fix(view): keep archived changes off the dashboard

[TabishB]

Closes #2030

What this changes

openspec view is a one-screen dashboard for a person reading a terminal. #399 added every archived change to it. In projects with hundreds of archived changes, that list pushed the active work off the screen, which is the whole point of the command.

• openspec view no longer lists or counts archived changes. The view code is back to its pre-feat(cli): show archived changes in list and view #399 state. openspec list --archived and --all from feat(cli): show archived changes in list and view #399 are untouched.
• docs-lab/reference/cli.md: the view entry goes back to its pre-feat(cli): show archived changes in list and view #399 text.
• Patch changeset so users know the archive list is gone.
• Regression test (below) is the guardrail: it fails if anything that grows with archive history reaches the dashboard again.

How you verified it

Demo project: 1 draft, 2 active, 1 completed change, 4 specs, 189 archived changes.

	Lines of output
Before	230 (active work scrolls off; the last screen is all archive)
After	37

Before: first 40 of 230 lines

OpenSpec Dashboard

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Summary:
  ● Specifications: 4 specs, 8 requirements
  ● Draft Changes: 1
  ● Active Changes: 2 in progress
  ● Completed Changes: 1
  ● Archived Changes: 189
  ● Task Progress: 3/9 (33% complete)

Draft Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ○ explore-offline-mode

Active Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ◉ refresh-token-rotation         [████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 20%
    └─ [spec-driven] proposal→ specs design tasks✓
  ◉ add-rate-limiting              [██████████░░░░░░░░░░] 50%
    └─ [spec-driven] proposal→ specs design tasks✓

Completed Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ✓ fix-search-pagination

Archived Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ◦ 2026-01-03-fix-billing-webhook-1
  ◦ 2026-01-03-remove-email-digest-3
  ◦ 2026-01-03-update-search-index-2
  ◦ 2026-01-07-add-rate-limits-6
  ◦ 2026-01-07-improve-audit-log-4
  ◦ 2026-01-07-refactor-export-csv-5
  ◦ 2026-01-11-fix-session-store-7
  ◦ 2026-01-11-remove-billing-webhook-9
  ◦ 2026-01-11-update-login-flow-8
  ◦ 2026-01-15-add-audit-log-12
  ◦ 2026-01-15-improve-search-index-10
  ... 150 more archived changes, then Specifications ...

After: full output

OpenSpec Dashboard

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Summary:
  ● Specifications: 4 specs, 8 requirements
  ● Draft Changes: 1
  ● Active Changes: 2 in progress
  ● Completed Changes: 1
  ● Task Progress: 3/9 (33% complete)

Draft Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ○ explore-offline-mode

Active Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ◉ refresh-token-rotation         [████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 20%
    └─ [spec-driven] proposal→ specs design tasks✓
  ◉ add-rate-limiting              [██████████░░░░░░░░░░] 50%
    └─ [spec-driven] proposal→ specs design tasks✓

Completed Changes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ✓ fix-search-pagination

Specifications
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ▪ auth                           2 requirements
  ▪ billing                        2 requirements
  ▪ notifications                  2 requirements
  ▪ search                         2 requirements

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Use openspec list --changes or openspec list --specs for detailed views

• New regression test renders the same dashboard however many changes are archived (#2030) in test/core/view.test.ts: renders the dashboard, adds 200 archived changes, and asserts the output is identical. It fails on main (222 lines vs 20) and passes here.
• Store-resolution e2e tests now assert the archived change is absent from view.
• pnpm build, tsc --noEmit, pnpm lint pass. pnpm test: 6401 passed, 2 failed. Both failures (artifact-workflow Cursor skills, config-profile project apply) reproduce on a clean main checkout and don't touch view.
• openspec validate --specs --strict: cli-view passes.
• Local Codex review (high effort): one P3 on docs wording, resolved by restoring the pre-feat(cli): show archived changes in list and view #399 reference text.

Notes

• The broader question of how to stop agents from making this kind of change is tracked in Agents implement and approve changes without checking what the changed thing is for #2032. This PR only fixes view.
• Removing the Archived Changes: N summary count is deliberate. The issue asked for a view of open work, and the spec now keeps history out entirely so there's no partial exception to argue about later.
• Written by Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5), reviewed locally with Codex CLI.

---

• Ran pnpm changeset if this affects users, and committed the file
• If a coding agent wrote this, named the agent and model in the Notes section, and verified the result myself

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7ea14f0 and 17e1e9c.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/core/view.ts

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (1)

• src/core/view.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

openspec view no longer discovers, counts, or displays archived changes. Its data includes only draft, active, and completed changes. Tests, CLI documentation, and the changeset reflect this behavior.

Changes

Current-work dashboard

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Dashboard data and output src/core/view.ts	getChangesData returns only draft, active, and completed changes. The dashboard and summary no longer include archived entries or counts.
View tests and CLI documentation test/core/view.test.ts, test/cli-e2e/view-store-resolution.test.ts, docs-lab/reference/cli.md, .changeset/view-current-work-only.md	Tests check that archived changes do not affect dashboard output, including when a store is selected through a directory alias. The CLI reference and changeset describe the updated behavior.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 17e1e

The view remains focused on current work, while archived changes remain available through list. No actionable merge-blocking risk was established.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 7ea14

The change affects 5 systems.

Changed systems: test, CONTRIBUTING.md, docs-lab, openspec, src

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — test (service) was modified; 2 changed files map to changed impact.
• observed — CONTRIBUTING.md (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.
• observed — docs-lab (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.
• observed — openspec (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in test/cli-e2e/view-store-resolution.test.ts: In the store-pointer and explicit-store cases, the test now expects view output to exclude the archive summary and archived change name instead of expecting one archived change.
• observed — Modified behavior in test/cli-e2e/view-store-resolution.test.ts: In the directory-alias case, the test now expects view to omit the archived change name; the prior archived-summary and archive-name expectations were removed.
• observed — Modified behavior in test/core/view.test.ts: Replaces tests of archive counts, ordering, hidden entries, missing or invalid archive paths, and unreadable-directory errors with a test that compares dashboard output before and after creating 200 archived changes.
• observed — Modified behavior in CONTRIBUTING.md: Adds guidance for keeping human-facing views readable over time: consider how output grows as a project ages, include current work by default, put historical data behind opt-in flags, and state in the command spec Purpose when a command serves people.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Issue [#2030] requests a human-readable view of open and in-progress work that remains usable when many archived changes exist. openspec view now excludes archived changes from its data, counts, and…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The source change, regression tests, store-resolution tests, CLI reference, and patch changeset all support the current-work-only behavior requested by [#2030]. The removal of archive-specific view te…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 3…
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: archived changes no longer appear on the view dashboard.

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[openspec-cloud]

No PR-relevant drift confirmed.

AI-generated · A citation proves the line exists, not that it makes the case — verify before acting.
No issue was confirmed at 4f08aa6; 2 requirements could not be verified.
This is not a full-repository clean result; see the check for coverage and any broader findings.
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[alfred-openspec]

Reviewed the current-work behavior, archive-scaling regression, store-resolution coverage, changeset, and canonical CLI reference. This restores a bounded, useful dashboard while keeping archive history available through the explicit list command.