docs: Phase 3 research recommendations (ranked by value-to-effort)

10 recommendations from primary-source research + the discovery competitor
analysis. Headline: .NET 8 support ends 2026-11-10 -- the .NET 10 LTS migration
is deadline-driven. Also: Renovate on Gitea, DB backups (currently none),
semantic-search activation, OpenTelemetry, EF10 named query filters, bundle
splitting, keyset pagination, Semgrep SAST, settings/flags platform.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

RECOMMENDATIONS.md

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+# InboxIntel — Phase 3 Recommendations
+
+**Date:** 2026-07-02 · Follows the completed audit remediation ([AUDIT_REPORT.md](AUDIT_REPORT.md)).
+Each item: what · concrete benefit · effort (S/M/L) · risk · sources. **Ranked by value-to-effort.**
+
+> Research notes: grounded in official primary sources (fetched 2026-07-02) plus the
+> competitor/feature research already performed in `docs/discovery/02-competitor-analysis.md`.
+> (Live web *search* was quota-limited this session; the load-bearing facts below — support
+> dates, EF 10 features, Npgsql 10, Renovate/Gitea — were verified against primary docs.)
+
+---
+
+## 1. Migrate .NET 8 → .NET 10 LTS ⚠️ deadline-driven
+- **What:** move the solution to .NET 10 / EF Core 10 / Npgsql provider 10; bump
+  `Pgvector.EntityFrameworkCore` off the 0.2.0 EF8-pin at the same time.
+- **Why (hard fact):** **.NET 8 support ends 2026-11-10 — ~4 months away.** After that: no
+  security patches. .NET 10 is LTS until Nov 2028. This is not optional, only *when*.
+- **Bonus value:** EF 10 brings **named query filters** (exactly our multi-filter tenant
+  scenario — e.g. tenant + soft-delete filters, selectively ignorable), **redacted inlined
+  constants in SQL logs** (privacy win for an email app), first-class `LeftJoin`, and
+  better parameterized-collection SQL (plan-cache friendly).
+- **Watch-outs:** Npgsql 10 changes `array.Contains(x)` translation to `= ANY(...)` (check
+  our GIN-indexed paths); the migration touches every csproj + CI images + Dockerfiles.
+  The live-DB CI job we just added is the safety net for the search paths.
+- **Effort: M** (mechanical + verify) · **Risk: M** · Blast radius: whole repo, but staged
+  behind the pipeline.
+- Sources: [.NET support policy](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/dotnet-core),
+  [EF Core 10 what's-new](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/what-is-new/ef-core-10.0/whatsnew),
+  [Npgsql EF 10 release notes](https://www.npgsql.org/efcore/release-notes/10.0.html).
+
+## 2. Automated dependency updates via Renovate (self-hosted Gitea)
+- **What:** run Renovate against the Gitea instance (PAT with repo/user/issue scopes,
+  `platform=gitea`); it opens update PRs that ride the existing required CI gates
+  (build, tests, gitleaks, vuln scan, live-DB).
+- **Benefit:** closes the audit's supply-chain gap permanently — the MailKit/System.Text.Json
+  CVE round we did by hand becomes an automated PR you just merge. NuGet + npm + Dockerfile
+  + Actions all covered.
+- **Effort: S** (a config + a scheduled runner job) · **Risk: L** (PRs are gated by CI).
+- Source: [Renovate Gitea platform docs](https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/platform/gitea/).
+
+## 3. Database backups (currently none!)
+- **What:** nightly `pg_dump` sidecar/cron in compose, rotating N days, written to a
+  host path covered by your disk-encryption/backup regime (per SECURITY.md).
+- **Benefit:** today a bad migration or volume loss = total data loss; the audit fixed
+  security but the **availability** story is a single Docker volume. Highest
+  value-per-line-of-config item on this list.
+- **Effort: S** · **Risk: L**. Pair with a documented restore drill.
+
+## 4. Activate semantic search (Ollama + embedding backfill + hybrid ranking)
+- **What:** the pgvector column, HNSW index, `IEmbeddingProvider`, and live-DB tests are
+  already shipped. Remaining: an optional `ollama` compose profile, the embedding
+  backfill worker (batched, VRAM-aware), and RRF hybrid merge in `SearchService`
+  (design: `docs/discovery/05/06`).
+- **Benefit:** the flagship differentiator from the discovery blueprint — *"gym receipt
+  march"* finds the email; nobody mainstream offers this locally/privately.
+- **Effort: M–L** · **Risk: M** (quality tuning) · Needs the RTX-3080 box to pull
+  `nomic-embed-text` (~0.5 GB, always-on per the AI strategy).
+
+## 5. Observability: OpenTelemetry + a dashboard
+- **What:** wire .NET's built-in OTel (traces/metrics for ASP.NET, EF, HttpClient) exported
+  to a compose-profile Prometheus+Grafana (or an OTLP endpoint later). Keep Serilog for logs.
+- **Benefit:** today diagnosis = `docker logs`. This gives request latency, sync-job
+  timings, rate-limit hits, and search-performance baselines — the "what will break first
+  as usage grows" early-warning system.
+- **Effort: M** · **Risk: L** (additive).
+
+## 6. Named query filters for tenancy (after #1)
+- **What:** convert the hand-rolled `CurrentUserId == Guid.Empty || …` filters to EF 10
+  named filters (`"Tenant"`, future `"SoftDelete"`), selectively ignorable per-query.
+- **Benefit:** cleaner + safer than the worker-bypass convention; directly feeds the
+  multi-provider platform's isolation model.
+- **Effort: S** (post-migration) · **Risk: L** (isolation tests already exist).
+
+## 7. Frontend bundle code-splitting
+- **What:** vite `manualChunks`/dynamic imports to split the 678 KB bundle (charts,
+  grid-layout, per-route chunks); drop `react-grid-layout` when the Analytics redesign
+  lands (it's the sole consumer).
+- **Benefit:** faster cold loads; audit L-5 closed. Gzip is already on (batch B), so this
+  is the remaining lever.
+- **Effort: S–M** · **Risk: L**.
+
+## 8. Keyset (cursor) pagination for search
+- **What:** replace offset `Skip/Take` with keyset pagination for browse/date-ordered
+  paths; ranked paths already effectively top-N (design in `docs/discovery/05`).
+- **Benefit:** deep-page latency stops degrading linearly at 100k+ mailboxes.
+- **Effort: M** (API shape + frontend infinite-scroll cursor) · **Risk: M** (API change).
+
+## 9. SAST in CI (Semgrep)
+- **What:** a `semgrep` job (OSS rules for C#/JS + secrets/OWASP packs) in `ci.yml` —
+  CodeQL is GitHub-centric; Semgrep runs anywhere Docker does.
+- **Benefit:** closes audit L-6; catches injection/crypto misuse patterns the current
+  gates (gitleaks + dep-audit + tests) don't look for.
+- **Effort: S–M** (tuning noise) · **Risk: L** (advisory job first, required later).
+
+## 10. Settings + feature-flag platform (multi-provider Phase 4)
+- **What:** implement `docs/discovery/multi-provider/04` — `feature_flags`/`user_settings`
+  tables, `IFeatureFlags`/`IAiGate`, admin toggles later.
+- **Benefit:** unblocks shipping AI features dark (`ai.enabled` master switch), the
+  Settings UI, and everything in the multi-provider plan; prerequisite for #4 to be
+  properly gated per the approved design.
+- **Effort: L** · **Risk: M** — the biggest item, but the one the roadmap already commits to.
+
+---
+
+## Value-to-effort ranking (summary)
+| # | Item | Effort | Why this rank |
+|---|------|--------|---------------|
+| 1 | .NET 10 migration | M | **EOL deadline Nov 2026**; unlocks #6 |
+| 2 | Renovate | S | Permanent supply-chain automation for one config file |
+| 3 | Backups | S | Only protection against total data loss |
+| 4 | Semantic search activation | M–L | Flagship product differentiator; infra already live |
+| 5 | OpenTelemetry | M | Can't manage what you can't see |
+| 6 | Named query filters | S | Cheap once #1 lands |
+| 7 | Bundle splitting | S–M | Perceived speed; last audit-perf leftover |
+| 8 | Keyset pagination | M | Scales search; roadmap item |
+| 9 | Semgrep SAST | S–M | Last unautomated security layer |
+| 10 | Settings/flags platform | L | Roadmap-committed foundation |
+
+**Suggested sequencing:** 2+3 immediately (tiny, standalone) → 1 (deadline) → 6 → 4 (+10 gating if you want flags first) → 5 → 7/8/9 opportunistically.
+
+**STOP — awaiting your selections before implementing anything (Phase 4).**