feat(flow-designer): localize palette headings + cloud-sync recents + guide (#2553)

Three follow-ups to the add-node palette search (#1943):

1. Localize the palette category headings (Data / Logic / Human /
   Integration / Flow) to the active console language via five new
   engine.flowPalette.category.* keys (en + zh). The NodeCategory
   literals stay English as in-memory bucket keys / render-order tokens.

2. Cloud-sync the "Recently used" list per-user via sys_user_preference
   (new FlowPaletteRecentsProvider / useFlowPaletteRecents), reusing the
   existing UserDataAdapter stack — localStorage-first, debounced,
   cross-tab, offline-degrading — with one-shot migration of the legacy
   localStorage key and a localStorage fallback outside a provider.

3. Add a Flow Designer guide (content/docs/guide/flow-designer.md).

Author: os-zhuang

.changeset/flow-palette-followups.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@object-ui/app-shell': minor
+---
+
+Flow designer add-node palette follow-ups (#1943): localize the category section headings (Data / Logic / Human / Integration / Flow) to the active console language, and upgrade the "Recently used" list from browser-local storage to per-user cloud sync via `sys_user_preference` (new `FlowPaletteRecentsProvider` / `useFlowPaletteRecents`), with one-shot migration of the legacy localStorage key and a localStorage fallback when offline or outside a provider. Adds a Flow Designer guide to the docs.

content/docs/guide/flow-designer.md

@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+---
+title: "Flow Designer"
+description: "Authoring automation flows on the visual canvas — nodes, edges, the searchable add-node palette, the node inspector, validation, and simulation."
+---
+
+# Flow Designer
+
+The **Flow Designer** is the visual editor for `flow` metadata in the console's
+metadata admin. It renders a flow's nodes and edges on a pan/zoom canvas so you
+can assemble automation — create/update records, branch on conditions, wait for
+events, call APIs, route for approval — without hand-editing JSON. The designer
+is a thin, **spec-driven** view over `flow` metadata: everything you drop on the
+canvas is a node in the flow's schema, so the same document runs unchanged on
+the automation engine.
+
+Open it from a `flow` record's **Design** tab. The **Form** tab holds the same
+flow as an editable tree; the two stay in sync.
+
+## The canvas
+
+Each node is a card showing its icon, label, `type`, and a one-line summary of
+its config. Edges are the arrows between them.
+
+| Gesture | Result |
+|---|---|
+| Click a card | Select it (opens the node inspector) |
+| Drag a card | Reposition it |
+| Hover a card → click the bottom **+** | Append a connected child node |
+| Zoom controls / **Fit** | Scale and re-center the graph |
+
+Structural problems (an undeclared cycle, an unreachable node) surface three
+ways at once: a red ring on the offending card, a badge in its corner, and an
+inline banner at the top-left of the canvas. Clicking a banner row selects and
+pans to the element it refers to.
+
+## Adding nodes — the palette
+
+The **Add node** button (top-right, edit mode only) opens the node palette: a
+searchable, grouped list of every node type the flow can use.
+
+### Search and keyboard
+
+Type in the box at the top to filter across **all** categories at once — the
+match is a case-insensitive substring test over each node's **label**, **hint**,
+and **type**, so `scr` finds *Screen*, `http` finds *HTTP request*, and a word
+that only appears in a hint (`concurrently` → *Parallel*) still surfaces the
+node. Clearing the box restores the full grouped list.
+
+The palette is keyboard-navigable end to end:
+
+| Key | Action |
+|---|---|
+| `↑` / `↓` | Move the highlight (wraps around) |
+| `Enter` | Insert the highlighted node |
+| `Esc` | Close the palette |
+
+The search box autofocuses when the palette opens, so you can open, type a few
+letters, and press `Enter` without touching the mouse.
+
+### Categories
+
+Nodes are grouped into five sections, in this order:
+
+| Category | Node types |
+|---|---|
+| **Data** | Create / Update / Get / Delete record |
+| **Logic** | Decision, Loop, Set variables, Parallel, Try / Catch |
+| **Human** | Approval, Screen |
+| **Integration** | HTTP request, Connector, Script |
+| **Flow** | Subflow, Wait, End |
+
+Section headings are localized to the active console language (e.g. *数据 /
+逻辑 / 人工 / 集成 / 流程* in Chinese); the underlying node types are unchanged.
+
+### Recently used
+
+When the search box is empty, a **Recently used** group tops the list with the
+node types you inserted most recently (up to five, most-recent first) — so the
+nodes you reach for repeatedly stop needing a scroll or a search. The list is
+per-user and, when the console is connected to a backend, syncs across devices
+(see [User-Scoped State Persistence](/docs/guide/user-state-persistence)); it
+falls back to browser-local storage when offline. Types from a plugin that was
+since uninstalled drop out of the list automatically.
+
+### Server-merged, plugin-extensible
+
+The palette is **server-driven**. Beyond the built-in node types, the running
+engine publishes its registered actions at `GET /api/v1/automation/actions`, and
+plugins contribute their own node types there (for example an `approval` node
+from an approvals plugin, or third-party `connector_action` providers). The
+designer overlays those descriptors onto the built-in list — adopting the
+engine's labels and descriptions and appending engine-only types — so the
+palette always matches what the connected backend actually supports. Plugin
+nodes are searchable exactly like built-ins, including by their registered
+`type`. When the endpoint is unreachable the designer falls back to its
+built-in defaults, so authoring still works offline.
+
+## The node inspector
+
+Selecting a node opens its inspector: **ID**, **Label**, **Node Type**, an
+optional **Description**, and a **Configuration** section. New nodes start with
+spec-valid defaults (a *Wait* node already carries a timer config, an *HTTP*
+node defaults to `GET`) so a freshly dropped block is never in a broken
+intermediate state.
+
+For node types whose engine executor publishes a `configSchema` (ADR-0018), the
+inspector renders a **server-driven property form** from that schema — so a
+plugin's node gets a real config UI without the designer hardcoding its fields.
+
+## Validate, simulate, inspect runs
+
+The toolbar toggles four side panels:
+
+| Panel | What it shows |
+|---|---|
+| **Variables** | The flow's declared variables |
+| **Problems** | Structural + server validation issues, each clickable to reveal on canvas |
+| **Debug** | A step-through **simulator** that walks the graph and highlights the active / visited nodes |
+| **Runs** | Execution history for the published flow, fetched from the engine |
+
+## See also
+
+- [User-Scoped State Persistence](/docs/guide/user-state-persistence) — how the
+  "Recently used" list is stored and synced.
+- [Console App](/docs/guide/console) — the reference app that hosts the metadata
+  admin and its designers.

content/docs/guide/meta.json

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
     "slotted-pages",
     "console",
     "console-architecture",
+    "flow-designer",
     "metadata-diagnostics",
     "user-state-persistence",
     "objectos-integration",

content/docs/guide/user-state-persistence.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: "User-Scoped State Persistence"
 ---
 
-Object UI keeps two pieces of per-user UI state — **Favorites** (pinned apps, starred records, and pinned navigation entries) and **Recent Items** (last visited entities) — alive across reloads, devices, and accounts. The persistence layer is **backend-agnostic**: drop in an adapter, or just let it run on localStorage.
+Object UI keeps per-user UI state — **Favorites** (pinned apps, starred records, and pinned navigation entries), **Recent Items** (last visited entities), and **Flow-palette recents** (node types recently added in the flow designer) — alive across reloads, devices, and accounts. The persistence layer is **backend-agnostic**: drop in an adapter, or just let it run on localStorage.
 
 ## Design
 
@@ -16,21 +16,21 @@ export interface UserDataAdapter<T> {
   save(items: T[]): Promise<void>;
 }
 
-export type UserStateKind = 'favorites' | 'recent';
+export type UserStateKind = 'favorites' | 'recent' | 'flowPaletteRecents';
 ```
 
 Three layers, top-down:
 
 | Layer | Package | Role |
 |---|---|---|
-| **Providers** (`FavoritesProvider`, `RecentItemsProvider`) | `@object-ui/app-shell` | Own the state, debounce writes, scope storage by user. |
+| **Providers** (`FavoritesProvider`, `RecentItemsProvider`, `FlowPaletteRecentsProvider`) | `@object-ui/app-shell` | Own the state, debounce writes, scope storage by user. |
 | **Adapter registry** (`UserStateAdaptersProvider`) | `@object-ui/app-shell` | Lets a bridge component inject adapters at runtime once `dataSource` + `user.id` are available. |
 | **Adapters** (`createObjectStackUserStateAdapter`, your own) | `@object-ui/data-objectstack`, custom | Translate `load/save` into HTTP / GraphQL / ObjectQL calls. |
 
 ### Three guarantees
 
 1. **localStorage-first.** First paint never blocks on the network. If no adapter is attached, persistence is purely local.
-2. **Scoped per `user.id`.** Storage key is `objectui-favorites:u:<id>` (and `objectui-recent-items:u:<id>`). Two accounts on the same browser never see each other's state.
+2. **Scoped per `user.id`.** Storage key is `objectui-favorites:u:<id>` (and `objectui-recent-items:u:<id>`, `flow-palette-recents:u:<id>`). Two accounts on the same browser never see each other's state.
 3. **Silent degrade.** Adapters must never throw. A 404 / network error means "behave like there is no backend"; the UI keeps working from localStorage.
 
 ## Provider tree
@@ -179,11 +179,12 @@ Each provider keeps a monotonic `hydrationToken`. If the user switches accounts
 | `useFavorites()` | `@object-ui/app-shell` | `{ favorites, addFavorite, removeFavorite, toggleFavorite, isFavorite, clearFavorites, setPinned, isPinned, pinnedNavIds }` |
 | `useNavPins()` | `@object-ui/app-shell` | Thin shim over `useFavorites` for sidebar pinning — `{ pinnedIds, togglePin, isPinned, applyPins, clearPins }`. |
 | `useRecentItems()` | `@object-ui/app-shell` | `{ recentItems, addRecentItem, clearRecentItems }` |
+| `useFlowPaletteRecents()` | `@object-ui/app-shell` | `{ recents, recordRecent }` — flow-designer add-node MRU; falls back to localStorage outside a provider. |
 | `createObjectStackUserStateAdapter(opts)` | `@object-ui/data-objectstack` | Official adapter against the `user_app_state` object. |
 
 ## Limits
 
-- **20** favorites and **20** nav-pins per user (independent buckets), **8** recent items. Enforced by the providers; older entries roll off within their own bucket without evicting the other.
+- **20** favorites and **20** nav-pins per user (independent buckets), **8** recent items, **5** flow-palette recents. Enforced by the providers; older entries roll off within their own bucket without evicting the other.
 - One JSON blob per (user, kind). Not designed for high-frequency / large payloads — this is UI state, not data.
 - No automatic cross-tab sync today (see the roadmap).
 

packages/app-shell/src/console/ConsoleShell.tsx

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import { PreviewModeProvider } from '../preview/PreviewModeContext';
 import { NavigationProvider } from '../context/NavigationContext';
 import { FavoritesProvider } from '../context/FavoritesProvider';
 import { RecentItemsProvider } from '../context/RecentItemsProvider';
+import { FlowPaletteRecentsProvider } from '../context/FlowPaletteRecentsProvider';
 import {
   UserStateAdaptersProvider,
   useAttachUserStateAdapters,
@@ -83,9 +84,11 @@ export function ConsoleShell({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) {
         <UserStateAdaptersProvider>
           <FavoritesProvider>
             <RecentItemsProvider>
-              <Suspense fallback={<LoadingFallback />}>{children}</Suspense>
-              {/* ADR-0069 — full-screen gate (expired password / required MFA) above all routes */}
-              <RemediationOverlay />
+              <FlowPaletteRecentsProvider>
+                <Suspense fallback={<LoadingFallback />}>{children}</Suspense>
+                {/* ADR-0069 — full-screen gate (expired password / required MFA) above all routes */}
+                <RemediationOverlay />
+              </FlowPaletteRecentsProvider>
             </RecentItemsProvider>
           </FavoritesProvider>
         </UserStateAdaptersProvider>
@@ -175,6 +178,7 @@ function UserStateBridge() {
     if (!user?.id || !dataSource) {
       attach('favorites', null);
       attach('recent', null);
+      attach('flowPaletteRecents', null);
       return;
     }
     const favorites = createObjectStackUserStateAdapter({
@@ -187,11 +191,18 @@ function UserStateBridge() {
       userId: user.id,
       key: 'ui.recent',
     });
+    const flowPaletteRecents = createObjectStackUserStateAdapter<string>({
+      dataSource,
+      userId: user.id,
+      key: 'ui.flow.palette.recents',
+    });
     attach('favorites', favorites);
     attach('recent', recent);
+    attach('flowPaletteRecents', flowPaletteRecents);
     return () => {
       attach('favorites', null);
       attach('recent', null);
+      attach('flowPaletteRecents', null);
     };
   }, [user?.id, dataSource, attach]);