Skip to main content

​
The Problem

Traceo’s workspace switcher dropdown rendered correctly. Users could click to select a different workspace. The UI updated the selection indicator. But all data — requirements, diagrams, sessions — remained from the original workspace. Page refresh reverted even the UI selection.

​
The Root Cause

The switcher updated activeWorkspaceId in a React context (client-side only). Every API route independently read user.workspaceId from the database. The context state was never persisted anywhere — not to the database, not to a cookie, not to localStorage. The frontend and backend had completely decoupled notions of “active workspace”.

​
The Fix

Added a PATCH /api/workspaces endpoint that updates user.workspaceId in the database. The frontend now calls this endpoint before updating local state and refreshing. Updated GET /api/workspaces to return all workspaces with an is_active flag so the dropdown populates correctly.

​
The Takeaway

When all API routes derive context from the database (not from request headers or cookies), any “switching” feature must write to the database. Client-side state management creates a convincing UI illusion but delivers zero functional change. Always trace the data path: if the API reads from source X, the switcher must write to source X.