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🐞 2026-11-14 | Designing In-App Bug Reports

🧑‍💻 Author’s Note

👋 Hello! Issue #40 asks for a design—not implementation—for making it easier to report bugs to Domination’s GitHub issue tracker. This is a first-pass proposal with a recommended simple path and explicit choices for the final design.

The previous post, From Bug Report to GitHub Issue, explored the technical options. The short version: Domination already has a useful local diagnostics report, and GitHub provides a no-backend way to prefill issue-form text fields through URL query parameters. The player still reviews and submits the issue on GitHub.

🎯 Design Goal

Make it easier to create a useful issue without surprising the reporter, sending data without their review, or adding infrastructure that must be secured and maintained.

🧭 Recommended First Version

Keep the feature in Settings → Debug, next to the existing Copy bug report action:

1. The player reviews the diagnostic report already shown in the Debug tab.
2. They click Open GitHub bug form with diagnostics. This is an explicit choice to include the report.
3. Domination opens the repository’s issue form with the full report prefilled in an editable diagnostics field. The player can remove anything they do not want to share, add what happened and reproduction steps, and optionally attach a screenshot.
4. GitHub asks the player to sign in if needed; the player reviews and submits the issue.

GitHub officially supports query parameters for issue creation, including title and body, and explicitly documents filling custom text fields in issue form templates. In the form schema, a field’s id is the canonical identifier for URL-prefill parameters (creating an issue from a URL query, form schema field IDs). Give the diagnostics textarea a stable ID, then set that field’s query parameter to the report using normal URL encoding. This requires no backend, app credentials, or clipboard step.

Prefilling is not the same as submitting: the player can edit or delete the diagnostics before creating the issue. But opening the prefilled form sends the report to GitHub in the URL, so this should be a clearly labeled, user-initiated action—not an automatic side effect of opening Settings. The report includes details such as browser information, page facts, recent sync activity, and console entries; the player should have a chance to review those details first.

Keep Copy bug report as the fallback. GitHub documents that an issue URL exceeding its server limit returns 414 URI Too Long, but does not state a safe maximum length. Long reports therefore need a real-world check, and the copy action remains useful if a prefilled link is too large or does not open (URL query documentation). GitHub’s issue form can also accept screenshot uploads, so the app does not need to capture or upload images itself (issue-form documentation).

✅ Why this is the recommended MVP

• ♻️ Reuses the existing diagnostic report and GitHub-hosted issue form.
• 🪄 Prefills the full report without asking the player to copy and paste.
• 👀 Lets the player remove private or irrelevant details before submitting.
• 🧰 Avoids a new server, GitHub credentials, OAuth, and a public issue-writing endpoint.
• 📸 Lets GitHub’s form handle optional screenshot upload.
• 🧪 Keeps Copy bug report as a straightforward fallback for URL-size or prefill problems.

🗳️ Choices for the Final Design

Pick one option per row. The bold choices form my recommended first version.

1. Where should submission happen?

• A — GitHub form (recommended): Domination links to the repository’s bug form; the player reviews, fills it in, and submits on GitHub. Requires a GitHub account; no new backend.
• B — App-created issue: a backend creates the issue using a narrowly scoped GitHub App. Could accept reports without a reporter’s GitHub account, but adds credentials, abuse prevention, service operation, and app-authored issues.
• C — Reporter-authorized issue: the player signs in with GitHub and authorizes issue creation. Still requires a GitHub account and a secure authorization backend.

2. Where should the reporting entry point live?

• A — Settings → Debug (recommended): Add an Open GitHub bug form action beside Copy bug report. Smallest change, and the diagnostics are already there.
• B — Also add a game-wide Report a bug action: easier to discover, but introduces a new entry point and navigation decision. It could lead to the same Debug/report flow.

3. How much should the app prepare?

• A — Prefill the GitHub form (recommended): Give the diagnostics textarea a stable form ID and open the issue form with the report in that field’s query parameter. The player can edit or remove it before submitting; keep the existing copy action as a fallback for long URLs.
• B — Keep copy and paste only: no diagnostics in the URL, but the reporter must switch back and forth and paste the full report.
• C — Add an in-app notes composer: more guided, but duplicates form fields and adds input state and validation without avoiding the final GitHub handoff.

4. What about screenshots?

• A — Optional GitHub upload (recommended): The player chooses a screenshot in GitHub’s form; Domination does not capture or upload it.
• B — No screenshot support in the first version: simpler still, but less context for visual bugs.
• C — Capture in Domination: defer until separately designed. Browser permissions, compatibility, preview, image handling, and upload all add complexity.

🧩 Suggested Decision

For the simplest reliable first release, choose 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A: a GitHub-hosted form linked from Settings → Debug, the full diagnostics prefilled after an explicit click, an editable field so the player can remove anything, a copy fallback for long URLs, and screenshots handled by GitHub if wanted.

The resulting user experience is intentionally transparent: review, open prefilled form, edit, submit. It is not one-click issue creation, and the report is included in the URL sent to GitHub when the form opens, but it avoids a credential-bearing service and removes the copy/paste step in the normal case.

💬 Reply with Your Picks

You can choose the recommendation by replying “Use 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A.” To change it, reply with four choices—for example “1B, 2A, 3B, 4B”—and any extra requirements. I can then update this design with your decisions before we create the implementation issue.

✍️ Signed

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📅 November 14, 2026
🏠 For bagrounds.org