; a phrase that would not finish the sentence is left out, not bent into it. Why The home read "Small tools that one reputation report for a domain or IP." The owner: "the wording is kind of awkward." ### [122A time on a page reads the way a person says it; the exact time is one hover away.](#time-said-like-people) 11 Nov 2026 Feeds, rows and cards say "3 min ago", "2 h ago", "yesterday", "Nov 3" in a