fix: customize icon & color works for types without Type entry (#173)

Types without a dedicated Type definition note in the vault silently
failed to save icon/color customizations. Both applyCustomization
(Sidebar) and handleCustomizeType (useEntryActions) returned early
when no Type entry existed. Also fixed a race condition where two
concurrent handleUpdateFrontmatter calls could overwrite each other.

Changes:
- useNoteActions: add createTypeEntrySilent for headless Type file creation
- useEntryActions: auto-create Type entry when missing, serialize writes
- Sidebar: applyCustomization proceeds with defaults when no Type entry
- App: wire createTypeEntrySilent into useEntryActions config

Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/App.tsx

@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@ function App() {
     entries: vault.entries, updateEntry: vault.updateEntry,
     handleUpdateFrontmatter: notes.handleUpdateFrontmatter,
     handleDeleteProperty: notes.handleDeleteProperty, setToastMessage,
+    createTypeEntry: notes.createTypeEntrySilent,
   })
 
   const gitHistory = useGitHistory(notes.activeTabPath, vault.loadGitHistory)

src/components/Sidebar.tsx

@@ -151,8 +151,9 @@ function applyCustomization(
 ): void {
   if (!target || !onCustomizeType) return
   const te = typeEntryMap[target]
-  if (!te) return
-  const [icon, color] = buildCustomizeArgs(te, prop, value)
+  const [icon, color] = te
+    ? buildCustomizeArgs(te, prop, value)
+    : [prop === 'icon' ? value : 'file-text', prop === 'color' ? value : 'blue']
   onCustomizeType(target, icon, color)
 }
 

src/hooks/useEntryActions.test.ts

@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ describe('useEntryActions', () => {
   const handleUpdateFrontmatter = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined)
   const handleDeleteProperty = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined)
   const setToastMessage = vi.fn()
+  const createTypeEntry = vi.fn().mockImplementation((typeName: string) =>
+    Promise.resolve(makeEntry({ isA: 'Type', title: typeName, path: `/vault/type/${typeName.toLowerCase()}.md` })),
+  )
 
   function setup(entries: VaultEntry[] = []) {
     return renderHook(() =>
@@ -45,6 +48,7 @@ describe('useEntryActions', () => {
         handleUpdateFrontmatter,
         handleDeleteProperty,
         setToastMessage,
+        createTypeEntry,
       })
     )
   }
@@ -118,12 +122,12 @@ describe('useEntryActions', () => {
   })
 
   describe('handleCustomizeType', () => {
-    it('updates icon and color on the type entry', () => {
+    it('updates icon and color on the type entry', async () => {
       const typeEntry = makeEntry({ isA: 'Type', title: 'Recipe', path: '/vault/type/recipe.md' })
       const { result } = setup([typeEntry])
 
-      act(() => {
-        result.current.handleCustomizeType('Recipe', 'cooking-pot', 'green')
+      await act(async () => {
+        await result.current.handleCustomizeType('Recipe', 'cooking-pot', 'green')
       })
 
       expect(handleUpdateFrontmatter).toHaveBeenCalledWith('/vault/type/recipe.md', 'icon', 'cooking-pot')
@@ -131,15 +135,33 @@ describe('useEntryActions', () => {
       expect(updateEntry).toHaveBeenCalledWith('/vault/type/recipe.md', { icon: 'cooking-pot', color: 'green' })
     })
 
-    it('does nothing when type entry not found', () => {
+    it('auto-creates type entry when not found and applies customization', async () => {
       const { result } = setup([])
 
-      act(() => {
-        result.current.handleCustomizeType('NonExistent', 'star', 'red')
+      await act(async () => {
+        await result.current.handleCustomizeType('Recipe', 'star', 'red')
       })
 
-      expect(handleUpdateFrontmatter).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
-      expect(updateEntry).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+      expect(createTypeEntry).toHaveBeenCalledWith('Recipe')
+      expect(updateEntry).toHaveBeenCalledWith('/vault/type/recipe.md', { icon: 'star', color: 'red' })
+      expect(handleUpdateFrontmatter).toHaveBeenCalledWith('/vault/type/recipe.md', 'icon', 'star')
+      expect(handleUpdateFrontmatter).toHaveBeenCalledWith('/vault/type/recipe.md', 'color', 'red')
+    })
+
+    it('serializes frontmatter writes (icon before color)', async () => {
+      const callOrder: string[] = []
+      handleUpdateFrontmatter.mockImplementation((_path: string, key: string) => {
+        callOrder.push(key)
+        return Promise.resolve()
+      })
+      const typeEntry = makeEntry({ isA: 'Type', title: 'Project', path: '/vault/type/project.md' })
+      const { result } = setup([typeEntry])
+
+      await act(async () => {
+        await result.current.handleCustomizeType('Project', 'wrench', 'blue')
+      })
+
+      expect(callOrder).toEqual(['icon', 'color'])
     })
   })
 

src/hooks/useEntryActions.ts

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ interface EntryActionsConfig {
   handleUpdateFrontmatter: (path: string, key: string, value: string | number | boolean | string[]) => Promise<void>
   handleDeleteProperty: (path: string, key: string) => Promise<void>
   setToastMessage: (msg: string | null) => void
+  createTypeEntry: (typeName: string) => Promise<VaultEntry>
 }
 
 function findTypeEntry(entries: VaultEntry[], typeName: string): VaultEntry | undefined {
@@ -14,7 +15,7 @@ function findTypeEntry(entries: VaultEntry[], typeName: string): VaultEntry | un
 }
 
 export function useEntryActions({
-  entries, updateEntry, handleUpdateFrontmatter, handleDeleteProperty, setToastMessage,
+  entries, updateEntry, handleUpdateFrontmatter, handleDeleteProperty, setToastMessage, createTypeEntry,
 }: EntryActionsConfig) {
   const handleTrashNote = useCallback(async (path: string) => {
     const now = new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)
@@ -43,13 +44,13 @@ export function useEntryActions({
     setToastMessage('Note unarchived')
   }, [handleUpdateFrontmatter, updateEntry, setToastMessage])
 
-  const handleCustomizeType = useCallback((typeName: string, icon: string, color: string) => {
-    const typeEntry = findTypeEntry(entries, typeName)
-    if (!typeEntry) return
-    handleUpdateFrontmatter(typeEntry.path, 'icon', icon)
-    handleUpdateFrontmatter(typeEntry.path, 'color', color)
+  const handleCustomizeType = useCallback(async (typeName: string, icon: string, color: string) => {
+    let typeEntry = findTypeEntry(entries, typeName)
+    if (!typeEntry) typeEntry = await createTypeEntry(typeName)
     updateEntry(typeEntry.path, { icon, color })
-  }, [entries, handleUpdateFrontmatter, updateEntry])
+    await handleUpdateFrontmatter(typeEntry.path, 'icon', icon)
+    await handleUpdateFrontmatter(typeEntry.path, 'color', color)
+  }, [entries, handleUpdateFrontmatter, updateEntry, createTypeEntry])
 
   const handleReorderSections = useCallback((orderedTypes: { typeName: string; order: number }[]) => {
     for (const { typeName, order } of orderedTypes) {

src/hooks/useNoteActions.ts

@@ -389,6 +389,14 @@ export function useNoteActions(config: NoteActionsConfig) {
 
   const handleCreateType = useCallback((typeName: string) => persistNew(resolveNewType(typeName)), [persistNew])
 
+  /** Create a Type entry file silently (no tab opened). Adds to state and persists to disk. */
+  const createTypeEntrySilent = useCallback(async (typeName: string): Promise<VaultEntry> => {
+    const resolved = resolveNewType(typeName)
+    addEntryWithMock(resolved.entry, resolved.content, addEntry)
+    await persistNewNote(resolved.entry.path, resolved.content)
+    return resolved.entry
+  }, [addEntry])
+
   const fmCallbacks = { updateTab: updateTabContent, updateEntry, toast: setToastMessage }
 
   const runFrontmatterOp = useCallback(
@@ -426,6 +434,7 @@ export function useNoteActions(config: NoteActionsConfig) {
     handleCreateNoteImmediate,
     handleOpenDailyNote,
     handleCreateType,
+    createTypeEntrySilent,
     handleUpdateFrontmatter: useCallback((path: string, key: string, value: FrontmatterValue) => runFrontmatterOp('update', path, key, value), [runFrontmatterOp]),
     handleDeleteProperty: useCallback((path: string, key: string) => runFrontmatterOp('delete', path, key), [runFrontmatterOp]),
     handleAddProperty: useCallback((path: string, key: string, value: FrontmatterValue) => runFrontmatterOp('update', path, key, value), [runFrontmatterOp]),