adr-002 – Version Pill: Layout Decision in Default Template / Theme

Status: ACCEPTED Date: 2026-03-10 Version: v1.3.0

Context

In v1.3.0 several places were introduced that display a version pill: the sidebar footer, the login footer and the info page (status pills). The question was: uniform appearance or context-dependent?

Decision

Unified format everywhere:

1 VERSION: RC-V1.3.0-ABC123

No border-radius: 999px (no capsule shape)
border-radius: 2px – square, consistent with the rest of the design system
Font: var(--mono), 10px, letter-spacing: 0.08em
Color: var(--text-dim), hover: var(--accent2)
Border: 1px solid var(--border), hover: var(--accent2)
Content: dynamically from version.json via initVersionPills()

Technically: data-version-pill attribute on the link element. initVersionPills() in modules/ui.js populates all elements automatically.

Locations

Location	Element	Initialisation
Sidebar footer	`<a data-version-pill>`	`onShellMount` → `initVersionPills()`
Login footer	`<a data-version-pill>`	`initLogin` → `initVersionPills()`
Info status pills	`#status-version-value`	`initInfo` → `initVersionPills()`

Rationale

Consistency: the user sees the same style everywhere
Dynamic: git hash and branch from version.json – no hardcoded string
Extensible: new screens only need the data-version-pill attribute
Design: square pills suit the mono-font-heavy dark theme better than capsules

Alternatives Rejected

Capsule shape (border-radius: 999px): too round for the strict grid/mono aesthetic
Text only, no border: too little visual separation from surrounding content
Context-dependent styling: more inconsistency, no benefit

Consequences

All previously hardcoded v1.3.0 strings in pills are replaced by data-version-pill
generate-version-dev.sh and Docker build generate version.json with branch + hash
Format convention: RC-V1.3.0-ABC123 (uppercase) for RC branches