[GrantFox][High] Preserve safe form drafts across session expiry

[greatest0fallt1me]

Summary

Preserve safe form drafts across session expiry

Why this matters

Session expiry can discard partially completed work or replay a mutation unexpectedly.

Scope

Add centralized expiry handling, safe draft persistence, re-authentication, and explicit replay confirmation.

Acceptance criteria

• Drafts survive expiry without unsafe fields in storage.
• Mutations are not silently replayed.
• Re-auth restores the correct route and draft.
• Tests cover expiry before, during, and after submit.

Validation

Add regression coverage for existing behavior, failure modes, authorization boundaries, and compatibility. The implementation must pass the repository CI checks.

Non-goals

• Typo-only, formatting-only, or documentation-only changes.
• Unrelated refactors or dependency upgrades.
• Weakening existing security, authorization, CI, or production safeguards.

Contributor application

Before implementation, comment with relevant experience, a 1–4 bullet approach, and an estimate for opening the first draft PR. Wait for maintainer assignment before coding.

PR requirements

Use a feature branch, include Closes #<issue-number>, check every acceptance criterion, link criteria to code/tests, explain security and failure-mode considerations, and pass CI.

Reward-readiness

This is a substantive GrantFox campaign issue. Merge and CI success do not by themselves guarantee reward eligibility; final reward-readiness is determined by campaign review.

[Phantomcall]

I’d like to take this on. I have experience working with frontend authentication flows, stateful forms, session handling, and security-sensitive transaction workflows, so I’m comfortable treating draft persistence and mutation replay as separate concerns.

My approach:

• First trace the existing authentication/session-expiry handling, route restoration, form state management, and mutation/submission lifecycle. I’ll identify which fields are safe to persist and which must never enter browser storage, including credentials, secrets, authorization material, signed transactions, and other sensitive mutation state.
• Introduce centralized session-expiry handling so forms can transition into an explicit “session expired” state instead of being discarded or continuing with stale authorization context. Safe, non-sensitive draft fields will be persisted through a controlled mechanism with an expiry/version marker so stale drafts cannot be confused with current state.
• Preserve the user’s intended route and safe draft across re-authentication. After successful re-auth, the application will restore the appropriate route and draft only after validating that the draft belongs to the same operation/context and is still compatible with the current application state.
• Make mutation replay explicitly user-controlled. A mutation that was submitted, partially submitted, or may have reached the backend before session expiry will never be automatically retried from restored draft state. The user will receive a clear confirmation before any restored mutation is rebuilt or submitted.
• Handle submit-state transitions carefully so expiry immediately before submission, during an in-flight request, and after a successful/failed submission produce deterministic outcomes. Where the result is ambiguous, the UI will favor inspection/status reconciliation over blindly replaying the operation.

I’ll add regression tests covering expiry:

• before the user submits;
• while a mutation is in flight;
• after a successful submission;
• after a failed submission; and
• during/after re-authentication and route restoration.

The tests will verify that safe fields survive while unsafe fields are excluded from persistence, restored drafts return to the correct route, expired/stale drafts are rejected, and no mutation can be silently replayed. I’ll also cover authorization boundaries so a restored draft cannot be used under a different authenticated account or security context.

I’ll keep this focused on session-expiry resilience and safe draft restoration, with no unrelated authentication refactors, dependency upgrades, or changes that weaken existing security controls.

Validation will include the new expiry/re-authentication regression suite, existing authentication and form tests, and the repository’s required lint/type/build/CI checks.

Estimate: I can open the first draft PR within 2–3 days of maintainer assignment.