Bug: editing a message does nothing — PATCH /api/messages/{id} is the reschedule route, not an edit route

[Adron]

Found by the payload-key sweep required by #46 (see PR #75).

Symptom

Views/EditMessageView.swift lets the user edit a post's text and save. Nothing changes.

• Editing an already-published post fails with 400 "Can only edit scheduled posts that are in the future" — copy that makes no sense in an edit sheet.
• Editing a future scheduled post returns 200 and the content change is silently discarded.

Root cause

APIClient.editMessage(id:content:publiclyVisible:) (Services/APIClient.swift:381-388) sends

PATCH /api/messages/{id}   { content, publiclyVisible }

But app/api/messages/[id]/route.ts PATCH is "reschedule a scheduled post":

• :127 — if (!message.scheduledAt || message.scheduledAt <= new Date()) return badRequest('Can only edit scheduled posts that are in the future')
• :132 — const { scheduledAt: scheduledAtRaw, scheduledCrossPostConfig } = body

content and publiclyVisible are never read. The route exports only GET, PATCH, DELETE.

This is a backend gap, not just an iOS bug

There is no route anywhere that updates a message's content — grep content app/api/messages/**/route.ts
matches only the create path (POST /api/messages) and the metadata routes. The web ships no edit
surface either (grep -rln "isEditing|handleEdit|editMessage" components/messages/ → nothing).

So iOS shipped an edit feature the platform does not have.

Options

1. Backend ask — add PUT /api/messages/{id} (or extend PATCH) accepting { content, publiclyVisible } for the author, with an editedAt marker, authorized via
   getCurrentUserOrSyncToken. Then iOS points editMessage at it.
2. Or remove EditMessageView and editMessage from iOS until the platform supports editing.

Needs a product call on which. Until then the sheet should not be reachable — it can only fail.

Acceptance criteria

• Editing a published post from iOS either persists, or the entry point is gone.
• No path shows "Can only edit scheduled posts that are in the future" from an edit sheet.
• Unit test covering whichever route is chosen.

Files: Services/APIClient.swift:381, Views/EditMessageView.swift; backend
app/api/messages/[id]/route.ts.

[Adron]

Refinement after tracing the actual save path — and what we need to decide

Re-read Views/EditMessageView.swift:92-116. The picture is more specific than the original report,
and it splits cleanly in two.

save() does two independent things:

// 1. Reschedule, when the send time changed on a future scheduled post
if isScheduled, let original = originalScheduledDate, abs(...) > 1 {
    _ = try await APIClient.shared.patchScheduledMessage(id:scheduledAt:config:)   // ✅ WORKS
}
// 2. Content / visibility
if contentChanged {
    let updated = try await APIClient.shared.editMessage(id:content:publiclyVisible:)  // ❌ NEVER WORKS
}

Path	Outcome
Rescheduling a future post	✅ Works. patchScheduledMessage targets the same route, which is the reschedule route, and sends the keys it actually destructures.
Editing content or visibility on a published post	❌ 400 "Can only edit scheduled posts that are in the future" — nonsense copy inside an edit sheet.
Editing content or visibility on a future scheduled post	❌ Passes the guard, returns 200, and the content change is silently discarded — the route reads only scheduledAt / scheduledCrossPostConfig.

So: rescheduling is fine; content editing has never worked from anywhere.

Reachable from two entry points — FeedView.swift:316 (any message) and
ScheduledMessagesView.swift:74 (scheduled only). The scheduled one is the case that partially works.

Why this isn't just an iOS fix

There is no route that edits message content. POST /api/messages (create) and the metadata
routes are the only handlers that read content; app/api/messages/[id]/route.ts exports only
GET, PATCH (reschedule) and DELETE. The web ships no edit surface either —
grep -rln "isEditing|handleEdit|editMessage" components/messages/ returns nothing.

Also relevant: model Message in prisma/schema.prisma has no editedAt field. It has
updatedAt @updatedAt, which already moves on a reschedule, so it cannot stand in as an
"edited" marker.

Questions we need answered before this can be implemented

1. Should message editing exist as a product feature at all?
It has never worked on either client, so nothing regresses if the answer is no. If no, the fix is
iOS-only and small: drop the content/visibility half of EditMessageView, keep the reschedule half,
retitle the sheet accordingly, and delete APIClient.editMessage. I can do that today.

2. If yes — what are the rules? These need decisions before a route can be written:

• Who: author only, presumably. Any moderator/admin case?
• Window: unlimited, or only within N minutes of posting?
• Visibility of the edit: does an edited post show an "edited" marker? That needs a new
  editedAt column — updatedAt is already used by reschedule and can't carry it.
• Replies: can a message with replies be edited, or does that lock it?
• Cross-posts: a message already pushed to Bluesky/Mastodon/LinkedIn/X — does editing re-push,
  attempt a remote edit, or leave the remote copies stale? This is the hardest one and probably
  decides the shape.
• Link previews: re-run metadata extraction after an edit? (The web does, on create — see W8: Refresh link-preview metadata after publishing a message #91.)
• Visibility flips: is toggling publiclyVisible on an existing post in scope, or separate?

3. Interim behaviour, regardless of the above: right now a user can open an edit sheet, type,
save, and be told about scheduled posts — or be told nothing and lose the edit. Even if editing is
coming later, should I ship the entry-point removal now so the broken path is not reachable?

Happy to implement whichever direction is chosen — option 1 is a same-day change. Blocking on the
product call rather than guessing, since the cross-post question in particular could go several ways.