Skip to content
Artist Alley

Featured collections — nested curation, access-scoped homepage

Superseded in part by ADR 0065 (2026-07-20). The featured boolean + featured_scope enum on collections, and cascade-publish as a property of that boolean, are superseded — featuring moved to the featured_items placement table. The collection_parent_id tree edge, the depth-5 cap, and the nested-curation rationale below all stand.

Context

Section titled “Context”

The current homepage and account dashboards show “recent uploads” / “unreviewed” / “team feed” as flat lists. A nested featured collection tree is the standard front-page curation primitive — “Concept Art > Characters > 2026 Pitches > Hero Shots” — with each node having its own thumbnail + description + access scope. Studios with a marketing org need this depth to maintain discoverable curated areas (press hits, “best of,” seasonal collections, current campaigns).

Decision

Section titled “Decision”

Add Phase 1.35 — Featured collections & homepage curation — extending the existing collection model with a tree edge and a featured scope.

Tree edge

Section titled “Tree edge”

A collection_parent_id column on collections. NULL = top-level. A parent collection can contain child collections AND posts. Depth is capped at 5 to prevent runaway nesting in the UI.

Section titled “Featured scope”

A featured boolean + featured_scope enum (team / org / public) on collections. The homepage surfaces collections at the appropriate scope:

  • team — visible only to that team’s members; shows in the team pane of the dashboard.
  • org — visible to all signed-in users; shows on the global homepage.
  • public — visible to anonymous users when anonymous browse is enabled (Phase 1.21); shows on the public landing.

Cascade publish

Section titled “Cascade publish”

Marking a parent featured offers a “cascade to children” toggle so a campaign with 20 sub-collections doesn’t need 20 clicks.

Hero card

Section titled “Hero card”

Each featured collection has an optional hero_asset_id — the specific post / asset to render as the card cover. Falls back to the most-recent post in the collection if unset.

Sort and order

Section titled “Sort and order”

Within a featured tree, siblings sort by an explicit featured_order integer (drag-reorder in admin) so curators control the narrative.

Access during anonymous browse

Section titled “Access during anonymous browse”

A public featured collection’s individual assets still respect their own sensitivity tier (ADR 0020). A public collection with embargo content shows only the title; assets are hidden until embargo lifts.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”

Positive

  • The homepage stops looking like a feed and starts looking like a studio’s actual marketing surface.
  • Curators can build narrative arcs (campaign → series → pieces) without flattening structure.
  • The same tree powers the team dashboard and the public homepage — one model, three audiences.

Negative

  • Tree edges introduce N+1 query risk; mitigation via the existing cache.Registry for featured-tree resolution.
  • Five-level depth cap is judgment; loosen if real use cases require.

Alternatives considered

Section titled “Alternatives considered”
  • Flat featured list. Doesn’t represent how marketing teams actually organize content.
  • Tag-based featured. Doesn’t compose into a tree without awkward parent-tag conventions.

Reference

Section titled “Reference”
  • Phase 1.35 in docs/roadmap.md.
  • Anonymous browse policy (Phase 1.21).
  • Sensitivity tier interplay (ADR 0020).