Planner — new trip from a Paila

Status: draft · Last session: 25 Oct 2026

Builds on M7 — New trip in 3 clicks (revision 2, 19 Oct, built on build day 21). This card lists what v1 adds or changes; everything in M7 that is not changed here stays as built.

Who and the job

A traveller or group leader types what they want ("5 days in Kathmandu and Pokhara"), finds a fitting Paila, sets dates and people, sees the whole trip on one page, changes anything, and creates the trip. NepWalk then sorts and confirms the hotels, vehicles, flights and guides.

Already built (M7, kept)

Search page /trips/create and the Pailas tab: one search box, best matches first, Filters button (days, cities, pace, budget, interests), "Start from scratch" as a quiet link.
Picking a Paila opens the one-page edit at once: all days as short lines, stop sheet, add or remove stops and days.
Date range (one calendar), adults and children steppers, rooms; the Paila is fitted to the dates with a note of what changed; Create trip locked until dates and adults are set.
Services column: Hotel, Vehicle, Flight, Guide with NepWalk's picks, vendor search, airline and preferred time, Request confirmation.
Preview → Draft → Final, Drafts tab, "Save as my Paila".

Decided (founder, 25 Oct 2026)

Signed-out planning. Signed-out visitors can search, pick a Paila, set dates and people, and see the fitted plan. The first edit, or Create trip, asks them to sign in; after signing in they continue with everything kept (see Accounts).
More Pailas in v1, written by the founder with AI and committed as seed data (no admin screen in v1; an admin screen to create Pailas is v2):
Kathmandu only: 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 days.
Pokhara only: several lengths (for example 2, 3, 4, 5 days).
Chitwan only: several lengths (for example 2, 3 days).
Mixes: Kathmandu + Pokhara, Kathmandu + Chitwan, Pokhara + Chitwan, all three, in several lengths (the existing 7- and 10-day ones stay).
Valley visits: Bhaktapur, Lalitpur (Patan) and Nagarkot (day trips and short stays, also usable inside longer Pailas).
The church mission-trip Paila, public version (already planned).
Leave a service out — for real. A traveller can say "no hotel", "no vehicle", "no flights" or "no guide" for the trip (see the explanation below). v1 builds the backend so the switch saves; today it is only a preview.
Pace words: Relaxed · Balanced · Full ("Packed" goes).
Arrival and departure flights are asked when creating the trip, optional (widened by P51 to the trip's start and end: flying, by road or already here; see day-plan.md): arrival (date, time, flight number if known) and departure (the same). The first and last days fit around them, with airport pickup and drop:
International departure: leave for the airport so they arrive 3–4 hours before the flight (airline guidance; Kathmandu airport queues). Default 3 h 30 min.
Domestic flight: arrive 2 hours before.
The buffers are settings, not hard-coded numbers.
No price in v1. The planner builds the whole plan; creating the trip sends a notice to the NepWalk admin for every hotel, vehicle, flight and guide; the admin arranges them and marks each one confirmed. Prices come later, once hotels and services are onboarded.
Ranking and filters by preferences in v1, because the number of Pailas grows:
Each Paila gets interest tags (nature, adventure, culture, spiritual, food, family, trekking…) and its pace.
The search ranks by days and cities first, then by matching interests and pace.
Budget comes later (no prices yet).

Leaving a service out (explained)

Every Paila comes with four services: hotels for each night, a vehicle for the drives, domestic flights where the plan flies, and a guide. Some groups do not want all of them: a church group may have its own bus, a family may stay with relatives, a traveller may not want a guide.

Today the Services column has a switch per service, but turning it off only changes the screen; the trip cannot be saved while a switch is off, because the server has no way to store "no vehicle". v1 adds that:

Each service on a trip is included or not needed (with an optional note, for example "own bus").
Not needed services get no NepWalk pick, are not sent to the admin, and show as "Not needed" on the trip, never as missing or pending.
The day plan keeps the stops and drives; a drive without a vehicle reads "Own transport".
The traveller can switch a service back on later; it then gets NepWalk's pick and goes to the admin like any other.

Admin notice on Create trip

Creating (or saving a change to) a final trip sends the admin one notice listing the included services and what changed, with a link to the trip.
The admin arranges each service outside the app (WhatsApp, A6) and marks it Confirmed (existing confirmation, M12); the traveller sees the status per service.

States and edge cases

No Paila matches: "No Paila for this yet", all Pailas below, and the quiet scratch link.
Arrival time unknown: the first day starts with a free morning and a note "Add your flight to plan the pickup"; same for departure.
Departure on a day with a domestic flight: warn when the domestic arrival leaves less than the international buffer (R6 risk).
Everything switched to Not needed: the trip still creates; the admin notice says "no services requested".
Signed-out visitor presses Create trip: sign-in sheet, then the trip is created with the chosen dates, people and changes.

Later (not v1)

Live flight status: watch the traveller's flights for delays and re-plan the airport drive and the first or last day, with real-time messages (needs a flight-status API; decide provider and cost first).
Budget filter and prices (after hotels and services are onboarded).
Admin screen to create and publish Pailas (v2).
AI understanding of free text the matcher cannot place.

Ideas to discuss later (founder, 25 Oct 2026)

Strong Pailas need strong place knowledge. For every place NepWalk should know: where it is, how long people stay (some like a short visit, some stay longer — offer both), its essence (what makes it special), restaurants around it, and activities nearby (for example a clay-pot class in Bhaktapur). This needs to be managed properly (place library M9, activities P31 and restaurants). Moved to the product idea inbox as IDEA-1 (25 Oct 2026).

Acceptance checks

Signed out: search, pick a Paila, set dates and people and see the plan; the first edit or Create trip asks to sign in and nothing is lost after signing in.
The new Pailas show in search; days and cities rank first, then interests and pace; filters by interest narrow the list.
Switching a service to Not needed saves; the trip creates; the admin notice leaves it out; switching it back on restores NepWalk's pick.
With an international departure at 14:00, the plan leaves for the airport so the group arrives by 10:30 (3 h 30 min); a domestic flight at 09:00 arrives by 07:00.
Pace reads Relaxed · Balanced · Full everywhere.
No price appears anywhere in the planner or trip.
Creating a trip sends the admin a notice with every included service and a trip link.

Tasks (proposed)

Task	Owner	Size
`paila-pack-1`: write the new Pailas (Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan only and mixes) with AI as seed data	Prakash	20 XP
`paila-pack-2`: Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Nagarkot visit Pailas	Prakash	10 XP
`paila-tags`: interest tags and pace on Pailas; ranking and interest filter	engineer	20 XP
`service-not-needed`: store included / not needed per service; UI switch saves; admin notice skips	engineer (backend + frontend)	20 XP
`trip-start-end` (was `trip-flights`, P51): start and end of the trip at creation; see day-plan.md	engineer	20 XP
`signed-out-planner`: preview without an account; sign-in at first edit or Create trip, then continue	engineer	20 XP
`admin-trip-notice`: notice to the admin on create and on changes	engineer + Prakash (email)	10 XP
`pace-rename`: Packed → Full	engineer	5 XP
`planner-qa`: test plan from the checks	Niwesh	10 XP

Each implementation task gets a spec in docs/v1/tasks/ (team-spec) before assignment.