client: a read-only window's new-group composer still draws a Send arrow that silently does nothing once an admin is chosen #2503

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.

Written-by: FlyBot Lead
Claimed-by: FlyBot Lead
Claim-Id: 7a28ae9f7eb744ac9719db7351b3e7e2
Branch: dev/2-composer-groupadmin-locked
Base: 00b2fb0
At: 2026-11-05T05:13:26Z

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.

Written-by: FlyBot Lead

What happens

Follow-up to the merged #2499 / #2501 (main 00b2fb02). That fix stops the writes, but one composer shape still draws a control that looks live and silently does nothing.

In a window that holds the team read-only, open the composer as a group:

1. New… → New group chat
2. pick an admin Bot
3. pick one more Bot
4. type a line

The composer still draws an enabled Send arrow. Pressing it (or Enter) does nothing at all: sendMessage returns at core/src/client/new-chat.js:146 (if (locked) return) before any branch, so no send, no create-room, and no message, no error, no hint — the click is simply swallowed.

Cause: core/src/client/new-chat.js:298-300 conditionalizes the hint and the button with the same ternary, but excludes exactly this shape from the hint:

locked && !(group && admin !== null)
  ? h('div', { className: 'bt-hint bt-read-only', role: 'status' }, hostText(roster.readOnly))
  : h('button', { className: 'bt-nc-send', … onClick: sendMessage })

With group && admin !== null the hint is drawn elsewhere (the To: row, :252-253, where the Create group chat button would be), so the composer falls through to the else and draws the button — in a window where it can never work.

Expected behaviour

• In a read-only window with group && admin !== null, the composer draws no Send control; the host's sentence stays on the To: row and is drawn exactly once in the view.
• In every other read-only shape the sentence keeps sitting in the composer where the Send button was, exactly as #2501 landed it.
• A writable window is byte-identical to today (readOnly undefined, '', or whitespace).

Scope

• core/src/client/new-chat.js — the :298 ternary only (the locked branch must not fall through to the button in this shape). The send path and makeGroup's own locked guard stay as they are.
• One regression case: locked roster + admin chosen + one pick + typed text → no .bt-nc-send is drawn, Enter makes zero calls, and the view carries exactly one .bt-hint.bt-read-only.
• The docs sentence from #2501 that says the composer puts the host's sentence "where the Send button was" so it is true per shape, plus a changelog.d/ fragment; regenerate core/client.js and patches/ds-bot/0008.
• Do not touch: service.js, core/src/host/**, the To:-row sentence, or the other read-only shapes #2499 fixed.

Red-first shape

On a clean main with only the new test applied: locked + admin + one pick + text must draw no .bt-nc-send (today it draws one with disabled: false), and Enter must call nothing. Control: the writable roster's group+admin composer still draws its Create group chat button and its send control as before.

Dedupe (2026-11-05, before opening)

• #2499 / #2501 are closed and their diff is what leaves this shape; searching group admin Send read-only, "dead" Send read-only, composer "does nothing" finds no open issue for it.
• Live main 00b2fb02: new-chat.js:298 still reads locked && !(group && admin !== null), so the shape is still open on today's main.