Changelog

All notable changes to the A House Divided desktop client are documented here.

[1.3.0] - 2026-08-27#

Added#

• Bulk corporation wage controls — CEOs can set the wage level for every sector at once from Navigate > World > My Corporation > Wages, via presets (0.80x–1.50x) or a custom value. Levels are clamped to [0.8, 1.5], mirroring WAGE_LEVEL_MIN/MAX in the game's laborCost.ts, and the menu is only enabled for the CEO of a corporation (src/corporation-wages.js, src/menu.js).

  The apply step is paced against the server's real budget of 20 wage writes per minute per user. Sectors are enumerated first so the confirmation states the true count and, for large corporations, the expected duration; a rolling-window pacer then admits at most 20 writes per 60 s, and any 429 that still lands is honoured via Retry-After and retried rather than counted as a failure. Progress is reported on the taskbar icon.

  This matters at the tail: production holds 661 corporations averaging 6.8 sectors, but 30 exceed 20 sectors and the largest holds 105. Measured against a mock of the real limiter, a 105-sector apply went from 40 succeeded / 65 rate-limited failures to 105/105 with no 429s at all. Corporations at or under 20 sectors are unaffected and still apply instantly.

  scripts/mock-game-server.js (npm run mock) stubs the endpoints and mirrors the limiter, so the paced path can be exercised locally — MOCK_SECTORS, MOCK_RATE_LIMIT, and MOCK_WINDOW_MS control the shape.

Fixed#

• Update download failures were completely silent — downloadUpdate() was fire-and-forget: on any network error the promise rejected with no UI, the "Downloading…" taskbar progress vanished, and users were left waiting forever after clicking Download (looked like the app hung). Failures now show an error dialog with the reason and a hint to retry after restarting the app; repeated Download clicks are guarded against re-entry while a download is in flight (src/updater.js). Regression tests added.
• "Restart Now" left the app closed after installing — quitAndInstall() defaults to not relaunching: the installer ran silently and the app simply exited, reading as if the update ate the app. It now passes isForceRunAfter so the freshly installed build starts immediately (src/updater.js).
• Raw JSON / certificate-error JSON shown on manual refresh during turn processing — While the server is busy processing a turn, a refresh could render a bare 5xx body or a raw application/json error document as the main frame. Main-frame responses with HTTP ≥ 500 now show the friendly "server is processing" overlay, and any main frame that finishes loading as a JSON document is covered too — including 200-with-JSON-body responses that have no HTTP error code (src/main.js, src/error-handler.js).
• Command palette buttons did nothing — The injected Cmd+K palette invoked the navigate IPC channel, which is receive-only in preload.js (the invokable channel is navigate-to), so pressing Enter or clicking a result silently rejected and the palette appeared broken. Both call sites now use navigate-to (src/main.js).
• Reload threw you back to the home page — Game menu Reload (Ctrl+R) and context-menu Reload loaded the bare game URL instead of reloading the current page, abandoning whatever route the user was on. Both now reload in place via webContents.reload() when a game page is open (src/menu.js, src/main.js).
• Custom keyboard shortcut overrides never applied — ShortcutManager required the CacheManager class at module level and called getPreference on it (a non-static method), so saved overrides were always silently ignored. The live instance is now injected via the constructor from main.js, and getEffectiveShortcuts no longer mutates the shared defaults object (src/shortcuts.js). Regression tests added.
• Intermittently missed turn events — A single SSE frame is routinely delivered over several TCP chunks, but the parser kept the event type and data accumulator as locals inside processBuffer(). A frame whose event: line arrived in one chunk and data: line in the next lost its type and was emitted as a generic message, so every named-type listener silently skipped it: turn caching, the theme_changed handler, the immediate post-turn dashboard re-poll, and turn/election desktop notifications. Balances would go quietly stale until the next scheduled poll. Parse state now lives on the instance and resets on connect, disconnect, and buffer overflow (src/sse.js). Regression tests added.

Changed#

• Reasonable balance updates — Dashboard polling is now adaptive: every 30 s while the app window is focused (funds / AP / countdown feel live without hammering the API), every 60 s in the background. Returning focus to the window triggers an immediate poll plus an instant client-nav hydration so balances are never stale after playing elsewhere. Immediate re-polls after turn/action SSE events are unchanged (src/dashboard.js, src/main.js). New unit suite tests/unit/dashboard.test.js.

• Electron 33 → 42 — Nine major versions of Chromium and Node, bringing the accumulated browser security fixes with it. Also electron-builder 25 → 26, electron-store 8 → 11, electron-updater 6.8.3 → 6.8.9, and the whole dev toolchain. The client now requires Node 22 to build (Electron 42 bundles Node 22.x).

• Eight high-severity dependency advisories cleared — fast-uri (host confusion and path traversal), js-yaml, flatted, and brace-expansion. js-yaml is the one that ships: electron-updater parses the update feed's latest.yml with it. npm audit reports zero vulnerabilities.

[1.2.2] - 2026-08-25#

Fixed#

• Navigation can no longer crash the main process — All webContents.loadURL calls now go through a safeLoadURL helper (src/safe-load-url.js) that guards a destroyed window and swallows the promise rejection Electron raises on aborted/failed navigations (e.g. ERR_ABORTED when a newer load supersedes one). Menu items, the Sign Out / character-switch flows, and global shortcuts route through it, and menu handlers gained canNavigate()/isDestroyed() guards so clicking after the window closes is a no-op instead of a crash.
• TLS/certificate failures get a dedicated overlay — did-fail-load distinguishes certificate errors (CERT_ERROR_PATTERN) from generic connection failures and shows a specific recovery message (check your clock, or the site owner must renew the certificate) instead of the generic offline overlay.
• Dashboard & PiP pollers no longer hang on stalled responses — The request timeout stays armed for the whole response (headers and body) instead of being cleared once headers arrive, and every resolve/reject path clears the timer through a single helper (src/dashboard.js, src/pip-view-poller.js).
• Corrupted non-ASCII API responses — Response bodies are buffered and decoded as UTF-8 once at the end, so multi-byte characters split across chunk boundaries are no longer mangled (src/site-api.js, src/error-handler.js).
• Cookie-store failures no longer crash background polls — Authenticated GET/POST helpers degrade to "no cookies" instead of rejecting into an unhandled-rejection crash (src/site-api.js).
• Silent shortcut registration failures — globalShortcut.register() returning false (OS rejected the accelerator) is now logged instead of passing unnoticed (src/shortcuts.js).
• Feedback capture — Guards the main window with isDestroyed() after the async screenshot/save-dialog steps, and the floating executeJavaScript feedback trigger now has explicit error handling (src/feedback.js).

[1.2.1] - 2026-08-25#

Fixed#

• SSE 404 no longer crashes the app — The web app removed the /api/events SSE endpoint (replaced by polling), so the client's SSE connection received a permanent 404 on every page navigation. src/sse.js emitted a Node 'error' event with no listener attached, which throws as an uncaught exception in the main process and showed the "A JavaScript error occurred in the main process" crash dialog (error spam after Login with Discord redirects). Errors are now emitted through a safe helper that logs instead of throwing, 404/410 responses are treated as endpoint-gone (the existing 30-second fallback polling engages, no pointless reconnect loop), and src/main.js forwards SSE errors to the renderer's connection status. Regression tests in tests/unit/sse.test.js reproduce the exact reported 404 scenario (ticket #1182).

[1.2.0] - 2026-06-01#

Added#

• Dynamic countries — Fetches /api/countries on SSE connect and caches the result in src/cache.js (new countries schema entry) and src/countries.js. The client now falls back to hardcoded defaults only when the server is unreachable; country-scoped menu items, paths, and labels update live when the server list changes.
• SSE fallback polling — When SSE disconnects (e.g., Vercel multi-instance), the main process starts a 30-second fetchClientNav poll loop (sseFallbackTimer) so the Navigate menu and tray stay in sync. The timer stops automatically when SSE reconnects.
• X-AHD-Client-Version header — All net.request() calls to the game origin (site-api.js) now send X-AHD-Client-Version: <package.json version> so the server can detect outdated clients.
• corporation-enrich.js — Corporation-path logic extracted from main.js into a dedicated module. corporationPathIdForUrl prefers API pathId, falls back to sequentialId (including 0), sequential_id, _id, and id. mergeCharacterMeIntoManifest and stripCorporationEnrichment handle the full /api/character/me → manifest merge lifecycle.
• Corporation path encoding — encodeURIComponent applied to corporation IDs in menu.js, game-panel-links.js, and pip.html so slug-based pathId values are safe in URLs.
• Tests — New tests/unit/corporation-enrich.test.js covering corporationPathIdForUrl, stripCorporationEnrichment, and mergeCharacterMeIntoManifest edge cases.

Changed#

• Dashboard poll interval — DashboardPoller default poll period increased from 10s to 60s to match the spec for dashboard bar updates.
• Window focus/show — Both focus and show events on the main window now trigger pullClientNav, so the Navigate menu refreshes when the window is restored from minimize as well as when it gains focus.
• Corporation/stockmarket re-sync — Navigating to /corporation or /stockmarket paths triggers a pullClientNav so corporation menu items and CEO state update after in-app actions.
• Cache schema — cache.js schema extended with a countries entry (type array, default []).

Fixed#

• Corporation enrichment on error — enrichClientNavManifest now calls stripCorporationEnrichment on catch, so stale myCorporationId / isCeo values are cleared when /api/character/me fails (401, network error, etc.) instead of persisting old data.
• Countries cache default — Cache schema countries default is [] (array) to prevent getCountries() returning undefined on first launch.

[1.1.0] - 2026-04-07#

Added#

• GitHub Actions — multi-platform releases — Pushing a v* tag runs tests once on Ubuntu, then builds Windows (NSIS .exe), macOS (.dmg), and Linux (.AppImage) on native runners; all artifacts attach to a single GitHub Release (.github/workflows/release.yml).
• Keyboard shortcuts UI — Game menu → Customize Game Panel… includes a Keyboard Shortcuts tab to override global accelerators; stored in userPreferences.customShortcuts (save-shortcuts / get-custom-shortcuts IPC, shortcuts.js).
• Documentation — Rewrote README.md (player features table, npm scripts, project tree, contributing, release badge, MIT license aligned with package.json); added docs/README.md (index) and docs/architecture.md (main modules, client-nav pipeline, preload and game-panel IPC).

Fixed#

• Navigate menu — src/nav-manifest.js derives hasCharacter when /api/client-nav omits the flag but still sends homeState, adminCharacters, nested character, or has_character, so Profile / State / Nation / World items are not hidden behind only Pop Out Window.
• Navigate menu (timing) — pullClientNav({ retryOnNull: true }) in src/main.js retries /api/client-nav after did-finish-load and first SSE connect when the response is null (session/cookies briefly behind the page load), instead of waiting for the 30–60s poll.
• Cmd+K command palette — injectCommandPalette in src/main.js reads string route values from getNavForCountry() objects (executive, legislature, etc.) instead of passing whole objects into navigate.

Changed#

• Unsigned macOS builds — CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY=false for CI and npm run build:mac; package.json build.mac sets hardenedRuntime: false and gatekeeperAssess: false so DMGs build without Apple signing keys (users may need to right-click → Open the first time).

[1.0.3] - 2026-04-06#

Added#

• Game menu — customizable quick links — The Game menu opens with shortcuts (Profile, Campaign HQ, Notifications, Portfolio, corporation). Customize Game Panel… opens a small window to enable or disable built-in links and add custom paths; the layout is stored in userPreferences.gamePanelEntries.
• CEO / Create a corporation — The corporation shortcut is included by default. Labels: CEO → /corporation/{id}/ceo; My corporation → /corporation/{id} when the character has a corporation but is not CEO; Create a corporation → /corporation/new when none. Client-nav enrichment merges isCeo and myCorporationId from /api/character/me (supports alternate field shapes and 2xx-only JSON parsing for that request).
• IPC — get-game-panel-config, set-game-panel-entries, and reset-game-panel-entries support the config window (game-panel-config.html + preload).
• Active game URL — src/active-game-url.js resolves the current game origin; works with environment-driven config and dev/sandbox toggles (src/game-server-dev.js).
• PiP / turn dashboard — Richer floating dashboard (multi-view Standard / Corp / Elections / Global, customizable bar and custom panel layout, AP and stat strip).
• PiP view data — pip-view-poller.js polls /api/pip/standard, /api/pip/corp, /api/pip/elections, and /api/pip/global on a 60s interval (with immediate refresh on view change) to hydrate each view and custom-panel bundles.
• PiP labels — pip-labels.js maps party slugs, election and corporation types, and related display strings for the PiP window.
• Compact currency in PiP — Dollar amounts use suffix-style formatting (e.g. $130.19k, $140m) via format-compact-number.js instead of locale thousands grouping.

Changed#

• Main process URL loading — Components that previously used a fixed config.GAME_URL now use activeGameUrl.get() where appropriate so dev, sandbox, and production origins stay consistent (menus, tray, shortcuts, windows, SSE, dashboard, devtools, error handler, etc.).

Tests#

• Unit coverage for game-panel-links, active-game-url, game-server-dev, format-compact-number, and pip-labels.

[1.0.2] - 2026-04-04#

Added#

• Game server selection (View menu) — Use sandbox / test server (Supporter+) points at https://test.ahousedividedgame.com by default (AHD_SANDBOX_GAME_URL overrides). With npm run dev (NODE_ENV=development), Use local dev server (the local dev server) loads the local dev server (AHD_DEV_GAME_URL overrides); it is mutually exclusive with the test-server toggle. Preferences: useSandboxServer, useDevServer.
• Focused view & website navbar parity (main process) — country config and URL helpers (src/countries.js, src/urls.js) align executive, legislature, budget, metrics, and related paths with the web app (e.g. /white-house, /congress, /national-metrics?country=).
• src/site-api.js — shared authenticated GET/POST against the game origin (fetchClientNav, fetchCharacterMe, postJsonAuthed) using the persist:ahd session.
• src/nav-manifest.js — normalizes character_countryId vs characterCountryId from /api/client-nav for a single internal shape.
• Client-nav enrichment — after each manifest, optionally merges myCorporationId from /api/character/me when corporation.sequentialId is present (World → My Corporation in the site UI).
• IPC for in-page / Electron navbar — fetch-nav-data, navigate-to, open-external, switch-character, sign-out; preload whitelist extended with nav-data-updated, toggle-focused-view, and navigate (receive).
• nav-data-updated event — same payload as client-nav, for renderers that follow the newer channel name.
• Tray — setFocusedViewToggleHandler adds a Toggle Focused View item; mirrors View → Focused Mode.
• Global shortcut — CmdOrCtrl+Shift+F toggles focused vs classic display mode (cookie ahd-display-mode + reload); fundraise moved to CmdOrCtrl+Alt+F.
• Tests — nav-manifest, extended IPC (nav handlers, isGameUrl gate for absolute URLs), preload allowlist, tray toggle handler, urls helpers.

Fixed#

• navigate-to /profile — IPC navigation maps /profile to /politician, matching the live “My Politician” route (spec text used /profile).
• Native notification spam — SSE frames with no configured desktop notification type (including the default SSE type message and server events such as theme_changed) no longer trigger a generic “A House Divided” notification. Only types listed in the client notification map and explicit notification events alert the user.

Changed#

• Pop-out windows use session partition persist:ahd so login state matches the main window.
• PiP dashboard and DevTools panel windows enable sandbox: true to align with the main window’s renderer hardening.
• /api/client-nav — overlapping fetches share a single in-flight request; responses larger than 512 KiB are dropped to bound main-process memory use.
• Client-nav polling — interval is 30 seconds while the main window is focused and 60 seconds when unfocused (SSE connect/disconnect still restarts the timer).
• Navigate menu & window presets — follow the new country paths; presidential election prefers activePresidentElectionSeatId when present; Navigate includes national budget, campaign HQ, central bank, stock market, and expanded ordering toward parity with the site’s Nation dropdown.
• IPC set-preference — only notificationsEnabled, miniModeEnabled, and displayMode are accepted.
• IPC set-zoom — zoom factor is clamped between 0.25 and 3 and non-finite values are ignored.

Security#

• navigate-to — absolute http(s) URLs are loaded only when they pass the same host check as the main game window (isGameUrl); other origins are ignored.

[1.0.1] - 2026-03-12#

Fixed#

• Restore application menu bar (Game / Navigate / View / Help) on Windows — it was hidden by the titleBarStyle: 'hidden' setting introduced in 1.0.0

Changed#

• Removed custom titlebar overlay colours (reverted titleBarStyle: 'hidden' and titleBarOverlay) to keep the native application menu visible
• Theme background colours per theme still applied on window creation (eliminates load-flash)

[1.0.0] - 2026-03-12#

Added#

• Country-aware navigation — menus and window presets update dynamically based on the player's character country (US, UK, CA, DE)
• /api/client-nav integration — replaces /api/auth/me; single endpoint delivers user, nav config, unread count, party, and active election state
• 404 recovery overlay — detects HTTP 404 responses and injects a "Page not found" overlay with a Go Home button
• Network failure overlay — detects connection failures and injects a "Connection lost" overlay with a retry button
• go-home IPC handler — renderer can trigger a navigation back to the game home page
• Dynamic Navigate menu — legislature, executive, and election items reflect the active country; My Party and Presidential Election items appear only when applicable
• WindowManager.updatePresets(nav) — congress and country window presets update their routes/titles when country changes
• Per-theme window background colours — eliminates white flash on load for dark themes
• Custom titlebar overlay colours per theme (Windows) — close/min/max buttons match the active theme
• Turn Dashboard Widget — replaces PiP with a full dashboard showing action points, funds, election countdown, and more
• Dashboard Poller — polls /api/game/turn/dashboard and feeds data into the tray/cache pipeline
• Focused mode — ahd-display-mode cookie hides the game's in-page navigation when using the desktop client
• SSE integration — real-time event stream for turn completion, notifications, and state sync
• System tray — game state summary, unread notification badge
• Auto-updater — checks for new releases on launch via electron-updater
• Keyboard shortcuts — toggle status bar, mini mode, open feedback dialog
• Multi-window presets — elections, congress, campaign, state, country, notifications pop-outs
• Automated GitHub Actions release workflow — tag v* triggers Windows build and uploads .exe to GitHub Releases