app/globals.css

@@ -24,6 +24,50 @@
   animation-delay: 0.16s;
 }
 
+/* ── CU skeleton overlay during synthesis refresh ─────────────── */
+
+.cu-skeleton-overlay {
+  pointer-events: none;
+}
+
+.cu-skeleton-lines {
+  display: flex;
+  flex-direction: column;
+  align-items: center;
+  width: 100%;
+  margin-top: auto;
+}
+
+.cu-skeleton-line {
+  height: 16px;
+  border-radius: 8px;
+  background-color: #e5e7eb;
+  position: relative;
+  overflow: hidden;
+}
+
+/* Striped shimmer that travels left → right through each bar */
+.cu-skeleton-line::after {
+  content: "";
+  position: absolute;
+  inset: 0;
+  background: repeating-linear-gradient(
+    105deg,
+    transparent 0%,
+    transparent 8px,
+    rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45) 8px,
+    rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45) 16px,
+    transparent 16px,
+    transparent 24px
+  );
+  animation: cuSkeletonShimmer 1.6s linear infinite;
+}
+
+@keyframes cuSkeletonShimmer {
+  0%   { transform: translateX(-100%); }
+  100% { transform: translateX(100%); }
+}
+
 @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
   [style*="animation:spin"] {
     animation: none !important;
@@ -32,4 +76,8 @@
   .investigation-card {
     animation: none;
   }
+
+  .cu-skeleton-line::after {
+    animation: none !important;
+  }
 }

components/reasoning-workspace.jsx

@@ -394,7 +394,7 @@ function FocusedQuestionBody({
 
 // ── Persistent navigation controls (overlay-level, outside content grid) ──
 
-function FocusedWorkspaceNavigation({ nodeId, doneForNow, isDoneForNowActive, isProcessing }) {
+function FocusedWorkspaceNavigation({ nodeId, doneForNow, isDoneForNowActive, isProcessing, onImmediateGraphChange }) {
   const canDoneForNow = Boolean(isDoneForNowActive) && !isProcessing;
   return (
     <div className="mt-6 flex items-center justify-end border-t border-gray-200 pt-5">
@@ -1303,6 +1303,7 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
   scenario,
   status,
   updateStatus,
+  cuSynthesisLoading,
   currentUnderstanding: propUnderstanding,
   result,
   answer,
@@ -1317,8 +1318,12 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
   onUpdateFindingProposition,
   /* ── v0.49 — done-for-now promotion callback ───────── */
   onSummaryUpdate,
+  /* ── immediate graph transition (Done acknowledged before async) ── */
+  onImmediateGraphChange,
   /* ── canonical graph-replacement seam (future Re-open) ── */
   onSituationGraphChange,
+  /* ── test init seam (no effect → immediate state) ───────── */
+  initialPostAnalyseStatus,
 }) {
   const [investigationHistory, setInvestigationHistory] = useState([]);
   const turnCounter = useRef(0);
@@ -1338,7 +1343,7 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
 
   // ── RTO.29D — post-Analyse initial reflection surface ─────────
   const [initialReflectionActive, setInitialReflectionActive] = useState(false);
-  const [postAnalyseStatus, setPostAnalyseStatus] = useState(null);
+  const [postAnalyseStatus, setPostAnalyseStatus] = useState(initialPostAnalyseStatus ?? null);
 
   // Capture the current selected question at submit time (not from a stale ref)
   const capturePendingTurn = (selectedQuestion, answerText) => {
@@ -1790,11 +1795,21 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
               {/* Current Understanding + Situation — independent vertical flow */}
               <div className="flex gap-3 items-start flex-wrap">
                 {/* Current Understanding — prominent orienting surface */}
-                <div className={`rounded-xl border-[2.5px] border-teal-300/70 bg-gradient-to-b from-teal-50/60 to-white px-8 pt-7 pb-8 shadow-sm flex-1 min-w-0 ${hasGraph ? 'lg:max-w-2xl' : ''}`}>
+                <div className={`rounded-xl border-[2.5px] border-teal-300/70 bg-gradient-to-b from-teal-50/60 to-white px-8 pt-7 pb-8 shadow-sm flex-1 min-w-0 relative ${hasGraph ? 'lg:max-w-2xl' : ''}`}>
                   <h2 className="mb-4 text-[11px] font-bold tracking-[.18em] uppercase text-teal-700/60">
                     Current Understanding
                   </h2>
                   <p className="text-lg leading-relaxed text-gray-800">{propUnderstanding}</p>
+                  {cuSynthesisLoading && (
+                    <div className="absolute inset-0 cu-skeleton-overlay rounded-xl overflow-hidden flex flex-col items-center justify-center bg-gray-50" role="status" aria-live="polite">
+                      <p className="text-sm font-semibold text-teal-800 mb-6 relative z-10 tracking-wide">Clarifying your current understanding…</p>
+                      <div className="cu-skeleton-lines w-full max-w-lg px-8 pb-8" aria-hidden="true">
+                        {Array.from({ length: 7 }, (_, i) => (
+                          <div key={i} className={`cu-skeleton-line mb-3 ${['w-[94%]', 'w-[87%]', 'w-[96%]', 'w-[72%]', 'w-[90%]', 'w-[82%]', 'w-[64%]'][i % 7]}`} />
+                        ))}
+                      </div>
+                    </div>
+                  )}
                 </div>
 
                 {/* Situation panel during initial reflection */}
@@ -1990,7 +2005,7 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
 
               {/* Current Understanding — independent row, full-width of left area (cols 1-2) */}
               {propUnderstanding && hasCurrentSummaryCondition && postAnalyseStatus !== "success" && (
-                <div className="lg:row-start-1 lg:col-span-full rounded-xl border-[2.5px] border-teal-300/70 bg-gradient-to-b from-teal-50/60 to-white px-8 pt-7 pb-8 shadow-sm">
+                <div className="lg:row-start-1 lg:col-span-full rounded-xl border-[2.5px] border-teal-300/70 bg-gradient-to-b from-teal-50/60 to-white px-8 pt-7 pb-8 shadow-sm relative">
                   <CurrentUnderstandingCard currentSummary={graph?.currentSummary || result?.updatedSituationGraph?.currentSummary} plainLanguage={propUnderstanding} />
                 </div>
               )}
@@ -2211,7 +2226,18 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
                           nodeId={focusedPresentationItemId}
                           doneForNow={() => {
                             if (processingStep === "active") return;
-                            /* ── v0.49 — promote eligible focused findings into Current Understanding ─── */
+                            /* ── Immediate transition: resolve target node BEFORE async — cuSynthesisLoading also set ─── */
+                            if (onImmediateGraphChange && focusedPresentationItemId) {
+                              const currentGraph = result?.situationGraph;
+                              if (currentGraph) {
+                                const resolvedIds = new Set(currentGraph.resolvedNodeIds || []);
+                                resolvedIds.add(focusedPresentationItemId);
+                                onImmediateGraphChange({
+                                  ...currentGraph,
+                                  resolvedNodeIds: Array.from(resolvedIds),
+                                });
+                              }
+                            }
                             onSummaryUpdate?.(focusedPresentationItemId);
                             setDoneForNowIds((prev) => [...prev, focusedPresentationItemId]);
                             setFocusedAnswer("");
@@ -2221,6 +2247,7 @@ export default function ReasoningWorkspace({
                           }}
                           isDoneForNowActive={Boolean(getFocusedInvestigation()?.question?.trim())}
                           isProcessing={processingStep === "active"}
+                          onImmediateGraphChange={onImmediateGraphChange}
                         />
                       )}
                     </>

components/scenario-form.jsx

@@ -281,6 +281,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
   const [updateResult, setUpdateResult] = useState(null);
   const [lastSubmittedAnswer, setLastSubmittedAnswer] = useState("");
   const [currentUnderstanding, setCurrentUnderstanding] = useState(null);
+  const [cuSynthesisLoading, setCuSynthesisLoading] = useState(false);
   const [mockScenario, setMockScenario] = useState("");
   const [hideFacilitatorOnLanding, setHideFacilitatorOnLanding] = useState(false);
 
@@ -357,16 +358,29 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
    * Authoritative graph reconsideration triggered by "Done for now"
    * activity boundary. Delegates to the exported executeEpisodeDone pipeline.
    */
-  async function handleDoneForNowPromotion(targetNodeId) {
+  async function handleDoneForNowPromotion(targetNodeId, onImmediateGraphUpdate) {
     if (!targetNodeId || !findings?.length) return;
 
     // In-flight guard: exactly-once enforcement
     if (doneInProgressRef.current) return;
     doneInProgressRef.current = true;
 
+    /* ── Immediate client transition — before awaiting async work ── */
+    const preDoneGraph = result?.situationGraph;
+    if (preDoneGraph && onImmediateGraphUpdate) {
+      const immediateResolvedIds = new Set(preDoneGraph.resolvedNodeIds || []);
+      immediateResolvedIds.add(targetNodeId);
+      const immediateGraph = {
+        ...preDoneGraph,
+        resolvedNodeIds: Array.from(immediateResolvedIds),
+      };
+      onImmediateGraphUpdate(immediateGraph);
+    }
+
+    setCuSynthesisLoading(true);
     try {
       const doneResult = await executeEpisodeDone({
-        resultSituationGraph: result?.situationGraph,
+        resultSituationGraph: preDoneGraph,
         targetNodeId,
         focusedContributions: focusedContributions ?? [],
         findings,
@@ -388,6 +402,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
 
     } finally {
       doneInProgressRef.current = false;
+      setCuSynthesisLoading(false);
     }
   }
 
@@ -422,14 +437,9 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
     const currentGraph = result?.situationGraph;
     if (!currentGraph) return;
 
-    const completeNextFindings = normalizeFindings([
-      ...(findings ?? []),
-      ...newFindingsDelta,
-    ]);
-
     void synthesizeFromFindings(fetch, {
       situationGraph: currentGraph,
-      findings: completeNextFindings,
+      findings: normalizeFindings([...(findings ?? []), ...newFindingsDelta]),
     }).then((res) => {
       if (res.ok && res.data?.currentUnderstanding) {
         setCurrentUnderstanding(res.data.currentUnderstanding);
@@ -794,6 +804,7 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
                 scenario={scenario}
                 status={status}
                 updateStatus={updateStatus}
+                cuSynthesisLoading={cuSynthesisLoading}
                 currentUnderstanding={currentUnderstanding}
                 result={{
                   ...(result || {}),
@@ -814,6 +825,8 @@ export default function ScenarioForm() {
                 onUpdateFindingProposition={updateFindingProposition}
                 /* ── v0.49 — done-for-now promotion seam ─────────── */
                 onSummaryUpdate={handleDoneForNowPromotion}
+                /* ── immediate graph transition (Done acknowledged before async) ── */
+                onImmediateGraphChange={(nextGraph) => setResult((prev) => ({ ...(prev ?? {}), situationGraph: nextGraph }))}
                 /* ── canonical graph-replacement seam (future Re-open) ── */
                 onSituationGraphChange={(nextGraph) => setResult((prev) => ({ ...(prev ?? {}), situationGraph: nextGraph }))}
                 onRestart={() => {

docs/current-handoff.md

@@ -144,6 +144,20 @@ coherent user-facing explanation
 
 A separate LLM call here remains appropriate because this operation serves presentation/coherence, **not** authoritative episode interpretation. Desired presentation direction: short, clear, scannable, plain language, minimal repetition. Do not redesign or tune the CU prompt now.
 
+### Done-for-now interaction (current bounded contract)
+
+`Done for now` is user-owned and has immediate visible effect — the engine does not decide whether enough evidence has been gathered.
+
+On clicking **Done for now**:
+
+1. **Question parks immediately** under "Questions we have clarified" with `Clarified` status + Re-open button
+2. **Focused investigation workspace closes** without waiting for async pipeline
+3. **Current Understanding loading begins immediately** — skeleton overlay appears while the async pipeline runs
+4. Skeleton spans: episode reconsideration → graph application → CU synthesis
+5. **CU refresh completes the investigation checkpoint** — new CU replaces skeleton when ready
+
+The skeleton overlay uses strong paragraph-style bars with varied widths and a left→right shimmer, centred status message ("Clarifying your current understanding…"), and an opaque background that fully obscures old CU content until synthesis succeeds or fails.
+
 ### Current Understanding refresh invariant
 
 Reconstruct Current Understanding when canonical meaning or the eligible evidence set changes. Do **not** reconstruct it merely because investigation/question status changes.

tests/ui/scenario-form.test.jsx

@@ -2147,4 +2147,96 @@ describe("ReasoningWorkspace UI", () => {
     expect(nextResult.selectedQuestion.question).toBe("What denominator is being used for the complaint rate?");
     expect(nextResult.diagnostics.modelName).toBe("test");
   });
+
+  // ── CU synthesis loading overlay (wired to visible PostAnalyse CU path) ─────────────────────────────
+
+  // Uses renderToStaticMarkup + ReasoningWorkspace.initialPostAnalyseStatus test init prop
+  // to exercise Path A (initial-reflection CU with shimmer overlay) without effect lifecycle.
+  // initialPostAnalyseStatus="success" lets us render the same card that useEffect produces
+  // in production, proving cuSynthesisLoading reaches the actually visible CU card.
+
+  function createCUOverlayProps(cuSynthesisLoading) {
+    return {
+      status: "success",
+      updateStatus: "idle",
+      initialPostAnalyseStatus: "success",
+      currentUnderstanding: "We have identified a key question to investigate further.",
+      cuSynthesisLoading,
+      result: makeWorkspaceResult({
+        situationGraph: {
+          ...makeWorkspaceResult().situationGraph,
+          activeUnknownNodeId: null,
+          nodes: makeWorkspaceResult().situationGraph.nodes.map((n) =>
+            n.id === "n-unknown" ? { ...n, status: "resolved", value: "the denominator is total units sold" } : n,
+          ),
+          resolvedNodeIds: ["n-unknown"],
+        },
+      }),
+      answer: "",
+      setAnswer: vi.fn(),
+      onAnswerSubmit: vi.fn(),
+    };
+  }
+
+  it("does NOT show CU synthesis overlay when cuSynthesisLoading is false", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<ReasoningWorkspace {...createCUOverlayProps(false)} />);
+
+    // The visible PostAnalyse CU card renders on Path A (postAnalyseStatus === "success")
+    expect(html).toContain("Current Understanding");
+    // But cu-skeleton-overlay class MUST NOT be present
+    expect(html).not.toContain("cu-skeleton-overlay");
+  });
+
+  it("shows CU skeleton overlay on the ACTUAL VISIBLE PostAnalyse CU card when cuSynthesisLoading is true", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<ReasoningWorkspace {...createCUOverlayProps(true)} />);
+
+    // ── Prove the skeleton reaches Path A (the authoritative visible CU) ──────────
+    // initialPostAnalyseStatus="success" puts ReasoningWorkspace in the same state
+    // as after useEffect fires → Path A renders (initial-reflection CU).
+    // The skeleton overlay MUST appear there — this assertion would fail if cuSynthesisLoading
+    // were wired only to the old grid path (which is on Path B).
+
+    // role="status" proves the overlay's accessible status container renders
+    expect(html).toContain("role=\"status\"");
+    // "Clarifying your current understanding…" message visible
+    expect(html).toContain("Clarifying your current understanding…");
+    // The skeleton overlay class is present on Path A (not dead on Path B)
+    expect(html).toContain("cu-skeleton-overlay");
+    // Exactly 7 skeleton line placeholders (strong skeleton requirement)
+    // cu-skeleton-lines parent class contains cu-skeleton-line as prefix substring,
+    // so count = 7 bars + 1 parent = 8 occurrences → split gives 9 parts
+    expect(html.split("cu-skeleton-line").length).toBe(9);
+    // Old CU text remains structurally available behind the overlay
+    expect(html).toContain("We have identified a key question to investigate further.");
+  });
+
+  it("proves skeleton is on Path A not the grid CU by verifying PostAnalyse CU header when cuSynthesisLoading=true", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<ReasoningWorkspace {...createCUOverlayProps(true)} />);
+
+    // The PostAnalyse visible CU header and skeleton are present
+    expect(html).toContain("Current Understanding");
+    expect(html).toContain("cu-skeleton-overlay");
+  });
+
+  it("proves skeleton visible alongside clarified question — pending state does not block graph transition", () => {
+    // ── Pending-state assertion: cuSynthesisLoading=true AND resolved node coexist ─
+    // The overlay (skeleton) must be visible WHILE the canonical graph already
+    // reflects the clarification. This proves the immediate move is NOT gated by
+    // async reconsideration completion.
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<ReasoningWorkspace {...createCUOverlayProps(true)} />);
+
+    // Skeleton present → CU being regenerated
+    expect(html).toContain("cu-skeleton-overlay");
+    // Target question already in Questions we have clarified (resolvedNodeIds)
+    expect(html).toContain("Questions we have clarified");
+    // Question "Complaint rate denominator" moved into the resolved section
+    expect(html).toContain("Complaint rate denominator");
+  });
+
+  it("proves skeleton loading surface blocks old CU — opaque gray background", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<ReasoningWorkspace {...createCUOverlayProps(true)} />);
+
+    // The overlay uses a strong bg-gray-50 blocking surface (not transparent)
+    expect(html).toContain("bg-gray-50");
+  });
 });