2026-08-13 -- Console error chip: content-based, persistent ignore

Problem (user report, 2026-08-13)

“Once a console error appears, the fix button stays on the panel forever. Some errors (SDK/extension bugs) do not need fixing; I want to NOT deal with the ones that do not need dealing with.”

Measured root cause (code inspection, ContextBarView.cs)

The chip’s dismiss remembers only the error COUNT at dismiss time (_errorDismissedAtCount). Every count change “un-dismisses” it:

1. Any new distinct error re-shows the chip (intended), but so does a count DECREASE — OnCompilationStarted removes compiler entries, so every compile resurrects the chip showing stale runtime errors.
2. ConsoleErrorProvider accumulates for the whole domain lifetime; clearing the Console window does not clear it, and nothing expires.
3. After a domain reload the provider restarts empty, but SDKs/extensions that re-log the same error on load re-add it as a brand-new entry.
4. FormatDigest (the fix button’s payload) includes ALL entries — noise the user explicitly does not want fixed still gets sent.

There is no notion of “this error does not need fixing” anywhere; count tracking is a proxy that cannot express it.

Decision (user-selected via AskUserQuestion, 2026-08-13)

• Persistence: PROJECT-PERSISTENT ignore, message-keyed, with a management list (un-ignore) in Settings. Editor restarts keep it.
• Granularity: chip-level batch ignore (the X ignores everything currently visible) plus free-text substring patterns in Settings for SDK-specific noise. No per-error popover (rejected: new UI surface for marginal gain; patterns cover the “this SDK always spams X” case better because they survive message variation).

Design

Two independent mechanisms replace _errorDismissedAtCount:

1. Persistent ignore (the X button): X adds every currently VISIBLE entry’s exact Message to PanelSettings.ignoredConsoleErrors (bounded FIFO, IgnoredConsoleErrorsMax = 200, oldest evicted). Settings gains a management list with one aligned remove button per row (standing rule: docs/design-notes/2026-08-03-list-row-control- alignment.md) and a clear-all button.
2. Ignore patterns (Settings free text): ignoredConsoleErrorPatterns — one substring per line, trimmed, case-sensitive Ordinal contains; blank lines dropped. Matches are ignored even if never X-ed.
3. Transient acknowledged set (the fix button): sending the fix prompt records the visible message set in memory only. The chip stays hidden while visible is a subset of acknowledged; a genuinely new message shows it again. Deliberately NOT persistent: if the fix fails and the same error returns after a reload, the chip must return — auto-persisting on send would silently eat real errors.

Provider-side filtering (ConsoleErrorProvider):

• VisibleSnapshot() / VisibleCount filter _entries through the ignore store; FormatDigest() formats VISIBLE entries only, so the fix prompt never contains ignored noise.
• The raw list stays intact so un-ignoring in Settings immediately restores the entry (no data loss).
• Ignore checks are pure static functions over (message, exactSet, patterns) — EditMode-testable without the editor log pipeline.

Rejected alternatives

• Session-only ignore (SessionState): SDK noise recurs every editor session; the user picked permanence explicitly.
• Regex patterns: overkill + user-hostile failure mode (invalid regex throws); Ordinal substring covers the observed SDK-noise case.
• Auto-expiry / console-clear sync: Unity 2022.3 has no public console read/clear hook; expiry by time would hide real unfixed errors.

Regression guards (as implemented)

• ConsoleErrorIgnoreFilterTests: exact ignore, pattern ignore, pattern parsing, FIFO bound (incl. non-positive cap), null-safety.
• ConsoleErrorVisibilityTests (settings injected via ConsoleErrorProvider.SettingsSourceForTests): visible filtering both ways, digest excludes ignored / all-ignored digests null, un-ignore restores without re-log, IgnoreCurrentlyVisible (the REAL X-press production path) persists + hides + raises Changed.
• ContextBarViewLogicTests: compile-start entry drop can NOT resurrect the chip (pins the old count bug); new distinct error re-shows; AcknowledgeSentMessages caps at the digest limit and never persists.
• AgentHubAutoContinueAfterCompileTests now injects an isolated settings source — review finding 2026-08-14: without it, a user exercising the ignore feature in the sandbox project would silently flip the failed-continuation cases green via the REAL State.asset.
• UssHygieneTests: .uap-settings-errignore-msg appended to FlexGrowContentColumns and .uap-settings-errignore-row to JustifyContentSpaceBetweenContainers (the 2026-08-03 standing rule’s curated allowlists — review finding 2026-08-14 caught this note claiming the guard before the entries existed).

Superseded in part (2026-08-23, UXO-3)

Decision 1’s binding of the PERMANENT ignore to the chip’s bare X is superseded: the X now only dismisses-for-now (transient, content-keyed, like the fix button’s acknowledged set), and the permanent ignore moved to an explicit menu action on the chip with an in-place undo notice (ConsoleErrorProvider.Unignore). The persistence mechanism, storage (PanelSettings.ignoredConsoleErrors) and Settings management list are unchanged. See 2026-08-23-phase2-batch-b-approval-surface.md.