LT_Janitorial_Quality_Control/CLAUDE.md

Claude.md — JQC Developer Reference

Audience: AI assistants and developers working on this codebase.
Purpose: Authoritative reference for architecture, conventions, gotchas, and decisions.
Last reviewed: April 2026 (Phase 12 complete + post-review hardening + UX improvements)

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Table of Contents

1. Project Overview
2. Tech Stack
3. Repository Layout
4. Environment & Configuration
5. Database Models
6. Role & Permission Matrix
7. Blueprint Prefixes & Route Inventory
8. Utility Modules
9. Mobile API (Phase 7)
10. Notification System
11. SLA Engine
12. Audit Trail
13. PDF Export
14. Scheduled Reports
15. Rate Limiting
16. Alembic Migration Chain
17. Frontend Conventions
18. Infrastructure
19. Known Constraints & Hard Rules
20. Change Philosophy

---

1. Project Overview

JQC (Janitorial Quality Control) is a production-grade, full-stack web application that manages:

• Janitorial service contracts organised as Contracts (Projects) → Facilities → Areas
• Inspection execution against configurable templates with dynamic form builder
• Issue tracking with SLA enforcement, follower subscriptions, and verification workflow
• Customer portal with scoped facility visibility and invitation-based onboarding
• Notification system (in-app + email) driven by an admin-controlled matrix
• Reports — on-demand PDF/CSV scorecards and scheduled email digests
• Audit trail — immutable log of every create/update/delete action
• Mobile API — JWT-authenticated REST layer (Phase 7) for a React Native / Expo mobile app

The application is actively deployed in production and maintained by a single developer/administrator.

---

2. Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Python 3.11+
Web framework	Flask (application factory pattern)
ORM	Flask-SQLAlchemy (SQLAlchemy 2.x)
Database	MySQL (via PyMySQL driver)
Auth (web)	Flask-Login + Flask-WTF CSRF
Auth (API)	JWT access tokens + opaque refresh tokens (PyJWT)
Rate limiting	Flask-Limiter (Redis-backed in production via REDIS_URL; falls back to in-process memory for dev)
Migrations	Flask-Migrate / Alembic
Email	Flask-Mail (SMTP, background threading)
PDF generation	ReportLab
Forms	WTForms + Flask-WTF
Templating	Jinja2
Frontend	Bootstrap 5, Chart.js, vanilla JS
Server	Gunicorn (sync workers) behind Nginx
OS	Ubuntu Linux
Mobile client	React Native + Expo (Expo Go for dev; cloud Mac for iOS builds)
Timezone	All datetimes stored as US/Eastern (naive, via now_eastern())

---

3. Repository Layout

lt_janitorial_quality_control/
├── app/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Application factory — limiter, csrf, db, mail, login_manager
│   ├── add_form_schema.py       # One-off migration helper (safe re-run)
│   ├── api/                     # Mobile REST API (Phase 7)
│   │   ├── __init__.py          # api_bp parent blueprint + register_api()
│   │   ├── auth.py              # /api/v1/auth/* and /api/v1/devices/*; rate-limited login/refresh
│   │   ├── decorators.py        # @jwt_required
│   │   ├── errors.py            # JSON error helpers + error handler registration
│   │   └── jwt_utils.py         # generate_access_token()
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── api_token.py         # RefreshToken, DeviceToken
│   │   ├── audit.py             # AuditLog
│   │   ├── facility.py          # Facility, Area
│   │   ├── inspection.py        # InspectionTemplate, ChecklistItem, Inspection, InspectionResult
│   │   ├── issue.py             # Issue, IssueComment, IssueFollower
│   │   ├── notification.py      # Notification, NotificationPreference + event constants
│   │   ├── notification_matrix.py
│   │   ├── project.py           # Project, CustomerAssignment
│   │   ├── scheduled_report.py  # ScheduledReport
│   │   └── user.py              # User (password-setup workflow, display_name)
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.py              # /auth/* — login rate-limited; _safe_next() open-redirect guard
│   │   ├── customers.py         # /customers/* — _safe_referrer() helper; expired invitation banner
│   │   ├── dashboard.py         # / — single open_issues query (len() not .count())
│   │   ├── facilities.py        # /facilities/*
│   │   ├── inspections.py       # /inspections/* — passes now=now_eastern() for stale badge
│   │   ├── issues.py            # /issues/* — quick-assign AJAX; facility filter; SLA column
│   │   ├── notifications.py     # /notifications/* — send-digest, check-sla, cleanup-tokens
│   │   ├── projects.py          # /projects/*
│   │   ├── reports.py           # /reports/*
│   │   ├── scheduled_reports.py # /scheduled-reports/*
│   │   ├── templates.py         # /templates/*
│   │   └── audit.py             # /audit/*
│   ├── static/
│   │   ├── css/ipad_responsive.css
│   │   └── uploads/
│   ├── templates/
│   │   ├── base.html            # Active nav tab styling; request.endpoint-based active detection
│   │   ├── _sla_badge.html
│   │   └── ...
│   └── utils/
│       ├── audit.py             # log_action() + ACTION_* constants
│       ├── decorators.py        # @admin_required, @supervisor_required, @project_manager_required, @customer_required
│       ├── forms.py             # All WTForms (AreaForm includes 'floor' type)
│       ├── notifications.py     # notify(), notify_by_matrix(), send_pending_digests()
│       ├── pdf_export.py        # ReportLab PDF generation
│       ├── scope.py             # get_customer_scope()
│       ├── sla.py               # sla_status(), sla_deadline(), sla_hours_remaining(), send_sla_alerts()
│       └── time_utils.py        # now_eastern()
├── migrations/
│   └── versions/
│       ├── phase1_projects_roles.py
│       ├── phase6_features.py
│       ├── phase7_mobile_api.py
│       ├── phase8_notification_matrix.py
│       ├── phase9_user_full_name.py
│       ├── phase10_customer_password_setup.py
│       ├── phase11_director_role.py
│       └── phase12_performance_indexes.py   ← HEAD
├── config.py
├── gunicorn_config.py
├── requirements.txt             # Includes Flask-Limiter
├── run.py
└── wsgi.py

---

4. Environment & Configuration

Required Environment Variables

Variable	Notes
SECRET_KEY	Flask secret — no fallback; startup fails if absent
DATABASE_URL	e.g. mysql+pymysql://user:pass@localhost/jqc
MAIL_SERVER	SMTP hostname
MAIL_USERNAME	SMTP login
MAIL_PASSWORD	SMTP password
MAIL_PORT	465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS) — auto-selects flags
APP_BASE_URL	Full URL for email links
MAIL_DEFAULT_SENDER	From address
DIGEST_SECRET	Authenticates all cron endpoints: send-digest, check-sla, cleanup-tokens, scheduled-reports/run
REDIS_URL	Optional. e.g. redis://127.0.0.1:6379/0. When set, Flask-Limiter uses Redis for shared rate-limit counters across Gunicorn workers. Falls back to in-process memory if absent.

Email SSL Auto-Detection

MAIL_USE_SSL  = _mail_port == 465
MAIL_USE_TLS  = not MAIL_USE_SSL

Critical: Never set both to True — Flask-Mail breaks silently.

File Uploads

• UPLOAD_FOLDER = app/static/uploads/
• MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH = 50 MB
• Allowed: png, jpg, jpeg, gif

---

5. Database Models

User

users: id, username (unique, indexed), full_name, email (unique, indexed),
       password_hash, role (ENUM), created_at, active,
       password_set, set_password_token (indexed), set_password_token_expires

Role ENUM: admin, director, inspector, project_manager, customer

Key property: display_name → full_name.strip() or falls back to username. Use this everywhere in templates — never use .username for display.

Expired invitations: Customer accounts with password_set=False and set_password_token_expires < now_eastern() are flagged on the /customers index with an inline Resend button.

Customer self-service setup: When a customer clicks their invitation link, set_password.html prompts them to choose their own username (replacing the auto-generated placeholder) and set a password. The set_password route saves form.username.data to user.username before committing. The SetPasswordForm validates username uniqueness inline via validate_username().

Token verification: User.verify_set_password_token() guards in order: token present → DB lookup → password_set=False check → expiry check → hmac.compare_digest() constant-time comparison. The password_set=False guard ensures accounts already activated cannot be re-used via a stale token. compare_digest is wrapped in try/except to safely handle type mismatches.

Facility / Area

facilities: id, name, address, contact_person, contact_phone, active, project_id (FK)
areas:      id, facility_id (FK), name, area_type

area_type choices: restroom, lobby, hallway, office, kitchen, storage, floor, outdoor, other

Project / CustomerAssignment

projects: id, name, description, project_manager_id, active, created_at
customer_assignments: id, user_id, project_id, facility_id (nullable)
    UniqueConstraint(user_id, project_id, facility_id)

UI terminology: "Project" is displayed as "Contract" throughout the UI. All backend identifiers (project_id, class Project, routes projects.*) are unchanged.

facility_id = NULL → access to all active facilities in that project.

Inspection

inspections: id, template_id, facility_id, area_id, inspector_id, inspection_date,
             overall_score, status (in_progress/completed/flagged), notes, form_data (JSON),
             completed_at, parent_inspection_id (self-FK), follow_up_required, follow_up_note

Indexed columns (Phase 12): status, facility_id, inspector_id, inspection_date

Score rule: Items with score = 0 mean "unanswered" — excluded from calculation entirely.

Status display: completed renders as "Submitted" in the UI. DB value unchanged.

Stale badge: In-progress inspections older than 24 hours show a ⚠ Stale badge. Route passes now=now_eastern() to the list template.

Issue

issues: id, inspection_id (nullable), area_id, severity (low/medium/high/critical),
        description, photo_path, status (open/in_progress/resolved/pending_verification),
        assigned_to, reported_at, resolved_at, result_notes, result_photos (JSON),
        verified_by, verified_at, verification_note, sla_notified

Indexed columns (Phase 12): status, severity, assigned_to, reported_at

Issue status flow: open → in_progress → pending_verification → resolved

Quick-assign: POST /issues/<id>/quick-assign — AJAX endpoint for admin/director. Returns JSON. Sends assignment notification. Logs to audit trail.

Assignable staff roles: admin, director, inspector — all three appear in the assignment dropdown on the issue view, create, and list quick-assign forms. admin was previously absent from the view/create dropdowns; corrected.

Notification / NotificationPreference

notifications: id, user_id, title, body, link, is_read, created_at, issue_id, event_type
notification_preferences: id, user_id, event_type, email_enabled, digest_mode, digest_frequency

Pause all emails: Preferences page has a "Pause All Emails" toggle that bulk-disables all email toggles client-side.

NotificationMatrix

notification_matrix: id, event_type, role_key, enabled, custom_emails (JSON)
    UniqueConstraint(event_type, role_key)

AuditLog

audit_logs: id, user_id (nullable, SET NULL on delete), username (snapshot), user_role (snapshot),
            action, entity_type, entity_id, entity_label, details, created_at (indexed), ip_address

RefreshToken / DeviceToken

api_refresh_tokens: id, user_id, token_hash (SHA-256, unique), device_id, device_name,
                    created_at, expires_at, revoked
api_device_tokens:  id, user_id, device_id, apns_token, device_name, app_version, registered_at
    UniqueConstraint(user_id, device_id)

Token cleanup:

1. Passive — on every successful API login, expired/revoked tokens for that user are deleted
2. Cron — POST /notifications/cleanup-tokens?token=<DIGEST_SECRET> deletes all globally

---

6. Role & Permission Matrix

Area	admin	director	project_manager	inspector	customer
Dashboard	✅ full	✅ full	✅ full	✅ limited	✅ scoped
Users	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Notification Matrix	✅ only	❌	❌	❌	❌
Customers	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Facilities	✅	✅	✅	read	scoped
Contracts	✅	✅	✅	read	scoped
Templates	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Inspections (execute)	✅	✅	✅	✅	read
Issues (create/assign)	✅	✅	✅	✅	read
Issues (quick-assign)	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Issue verification	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Reports	✅	✅	✅	✅	scoped
Scheduled Reports	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
Audit Trail	✅ only	❌	❌	❌	❌
Mobile API	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌

Decorator Map

@admin_required            # role == 'admin' only
@supervisor_required       # role in ('admin', 'director') — name kept to avoid touching 30+ routes
@project_manager_required  # role in ('admin', 'director', 'project_manager')
@customer_required         # role == 'customer' only

---

7. Blueprint Prefixes & Route Inventory

Blueprint	Prefix	Notable routes
auth	/auth	/login (rate-limited 20/min), /logout, /profile, /users/*, /notification-matrix
dashboard	/	GET /, /facility-trend (AJAX)
facilities	/facilities	CRUD + area management; list grouped by Contract with collapsible sections; detail page has Back button
projects	/projects	CRUD + customer assignment management
customers	/customers	list (expired invitation banner), invite (name + email only), set-password (customer chooses username + password), manage, import CSV
inspections	/inspections	list (stale badge, now passed from route), start (template + facility only — area and notes removed), execute, view, PDF export, flag-issue, save-draft (AJAX), flag-followup, reinspect
templates	/templates	list, create, edit, delete, form editor, preview
issues	/issues	list (SLA column, facility filter, quick-assign dropdown), view, create, update, verify, comment, follow/unfollow, verification queue, delete
issues	/issues	POST /<id>/quick-assign — JSON AJAX, admin/director only
notifications	/notifications	list, mark-read, mark-all-read, preferences (pause-all toggle), send-digest (cron), check-sla (cron), cleanup-tokens (cron)
audit	/audit	list (admin only), view, purge
reports	/reports	index, facility report, scorecard, CSV/PDF export
scheduled_reports	/scheduled-reports	CRUD + manual trigger
api	/api/v1	parent blueprint
api_auth	/api/v1	/auth/login (10/min), /auth/refresh (30/min), /auth/logout, /auth/me, /devices/register

---

8. Utility Modules

time_utils.py

now_eastern() — always use this, never datetime.utcnow().

audit.py

log_action(action, entity_type, entity_id, entity_label, details) — call after db.session.commit().

scope.py

get_customer_scope(user) — returns list[int] facility IDs for customers, None for staff. Uses a single bulk Facility.project_id.in_(...) query for project-scoped assignments — never N+1.

forms.py

All WTForms classes. AreaForm.area_type includes floor. UserForm excludes customer role.

notifications.py

notify(), notify_by_matrix(), notify_customers_for_facility() — all email sent in background thread.

sla.py

sla_status(issue) → 'ok' | 'at_risk' | 'breached' | None (resolved). send_sla_alerts() — called by cron, deduplicates via issue.sla_notified.

pdf_export.py

ReportLab-based. 12-column grid must be preserved — never collapse in PDF views.

---

9. Mobile API (Phase 7)

Auth Flow

1. POST /api/v1/auth/login → access token (60 min JWT) + refresh token (30 day opaque hex)
2. Bearer token on every request
3. POST /api/v1/auth/refresh → token rotation (old revoked, new issued)
4. POST /api/v1/auth/logout → revokes refresh token

Rate Limits

Endpoint	Limit
POST /api/v1/auth/login	10/min, 3/sec
POST /api/v1/auth/refresh	30/min, 5/sec
POST /auth/login (web)	20/min, 5/sec

Refresh Token Cleanup

• Raw token never stored — SHA-256 hash only
• Passive: expired/revoked tokens purged per-user on each login
• Cron: POST /notifications/cleanup-tokens

CSRF Exemption Pattern

csrf.exempt(api_bp)   # BEFORE register_api(app) — order matters
register_api(app)

Phase 2 (planned)

api_facilities, api_inspections, api_issues, api_notifications, api_photos — all stubbed in app/api/__init__.py.

---

10. Notification System

Event Constants (app/models/notification.py)

inspection_completed, issue_assigned, issue_reassigned, issue_unassigned,
issue_status, issue_comment, issue_follow_update, issue_flagged, issue_created,
issue_updated_customer, verification_requested, sla_alert,
customer_inspection_completed

Cron Endpoints (all require token=DIGEST_SECRET)

Endpoint	Purpose	Schedule
POST /notifications/send-digest	Digest email delivery	0 7 * * *
POST /notifications/check-sla	SLA breach/at-risk alerts	*/30 * * * *
POST /notifications/cleanup-tokens	Purge expired API tokens	0 3 * * *

Implicit Notifications (always sent, not matrix-controlled)

• Issue assignee on assignment/status/comment
• Issue followers on any update
• SLA assignee + followers on SLA events

---

11. SLA Engine

Severity	Window	At-Risk
critical	4h	3h
high	24h	18h
medium	72h	54h
low	168h	126h

SLA column shown on issues list. issue.sla_notified prevents duplicate cron notifications.

SLA filter on issues list: When ?sla= is active, the full matching result set is loaded and filtered in Python, then wrapped in _SLAFilteredPage (defined at the top of routes/issues.py). This satisfies the template's pagination interface (.items, .page, .pages, .iter_pages()) without any template changes. Pagination nav is automatically suppressed via the existing {% if issues.pages > 1 %} guard.

---

12. Audit Trail

• Admin-only at /audit/ — director is excluded
• Actions: CREATE, UPDATE, DELETE, LOGIN, LOGOUT, EXPORT
• Immutable — never updated or deleted through the application (purge UI exists for old records)
• IP from X-Forwarded-For or request.remote_addr

ACTION_EXPORT coverage: Both /reports/export/inspections and /reports/export/issues call log_action(ACTION_EXPORT, ...) before streaming the CSV response.

Logging coverage: All route modules now import logging and define a module-level logger = logging.getLogger(__name__). Previously missing from facilities.py, templates.py, reports.py, and dashboard.py.

---

13. PDF Export

ReportLab — app/utils/pdf_export.py. 12-column grid must be preserved — do not collapse in print/PDF.

---

14. Scheduled Reports

Types: summary, facility, issues. Frequencies: daily, weekly, monthly. Cron: POST /scheduled-reports/run?secret=<DIGEST_SECRET>

---

15. Rate Limiting

Initialised in app/__init__.py as a module-level extension:

limiter = Limiter(
    key_func       = get_remote_address,
    default_limits = [],
    storage_uri    = os.environ.get('REDIS_URL', 'memory://'),
)
limiter.init_app(app)

Import in routes: from app import limiter, then @limiter.limit('N per period').

Production: Set REDIS_URL=redis://127.0.0.1:6379/0 in the server environment. Counters are then shared across all Gunicorn workers and rate limits are correctly enforced.

Development: REDIS_URL absent → falls back to memory:// (in-process, single-worker). No Redis install required locally.

redis package is in requirements.txt. Install it with pip install -r requirements.txt before setting REDIS_URL.

---

16. Alembic Migration Chain

phase1_projects_roles → phase6_features → phase7_mobile_api → phase8_notification_matrix
    → phase9_user_full_name → phase10_customer_password_setup → phase11_director_role
        → phase12_performance_indexes   ← HEAD

MySQL ENUM Change Protocol (3 steps — always follow)

-- 1. Expand to include both values
ALTER TABLE users MODIFY COLUMN role ENUM('admin','supervisor','director',...) NOT NULL;
-- 2. Migrate data
UPDATE users SET role = 'director' WHERE role = 'supervisor';
-- 3. Contract to remove old value
ALTER TABLE users MODIFY COLUMN role ENUM('admin','director',...) NOT NULL;

MySQL Compatibility

CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS requires MySQL ≥ 8.0.1. For 5.7 compatibility use information_schema.statistics existence checks — see phase12_performance_indexes.py for the reusable _index_exists() pattern.

Deprecated SQLAlchemy Patterns

# WRONG
Model.query.get(id)
Model.query.get_or_404(id)

# CORRECT
obj = db.session.get(Model, id)
if obj is None: abort(404)

All Model.query.get() calls have been replaced — including load_user() in models/user.py and three calls in utils/notifications.py.

---

17. Frontend Conventions

Active Nav Tab

/* base.html <style> block */
.navbar-dark .navbar-nav .nav-link.active {
    background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.18);
    color: #fff !important;
    border-radius: 6px;
    font-weight: 600;
    box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
}

Active state detected via request.endpoint.startswith('<blueprint>.') in each nav <a> tag.

Display Names

Always use user.display_name in templates — never .username for display purposes.

Status Label Map

DB value	Displayed as
completed	Submitted
in_progress	In Progress
flagged	Flagged
open	Open
resolved	Resolved
pending_verification	Pending Verification

Forms

• Flask-WTF CSRF auto-applied to all web forms
• Manual forms: <input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">
• Never nest <form> tags — browsers silently discard inner forms

Real-Time

SSE banned. All "live" updates use polling.

---

18. Infrastructure

Gunicorn

bind = "127.0.0.1:8000"
workers = multiprocessing.cpu_count() * 2 + 1
worker_class = "sync"
timeout = 30

Logs: /home/jqc/logs/gunicorn-error.log, /home/jqc/logs/gunicorn-access.log

Application Logging

• RotatingFileHandler → logs/jqc.log (5 × 5 MB)
• StreamHandler → stdout (journalctl)
• Format: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] LEVEL in module: message

Nginx

• client_max_body_size 50M
• Passes X-Forwarded-For

Recommended Cron Schedule

0 7    * * * curl -s -X POST https://your-domain.com/notifications/send-digest \
                   -d "token=SECRET&frequency=daily"
*/30 * * * * curl -s -X POST https://your-domain.com/notifications/check-sla \
                   -d "token=SECRET"
0 3    * * * curl -s -X POST https://your-domain.com/notifications/cleanup-tokens \
                   -d "token=SECRET"
0 8    * * * curl -s -X POST https://your-domain.com/scheduled-reports/run \
                   -d "secret=SECRET"

---

19. Known Constraints & Hard Rules

#	Rule	Rationale
1	No SSE	Exhausted Gunicorn sync worker pool
2	now_eastern() always	utcnow() caused incorrect SLA cutoffs
3	3-step MySQL ENUM changes	Skipping causes data loss
4	Port 465 → SSL; 587 → STARTTLS	Both True breaks Flask-Mail
5	CSRFProtect as extension instance	Flask-WTF 1.0+ removed per-route @csrf_exempt
6	supervisor_required name preserved	Renaming would touch 30+ route decorators
7	Score 0 = unanswered	Excluded from calculation — not the same as scoring zero
8	12-column grid in PDF	Must not collapse in print/PDF
9	No nested <form> tags	Browsers silently discard inner forms
10	log_action() after db.session.commit()	Entity ID must exist before audit capture
11	db.session.get(Model, id) not Model.query.get(id)	SQLAlchemy 2.x deprecation
12	filter() before limit()	SQLAlchemy ordering requirement
13	Bulk queries in customer list	Per-customer loops cause N+1
14	Email in background thread	Never block HTTP response
15	Open-redirect guards	_safe_next() in auth.py; _safe_referrer() in customers.py
16	CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS not on MySQL < 8.0.1	Use information_schema — see phase12
17	Set REDIS_URL in production	memory:// is per-process; multi-worker Gunicorn needs Redis for accurate shared counters
18	"Project" → "Contract" is UI-only	Backend identifiers unchanged
19	display_name not username in templates	Respects full_name; username is login identity only
20	open_issues count derived from len() not .count()	Avoids a second DB round-trip on the dashboard
21	supervisor removed from Python-side ENUM	Phase 11 migration complete — both DB and model ENUM must stay in sync
22	SLA filter loads full result set (no paginate)	SLA status is computed in Python; _SLAFilteredPage wrapper satisfies the template pagination interface
23	hmac.compare_digest() for token comparison	Prevents timing oracle attacks on verify_set_password_token
24	get_customer_scope() uses bulk project query	Single Facility.project_id.in_(project_ids) replaces per-assignment loop
25	CSV exports always call log_action(ACTION_EXPORT, ...)	Data exports are compliance-relevant audit events
26	StartInspectionForm has no area_id or notes fields	Both removed from the start page; Inspection constructor receives area_id=None, notes=None explicitly
27	Customer set-password page collects username + password	SetPasswordForm includes username field; route saves it to user.username, replacing the auto-generated placeholder
28	verify_set_password_token requires password_set=False	Prevents reuse of a stale token on an already-activated account
29	Facilities list grouped by Contract in route, not template	list_facilities() builds a grouped OrderedDict before rendering; template iterates grouped, not the flat facilities list

---

20. Change Philosophy

1. Surgical, additive patches — smallest possible change to achieve the goal
2. Preserve all routes, function names, variable names unless explicitly directed otherwise
3. Never remove existing functionality unless explicitly directed
4. Log all create/update/delete actions via log_action()
5. Migration existence checks — all migrations safe to re-run
6. Full file contents for 1–3 file changes; deployment map for larger changesets
7. Explicit deploy instructions — migration steps separated from code steps
8. Root cause analysis on errors — never apply temporary workarounds