Raised by the user, not by the plan: there was no way to change language
in the mobile UI. There was no way anywhere. `users.pair_lang` has been
readable since Phase 19 and writable by nobody — /api/me was GET-only and
Upsert deliberately skips the column — which is also why "no pt-PT account
exists yet" has stood through two phases. Nothing could create one.
PATCH /api/me answers with the whole user rather than 204, so the client
re-reads the pair from the server instead of trusting its own request. One
write reaches everything: langpack, Hunspell dictionary, Piper voice,
lexicon provider and prompt language all read the column at use time.
The server refuses a pair it has no copy for, and auth.shippedPairs is
deliberately not internal/llm's list. That one names pairs the prompts can
talk about (fr and es, since Phase 19); this one names pairs Petal can
render itself in, which needs a langpack. Storing fr today would strand
her on Chinese with no way back except a lucky guess at a button she
cannot read.
The picker sits in the sidebar footer because the sidebar is the mobile
drawer — always one tap away. The status bar exists only while a document
is open, which is the wrong moment to find the app speaking a language you
can't read. Each language names itself, 中文 and Português: the one place
bilingual copy would get in the way.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016y6gyuHkQXPiEuW8RGQyua
prosolis
1f4ca4775a