[DRAFT] #396: add report on PWA manifest issue

research/pwa-manifest-file.md

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+# PWA Manifest Unification
+
+## Current State:
+
+Inner Circle consists of multiple standalone React/Vite services, each with its own manifest.json configured with *"display": "standalone"*. While individual services can be installed as PWAs, navigation between services breaks the PWA experience, causing browser controls to reappear.
+
+Mobile devices (testes on iPhone 16, iPhone 12, Xiaomi 15) show inconsistent PWA behavior because of different browser implementations, operating system peculiarities, and scope management issues.
+
+## Reason:
+The reason is that when navigating each service is treated as a separate PWA. The PWA display mode (standalone) is tied to the ```scope: "/"```  defined in the manifest, and cross-service navigation exits this scope.
+Leaving only one manifest file in e.g. *layout-ui* or *employees-ui* has no effect, the services still are treated separately. Manifest file is applied only in the service which you extract as an App.
+
+## Device-Specific Behavior: 
+
+### iPhone 16 (Safari)
+  - can install individual services as PWA
+  - only the installed service hides browser controls
+  - navigation to other services shows browser UI
+  - "minimal-ui" mode rather than true "standalone"
+### iPhone 12 (Safari)
+  - inconsistent PWA installation
+  - often opens in browser despite manifest
+  - older iOS versions have limited PWA support
+### Xiaomi 15 (MIUI Browser?)
+  - custom browser with non-standard PWA implementation
+  - may not respect manifest settings
+
+## Routing Consideration
+
+1. Ingress-Level Configuration 
+- configure ingress to route all traffic through a single domain
+- place unified *manifest.json* at root level
+
+Example Configuration:
+  URL Structure:
+    https://innercircle.com/          # Root with unified manifest
+    https://innercircle.com/documents # Documents service
+    https://innercircle.com/employees # Employees service
+    https://innercircle.com/auth      # Auth service
+
+2. Next.js as shell app
+Next.js provides routing capabilities and could potentially serve as the shell/container app. Needs configuration to handle cross-service navigation while maintaining PWA context.
+
+3. Service Worker
+- root-level Service Worker proxies all requests
+- serve unified manifest from root
+- handle cross-service navigation within Service Worker