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split contrast gate + ship -hc theme variants (T-114, T-118)

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The expanded canonicalPairs from T-114 (muted text, status chips,
syntax tokens on the code-block surface, panel focus border) made the
four named themes fail WCAG-AA. Retuning their palettes to pass would
have changed the look users picked them for, so the gate is split
instead.

`canonicalPairs` shrinks back to the baseline every named theme passes;
the new `extendedPairs` carries the stricter set and only runs against
themes whose name ends `-hc` or `-cb`. Sibling files (`clide-hc`,
`midnight-hc`, `paper-hc`, `terminal-hc`) ship today; the policy lives
in D-69 with a back-ref from D-22.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
jpmschweitzer
2026-05-18 08:56:02 +02:00
co-authored by Claude
parent d4f8f89016
commit cbbbc526f9
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governance/README.md
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@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ You might also want, project-permitting:
- [D-66: Line coverage gate at 95%, ratcheted from current](decisions/testing.md#d-66-line-coverage-gate-at-95-ratcheted-from-current) — _testing_
- [D-67: Pql changelog files are committed alongside code](decisions/process.md#d-67-pql-changelog-files-are-committed-alongside-code) — _process_
- [D-68: Dual integration surface — Bash CLI primary, MCP secondary](decisions/architecture.md#d-68-dual-integration-surface--bash-cli-primary-mcp-secondary) — _architecture_
- [D-69: published themes are user contracts; ship -hc variants for a11y](decisions/accessibility.md#d-69-published-themes-are-user-contracts-ship--hc-variants-for-a11y) — _accessibility_
## Open questions
governance/decisions/accessibility.md
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@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ A11y + i18n are Tier-0 contracts, not Tier-6 polish.
- **Decision:** Every bundled theme must pass a WCAG-AA contrast check on its canonical token pairs (text/background, link/background, focus-ring/background) at test time. `ci/test_a11y.sh` runs the gate; CI fails on regressions.
- **Rationale:** Themes drift under "looks nicer" tweaks; contrast regressions land silently. Running the gate on every PR is the cheapest insurance. Ran the gate on initial themes — caught one summer-night muted token at 2.81:1 (below AA), fixed before landing.
- **Cost:** Third-party themes (Tier 6) won't be gated until an extension-time test hook lands. Bundled themes are gated today.
- **Raised by:** 2026-04-21 planning.
- **Raised by:** 2026-04-21 planning. Refined by [D-69](#d-69-published-themes-are-user-contracts-ship-hc-variants-for-a11y) — the gate's *strict* pair set only applies to high-contrast variants; named themes keep their published palettes.
### D-69: published themes are user contracts; ship -hc variants for a11y
- **Date:** 2026-05-17
- **Decision:** The four bundled themes that ship under a recognisable name — `clide`, `midnight`, `paper`, `terminal` — are user contracts. Their palette colours (including syntax tokens, status colours, and borderHi) MUST NOT be retuned to satisfy contrast gates. When a stricter contrast check would fail one of them, the fix is one of: (a) ship a sibling theme with `-hc` (high-contrast) or `-cb` (colour-blind) in the name and enforce the strict pair set only there, or (b) split `canonicalPairs` into a *baseline* set every theme must pass and an *extended* set that only the `-hc`/`-cb` variants must pass.
- **Rationale:** Users pick `midnight` because it looks like VS Code, `paper` because it reads as a drafting sheet, `terminal` because of the amber-on-near-black tmux feel. Quietly darkening `paper`'s success/warning/info or boosting `midnight`'s `borderHi` to pass a WCAG-AA check changes what they got and what they signed up for. A11y is a Tier-0 contract ([D-20](#d-20-a11y-is-a-tier-0-contract)), but it's served by *offering* an accessible variant, not by overwriting the aesthetic ones. VS Code itself ships `Default Dark+` and a separate `Default High Contrast` for exactly this reason.
- **Cost:** Two extra theme files per "named" theme when we add a11y variants. The bundled-theme contrast gate ([D-22](#d-22-wcag-aa-contrast-gate-on-bundled-themes)) needs a baseline/extended split so the named themes don't fail the strict pairs.
- **Raised by:** 2026-05-17 — user intervened mid-T-114 when I had retuned `clide`/`midnight`/`paper`/`terminal` palette entries to satisfy the expanded `canonicalPairs`; reverted, decision written, T-114 will follow this rule.
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