Preview Image Editing — Design Spec

Milestone: preview-image-editing (GitHub #315) Manual: TBD — the user manual needs an “Editing an image” section: the Edits facet, the reversible operation chain, the tools (crop to the page, straighten, split, mark the ruler and the colour card, enhance), seeing the original and the wipe, copying edits between images, and that Revert to Original always asks first because every step is already saved.

Design-led spec (Testing Constitution). The creative director owns the intent; tests enforce it; code makes them pass. One line per behavior, each cited by its pinning test. Status: DRAFT — PASS 1 of 2 (built behaviors only, grounded in disk 2026-09-18; the fold-in of legacy milestone #168’s sixteen issues is PASS 2 — a fold plan follows this spec’s own behaviors, no issues moved yet). Section T (the tools) added 2026-10-29 from the owner’s direction and the review agent-work/status/briefs/imgprep-review-2026-10-29.md: one tool set, one icon table, direct manipulation on the picture; revised the same day for the owner’s second ruling (perspective corners on Crop, the full enhancement suite in Adjust with sliders and before/after, blank pages hidden and unhidden). The automatic step the tools correct is ../source/image-preparation.md (prep.*); the pixel methods behind the sliders are ../source/image-enhancement.md (image.enhance.*). Tags: [OK] behaves this way today · [PARTIAL] implemented, not fully verified/tested · [BROKEN] regression, code contradicts the line · [GAP] intended, never built.

Intent (the design)

Image editing is reached from preview-surface.md’s own territory — the Preview pane’s “Edits” facet — but is substantial enough to be its own spec, the same relationship reading-markup-annotations.md has to reader-view.md: preview-surface.md owns mounting and dispatching the canvas Preview shows; this spec owns what happens once the user starts editing what’s on it. Views/Preview/ImageEditor/ is an 11-file, self-contained subsystem (2,402 lines: the editor view, its toolbar, popovers, a step-chain panel, a marquee-select overlay, a live-edit preview, and a clipboard for copying edits between images).

[[never rewrite source]], verified precisely from the code, not assumed: editing is non-destructive by construction, not by convention. An edit is one operation appended to an ImageEditChain — its own database row (document_id + an ordered operations: list[dict]) — never a mutation of the document’s own file bytes. Rendering a preview (GET /api/images/{id}/preview?apply_edits=true|false) loads the ORIGINAL source image fresh from disk every time (_load_source_image(source_path, …)), applies the chain’s operations to an in-memory copy, and writes only the RENDERED RESULT to a disposable cache directory (storage/preview-cache/{document_id}/page-{page}/{hash}.bin, keyed on document id + page + apply_edits + the chain’s own updated_at, capped at four cached revisions per page). The source file at source_path is read, never written, anywhere in this path. apply_edits=false is how the “original” side of a compare mode is produced — no separate original copy is kept, because the source itself always IS the original.

Ratified rulings honored here, not restated: the three-surfaces rule (Preview/Reader/ Inspector never merge) from preview-surface.md; preview-surface.md’s own mounting of DocumentCanvas, which this spec’s editor sits beside, not inside — EditorView’s own previewRoute(for:isEditing:) chooses between DocumentCanvas’s plain storage-display canvas and this spec’s full ImageEditorView, both driven by the SAME toggle (inspectorSelectedTab == .edits), so the two specs share one on/off switch without either one owning the other’s surface.

Surfaces: ImageEditorView (++Canvas/+Clipboard/+Popovers/+Toolbar/+Types), ImageEditorModel, ImageEditChainPanel (++Steps), ImageMarqueeOverlay, LiveEditPreview, ImageEditClipboard, ImageEditingService (client), fichero_server.models.ImageEditChain, api/routes/ingest/image_editing.py.

Behaviors (each → one pinning test)

A. Non-destructive storage — the source is never rewritten

preview.edit.chain-is-a-separate-row-never-the-source — [OK] an edit is one operation appended to ImageEditChain (document_id + ordered operations), its own database row — never a write to the document’s source file. Verified at HEAD: _render_preview (image_editing.py:613-641) calls _load_source_image(source_path, …) to read the ORIGINAL every time, applies chain.operations to an in-memory copy via apply_operation, and writes only the rendered bytes to a disposable preview-cache path — no code path in this function (or _append_operation) opens source_path for writing. Pinned: test_routes_image_editing.py::TestImageEditChainRoutes::test_valid_chain_round_trips_without_transient_path.
preview.edit.preview-toggles-original-vs-edited-with-no-second-copy — [OK] the apply_edits query parameter on GET /api/images/{id}/preview is the entire mechanism for showing “original” versus “edited” — apply_edits=false skips the chain entirely and renders straight from the source, so there is no separately-stored “original” copy to drift from the real source. Pinned: test_routes_image_editing.py::TestImagePreviewRoute::test_preview_returns_original_without_edits, ::test_preview_resolves_library_relative_source_path.
preview.edit.operations-validated-at-the-boundary — [OK] an invalid operation (an unknown op name, an out-of-range rotate angle, a negative crop dimension) is refused with a 422 at the PUT boundary, never silently accepted and failing later at render time. Pinned: test_routes_image_editing.py::TestImageEditChainRoutes::test_put_rejects_invalid_operations (parametrized over three invalid shapes).
preview.edit.crop-and-split-are-reversible — [OK] cropping or splitting an image is a chain operation like any other, not a destructive file replacement — reversible the same way every other step is (delete the step, or revert the whole chain). Pinned: test_routes_image_editing.py::TestReversibleImageCrop, ::TestReversibleImageSplit.
preview.edit.quarter-turns-are-lossless — [OK] a 90/180/270-degree rotation is a lossless quarter-turn operation, not a lossy re-encode-and-rotate. Pinned: test_image_edit_chains.py::TestQuarterTurnsAreLossless.

preview.edit.mounted-from-the-edits-facet — [PARTIAL] (→ #4872) EditorView .previewRoute(for:isEditing:) mounts the full ImageEditorView (its .imageEditor route case) when isEditing is true (inspectorSelectedTab == .edits) AND the document is editable (fileType == .image or docType == .page) — for a plain image/page, a folder’s image, or a PDF page alike (EditorView.swift:175-238). The SAME isEditing/ inspectorSelectedTab == .edits toggle also drives DocumentCanvas’s isEditing binding when the doc ISN’T routed to the full editor, greying its edit-affordance control instead — one toggle, two surfaces, per preview-surface.md’s own DocumentCanvas behaviors. Not verified as built: no dedicated mount/dispatch test asserts previewRoute picks .imageEditor under these exact conditions; grounded in reading the exhaustive route function directly.

C. Editor mechanics — the step chain, caches, and copying edits

preview.edit.re-editing-a-step-rewrites-it-in-place — [OK] re-opening an already-applied step’s controls and adjusting them rewrites that SAME step in the chain — it does not append a second, competing step for the same operation. Pinned: ImageEditStepEditingTests.updateOperationKeepsPosition (file fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditStepEditingTests.swift, suite ImageEditStepEditingTests).
preview.edit.delete-step-and-revert-are-reachable-and-confirmed — [OK] deleting a single step, and reverting the whole chain to the original, are both reachable from the steps panel, and reverting always asks for confirmation first — every step is already committed/saved, so reverting always discards real, saved work, never just an in-progress draft. Pinned: ImageEditStepEditingTests (suite ImageEditStepEditingTests, case “delete-a-step and revert-to-original stay reachable and confirmed”).
preview.edit.rendition-caches-invalidate-on-every-edit — [OK] a successful edit drops BOTH derived-pixel caches (not just the storage-service one), including on the way OUT of the editor, so leaving edit mode can never show stale pixels; a batch-applied edit invalidates the cache per DOCUMENT touched, not only for whichever one is on screen. Pinned: ImageEditRenditionRefreshTests (file fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditRenditionRefreshTests.swift, suite ImageEditRenditionRefreshTests; all three cases).
preview.edit.chain-sync-avoids-redundant-refetch — [OK] the editor’s chain-sync mechanism re-fetches and re-renders exactly once per real change (a bumped storage epoch), never on an unchanged epoch, never for an edit the model made itself echoing back through the sync path, and does nothing for a model with no document loaded. The Inspector’s Edits facet and the editor canvas both watch the same storage epoch, and the facet draws only the step LIST, never the pixels (that stays the canvas’s job). Pinned: ImageEditChainSyncTests (file fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditChainSyncTests.swift, suite ImageEditChainSyncTests; all seven cases).
preview.edit.clipboard-copies-and-pastes-a-chain — [OK] an edit chain can be copied from one image and pasted onto another (or across a multi-selection) — copying strips the per-document bookkeeping so the copy travels cleanly, pasting REPLACES the target’s chain rather than appending to it, copying an intentionally-empty chain is still a real copy (not a silent no-op), and pasting across a multi-selection asks for confirmation first (since it may replace saved chains on files not currently on screen) while pasting onto a single image does not. Pinned: ImageEditClipboardTests (file fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditClipboardTests.swift, suite ImageEditClipboardTests; all four cases).

D. Compare modes — true but untested

preview.edit.compare-modes-single-side-by-side-wipe — [PARTIAL] (→ #4872) the editor offers three ways to compare original and edited: .single (one canvas, toggled), .wipe (a slider split), and .sideBySide (ImageEditorView+Types.swift:3-7, CompareMode). Single mode reuses the shared DocumentCanvas zoom; side-by-side and wipe are plain images with their own independent zoom control, since a second zoom pill over DocumentCanvas would fight with its own. Grounded in reading the enum and its call sites directly; no test found exercising any of the three modes.

T. The tools — one set, one icon each, on the picture (2026-10-29)

What is wrong today

The editor’s tools are one-shot buttons that post to the engine and show the result; only the marquee acts on the picture. The icons are unclear and duplicated, counted in the review by file and line: wand.and.stars means “Edited” in the toolbar (ImageEditorView+Toolbar.swift:32), “no edits yet” in the panel (ImageEditChainPanel.swift:130) and “Enhance” on a chain row (ImageEditingService.swift:44); slider.horizontal.3 is the Enhance button (+Toolbar.swift:64), the panel’s title (ImageEditChainPanel.swift:62) and Add Step’s Enhance (ImageEditChainPanel+Steps.swift:347); Straighten wears crop.rotate (+Toolbar.swift:56), a crop glyph; a second rotate tool, angle (+Toolbar.swift:76), repeats Straighten; Remove Background is person.and.background.dotted in the toolbar (+Toolbar.swift:83) and scissors on its row (ImageEditingService.swift:49); Segment is square.split.2x1 in the toolbar (+Toolbar.swift:89), square.split.bottomrightquarter on its row (ImageEditingService.swift:50), and does nothing to the image (media/image_ops.py returns it unchanged); the Side-by-Side compare mode wears rectangle.split.2x1 (+Toolbar.swift:162), the glyph that should mean “split a spread”; Revert appears twice (+Toolbar.swift:109, ImageEditChainPanel.swift:76); Crop appears only after a marquee drag (+Toolbar.swift:133); and the whole tool set is repeated as text in the panel’s Add Step (ImageEditChainPanel+Steps.swift:290-362) and again in the batch menu (+Toolbar.swift:242-280), where Enhance is called “Auto-Enhance”.

The design

Preview’s and Photos’ conventions, nothing invented: a tool is selected, then used on the picture; a proposal from the automatic step is drawn as the tool’s own handles, so correcting is the same gesture as editing; one glyph per tool wherever it appears (toolbar, chain row, Add Step, batch sheet, Set Up’s worklist), from one table (ImageEditOperation.icon); icon-only in the toolbar with a help tag and an accessibility label, text beside the icon everywhere else.

Tool	SF Symbol	Does	On the picture
Crop	`crop`	the page box: four corner handles and edge handles over the photograph, seeded by the automatic page outline’s quad (`prep.find-the-page`), solid when applied, dashed when proposed; the corners move independently, so a lopsided page shows as a quadrilateral and Return squares it (`prep.square.perspective-from-the-quad`, `prep.square.corner-handles-correct-it`); a Find Page button in its bar re-runs the finder; Return applies, Escape cancels; no aspect presets (pages are not photos)	yes
Rotate Left · Rotate Right	`rotate.left` · `rotate.right`	lossless quarter turns; the chain row shows the glyph of the turn made (left, right, or `arrow.triangle.2.circlepath` for 180)	immediate
Straighten	`level`	a horizontal dial under the picture (as Photos), −15° to 15°, a grid overlay while dragging, Auto fills the dial from `detect_deskew_angle`; the angle is written on the row; this absorbs today’s `angle` popover	yes
Split	`rectangle.split.2x1`	a vertical gutter line with a drag handle, seeded by the automatic gutter (`prep.split-at-the-gutter`), dashed when proposed; drag to move, Return to cut; Don’t split keeps the page whole	yes
Mark	`ruler`	a menu: Ruler, Colour Card, Blank Page; the first two draw a region (`segments-and-geometry.md`, kind `ruler` or `colour card`) by marquee, which Leave Out reads and the layout detector learns from; Blank Page toggles the page’s blank mark, which hides it in the item view and skips it in later steps, and Unhide on a hidden page clears it (`prep.check.blank-mark-is-a-correction`, `prep.blank-pages-hidden-in-the-item-view`); the glyph for a colour-card region is `swatchpalette`, for blank `doc`	yes
Auto Enhance	`wand.and.stars`	one click: `contrast`, `yellowing` (auto) and `sharpen` at their defaults (`image.enhance.contrast-clahe`), as the wand means in Photos	immediate
Adjust	`slider.horizontal.3`	a popover of sections, one per step of the suite in `image-enhancement.md` (“The suite, step by step”), in the recipe’s order: Contrast (Strength, Detail, Gain, Lift; Handwritten/Typescript), Yellowing (Strength, Auto), Stains (Strength, Size), Ruling (Colour, Strength), Show-through (Strength, Method A/B, Whole page/By region), Denoise (Radius, Specks), Sharpen (Amount, Radius), Binarise (Method, Block, Offset), Flatten (on/off, Strength: the gutter dewarp, `prep.flatten.curve-toward-the-gutter`); each section has an on/off switch and a Reset to the recipe’s values; every slider previews live on the picture, the Before hold shows the original and a wipe compares; Apply writes one row per switched-on step with the values; this is the only place `slider.horizontal.3` appears	live
Undo · Revert	`arrow.uturn.backward` · `arrow.counterclockwise`	once each, in the toolbar; the panel’s row keeps its `minus.circle` for removing one step and loses its Revert	—
Before	`eye`	press and hold to see the original (as Photos); release to see the edits; replaces the Original/Edited segment	—
Compare	`rectangle.righthalf.inset.filled.arrow.right`	toggles the wipe; Side-by-Side is dropped (the wipe shows both; the glyph is needed by Split)	yes
Apply to Selection	`square.stack.3d.up`	the batch sheet: the chosen steps, three previews (first, middle, last), counts, one confirmation (`prep.check.apply-correction-to-the-folder`); the clipboard’s paste-to-all uses `doc.on.clipboard`	—

Leaving the toolbar: Remove Background (it becomes Crop’s dark-mount method, prep.page.remove-background-is-the-dark-mount-method), Despeckle (folded into Stains, image.enhance.stain-flattening), Segment (regions are Find Regions’ job; the op changes no pixel), the angle popover (Straighten). An existing chain that carries one of these ops still renders and shows its row with the old title; no new row of that kind is written. The panel’s Add Step keeps only tools that cannot be done on the picture (Flip, Grayscale, Auto Levels, Binarize, Denoise), as a short menu. “Save selection as annotation” (highlighter) is reading markup, not an edit; it moves to the Mark menu as Note, where it is reached the same way.

Behaviors

preview.edit.tool.one-icon-table — [GAP] (#1420) every place a tool or its step is shown (toolbar, chain row, Add Step, batch sheet, the Set Up worklist) draws the glyph from ImageEditOperation.icon; a Swift test asserts the table has no two ops sharing a glyph and that the toolbar’s buttons use it. Today three tables disagree (ImageEditingService.swift:39-55, ImageEditorView+Toolbar.swift, ImageEditChainPanel+Steps.swift).
preview.edit.tool.set-is-exactly-this — [GAP] (#1420) the toolbar holds Crop, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Straighten, Split, Mark, Auto Enhance, Adjust, Undo, Revert, Before, Compare and (with a selection) Apply to Selection, each once, each with a help tag and an accessibility label; Remove Background, Despeckle, Segment and the angle popover are gone from it; a Swift availability test lists the identifiers.
preview.edit.tool.crop-is-a-page-box — [GAP] (#6188) Crop is always visible; selecting it shows the page box with handles seeded from page_region’s quad (solid) or the proposal (dashed) or the whole frame; dragging an edge keeps a rectangle, dragging a corner alone makes a quadrilateral; Return writes a crop row with the box, method: person, and, when the quad is not a rectangle, a square row with the corners so the engine warps it (prep.square.corner-handles-correct-it); Find Page re-runs prep.find-the-page and reseeds.
preview.edit.tool.straighten-is-a-dial — [GAP] (#6190) Straighten shows a dial and a grid; Auto fills it; the row records the angle; the live preview is LiveEditPreview’s existing CIFilter.straighten.
preview.edit.tool.split-is-a-gutter-line — [GAP] (#5382) Split shows the gutter line seeded from the automatic plan; drag and Return cut (preview.edit.crop-and-split-are-reversible); Don’t split writes the decision so the worklist drops the page.
preview.edit.tool.mark-ruler-card-blank — [GAP] (#6198) Mark’s Ruler and Colour Card draw regions with those kinds; Blank Page toggles the mark, which hides the page in the item view and skips it in later steps, and Unhide clears it from the editor or the item view’s hidden line (prep.blank-pages-hidden-in-the-item-view); the regions are read by Leave Out (image.enhance.leave-out-reads-the-page-box) and exported as detector labels (prep.yolo.fine-tune-from-corrected-regions).
preview.edit.tool.adjust-previews-live-before-after — [GAP] (#6190; owner 2026-10-29) Adjust holds one section per step of the enhancement suite (Contrast, Yellowing, Stains, Ruling, Show-through, Denoise, Sharpen, Binarise, Flatten), each with its switch, its sliders from the step’s params model and a Reset; every slider previews on the picture while dragging (Core Image where a filter matches, else the engine’s preview of the one pending step at reduced size within 300 ms) and the Before gesture shows the original at any time; on Apply the engine’s render replaces the preview; one row per switched-on step records the values. Built: the live path for the three PIL sliders (LiveEditPreview.swift, #3673). Missing: the new steps, the Before gesture, the engine-side pending preview.
preview.edit.tool.adjust-sections-match-the-suite — [GAP] (#6185) a Swift test walks the engine’s step registry (from the OpenAPI schema of the params models) and asserts Adjust has a section for every pixel step and no section for a step the engine lacks, so the editor and the recipe cannot drift (image.enhance.every-step-is-a-recipe-step-and-an-editor-control).
preview.edit.tool.proposal-is-the-tools-handles — [GAP] (#5382) a page opened from the Set Up worklist (prep.check.worklist-of-proposals-and-a-sample) comes up with the proposing tool selected and its dashed handles shown; Return accepts, a drag corrects; either writes the who: person row (prep.check.correction-replaces-the-runs-row).
preview.edit.tool.compare-is-hold-and-wipe — [GAP] (#4872) Before is press-and-hold; Compare toggles the wipe; the Side-by-Side mode and the Original/Edited segment are removed (preview.edit.compare-modes-single-side-by-side-wipe is superseded by this line).
preview.edit.tool.retired-ops-still-render — [GAP] (#6190) a chain carrying remove_background, fuzzy_clean, segment or a legacy enhance renders to the same pixels as before and shows its row; no new row of those kinds is written by the app.

Build order

Step T.1 — One icon table and the tool set (#1420)

Behaviours: preview.edit.tool.one-icon-table, preview.edit.tool.set-is-exactly-this, preview.edit.tool.retired-ops-still-render, preview.edit.tool.compare-is-hold-and-wipe
Tests: fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditToolSetTests.swift, fichero-server/tests/unit/media/test_retired_ops_render_unchanged.py
Size: M

Step T.2 — Crop with corners, Straighten and Split on the picture

Behaviours: preview.edit.tool.crop-is-a-page-box, preview.edit.tool.straighten-is-a-dial, preview.edit.tool.split-is-a-gutter-line
Tests: fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditDirectToolsTests.swift, fichero/Tests/UI/general/ImageEditToolsUITests.swift
Depends on: T.1
Size: M

Step T.3 — Mark, blanks hidden, and the proposal handles

Behaviours: preview.edit.tool.mark-ruler-card-blank, preview.edit.tool.proposal-is-the-tools-handles
Tests: fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditMarkAdjustTests.swift, fichero/Tests/UI/general/ImageEditToolsUITests.swift
Depends on: T.2
Size: M

Step T.4 — Adjust: the whole suite with sliders and before/after (#6190, #6185)

Behaviours: preview.edit.tool.adjust-previews-live-before-after, preview.edit.tool.adjust-sections-match-the-suite
Tests: fichero/Tests/Unit/general/Views/Preview/ImageEditAdjustControlsTests.swift, fichero/Tests/UI/general/ImageEditToolsUITests.swift
Depends on: T.3
Size: M

PASS 2 — the fold (legacy milestone #168, 16 issues, every body read fresh)

E. New behaviors (fits, cited from HEAD, moved onto #315)

preview.edit.pdf-edit-toggle-is-dead — [BROKEN] (#2261) the edit toggle should work on a top-level PDF document, not only on one of its child pages. Verified BROKEN at HEAD: EditorView.previewRoute (EditorView.swift:190-198) checks doc.docType == .page and routes THAT to pagePreviewRoute, which does check isEditing — but a plain PDF file (doc.fileType == .pdf, not a page) returns .storageDisplay unconditionally, with no isEditing check at all. The per-page raster edit chain (ImageEditorView) already works; a PDF parent simply never routes to it.
preview.edit.continuous-scroll-through-pages — [GAP] (#1933) the image editor should scroll continuously through a document’s pages/images, the way the PDF viewer’s continuous mode does, rather than one page at a time. Not verified as built — the editor’s canvas (ImageEditorView+Canvas.swift) shows the single active document, stepped via prev/next, with no continuous-scroll mode found.
preview.edit.toolbar-icon-alignment — [GAP] (#1556) the edit button in the image mini-toolbar should share the same baseline/vertical centering and sizing as its neighbouring controls (zoom, fit). Not verified either way — a small, cosmetic claim not worth a source-scan proof either way.
preview.edit.native-vision-remove-background — [GAP] (#1540) Remove Background should offer a macOS-native option (Vision’s subject-lift, the same engine Preview/Quick Look use) alongside the existing methods, since the current default’s output quality is poor. Verified at HEAD: the server’s _remove_background (media/image_ops.py:162-178) supports exactly three methods — rembg, opencv, threshold — no Vision-based method exists; the client’s removeBackground(method:) defaults to "opencv" and offers no alternative in its UI. Not built.
preview.edit.segments-panel-and-recombine — [GAP] (#504) splitting a document should surface a segments panel (browse the resulting pages/segments as separate items, run a workflow on one independently) and a recombine action restoring the parent — with no duplicate files created on disk. Verified PARTIALLY at HEAD: the underlying reversible split/uncrop chain operation is built and tested (see preview.edit.crop-and-split-are- reversible above), but no segments-BROWSING panel or recombine UI was found anywhere under Views/Preview/ImageEditor/. The chain mechanism exists; the panel this issue actually asks for does not.
preview.edit.epic-tracks-already-built-and-remaining-pieces — [GAP] (#1385, the founding EPIC: “AI-enhanced, non-destructive image editing — port legacy ML tools; apply to images AND PDF pages”) — its five stated principles are a mix of DONE and open, stated plainly rather than left as one undifferentiated ask: non-destructive storage is built (see section A above); an A/B compare UI is built (CompareMode: single/wipe/side-by-side, preview.edit.compare-modes-single-side-by-side-wipe); a macOS-native option for at least one tool (Remove Background) is NOT built (preview.edit.native-vision-remove-background above); “apply to any image OR to a page/range of pages of a PDF” is contradicted by preview.edit.pdf-edit-toggle-is-dead above — a PDF parent’s edit toggle doesn’t even route to the editor; EXIF-awareness across transforms was not independently checked this pass. Kept as one line naming the whole, with each concrete piece cited to its own specific behavior rather than duplicated here.

F. Redirected to an existing spec

#4418 (“show recognised text regions on images AND PDFs”) → segment-representations.md as segment.overlay.recognized-text-regions — a region/anchor with its own provenance (PDF text layer, model, or human correction) is that spec’s own subject, not an editing operation. The bidirectional region↔text cursor it asks for is explicitly the SAME seam reader-overlay-frame-identity.md already owns, cited there rather than re-specified here.

G. Verify-close — evidence posted, left OPEN, not closed here

Given the test coverage Pass 1 found, several older issues describe symptoms already fixed by a DIFFERENT mechanism than the one they proposed — evidence stated as what it is (the code read, not a rendered screen):

#502 (“Wire: Image Editing v1 — Crop + Rotate”) — every item in its own test checklist is built and tested: crop/rotate live-update, Original toggle confirms the source is unchanged, undo reverts, the chain persists across relaunch. Section A’s behaviors above (preview.edit.chain-is-a-separate-row-never-the-source, .crop-and-split-are-reversible, .quarter-turns-are-lossless) are this issue’s own acceptance criteria, verified from the code.
#503 (“Wire: Image Editing v2 — Enhance + Remove BG”) — enhance sliders (brightness/contrast/sharpen state in ImageEditorView) and a Remove Background action (ImageEditorModel.removeBackground(method:)) both exist and are reachable from the toolbar and the step panel. Not independently checked this pass: the specific “Auto-enhance” one-click button and whether export specifically re-applies the chain.
#1161 (“Document editing tools: deskew, color-correct, split, crop, rotate”) — every named operation exists server-side: detect_deskew_angle/auto_deskew, brightness/contrast (media/image_ops.py), crop, rotate, and split (Section A above); batch-apply across a multi-selection is built and tested (preview.edit.clipboard-copies-and-pastes-a-chain’s “pasting across a selection” case).
#1558 (“side-by-side / wipe compare forces images to square”) — verified FIXED at HEAD: ImageEditorView+Canvas.swift’s wipe mode computes ImageFit.fittedRect(imagePixelSize: in:) for its frame — a real aspect-ratio-preserving fit, not a hardcoded square — and both wipe layers carry .aspectRatio(contentMode: .fit).
#1590 (“edited image doesn’t update the image viewer / library thumbnail”) — the exact complaint this issue names (“rotate an image and the library row and preview strip kept showing the old one”) is fixed, but by a DIFFERENT, later mechanism than the issue’s own proposed notification: ImageEditorView’s onEditApplied and finishEditing() both call storageService.invalidateImageCache(for:) AND renditionService?.invalidate(documentId:) — the exact two caches ImageEditRenditionRefreshTests’s own doc comment names as the ones that have to drop together. Still an explicitly open question, not fixed and not reopened as broken — this issue’s own body flags it, not this pass: workflows (Catalogue/Transcribe/OCR) resolve input via storage.resolve_source(doc), which returns the ORIGINAL file with no knowledge of the edit chain, so a workflow run after an edit still processes the unedited original. Not independently re-checked this pass; the issue itself called this “flagged for decision,” not fixed.
#3213 (“Quartz evaluation — recommend hybrid, not a rewrite”) — its core recommendation is built: LiveEditPreview.swift maps the pending op to CIFilter.colorControls(), .sharpenLuminance(), and .straighten() for live, local preview while dragging, exactly the “client-side live preview with Core Image for the pending op only” the issue recommends — the server-authoritative chain remains the committed source of truth, unchanged. Not independently checked: the issue’s own proposed drift test (server render and CI preview agree within tolerance on a fixture set) and latency budget test.
#3756 (“wire reversible image editing into SwiftUI”) — crop, split, batch-apply, and undo are all wired and tested (Section A and C above); “uncrop”/”unsplit” specifically were not found as separately named operations — they read as the same generic delete-a-step/revert-to-original mechanism preview.edit.delete-step-and-revert-are- reachable-and-confirmed already covers, not a gap of their own.

H. Maintainer triage — no home found

#1174 (“Lightroom-style non-destructive Document Inspector for stage variants”) — a stage/variant NAVIGATOR inside the Document Inspector, not this spec’s editing-operations surface — no spec read this session owns the Document Inspector’s general tab/facet structure (kg-entity-inspector.md is scoped to the entity focus pane specifically).
#1176 (“Non-destructive parametric image pipeline + transient cache”) — a BACKEND workflow-tools pipeline for paleography preprocessing (prepare_images/rotate/split/ segment/enhance/convert_to_svg as workflow tools, with recipe caching/eviction), its own text says “backend-first… designed for SwiftUI inspector integration LATER” — a different pipeline from this spec’s interactive ImageEditChain, not this surface’s question to answer.

Milestone

Legacy milestone #168 does not reach zero this pass: of 16 open issues, 6 fit and move onto

315, 1 redirects to `segment-representations.md`, 7 are verify-close (evidence posted,

left OPEN for the maintainer, none closed here), and 2 go to maintainer triage — 9 remain on

168. Not closed.

Future (ideas, not scheduled)

(#1174) Lightroom-style stage/variant navigator (A>B>C) in the Document Inspector; no spec owns it, product vision not current work.