fix(workflow): dark themes lose the flowchart node role sub-label to a hardcoded grey (#1484 regression) #1495

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.
Written-by: FlyBot Product
Line numbers drift: identify by symbol (the .wf-rl colour declaration, the node.role render span, .wf-node background), not by number.

Problem

#1484 replaced the flowchart node role sub-label's theme token with a hardcoded grey. The .wf-rl declaration now reads color: rgba(20,20,20,.55), where base c7226536 read color: var(--bt-ink-3, #9a9a9a). The sub-label sits on a .wf-node card whose background is var(--bt-card, #fff); --bt-card is dark in every dark theme, so the text becomes dark grey on dark grey.

This is a regression introduced by the #1477 contrast fix, not the original design.

Reproduction

1. Select any dark theme (DeepSeek, Mono, Paper, Moonlight — the theme picker is a shipped UI feature).
2. Open a Workflow and its flowchart drawer.
3. Read the role sub-label under each node name: the node.role text rendered by the wf-rl span beside wf-nm.

Expected: the sub-label is readable in every theme.
Actual: it is barely visible. WCAG contrast, computed by compositing the declared colour onto the node card:

Light theme: 2.31:1 → 4.07:1, so #1477's complaint was real and this change does fix it there.

Root cause

• #1484 "Workflow UI polish: improve readability of Chinese sub-labels, status badge alignment, and Details padding", author Danyang Chen, head a604b2c1, base c7226536, merged_at 2026-10-27T16:25:09Z, merge commit 2eb2517c (committer date 16:22:29Z); body says Fixes #1477, #1478, and #1479.; 2 files changed, +3/−3.
• Apart from a changelog entry, the commit touches three declarations: the .wf-rl colour plus padding/gap on .wf-kv and .wf-hist. Only the colour one is theme-breaking.
• The other bare colours in that file are chrome or status colours (#fff on the accent, #e5484d / #16a34a with their tints, inherit, transparent); none is a neutral body-text grey sitting on a themed surface. .wf-rl is the one place where such a grey is written as a bare literal instead of a theme token.
• The token is theme-aware: core/src/client/themes.js derives --bt-ink-3 from mode.text (--bt-ink-2 at 0.6, --bt-ink-3 at 0.36), and body[data-ds-dark-theme] swaps the whole token set (core/src/client/styles.js). A hardcoded rgba(20,20,20,…) never follows the theme.

Expected

• The role sub-label is readable in all four dark themes and in light.
• Must not regress #1477's light-theme requirement: acceptance is both groups at once — light ≥ 4.5:1 and every dark theme ≥ 4.5:1. --bt-ink-2 meets it: light 4.81:1; dark deepseek 6.12:1, mono 6.33:1, paper 5.60:1, moonlight 5.95:1. Any alternative must hit the same numbers.

Scope

• One declaration: the color of .wf-rl. No behavioural change, no endpoint change.

Reachability

The running instance is at 8f1ac12, where this declaration still uses the token, so live users do not see this yet; it reaches the running product with the next milestone update.

Dedupe (as of my read)

• Searches: dark theme 0; workflow dark 0; workflow node sub-label 1 (#1489, timeline timestamps, different); contrast 5 (#1476, #1483, #1487, #1488, #1489, all different) → no open issue covers this.
• Thread state as of my read: #1484 3 comments, latest 6447361456; #1477 0 comments.

Baselines

Reproduced against both c7226536 (the fix's base, where the token is still used) and 2eb2517c (merged main, where it is hardcoded).