Roles and UX Architecture

ColabEdu features a unified yet role-sensitive user interface (UX). To prevent redundant access-control checks in the frontend (Flutter), the backend utilizes the A2UI (Adaptive Agent UI) pattern to dynamically decide which view elements, actions, and menus are visible to the user.

1. Application Tab Model

The workspace is organized via a persistent tab bar at the top of the screen. Tabs are categorized into two types:

Tab	Type	Behavior at Startup	Closing
`dashboard`	Fixed	Always open at startup	❌ Non-closeable
`command-center`	Dynamic	Opens when clicking the 📬 inbox icon in the topbar	✔ Closeable
`job-{id}`	Dynamic	Opens when selecting a job in the command center	✔ Closeable

Each dynamic workspace tab (job-{id}) runs its own independent AI Companion chat session, allowing users to execute and monitor multiple concurrent pipelines.

The topbar configuration is filtered server-side based on the authenticated user’s Firebase Auth JWT claims:

Icon	Action	STUDENT	TEACHER	SCHOOL_ADMIN	CONTENT_CREATOR	PLATFORM_ADMIN
🧭 Explore	Opens the taxonomy tree explorer	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
📬 Inbox	Opens the `command-center` tab	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
🌳 Spec Manager	Opens the YAML Spec Manager view	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
👤 Profile	Account settings and logout	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

The dashboard tab automatically loads the root navigation node corresponding to the user’s role and tenant mapping:

STUDENT: Lands directly inside their first active classroom enrollment node.
TEACHER: Lands in their primary assigned school organization (primaryOrganizationId).
SCHOOL_ADMIN: Accesses the root of their school organization.
CONTENT_CREATOR / PLATFORM_ADMIN: Accesses the global catalog root to manage all tenants, courses, and schools.

To bypass deep menu navigation, the dashboard view features a sidebar containing role-specific quick shortcuts injected dynamically by the backend:

{
  "label": "sidebar.my_classrooms",
  "icon": "class_outlined",
  "action": "goto_node",
  "nodeId": "uuid-of-classroom",
  "nodeType": "CLASSROOM",
  "badge": 3
}

Student Shortcuts: My Assignments (with due-date urgency badges), My Classrooms, and My Progress.
Teacher Shortcuts: My Classrooms, To Grade (with pending submission counters), and Quick Create Wizard actions.
Administrator Shortcuts: Teachers (with pending approval alerts) and Registered Students.

Roles and UX Architecture

Roles and UX Architecture

1. Application Tab Model

2. Topbar Icons by Role

3. Dashboard Navigation Entry Points

4. Sidebar Shortcuts