[EPIC] Mobile app as primary management surface: mirror appliance dashboard + native BLE bridge

[ritualnorth]

Priority: ASAP — this is becoming the linchpin for the van/off-grid onboarding + management story.

Vision

The mobile app is the main way a user manages their appliance. Two pillars:

1. Same view as the appliance dashboard (Home Assistant pattern)

The app renders the exact same UI the appliance serves — i.e. the appliance's own web dashboard, the same thing you'd see opening it in Safari/Chrome. Home Assistant's app does this: a wrapper around the web UI + native capabilities layered on. Fits the existing architecture decision (Capacitor + PWA + mobile-specific views in one codebase). One UI to maintain; the app is a shell + native bridges.

2. Native BLE bridge to manage/provision the box

The app talks to the appliance over Bluetooth (native BLE — not Web Bluetooth, so it works on iPhone, which Safari can't do). This is the key unlock:

• WiFi provisioning (WiFi provisioning from the AP: let a user join a NEW network from the captive portal (van/off-grid) #36): send the box WiFi credentials over BLE → frees the WiFi radio entirely (no AP single-radio dance), box joins + stays online while you manage it.
• First-boot / no-network management: configure a box that has no LAN yet, in a van, with no monitor.
• Reuses the same BLE plumbing as Mobile app: direct phone-to-BLE monitoring (no appliance required) #31 (direct phone-to-BLE sensor monitoring).

Why native app, not browser

• iOS Safari has no Web Bluetooth, so any browser-based BLE flow excludes iPhones. A native app (Capacitor) does BLE natively on both platforms — that's the whole reason this lives in the app.
• The captive-portal AP path (WiFi provisioning from the AP: let a user join a NEW network from the captive portal (van/off-grid) #36) stays as the universal no-app fallback.

Relationships

• WiFi provisioning from the AP: let a user join a NEW network from the captive portal (van/off-grid) #36 — WiFi provisioning from the AP (browser/universal); the app provides the BLE-native alternative.
• Mobile app: direct phone-to-BLE monitoring (no appliance required) #31 — direct phone-to-BLE monitoring; same BLE bridge.
• Connects to Van Mode + the appliance-as-AP pillar.

Open question (carried from planning)

IAP vs link-out for the tier-locked cloud features in the app store — still unresolved; revisit when scoping the build.