fix(confidence-engine): preserve scenario during outage

components/scenario-form.jsx

@@ -33,6 +33,28 @@ export async function submitScenarioForStartCase(fetchImpl, scenario) {
   });
 }
 
+export function isUnavailableStartResponse(response, data) {
+  return response.status === 503 &&
+    data?.success === false &&
+    data?.error === "Reasoning service is temporarily unavailable.";
+}
+
+export function UnavailableStartPanel({ onRetry }) {
+  return (
+    <div className="rounded-lg border border-amber-300 bg-amber-50 px-4 py-3 text-sm text-amber-900">
+      <p className="font-medium">Confidence Engine is temporarily unavailable.</p>
+      <p className="mt-1">We couldn&apos;t process this right now. Your scenario is still here and you can try again.</p>
+      <button
+        type="button"
+        onClick={onRetry}
+        className="mt-3 rounded-lg border border-amber-400 px-4 py-2 text-sm font-medium text-amber-900 transition hover:bg-amber-100"
+      >
+        Retry
+      </button>
+    </div>
+  );
+}
+
 export async function submitAnswerForUpdateCase(
   fetchImpl,
   { situationGraph, previousQuestion, answer, findings },
@@ -672,8 +694,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm({ investigationId, onNavigateToReport }) {
     updateStatus === "loading"
   );
 
-  const handleSubmit = async (e) => {
+  const handleStart = async () => {
-    e.preventDefault();
     setStatus("loading");
     setResult(null);
     setAnswer("");
@@ -699,6 +720,8 @@ export default function ScenarioForm({ investigationId, onNavigateToReport }) {
         /* ── v0.59a — provenance: first meaningful change sets revision to 1 ── */
         setInvestigationRevision(1);
         persist({ id: investigationId, scenario, situationGraph: normalised.situationGraph, selectedQuestion: normalised.selectedQuestion, summary: data.summary ?? null, updatedAt: new Date().toISOString(), focusedContributions, findings: [], investigationReport, investigationRevision: 1 });
+      } else if (isUnavailableStartResponse(res, data)) {
+        setStatus("unavailable");
       } else {
         setStatus("error");
         setCurrentUnderstanding(data.summary ?? null);
@@ -710,6 +733,11 @@ export default function ScenarioForm({ investigationId, onNavigateToReport }) {
     }
   };
 
+  const handleSubmit = (e) => {
+    e.preventDefault();
+    void handleStart();
+  };
+
   const handleUpdate = async (e) => {
     e.preventDefault();
 
@@ -799,7 +827,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm({ investigationId, onNavigateToReport }) {
   return (
     <div className="space-y-6">
       {/* ── Idle form for scenario input ─ */}
-      {!result?.situationGraph && status === "idle" && (
+      {!result?.situationGraph && (status === "idle" || status === "unavailable") && (
         <form onSubmit={handleSubmit} className="space-y-6">
 
           {/* Two-column landing workspace */}
@@ -864,6 +892,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm({ investigationId, onNavigateToReport }) {
               <p className="mt-3 text-xs italic text-gray-400">
                 You do not need all the answers yet.
               </p>
+              {status === "unavailable" && <UnavailableStartPanel onRetry={handleStart} />}
             </div>
 
           </div>

lib/analysis.js

@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ export async function analyseScenario(scenario, opts = {}) {
       "500",
       e.providerApiPath,
       e.providerExecution,
+      e.code,
     );
   }
 
@@ -175,7 +176,7 @@ function tryValidateAgainstSchema(data, schema) {
 
 // ── Result builders ──────────────────────────────────
 
-function buildErrorResponse(message, elapsed, statusCode = 500, providerApiPath, providerExecution) {
+function buildErrorResponse(message, elapsed, statusCode = 500, providerApiPath, providerExecution, code) {
   return {
     success: false,
     error: message,
@@ -187,6 +188,7 @@ function buildErrorResponse(message, elapsed, statusCode = 500, providerApiPath,
     statusCode,
     providerApiPath,
     providerExecution,
+    code,
   };
 }
 

lib/graph/orchestrator.js

@@ -382,6 +382,7 @@ export async function startCase(body, dependencies = {}) {
       providerApiPath: analysis.providerApiPath ?? undefined,
       providerExecution: analysis.providerExecution ?? undefined,
       rawResponse: analysis.rawResponse ?? undefined,
+      code: analysis.code ?? undefined,
       statusCode: Number(analysis.statusCode) || 502,
     };
   }

tests/app/api/cases-start-route.test.js

@@ -1,13 +1,20 @@
 import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 
 const mockStartCase = vi.fn();
+let realStartCase;
 let warnSpy;
 let errorSpy;
 
-vi.mock("@/lib/graph/orchestrator.js", () => ({
+vi.mock("@/lib/config.js", () => ({
-  startCase: (...args) => mockStartCase(...args),
+  getConfig: () => ({ ok: true }),
 }));
 
+vi.mock("@/lib/graph/orchestrator.js", async (importOriginal) => {
+  const actual = await importOriginal();
+  realStartCase = actual.startCase;
+  return { ...actual, startCase: (...args) => mockStartCase(...args) };
+});
+
 vi.mock("@/lib/supabase/api-auth.js", () => ({
   withAuthenticatedApi: (handler) => handler,
 }));
@@ -128,13 +135,21 @@ describe("app/api/cases/start route", () => {
   });
 
   it("returns a sanitized 503 when the provider is unavailable", async () => {
-    mockStartCase.mockResolvedValue({
+    const unavailableError = Object.assign(
-      success: false,
+      new Error("Ollama /api/generate request timed out after 5 minutes"),
-      code: "PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE",
+      {
-      error: "Ollama /api/generate request timed out after 5 minutes",
+        code: "PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE",
-      providerApiPath: "/api/generate",
+        providerApiPath: "/api/generate",
-      providerExecution: { generateRequestAttempted: true },
+        providerExecution: { generateRequestAttempted: true },
-    });
+      },
+    );
+    const reconstructionProvider = {
+      generateReconstruction: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(unavailableError),
+    };
+    mockStartCase.mockImplementation((body) => realStartCase(body, {
+      reconstructionProvider,
+      reconstructionModelName: "configured-model",
+    }));
 
     const { POST } = await import("@/app/api/cases/start/route.js");
     const response = await POST(

tests/ui/scenario-form.test.jsx

@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ import ReasoningWorkspace, {
 } from "@/components/reasoning-workspace.jsx";
 import {
   ScenarioResultPanels,
+  UnavailableStartPanel,
   UpdateErrorPanel,
+  isUnavailableStartResponse,
   submitAnswerForUpdateCase,
   submitScenarioForStartCase,
 } from "@/components/scenario-form.jsx";
@@ -372,6 +374,26 @@ function makeCommercialUpdateSuccess(overrides = {}) {
 }
 
 describe("scenario-form UI helpers", () => {
+  it("recognises only the established sanitized unavailable start response", () => {
+    expect(isUnavailableStartResponse(
+      { status: 503 },
+      { success: false, error: "Reasoning service is temporarily unavailable." },
+    )).toBe(true);
+    expect(isUnavailableStartResponse(
+      { status: 500 },
+      { success: false, error: "Reasoning service is temporarily unavailable." },
+    )).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("presents generic recovery without provider details", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<UnavailableStartPanel onRetry={vi.fn()} />);
+
+    expect(html).toContain("Confidence Engine is temporarily unavailable.");
+    expect(html).toContain("Your scenario is still here and you can try again.");
+    expect(html).toContain(">Retry<");
+    expect(html).not.toMatch(/ollama|provider|local model|server|infrastructure/i);
+  });
+
   it("submits to /api/cases/start", async () => {
     const fetchImpl = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ ok: true });