docs(flags): Unleash does not create flags by itself

The runbook said a flag 'appears in the Unleash UI after the backend has
evaluated it once'. That is wrong. SDKs read definitions from the server
and never register anything, and metrics for an unknown flag are
discarded — so a declared flag is evaluated on every request, stays
False forever, and never shows up until someone creates it by hand.

Found the way these things usually are: staging had been running the
flag code for a while and the UI was still empty.

Also names the environment trap while here — each stack's token is
scoped to one environment, so toggling the other does nothing visible
and looks like the flag is broken.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015mWQnpye9F299NVRCCSRvj

backend/app.py

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ from .data_loader import (
     search_schools_typesense,
 )
 from .data_loader import get_data_info as get_db_info
+from . import flags
 from .places import build_place_registry
 from .schemas import METRIC_DEFINITIONS, RANKING_COLUMNS, SCHOOL_COLUMNS
 from .utils import clean_for_json, convert_to_native
@@ -222,10 +223,10 @@ def _place_sitemap_rows(kinds: tuple[str, ...]) -> list[str]:
         if p.kind not in kinds:
             continue
         rows.append(_url_element(BASE_URL + _place_url(p)))
-        # Outcodes carry no phase variants: nobody searches "primary schools
-        # in SW11", so the routes do not exist to submit.
-        if p.kind == "outcode":
-            continue
+        # Which phases a place publishes is the registry's decision alone —
+        # outcodes report none, because the spec gives them no phase route.
+        # Repeating that rule here was how the page and the sitemap came to
+        # disagree about which URLs exist.
         for phase in ("primary", "secondary"):
             if p.publishes_phase(phase):
                 rows.append(_url_element(f"{BASE_URL}{_place_url(p)}/{phase}"))
@@ -459,6 +460,7 @@ def validate_postcode(postcode: Optional[str]) -> Optional[str]:
 async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
     """Application lifespan - startup and shutdown events."""
     global _sitemaps
+    flags.init()
     print("Loading school data from marts...")
     df = load_school_data()
     if df.empty:
@@ -806,7 +808,13 @@ async def get_school_details(request: Request, urn: int):
         "census": supplementary.get("census"),
         "admissions": supplementary.get("admissions"),
         "admissions_history": supplementary.get("admissions_history") or [],
-        "admission_distance": supplementary.get("admission_distance"),
+        # Behind a flag, and withheld at the source rather than rendered-but-
+        # hidden: this endpoint is public and unauthenticated, so a field left
+        # in the payload is a published field. The key is absent, not null —
+        # null would state that this school has no cut-off, which is a
+        # different claim from "we are not publishing cut-offs".
+        **({"admission_distance": supplementary.get("admission_distance")}
+           if flags.is_enabled("admission_distance") else {}),
         "sen_detail": supplementary.get("sen_detail"),
         "phonics": supplementary.get("phonics"),
         "deprivation": supplementary.get("deprivation"),
@@ -1200,7 +1208,8 @@ async def get_place(request: Request, kind: str, slug: str,
     if kind not in VALID_PLACE_KINDS:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="No such place")
 
-    place = get_place_registry().get(f"{kind}:{slug}")
+    registry = get_place_registry()
+    place = registry.get(f"{kind}:{slug}")
     if place is None:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="No such place")
 
@@ -1212,10 +1221,15 @@ async def get_place(request: Request, kind: str, slug: str,
         if wanted and "phase" in rows.columns:
             rows = rows[rows["phase"].fillna("").str.lower().isin(wanted)]
 
-    # The metric the page ranks on, which is also the one it averages.
+    # The metric the page shows, and averages.
     metric = "attainment_8_score" if phase == "secondary" else "rwm_expected_pct"
-    if metric in rows.columns:
-        rows = rows.sort_values(metric, ascending=False, na_position="last")
+
+    # Alphabetical, not by score. A place page is read by someone looking for
+    # a school they can name, and scanning for it is what the order should
+    # serve. /rankings is where the league-table ordering lives, and it keeps
+    # sorting by metric.
+    if "school_name" in rows.columns:
+        rows = rows.sort_values("school_name", key=lambda c: c.str.lower())
 
     averages = {
         m: (None if m not in rows.columns or rows[m].dropna().empty
@@ -1232,6 +1246,22 @@ async def get_place(request: Request, kind: str, slug: str,
         "place": {"kind": place.kind, "slug": place.slug, "name": place.name,
                   "count": len(place.urns),
                   "parent_authority": place.parent_authority,
+                  # Every authority the place meaningfully sits in. SW19 is
+                  # mostly Merton but partly Wandsworth; naming one asserts
+                  # something false.
+                  #
+                  # The slug is null where that authority has no page of its
+                  # own: City of London and the Isles of Scilly hold fewer
+                  # schools than the threshold. Naming them is still right;
+                  # linking them would be a 404.
+                  "authorities": [
+                      {"name": name,
+                       "slug": (_slugify(name)
+                                if f"authority:{_slugify(name)}" in registry
+                                else None),
+                       "count": n}
+                      for name, n in place.authorities
+                  ],
                   # Only phases that clear the threshold, so the page links
                   # variants that exist rather than 404s.
                   "phases": [ph for ph in ("primary", "secondary")
@@ -1241,6 +1271,18 @@ async def get_place(request: Request, kind: str, slug: str,
     }
 
 
+@app.get("/api/flags")
+@limiter.limit(f"{settings.rate_limit_per_minute}/minute")
+async def get_feature_flags(request: Request):
+    """Every declared flag and its current value.
+
+    Internal only. The Next proxy denies this path, because the response names
+    every unreleased feature the codebase knows about — which is exactly what
+    shipping dark is meant to keep quiet.
+    """
+    return flags.all_flags()
+
+
 @app.get("/api/data-info")
 @limiter.limit(f"{settings.rate_limit_per_minute}/minute")
 async def get_data_info(request: Request):

backend/config.py

@@ -42,6 +42,16 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     typesense_url: str = "http://localhost:8108"
     typesense_api_key: str = ""
 
+    # Feature flags (Unleash). An empty unleash_url disables flags entirely and
+    # every flag evaluates False — the correct behaviour for local development
+    # and CI, and the reason no test needs a running Unleash.
+    unleash_url: str = ""
+    unleash_api_token: str = ""
+    unleash_app_name: str = "schoolcompare-backend"
+    # On a named volume, so a restart during an Unleash outage keeps
+    # last-known state instead of reverting a released feature to dark.
+    unleash_cache_directory: str = "/app/.unleash"
+
     # Analytics
     ga_measurement_id: Optional[str] = "G-J0PCVT14NY"  # Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID
 

backend/flags.py

@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+"""Feature flags: what can be switched, and what is switched right now.
+
+Ship-dark, not a kill switch. Flags let work merge and deploy without becoming
+visible; they are expected to flip about monthly, by a person, deliberately.
+Nothing here does percentage rollouts or user targeting — the site has no user
+identity to target.
+
+Unleash holds the state. It does not hold the list. REGISTRY below is that
+list, and it exists for three reasons: the SDK evaluates an unknown flag to
+False, so without a registry that is an *undeclared* False, indistinguishable
+from a typo; /api/flags needs a key set to return when Unleash is unreachable;
+and a flag in the UI but not in the registry is orphaned and should be visibly
+so rather than quietly authoritative.
+
+Every flag defaults to False. There is no per-flag default, because a flag that
+defaults on is a kill switch, and this is not one.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import logging
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from datetime import date
+
+from .config import settings
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+# A flag is temporary scaffolding. See test_a_flag_older_than_the_limit.
+MAX_FLAG_AGE_DAYS = 90
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class Flag:
+    # One string: the registry key, the Unleash flag name, and the JSON key in
+    # /api/flags. snake_case, matching the API's existing convention. No case
+    # transformation anywhere, so there is no mapping layer to get wrong.
+    name: str
+    description: str          # one line: what turning this on reveals
+    added: date               # for the staleness tripwire
+
+
+REGISTRY: dict[str, Flag] = {
+    f.name: f for f in (
+        Flag(
+            name="admission_distance",
+            description=(
+                "The last-distance-offered figure on the Admissions tile and "
+                "the 'How far away are you?' section on school pages."
+            ),
+            added=date(2026, 8, 23),
+        ),
+    )
+}
+
+
+_client = None
+
+
+def init() -> None:
+    """Start the Unleash client, or log why flags are all off.
+
+    Called once from the app lifespan. Never raises: a flag system that can
+    stop the API from booting is worse than one that is switched off.
+    """
+    global _client
+    if not settings.unleash_url or not settings.unleash_api_token:
+        logger.warning(
+            "Unleash is not configured (UNLEASH_URL / UNLEASH_API_TOKEN); "
+            "every feature flag evaluates to False.")
+        return
+
+    try:
+        from UnleashClient import UnleashClient
+
+        _client = UnleashClient(
+            url=settings.unleash_url,
+            app_name=settings.unleash_app_name,
+            custom_headers={"Authorization": settings.unleash_api_token},
+            cache_directory=settings.unleash_cache_directory,
+            refresh_interval=15,
+        )
+        _client.initialize_client()
+        logger.info("Unleash client initialised against %s", settings.unleash_url)
+    except Exception:
+        # Fail closed and keep serving. The SDK also evaluates everything False
+        # until its first successful sync, so this is the same direction.
+        _client = None
+        logger.exception("Unleash client failed to start; flags are all False.")
+
+
+def is_enabled(name: str) -> bool:
+    """Whether `name` is on. False for anything unknown, unreachable or broken."""
+    if name not in REGISTRY:
+        logger.error(
+            "undeclared feature flag %r was evaluated; returning False. "
+            "Add it to backend/flags.py REGISTRY or fix the name.", name)
+        return False
+    if _client is None:
+        return False
+    try:
+        return bool(_client.is_enabled(
+            name, fallback_function=lambda feature_name, context: False))
+    except Exception:
+        logger.exception("flag %r failed to evaluate; returning False", name)
+        return False
+
+
+def all_flags() -> dict[str, bool]:
+    """Every declared flag and its current value. Serves /api/flags."""
+    return {name: is_enabled(name) for name in REGISTRY}

backend/places.py

@@ -30,6 +30,12 @@ class Place:
     name: str
     urns: tuple[int, ...]
     parent_authority: str | None    # authority NAME, for the 301 target
+    # Every authority the place meaningfully sits in, largest first. A quarter
+    # of outcodes and a third of towns straddle a boundary — SW19 is mostly
+    # Merton but partly Wandsworth — so naming only one asserts something
+    # false. parent_authority stays single because a redirect needs one
+    # target; this is what the page shows.
+    authorities: tuple[tuple[str, int], ...] = ()
     # URNs per phase, so the per-phase threshold can be applied without
     # re-querying. A place with 30 primaries and 2 secondaries publishes a
     # primary variant and no secondary one.
@@ -53,57 +59,151 @@ def _publishable_urns(df) -> set[int]:
     return set(df.loc[df[cols].notna().any(axis=1), "urn"].astype(int))
 
 
+# The measure a phase page is built around. A page with no results in this
+# column has nothing a list of school names does not already give.
+_PHASE_METRIC = {
+    "primary": "rwm_expected_pct",
+    "secondary": "attainment_8_score",
+}
+
+
 def _phase_urns(group, publishable: set[int]) -> dict[str, tuple[int, ...]]:
-    """URNs per phase. All-through schools count toward both, matching the
-    PHASE_GROUPS mapping the search filters already use."""
+    """URNs per phase, counting only schools with a result for that phase.
+
+    Not merely "publishable". A school with an Ofsted grade and no results is
+    worth a page of its own and belongs in the place list, but it cannot
+    populate a phase page's results column — and the threshold is there to ask
+    whether that column will have anything in it.
+
+    Counting publishable schools instead let /schools/kent/primary publish
+    with none of its five rows carrying a result, and left 44 phase pages
+    majority-blank. It is the same rule as "no page without a local average",
+    which was never extended per phase.
+
+    All-through schools count toward both phases, matching the PHASE_GROUPS
+    mapping the search filters already use.
+    """
     from backend.app import PHASE_GROUPS
 
     if "phase" not in group.columns:
         return {}
     lowered = group["phase"].fillna("").str.lower()
+
     out: dict[str, tuple[int, ...]] = {}
     for phase in ("primary", "secondary"):
         wanted = PHASE_GROUPS.get(phase, set())
         subset = group[lowered.isin(wanted)]
+
+        # The page lists every school of the phase; the threshold counts only
+        # those carrying a result, so a mostly-empty table never publishes.
+        metric = _PHASE_METRIC[phase]
+        with_result = (
+            {int(u) for u in subset.loc[subset[metric].notna(), "urn"]}
+            if metric in subset.columns else set()
+        )
+        if len(with_result & publishable) < MIN_SCHOOLS:
+            continue
+
         urns = tuple(sorted({int(u) for u in subset["urn"]} & publishable))
         if urns:
             out[phase] = urns
     return out
 
 
-def _parent_authority(group) -> str | None:
-    """The most common authority in a group — the useful 301 target.
+# A place is described by an authority when it holds at least a tenth of the
+# schools, and at least two. GIAS carries occasional postcode errors — EN6
+# lists two Shropshire schools among fourteen in Hertfordshire — and a bare
+# "any authority present" rule would print those as though they were real.
+# There is deliberately no cap on how many are named. An earlier cut stopped
+# at three, which silently dropped the fourth in exactly the case where the
+# information matters most — a genuinely fragmented place. The share rule is
+# the only limit, and it already bounds the list at ten.
+_AUTHORITY_MIN_SHARE = 0.10
+_AUTHORITY_MIN_SCHOOLS = 2
+
+
+def _authorities(group) -> tuple[tuple[str, int], ...]:
+    """Authorities this place meaningfully sits in, largest first."""
+    from backend.app import EXCLUDED_FILTER_VALUES
 
-    A town spanning several authorities has no single parent, so the mode is
-    the honest answer rather than an arbitrary first row.
-    """
     if "local_authority" not in group.columns:
-        return None
-    top = group["local_authority"].dropna()
-    return str(top.mode().iloc[0]) if not top.empty else None
+        return ()
+    counts = group["local_authority"].dropna().value_counts()
+    total = int(counts.sum())
+    if not total:
+        return ()
+
+    kept = [
+        (str(name), int(n)) for name, n in counts.items()
+        if str(name) not in EXCLUDED_FILTER_VALUES
+        and n >= _AUTHORITY_MIN_SCHOOLS
+        and n / total >= _AUTHORITY_MIN_SHARE
+    ]
+    # A place too small or too fragmented for the share rule still names its
+    # largest authority, or the page would say nothing about where it is.
+    if not kept:
+        for name, n in counts.items():
+            if str(name) not in EXCLUDED_FILTER_VALUES:
+                return ((str(name), int(n)),)
+        return ()
+    return tuple(kept)
+
+
+def _parent_authority(authorities: tuple[tuple[str, int], ...]) -> str | None:
+    """The 301 target: the largest authority a place sits in.
+
+    Derived from `authorities` rather than computed separately. The first cut
+    used `mode()` here while `authorities` used `value_counts()`, and on an
+    exact tie pandas does not guarantee the two pick the same name — so the
+    redirect could have pointed somewhere other than the authority the page
+    named first. One computation, one answer.
+
+    Deriving it also inherits the sentinel filter, so a place can no longer
+    redirect to /schools/authority/does-not-apply.
+    """
+    return authorities[0][0] if authorities else None
 
 
 def _group(df, column: str, kind: str, publishable: set[int]) -> dict[str, Place]:
-    """One Place per distinct value of `column` that clears the threshold."""
+    """One Place per distinct SLUG in `column` that clears the threshold.
+
+    Grouped by slug, not by raw value, because GIAS spells the same place
+    several ways and they all resolve to one URL. Five town slugs come from
+    more than one spelling: "London" (1,819 schools) and "LONDON" (12) both
+    slugify to `london`; Weston-super-Mare is split 14/19 across two
+    spellings; Newcastle-under-Lyme across three.
+
+    Grouping by raw value meant the later group simply overwrote the earlier
+    one in this dict — so /schools/london could have shown twelve schools
+    instead of 1,819, silently and depending on row order.
+
+    The display name is the most common spelling, which is the one a reader
+    expects to see.
+    """
     from backend.app import _slugify
 
     if column not in df.columns:
         return {}
 
+    working = df.assign(_slug=df[column].map(
+        lambda v: _slugify(str(v).strip()) if isinstance(v, str) and v.strip() else None))
+    working = working[working["_slug"].notna() & (working["_slug"] != "")]
+
     out: dict[str, Place] = {}
-    for name, group in df.groupby(column, dropna=True):
-        name = str(name).strip()
-        if not name:
-            continue
+    for slug, group in working.groupby("_slug"):
+        slug = str(slug)
         urns = tuple(sorted({int(u) for u in group["urn"]} & publishable))
         if len(urns) < MIN_SCHOOLS:
             continue
-        slug = _slugify(name)
-        if not slug:
+        spellings = group[column].dropna().value_counts()
+        if spellings.empty:
             continue
+        name = str(spellings.index[0]).strip()
+        authorities = () if kind == "authority" else _authorities(group)
         place = Place(
             kind=kind, slug=slug, name=name, urns=urns,
-            parent_authority=_parent_authority(group) if kind == "town" else None,
+            parent_authority=_parent_authority(authorities),
+            authorities=authorities,
             phase_urns=_phase_urns(group, publishable),
         )
         out[place.key] = place
@@ -124,7 +224,14 @@ def _outcode(postcode) -> str | None:
 def _outcode_places(df, publishable: set[int]) -> dict[str, Place]:
     """One Place per postcode district clearing the threshold.
 
-    These carry no phase variants: nobody searches "primary schools in SW11".
+    These carry no phase variants: nobody searches "primary schools in SW11",
+    so the spec gives them no /primary or /secondary route. `phase_urns` is
+    left empty rather than computed and then filtered downstream — the
+    registry is the one place that decides which phases a place publishes,
+    and the page links whatever it reports.
+
+    Computing them here put a link to a route that does not exist on every one
+    of the 1,720 outcode pages.
     """
     if "postcode" not in df.columns:
         return {}
@@ -136,9 +243,10 @@ def _outcode_places(df, publishable: set[int]) -> dict[str, Place]:
         urns = tuple(sorted({int(u) for u in group["urn"]} & publishable))
         if len(urns) < MIN_SCHOOLS:
             continue
+        authorities = _authorities(group)
         place = Place(kind="outcode", slug=str(oc).lower(), name=str(oc),
-                      urns=urns, parent_authority=_parent_authority(group),
-                      phase_urns=_phase_urns(group, publishable))
+                      urns=urns, parent_authority=_parent_authority(authorities),
+                      authorities=authorities)
         out[place.key] = place
     return out
 
@@ -179,8 +287,10 @@ def _locality_places(df, publishable: set[int],
                 "threshold of %d - not published",
                 slug, ", ".join(outcodes), len(urns), MIN_SCHOOLS)
             continue
+        authorities = _authorities(group)
         place = Place(kind="locality", slug=slug, name=name, urns=urns,
-                      parent_authority=_parent_authority(group),
+                      parent_authority=_parent_authority(authorities),
+                      authorities=authorities,
                       phase_urns=_phase_urns(group, publishable))
         out[place.key] = place
     return out

backend/tests/test_flags.py

@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+"""Tests for the feature flag layer (spec 2026-08-23).
+
+None of these need a running Unleash. That is the point: an unset UNLEASH_URL
+means every flag is False, which is what local development and CI get.
+"""
+
+from datetime import date, timedelta
+
+from backend import flags
+
+
+def test_every_declared_flag_is_keyed_by_its_own_name():
+    # One string is the registry key, the Unleash flag name and the JSON key.
+    # A mismatch here would mean the UI toggles a flag the code never reads.
+    for key, flag in flags.REGISTRY.items():
+        assert key == flag.name
+
+
+def test_flag_names_are_snake_case():
+    # Matches the API's existing convention (admission_distance,
+    # rwm_expected_pct) so no case transformation exists to get wrong.
+    for name in flags.REGISTRY:
+        assert name == name.lower()
+        assert "-" not in name and " " not in name
+
+
+def test_an_unconfigured_client_evaluates_every_flag_false(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", None)
+    for name in flags.REGISTRY:
+        assert flags.is_enabled(name) is False
+
+
+def test_an_undeclared_flag_is_false_rather_than_an_error(monkeypatch):
+    # A typo'd flag name must not raise in a request path. It is logged as an
+    # error, because an undeclared flag is always a bug.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", None)
+    assert flags.is_enabled("no_such_flag") is False
+
+
+def test_an_exploding_client_is_false_rather_than_a_500(monkeypatch):
+    class Boom:
+        def is_enabled(self, *a, **kw):
+            raise RuntimeError("unleash is on fire")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", Boom())
+    name = next(iter(flags.REGISTRY))
+    assert flags.is_enabled(name) is False
+
+
+def test_all_flags_reports_every_declared_flag(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", None)
+    assert set(flags.all_flags()) == set(flags.REGISTRY)
+    assert all(v is False for v in flags.all_flags().values())
+
+
+def test_a_flag_older_than_the_limit_fails_this_test():
+    """A tripwire, not an assertion about correctness.
+
+    Flags are temporary scaffolding and the failure mode of every flag system
+    is accumulation. This fails on the day a flag turns 90, on whatever PR
+    happens to be open — which is the point: someone has to decide.
+
+    To fix: delete the flag and the branches that read it, or, if it genuinely
+    still needs to exist, move its `added` date and say why in the commit.
+    """
+    stale = [
+        f.name for f in flags.REGISTRY.values()
+        if date.today() - f.added > timedelta(days=flags.MAX_FLAG_AGE_DAYS)
+    ]
+    assert not stale, (
+        f"Flags older than {flags.MAX_FLAG_AGE_DAYS} days: {stale}. "
+        "Remove the flag and the code branches it guards, or move its `added` "
+        "date deliberately."
+    )
+
+
+def _client():
+    from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
+    from backend import app as app_module
+    return TestClient(app_module.app, raise_server_exceptions=False)
+
+
+def test_the_flags_endpoint_lists_every_declared_flag(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", None)
+    body = _client().get("/api/flags").json()
+    assert set(body) == set(flags.REGISTRY)
+
+
+def test_the_flags_endpoint_answers_false_when_unleash_is_unreachable(monkeypatch):
+    # The endpoint must still answer. A frontend that cannot read flags renders
+    # everything dark, which is right; one that gets a 500 renders nothing.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "_client", None)
+    res = _client().get("/api/flags")
+    assert res.status_code == 200
+    assert all(v is False for v in res.json().values())
+
+
+def _school_payload(monkeypatch, *, flag_on: bool):
+    """Fetch one school's payload with the distance flag forced on or off.
+
+    The DataFrame shape is copied from test_school_details.py rather than
+    minimised: the endpoint reads a wide set of GIAS columns, and a trimmed
+    frame fails for reasons that have nothing to do with flags.
+    """
+    import numpy as np
+    import pandas as pd
+    from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
+    from backend import app as app_module
+
+    df = pd.DataFrame([{
+        "urn": 150275,
+        "school_name": "West London Performing Arts Academy",
+        "phase": "Secondary",
+        "school_type": "Special post 16 institution",
+        "trust_name": None,
+        "religious_denomination": "Does not apply",
+        "gender": None,
+        "age_range": "16-25",
+        "admissions_policy": None,
+        "capacity": np.nan,
+        "gias_total_pupils": np.nan,
+        "headteacher_name": None,
+        "website": None,
+        "ofsted_grade": np.nan,
+        "local_authority": "Ealing",
+        "address": "268 Northfield Avenue, London, W5 4UB",
+        "postcode": "W5 4UB",
+        "latitude": 51.4986,
+        "longitude": -0.3148,
+        "year": np.nan,
+        "total_pupils": np.nan,
+        "eligible_pupils": np.nan,
+        "rwm_expected_pct": np.nan,
+    }])
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "load_school_data", lambda: df)
+    # Two arguments: get_supplementary_data(db, urn). See backend/app.py.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        app_module, "get_supplementary_data",
+        lambda db, urn: {"admission_distance": {"distance_m": 772.49,
+                                                "year": 2024}})
+    monkeypatch.setattr(flags, "is_enabled", lambda name: flag_on)
+
+    client = TestClient(app_module.app, raise_server_exceptions=False)
+    res = client.get("/api/schools/150275")
+    assert res.status_code == 200, res.text
+    return res.json()
+
+
+def test_the_distance_field_is_absent_when_the_flag_is_off(monkeypatch):
+    """Absent, not null, and withheld at the source.
+
+    /api/schools/ is public and unauthenticated. Leaving a withheld field in
+    the payload while declining to render it hands the record to anyone who
+    opens the network tab — the reasoning already recorded in c9a1892.
+    """
+    body = _school_payload(monkeypatch, flag_on=False)
+    assert "admission_distance" not in body
+
+
+def test_the_distance_field_is_present_when_the_flag_is_on(monkeypatch):
+    body = _school_payload(monkeypatch, flag_on=True)
+    assert body["admission_distance"]["distance_m"] == 772.49

backend/tests/test_places.py

@@ -229,3 +229,192 @@ def test_no_curated_locality_names_a_london_borough():
         f"these are boroughs, not districts: {sorted(named)} - they already "
         "have an authority page covering every school"
     )
+
+
+def test_a_place_names_every_authority_it_straddles():
+    """SW19 is mostly Merton but partly Wandsworth.
+
+    A quarter of viable outcodes and a third of viable towns cross an
+    authority boundary, so naming only the largest asserts something false.
+    """
+    rows = (_town(26, "London", "Merton", start=300000)
+            + _town(7, "London", "Wandsworth", start=400000))
+    for r in rows:
+        r["postcode"] = "SW19 1AA"
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+
+    names = [n for n, _ in reg["outcode:sw19"].authorities]
+    assert names == ["Merton", "Wandsworth"]          # largest first
+    assert dict(reg["outcode:sw19"].authorities)["Wandsworth"] == 7
+
+
+def test_the_redirect_target_stays_a_single_authority():
+    # parent_authority and authorities do different jobs: a 301 needs one
+    # target, the page needs the truth.
+    rows = (_town(26, "London", "Merton", start=300000)
+            + _town(7, "London", "Wandsworth", start=400000))
+    for r in rows:
+        r["postcode"] = "SW19 1AA"
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert reg["outcode:sw19"].parent_authority == "Merton"
+
+
+def test_a_stray_authority_below_the_share_threshold_is_not_named():
+    # GIAS carries postcode errors — EN6 lists two Shropshire schools among
+    # fourteen in Hertfordshire. Printing those as though real would be worse
+    # than omitting them.
+    rows = (_town(30, "Barnet", "Hertfordshire", start=300000)
+            + _town(1, "Barnet", "Shropshire", start=400000))
+    for r in rows:
+        r["postcode"] = "EN6 1AA"
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert [n for n, _ in reg["outcode:en6"].authorities] == ["Hertfordshire"]
+
+
+def test_a_sentinel_authority_is_never_named():
+    rows = (_town(20, "London", "Merton", start=300000)
+            + _town(6, "London", "Does not apply", start=400000))
+    for r in rows:
+        r["postcode"] = "SW19 1AA"
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert [n for n, _ in reg["outcode:sw19"].authorities] == ["Merton"]
+
+
+def test_a_place_always_names_at_least_one_authority():
+    # Even when every authority is below the share threshold, the page has to
+    # say where the place is.
+    rows = []
+    for i, la in enumerate(["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G"]):
+        rows += _town(1, "Fragmented", la, start=300000 + i * 100)
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    place = reg.get("town:fragmented")
+    assert place is not None
+    assert len(place.authorities) == 1
+
+
+def test_every_qualifying_authority_is_named_with_no_cap():
+    """An earlier cut stopped at three, dropping the fourth silently.
+
+    That truncation bit exactly where the information matters most — a
+    genuinely fragmented place — and nothing recorded it.
+    """
+    rows = []
+    for i, la in enumerate(["Hackney", "Lambeth", "Westminster", "Lewisham"]):
+        rows += _town(3, "Fourway", la, start=300000 + i * 100)
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert len(reg["town:fourway"].authorities) == 4
+
+
+def test_the_redirect_target_is_the_authority_named_first():
+    """They were computed separately — mode() against value_counts() — and on
+    an exact tie pandas does not guarantee the two agree."""
+    rows = (_town(26, "London", "Merton", start=300000)
+            + _town(7, "London", "Wandsworth", start=400000))
+    for r in rows:
+        r["postcode"] = "SW19 1AA"
+    place = build_place_registry(_df(rows))["outcode:sw19"]
+    assert place.parent_authority == place.authorities[0][0]
+
+
+def test_a_place_never_redirects_to_a_sentinel_authority():
+    # Deriving the parent from `authorities` inherits its sentinel filter.
+    rows = (_town(6, "Someplace", "Does not apply", start=300000)
+            + _town(5, "Someplace", "Essex", start=400000))
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert reg["town:someplace"].parent_authority == "Essex"
+
+
+def test_spellings_of_one_place_are_merged_not_overwritten():
+    """GIAS spells the same place several ways, and they share a URL.
+
+    "London" (1,819 schools) and "LONDON" (12) both slugify to `london`.
+    Grouping by raw value let the later group overwrite the earlier one, so
+    the page could have shown twelve schools instead of 1,819 — silently, and
+    depending on row order.
+    """
+    rows = (_town(6, "Weston-super-Mare", "North Somerset", start=300000)
+            + _town(5, "Weston-Super-Mare", "North Somerset", start=400000))
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert len(reg["town:weston-super-mare"].urns) == 11
+
+
+def test_the_merged_place_takes_its_most_common_spelling():
+    rows = (_town(9, "Newcastle-under-Lyme", "Staffordshire", start=300000)
+            + _town(5, "NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME", "Staffordshire", start=400000))
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert reg["town:newcastle-under-lyme"].name == "Newcastle-under-Lyme"
+
+
+def test_a_phase_page_needs_results_not_merely_publishable_schools():
+    """/schools/kent/primary published with none of its five rows scored.
+
+    The threshold counted schools that were publishable — a result OR an
+    Ofsted grade — while the page exists for its results column. Forty-four
+    phase pages were majority-blank; one had no results at all.
+    """
+    rows = _town(MIN_SCHOOLS, "Kent", "Kent")
+    for r in rows:
+        r["rwm_expected_pct"] = np.nan     # Ofsted only, no results
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+
+    assert "town:kent" in reg               # the place still publishes
+    assert not reg["town:kent"].publishes_phase("primary")
+
+
+def test_a_phase_page_publishes_once_enough_schools_carry_a_result():
+    rows = _town(MIN_SCHOOLS, "Beccles", "Suffolk")
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert reg["town:beccles"].publishes_phase("primary")
+
+
+def test_a_publishing_phase_page_still_lists_its_unscored_schools():
+    """The threshold gates whether the page exists; it does not filter rows.
+
+    A parent looking up a school by name has to find it whether or not it
+    published results.
+    """
+    scored = _town(MIN_SCHOOLS, "Beccles", "Suffolk", start=300000)
+    unscored = _town(2, "Beccles", "Suffolk", start=400000)
+    for r in unscored:
+        r["rwm_expected_pct"] = np.nan
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(scored + unscored))
+
+    place = reg["town:beccles"]
+    assert place.publishes_phase("primary")
+    assert len(place.phase_urns["primary"]) == MIN_SCHOOLS + 2
+
+
+def test_the_secondary_threshold_counts_its_own_metric():
+    # A town full of scored primaries must not thereby publish a secondary page.
+    rows = _town(MIN_SCHOOLS, "Brentwood", "Essex")
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+    assert not reg["town:brentwood"].publishes_phase("secondary")
+
+
+def test_an_outcode_publishes_no_phase_variants():
+    """There is no /schools/near/[outcode]/[phase] route, by design.
+
+    Nobody searches "primary schools in SW11", so the spec gives outcodes no
+    phase variants. The registry computed them anyway, and the place page —
+    which links whatever phases the registry reports — put two 404s on every
+    outcode page in the site.
+
+    This is the single rule now: a kind with no phase route reports no phases,
+    so neither the page nor the sitemap can offer one.
+    """
+    rows = [{"urn": 500000 + i, "school_name": f"SW11 School {i}",
+             "town": "London", "local_authority": "Wandsworth",
+             "postcode": "SW11 1AA"} for i in range(MIN_SCHOOLS + 3)]
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(rows))
+
+    place = reg["outcode:sw11"]
+    assert place.phase_urns == {}
+    assert not place.publishes_phase("primary")
+    assert not place.publishes_phase("secondary")
+
+
+def test_an_authority_still_publishes_phase_variants():
+    """Authorities keep theirs — "primary schools in Kent" is a real query,
+    and /schools/authority/[la]/[phase] is the route that serves it."""
+    reg = build_place_registry(_df(_town(MIN_SCHOOLS, "Maidstone", "Kent")))
+    assert reg["authority:kent"].publishes_phase("primary")

backend/tests/test_places_api.py

@@ -45,10 +45,30 @@ def test_registry_carries_a_count_per_place(client):
     assert town["count"] == 6
 
 
-def test_place_detail_returns_its_schools_ranked(client):
+def test_place_detail_returns_its_schools_alphabetically(client):
+    """A place page is read by someone looking for a school they can name.
+
+    Scanning for it is what the order should serve, so the list is A-Z.
+    /api/rankings is where the league-table ordering lives.
+    """
     body = client.get("/api/places/town/brentwood").json()
     assert body["place"]["name"] == "Brentwood"
-    scores = [s["rwm_expected_pct"] for s in body["schools"]]
+    names = [s["school_name"] for s in body["schools"]]
+    assert names == sorted(names, key=str.lower)
+
+
+def test_place_ordering_ignores_case(client):
+    body = client.get("/api/places/town/brentwood").json()
+    names = [s["school_name"] for s in body["schools"]]
+    # A capitalised name must not sort ahead of every lowercase one.
+    assert names == sorted(names, key=str.lower)
+
+
+def test_the_rankings_endpoint_still_ranks_by_metric(client):
+    # Alphabetical is a place-page decision, not a site-wide one.
+    body = client.get("/api/rankings?metric=rwm_expected_pct&phase=primary").json()
+    scores = [r["rwm_expected_pct"] for r in body.get("rankings", [])
+              if r.get("rwm_expected_pct") is not None]
     assert scores == sorted(scores, reverse=True)
 
 
@@ -69,3 +89,51 @@ def test_unknown_place_404s(client):
 
 def test_unknown_kind_404s(client):
     assert client.get("/api/places/planet/mars").status_code == 404
+
+
+def _straddling_df() -> pd.DataFrame:
+    """Eight schools in CM13: six in Essex, which has a page, and two in an
+    authority too small to have one.
+
+    Two, not one: the registry ignores an authority holding a single school in
+    a place, because GIAS carries occasional postcode errors."""
+    df = _schools_df()
+    extra = df.iloc[:2].copy()
+    extra["urn"] = [200000, 200001]
+    extra["school_name"] = ["Scilly School 0", "Scilly School 1"]
+    extra["local_authority"] = "Isles Of Scilly"
+    return pd.concat([df, extra], ignore_index=True)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+def straddling_client(monkeypatch):
+    from backend import app as app_module
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "load_school_data", _straddling_df)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "load_latest_school_data", _straddling_df)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "_place_registry", None)
+    return TestClient(app_module.app, raise_server_exceptions=False)
+
+
+def test_an_outcode_reports_no_phases_because_it_has_no_phase_route(client):
+    body = client.get("/api/places/outcode/cm13").json()
+    assert body["place"]["phases"] == []
+
+
+def test_an_authority_reports_the_phases_it_publishes(client):
+    body = client.get("/api/places/authority/essex").json()
+    assert body["place"]["phases"] == ["primary"]
+
+
+def test_an_authority_without_a_page_is_named_but_carries_no_slug(straddling_client):
+    """Two English authorities — City of London and the Isles of Scilly — hold
+    fewer than the five schools a page needs, so they have no page.
+
+    Naming them is still right: the page says where the place is. Linking them
+    would not be. A null slug is what tells the page to print the name plainly
+    rather than invent a URL that 404s.
+    """
+    body = straddling_client.get("/api/places/outcode/cm13").json()
+    by_name = {a["name"]: a for a in body["place"]["authorities"]}
+    assert by_name["Essex"]["slug"] == "essex"
+    assert by_name["Isles Of Scilly"]["slug"] is None

backend/tests/test_sitemap.py

@@ -288,3 +288,19 @@ def test_outcodes_get_no_phase_variants(place_sitemaps):
     # Nobody searches "primary schools in CM13"; the routes do not exist.
     xml = place_sitemaps["outcodes-1.xml"]
     assert "/primary" not in xml and "/secondary" not in xml
+
+
+def test_authority_phase_variants_are_submitted_in_their_own_namespace(place_sitemaps):
+    """302 of these were already in the sitemap, and every one 404'd.
+
+    The spec gives authorities a phase route; the plan built the bare
+    authority route and dropped it. Nothing noticed because the sitemap was
+    written from the registry, which was right, while the routes were written
+    by hand. This test fails if the URL ever leaves the sitemap; the e2e
+    journey fails if the route ever leaves the app.
+    """
+    xml = place_sitemaps["places-1.xml"]
+    assert ("<loc>https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk"
+            "/schools/authority/essex/primary</loc>") in xml
+    # And never in the town namespace, which is a different set of schools.
+    assert "/schools/essex/primary" not in xml

docker-compose.portainer.staging.yml

@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 #   ADMIN_API_KEY          — Backend admin API key
 #   TYPESENSE_API_KEY      — Typesense admin API key
 #   TYPESENSE_SEARCH_KEY   — Typesense search-only key (exposed to frontend)
+#   UNLEASH_URL            — http://<unleash-ip>:4242/api (empty = all flags off)
+#   UNLEASH_API_TOKEN      — Unleash *client* token, environment: development
 #   AIRFLOW_ADMIN_USER     — Airflow admin username (password auto-generated, see api-server logs)
 #   STAGING_DB_IP          — macvlan IP for staging Postgres (default 10.0.1.190)
 #   STAGING_FRONTEND_IP    — macvlan IP for staging frontend (default 10.0.1.151)
@@ -55,6 +57,12 @@ services:
       ADMIN_API_KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY:-changeme}
       TYPESENSE_URL: http://typesense:8108
       TYPESENSE_API_KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY:-changeme}
+      # Unset means every feature flag is False — the correct dark state for an
+      # environment with no Unleash, not a failure.
+      UNLEASH_URL: ${UNLEASH_URL:-}
+      UNLEASH_API_TOKEN: ${UNLEASH_API_TOKEN:-}
+    volumes:
+      - unleash_cache:/app/.unleash
     depends_on:
       sc_database:
         condition: service_healthy
@@ -212,3 +220,4 @@ volumes:
   postgres_data:
   typesense_data:
   airflow_logs:
+  unleash_cache:

docker-compose.portainer.unleash.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# Portainer Stack Definition for School Compare — UNLEASH (feature flags)
+#
+# Deploy as a *separate* Portainer stack ("schoolcompare-unleash"), alongside
+# the production and staging stacks. It deliberately belongs to neither: a
+# staging redeploy must not be able to disturb production's flag state, and a
+# production redeploy must not disturb staging's.
+#
+# One instance serves both environments. Open-source Unleash ships with
+# `development` and `production` environments and environment-scoped client
+# tokens, so the same flag holds independent state in each — which is what
+# lets a feature be on in staging, where the E2E journeys exercise it, while
+# production stays dark.
+#
+# Portainer environment variables (set in Portainer UI -> Stack -> Environment):
+#   UNLEASH_DB_PASSWORD    — PostgreSQL password for the Unleash database
+#   UNLEASH_ADMIN_PASSWORD — initial admin password for the Unleash UI
+#   UNLEASH_IP             — macvlan IP for the Unleash server (default 10.0.1.152)
+
+services:
+
+  # ── PostgreSQL (Unleash's own; nothing else uses it) ──────────────────
+  unleash_db:
+    container_name: sc_unleash_postgres
+    image: postgres:16-alpine
+    environment:
+      POSTGRES_USER: unleash
+      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${UNLEASH_DB_PASSWORD}
+      POSTGRES_DB: unleash
+    volumes:
+      - unleash_postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    networks:
+      - unleash
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U unleash"]
+      interval: 10s
+      timeout: 5s
+      retries: 5
+      start_period: 10s
+    restart: unless-stopped
+
+  # ── Unleash server (UI + client API on 4242) ──────────────────────────
+  unleash:
+    container_name: sc_unleash
+    image: unleashorg/unleash-server:6
+    environment:
+      DATABASE_URL: postgres://unleash:${UNLEASH_DB_PASSWORD}@unleash_db:5432/unleash
+      DATABASE_SSL: "false"
+      INIT_ADMIN_API_TOKENS: ""
+      UNLEASH_DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${UNLEASH_ADMIN_PASSWORD}
+    depends_on:
+      unleash_db:
+        condition: service_healthy
+    networks:
+      unleash: {}
+      macvlan:
+        ipv4_address: ${UNLEASH_IP:-10.0.1.152}
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://localhost:4242/health || exit 1"]
+      interval: 30s
+      timeout: 10s
+      retries: 3
+      start_period: 30s
+    restart: unless-stopped
+
+networks:
+  unleash:
+    driver: bridge
+  macvlan:
+    external:
+      name: macvlan
+
+volumes:
+  unleash_postgres_data:

docker-compose.portainer.yml

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 #   ADMIN_API_KEY          — Backend admin API key
 #   TYPESENSE_API_KEY      — Typesense admin API key
 #   TYPESENSE_SEARCH_KEY   — Typesense search-only key (exposed to frontend)
+#   UNLEASH_URL            — http://<unleash-ip>:4242/api (empty = all flags off)
+#   UNLEASH_API_TOKEN      — Unleash *client* token, environment: production
 #   AIRFLOW_ADMIN_USER     — Airflow admin username (password auto-generated, see api-server logs)
 
 services:
@@ -44,6 +46,12 @@ services:
       ADMIN_API_KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY:-changeme}
       TYPESENSE_URL: http://typesense:8108
       TYPESENSE_API_KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY:-changeme}
+      # Unset means every feature flag is False — the correct dark state for an
+      # environment with no Unleash, not a failure.
+      UNLEASH_URL: ${UNLEASH_URL:-}
+      UNLEASH_API_TOKEN: ${UNLEASH_API_TOKEN:-}
+    volumes:
+      - unleash_cache:/app/.unleash
     depends_on:
       sc_database:
         condition: service_healthy
@@ -201,3 +209,4 @@ volumes:
   postgres_data:
   typesense_data:
   airflow_logs:
+  unleash_cache:

docker-compose.yml

@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@ services:
       ADMIN_API_KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY:-changeme}
       TYPESENSE_URL: http://typesense:8108
       TYPESENSE_API_KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY:-changeme}
+      # Unset means every feature flag is False — the correct dark state for an
+      # environment with no Unleash, not a failure.
+      UNLEASH_URL: ${UNLEASH_URL:-}
+      UNLEASH_API_TOKEN: ${UNLEASH_API_TOKEN:-}
     volumes:
       - ./data:/app/data:ro
     depends_on:

docs/DEPLOY.md

@@ -150,3 +150,73 @@ token Gitea Actions provides automatically (`secrets.GITEA_TOKEN` — no setup
 needed), and fails the check only when a finding is rated
 **severe** (would break prod, leak data, or corrupt data). Minor findings are
 informational and never block a merge.
+
+## Feature flags (Unleash)
+
+Flag state lives in a self-hosted Unleash instance, deployed as its own
+Portainer stack from `docker-compose.portainer.unleash.yml`. It is separate
+from the application stacks on purpose — redeploying staging must not be able
+to disturb production's flags.
+
+The flags themselves are declared in `backend/flags.py`. Unleash holds the
+state; the registry holds the list. A flag in the UI that is not in the
+registry is orphaned and nothing reads it.
+
+### First-time setup
+
+1. Deploy the stack in Portainer. Set `UNLEASH_DB_PASSWORD`,
+   `UNLEASH_ADMIN_PASSWORD` and (optionally) `UNLEASH_IP`.
+2. Log in to the UI at `http://<UNLEASH_IP>:4242` as `admin`.
+3. Create one **client** API token per environment:
+   - `schoolcompare-staging`, environment **development**
+   - `schoolcompare-prod`, environment **production**
+
+   Client tokens, not admin tokens — the backend only reads.
+4. Put each token in the matching Portainer stack's `UNLEASH_API_TOKEN`
+   variable, and set `UNLEASH_URL` to `http://<UNLEASH_IP>:4242/api`.
+5. Redeploy the application stacks.
+
+### Adding a flag to Unleash
+
+**Unleash does not create flags by itself.** The SDK reads definitions from the
+server and never registers anything, and metrics for a flag the server has
+never heard of are discarded. So a flag declared in `backend/flags.py` will be
+evaluated on every request, stay `False` forever, and never appear in the UI
+until someone creates it there by hand.
+
+For each flag in the registry, create one in Unleash with:
+
+- **Name** — character for character what `backend/flags.py` declares.
+  snake_case, no hyphens or spaces. A typo produces a flag that looks correct
+  in the UI and is read by nothing.
+- **Type** — Release. No strategies, constraints or variants: these are plain
+  on/off switches, by design.
+
+### Turning a feature on
+
+Toggle the flag in the environment matching the stack you mean: **development**
+for staging, **production** for prod. The token in each stack is scoped to one
+environment, so toggling the other one has no visible effect.
+
+The SDK refreshes every 15 seconds, so the API reflects the change almost at
+once; the pages follow on their own schedule, below.
+
+A flip reaches school pages within about five minutes and place pages within
+the hour. Next's ISR does the propagating — it revalidates a route at the
+*lowest* `revalidate` among that route's fetches, which is 300s for
+`/school/[slug]` and 3600s for the place pages. There is no webhook, and
+adding one would only be worth it if flips ever needed to be instant.
+
+### When Unleash is unreachable
+
+Every flag evaluates to `False` and the site serves as though nothing were
+switched on. That is deliberate — an unfinished feature staying hidden is the
+safe direction — but it means a *released* feature disappears if a backend
+container cold-starts with an empty cache while Unleash is down. The SDK's
+disk cache is on a named volume so restarts keep last-known state, and flags
+are removed from the code within 90 days (enforced by a test), which bounds
+how long any feature is exposed to this.
+
+If `UNLEASH_URL` is unset, every flag is `False` and no connection is
+attempted. That is the correct behaviour for local development and CI, and it
+means the test suites need no flag server.

docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-23-feature-flags-design.md

@@ -0,0 +1,294 @@
+# Feature Flags — Design
+
+**Date:** 2026-08-23
+**Status:** approved for planning
+**First consumer:** the last-distance-offered feature (`admission_distance`)
+
+## Goal
+
+Let work merge to `main` and deploy to production without becoming visible,
+so that releasing a feature stops being the same event as deploying it.
+
+The site has no way to do this today. A feature is either on `main` and live,
+or it is on a branch. That forces long-lived branches for anything not ready,
+and it makes every promotion to production an all-or-nothing decision about
+everything queued behind it.
+
+This is a **ship-dark** capability, not a kill switch. Flags are expected to
+flip on the order of once a month, by a person, deliberately. Nothing here is
+designed for flipping something off in seconds under pressure, and nothing
+here does percentage rollouts, user targeting or A/B tests — the site has no
+user identity to target.
+
+## Decision: Unleash
+
+Flag state is held in a self-hosted [Unleash](https://www.getunleash.io/)
+instance (Apache-2.0), not in the repository.
+
+A lighter option was considered and rejected by the project owner: a typed
+registry in each runtime with environment-variable overrides set in the
+Portainer stack files, which would have needed no new container and kept flag
+state in git. The argument for Unleash is that it provides a UI and an audit
+log without a deploy, and that flags are expected to become an ongoing
+operational tool rather than an occasional one.
+
+Two consequences follow from choosing a service, and this design exists mostly
+to handle them:
+
+1. **Flag state lives outside the repository.** `main` is no longer the whole
+   truth about what is switched on. The registry in §2 exists to bound that.
+2. **A flag can change without a deploy**, so nothing else clears the caches
+   that a deploy would have cleared. §4 establishes how long a flip takes to
+   become visible, and why that is short enough to need no extra mechanism.
+
+Also considered: Flagsmith (heavier — Django, Postgres and Redis), GrowthBook
+(requires MongoDB), and Flipt v2 (the closest conceptual fit, git-native, but
+now under the Fair Core Licence — source-available, not OSI open source).
+
+## 1. Topology
+
+A third Portainer stack, `docker-compose.portainer.unleash.yml`, holding
+`unleashorg/unleash-server` and its own PostgreSQL 16. It is on the macvlan so
+both application stacks can reach it, and it belongs to neither of them — a
+staging redeploy must not be able to disturb production's flag state, and vice
+versa.
+
+One instance serves both environments. Open-source Unleash ships with
+`development` and `production` environments and environment-scoped client
+tokens, so the same flag holds independent state in each: staging's FastAPI
+carries a `development` token, production's carries a `production` one.
+
+That property is what makes ship-dark testable. A feature can be **on in
+staging and off in production** for as long as it takes, which means the `e2e/`
+journeys exercise it against staging while production stays unchanged.
+
+## 2. The registry
+
+Unleash supplies flag *state* and the toggle UI. It does not supply the list of
+flags. `backend/flags.py` declares every flag the code knows about:
+
+```python
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class Flag:
+    name: str            # identical in the registry, in Unleash, and in JSON
+    description: str     # one line: what turning this on reveals
+    added: date          # for the staleness test in §8
+```
+
+**Every flag defaults to `False`.** There is no per-flag default field, because
+a flag that defaults on is not a ship-dark flag — it is a kill switch, and this
+design does not offer one. A single unconditional default also means the
+fallback path has no branching to get wrong.
+
+Three reasons the registry is not optional:
+
+- The Unleash SDK evaluates an unknown flag to `False`. Without a registry that
+  is an *undeclared* false — indistinguishable from a typo in a flag name.
+- `/api/flags` needs a key set to return when Unleash is unreachable. It cannot
+  enumerate flags it has never heard of.
+- A flag present in the Unleash UI but absent from the registry is orphaned,
+  and should be visibly so rather than quietly authoritative.
+
+**Naming.** One string, used unchanged as the registry key, the Unleash flag
+name, and the JSON key in `/api/flags`. It is snake_case, matching the API's
+existing convention (`admission_distance`, `rwm_expected_pct`) and the mirrored
+types in `nextjs-app/lib/types.ts`. No case transformation anywhere, so there
+is no mapping layer to get wrong.
+
+## 3. Read paths
+
+### Backend
+
+`backend/flags.py` wraps `UnleashClient` behind `is_enabled(name: str) -> bool`.
+
+Fail-closed is the default rather than something added: the Python SDK
+evaluates every flag to `False` until it has synchronised with the server. An
+unfinished feature therefore stays hidden when Unleash is unreachable, which is
+the correct direction for ship-dark.
+
+The SDK's fcache directory is mounted on a named volume so a container restart
+during an Unleash outage keeps last-known state rather than reverting a
+released feature to dark. The registry default remains `False`, so the worst
+case is a feature disappearing, never one appearing.
+
+### Frontend
+
+`nextjs-app/lib/flags.ts` exposes `getFlags(): Promise<Flags>`, a single
+server-side fetch of `/api/flags` returning a typed record. Server components
+only — no flag value reaches the browser bundle, and `package.json` gains no
+Unleash dependency. The Unleash client library stays entirely inside the
+service that already owns every other piece of data the frontend renders.
+
+The cost, named plainly: a purely front-end flag must still be declared in a
+Python file. It is a flat data edit rather than programming, and the return is
+one list, so nobody has to ask which service knows about a given flag.
+
+### `/api/flags` must not be publicly reachable
+
+`nextjs-app/app/api/[...path]/route.ts` proxies **everything** under `/api/` to
+FastAPI. Left alone, `https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/api/flags` would return
+`{"admission_distance": false, ...}` — publishing the name and state of every
+unreleased feature, which defeats the purpose of shipping dark.
+
+The proxy therefore gains a denylist, and `flags` is on it: a request for a
+denied path returns 404 rather than being forwarded. Next's own `getFlags()` is
+unaffected because it calls `FASTAPI_URL` directly across the Docker network
+and never transits the public proxy.
+
+This is a general hole rather than a flags-specific one — the proxy will
+forward any future internal endpoint too — so the denylist is written as a
+named constant with a comment saying what belongs on it.
+
+## 4. Propagation
+
+**Time-based revalidation is sufficient. There is no webhook.**
+
+An earlier draft of this section specified two Unleash webhooks and a
+`revalidateTag('flags')` purge, on the premise that pages cache for seven days.
+That premise was wrong, and checking it removed the most complex part of the
+design.
+
+Next uses the **lowest** `revalidate` among a route's fetches to set the
+revalidation frequency of the whole route — the segment-level
+`export const revalidate` does not override a lower value inside it. Measured
+against this codebase:
+
+| Page family | Segment | Lowest fetch | Effective |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `/school/[slug]` | 604800 | `fetchSchoolDetails` at 300 | **5 minutes** |
+| `/schools/*` | 604800 | `fetchNationalAverages` at 3600 | **1 hour** |
+
+The Unleash SDK polls every 15 seconds, so a flip reaches school pages within
+about five minutes and place pages within the hour, unaided. Flags flip
+monthly, by hand, deliberately. That is fast enough.
+
+What this removes: two webhook integrations, a `/api/revalidate-flags` route, a
+shared-secret-in-a-query-string scheme, an idempotency requirement against
+duplicate and out-of-order delivery, and a rule that every fetch in
+`nextjs-app/lib/` carry a cache tag. None of it has to be built, maintained, or
+kept correct as new fetches are added.
+
+**If instant flips are ever wanted**, the webhook is the way to add them, and it
+is purely additive — nothing in this design has to change first.
+
+### Two constraints this leaves behind
+
+**Never flag content on a `force-static` page.** `app/admissions/page.tsx`
+declares `export const dynamic = 'force-static'`, so it is baked at build time
+and never revalidates. A flag gating anything on such a page would not take
+effect until the next deploy, silently. If a flag ever needs to reach one, that
+page must first move to ISR.
+
+**A route-family flag still needs the sitemap rebuilt.** The sitemap is held in
+memory and rebuilt only at startup or via `POST /api/admin/regenerate-sitemap`.
+No flag in scope touches the sitemap (§6), so this is deferred with the route
+case rather than solved now — but a route flag must not ship without it, or the
+sitemap will advertise URLs that `notFound()`.
+
+## 5. What "off" means, per surface
+
+| Surface | Off |
+|---|---|
+| Route | `notFound()`, **and** absent from the sitemap, **and** absent from nav |
+| UI element | Not rendered; surrounding page byte-identical to today |
+| API field | Key **absent**, not `null` |
+| API endpoint | 404, not 403 |
+
+The three parts of the route rule move together or not at all. Submitting URLs
+to Google that return 404 is the bug fixed in PR #124, and a flag is a new way
+to reintroduce it.
+
+An API field is withheld **at the source**, never rendered-but-hidden. The
+precedent is already set in this codebase by commit `c9a1892`: `/api/schools/`
+is public and unauthenticated, so leaving a withheld field in the payload hands
+the record to anyone who opens the network tab.
+
+## 6. First consumer: `admission_distance`
+
+The last-distance-offered feature is merged to `main` and live on staging.
+Production has never received it: `/api/schools/100010` on production carries
+no `admission_distance` key, and no Distance section renders.
+
+It needs **exactly one gate** — `backend/app.py:809`, where the field is
+attached to the school payload:
+
+```python
+"admission_distance": (
+    supplementary.get("admission_distance")
+    if flags.is_enabled("admission_distance") else None
+),
+```
+
+The frontend follows with no change. `DistanceSection` already returns `null`
+when `admission_distance?.distance_m == null`, and `PrimarySchoolSections`
+already conditions the admissions block on `(admissions || admissionDistance)`.
+The off-state is the commonest state on the site — only 57 local authorities
+publish cut-off distances at all — so it is well covered by construction.
+
+The flag does not touch the sitemap: school pages exist either way.
+
+Intended lifecycle: default off, so production receives the code dark on the
+next promotion; on in the `development` environment so staging keeps testing
+it; flipped on in `production` when the owner chooses.
+
+**This flag exercises two of the three surfaces** in §5 — API field and UI
+element. No route case ships with it. The route rule is specified but unproven
+until a route-shaped flag exists, and should be treated as such.
+
+## 7. Testing
+
+**Backend unit.** The registry is well-formed; an unknown flag evaluates
+`False`; `/api/flags` returns every declared flag with its default when the
+SDK is unreachable; `admission_distance` is absent from the school payload when
+the flag is off and present when on.
+
+**Frontend unit.** `getFlags()` returns declared defaults when `/api/flags`
+fails, rather than throwing and taking the page with it.
+
+**E2E.** Journeys read `/api/flags` and gate flag-dependent assertions on it,
+matching the `test.skip` shape the suite already uses.
+
+One trap to avoid, worth stating because the existing distance journeys walk
+straight into it: they already skip when no school has a published figure, so
+with the flag off they would skip silently and the suite would go green. The
+gate must be explicit — **if `/api/flags` reports `admission_distance` on, then
+a school with a cut-off must be found**, converting a silent skip into a real
+assertion.
+
+## 8. Lifecycle
+
+A flag is temporary scaffolding, and the failure mode of every flag system is
+accumulation.
+
+The registry records the date each flag was added, and a backend test fails any
+flag older than **90 days**. Removing a flag means deleting the registry entry,
+the branches that read it, and the flag in the Unleash UI.
+
+Unleash SDK usage metrics stay enabled, so the UI shows which flags are still
+being evaluated — the evidence needed to retire one safely.
+
+## 9. Risks
+
+**Production gains a homelab dependency.** If Unleash is unreachable when a
+production container cold-starts with an empty cache, every flag evaluates
+`False` and any feature currently switched on disappears. The fcache volume
+covers restarts; the 90-day lifecycle rule bounds how long any feature is
+exposed to this. It is a real regression risk and the reason flags must be
+retired rather than left on indefinitely.
+
+**Flag state is not in git.** `main` no longer tells you what production is
+showing. The registry lists what *can* be flagged; only the Unleash UI says
+what *is*. This is inherent to the choice of a service.
+
+**A large promotion backlog exists.** Production is running the
+pre-SEO-programme build — no place pages, and a sitemap still declaring the
+apex host. The first promotion after this work ships that entire backlog. The
+flag isolates the distance feature from it and nothing else.
+
+## Out of scope
+
+- Percentage rollouts, user targeting, A/B testing, and Unleash strategies
+  beyond simple on/off. Flags are booleans.
+- Pipeline and dbt flags. Airflow and dbt are not flag consumers.
+- Client-side flag evaluation. Flags are server-side only.
+- Automatic flag removal. The staleness test reports; a person deletes.

e2e/tests/journeys.spec.ts

@@ -1226,6 +1226,27 @@ const CUTOFF_CANDIDATE_URNS = [
   101099, 100553, 102574, 100769,                 // mixed
 ];
 
+/**
+ * Whether the last-distance-offered feature is switched on here.
+ *
+ * Read from the data rather than from /api/flags, which the public proxy
+ * denies on purpose — the endpoint names unreleased features. The observable
+ * effect is the field's presence: the flag is off iff no candidate school
+ * carries an `admission_distance` key at all.
+ *
+ * The distinction that matters: `admission_distance: null` means this school
+ * has no published cut-off, and the key being ABSENT means cut-offs are not
+ * being published at all.
+ */
+async function distanceFeatureIsOn(page: Page): Promise<boolean> {
+  for (const urn of CUTOFF_CANDIDATE_URNS) {
+    const res = await page.request.get(`/api/schools/${urn}`);
+    if (!res.ok()) continue;
+    if ('admission_distance' in (await res.json())) return true;
+  }
+  return false;
+}
+
 async function schoolWithCutoff(page: Page) {
   for (const urn of CUTOFF_CANDIDATE_URNS) {
     const res = await page.request.get(`/api/schools/${urn}`);
@@ -1237,6 +1258,59 @@ async function schoolWithCutoff(page: Page) {
   return null;
 }
 
+test('when the distance feature is on, a school with a cut-off is findable', async ({ page }) => {
+  /*
+   * The gate that stops the other distance journeys passing vacuously.
+   *
+   * They all skip when schoolWithCutoff() finds nothing, which is right when
+   * the feature is off — but it means a feature that is *supposed* to be on
+   * and is silently broken shows up as a green run full of skips. This test
+   * fails in that case.
+   */
+  test.skip(!(await distanceFeatureIsOn(page)),
+    'the admission_distance flag is off in this environment');
+
+  expect(await schoolWithCutoff(page),
+    'the distance feature is on, but no candidate school has a cut-off — '
+    + 'the flag is on and the data or the query behind it is broken')
+    .not.toBeNull();
+});
+
+test('with the distance feature off, the section is absent rather than empty', async ({ page }) => {
+  // Shipping dark means the page renders as it did before the feature existed,
+  // not as a feature with its content removed.
+  test.skip(await distanceFeatureIsOn(page),
+    'the admission_distance flag is on in this environment');
+
+  // A school that exists, found rather than hardcoded — a 404 page would
+  // satisfy the absent-heading assertion without proving anything.
+  //
+  // A plain loop, not Array.find: find's predicate is synchronous, so an async
+  // one returns a Promise, every Promise is truthy, and it would always hand
+  // back the first URN whether or not that school exists.
+  let urn: number | null = null;
+  for (const candidate of CUTOFF_CANDIDATE_URNS) {
+    if ((await page.request.get(`/api/schools/${candidate}`)).ok()) {
+      urn = candidate;
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+  expect(urn, 'no candidate school resolves in this environment').not.toBeNull();
+
+  await page.goto(`/school/${urn}`);
+  await expect(page.locator('h1')).toBeVisible();
+
+  await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: /How far away are you\?/ }))
+    .toHaveCount(0);
+});
+
+test('/api/flags is not reachable from the public internet', async ({ page }) => {
+  // It names every unreleased feature and whether it is on. Next reads it
+  // server-side over the Docker network; the public proxy must deny it.
+  const res = await page.request.get('/api/flags');
+  expect(res.status()).toBe(404);
+});
+
 test('a published cut-off distance is shown with the year it belongs to', async ({ page }) => {
   const found = await schoolWithCutoff(page);
   test.skip(found === null, 'no school in the sample has a published cut-off distance yet');
@@ -1649,13 +1723,29 @@ const CANONICAL_ROUTES: Array<[string, string]> = [
   ['/admissions', 'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/admissions'],
 ];
 
+/**
+ * Next normalises canonical URLs against `trailingSlash: false`, so the root
+ * ships as `https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk` with no slash while every other
+ * route keeps its path. Both forms address the same document, and which one
+ * Next emits is its business, not something worth pinning a test to.
+ *
+ * The first cut hardcoded the slash and failed only on the homepage — the
+ * same gap as the doubled brand: it asserted the metadata object rather than
+ * what the page actually renders.
+ */
+function sameUrl(a: string | null, b: string): boolean {
+  const strip = (u: string) => u.replace(/\/+$/, '');
+  return strip(a ?? '') === strip(b);
+}
+
 for (const [path, expected] of CANONICAL_ROUTES) {
   test(`${path} declares exactly one canonical, on the www host`, async ({ page }) => {
     await page.goto(path);
     const hrefs = await page.locator('link[rel="canonical"]').evaluateAll(
       (els) => els.map((e) => e.getAttribute('href')));
     expect(hrefs, `${path} should declare one canonical`).toHaveLength(1);
-    expect(hrefs[0]).toBe(expected);
+    expect(sameUrl(hrefs[0], expected),
+      `${path} canonical was ${hrefs[0]}, expected ${expected}`).toBe(true);
   });
 }
 
@@ -1663,7 +1753,8 @@ test('a filtered homepage still canonicalises to the bare root', async ({ page }
   await page.goto('/?search=primary&phase=primary&sort=name&page=2');
   const href = await page.locator('link[rel="canonical"]').first()
     .getAttribute('href');
-  expect(href).toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/');
+  expect(sameUrl(href, 'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/'),
+    `filtered homepage canonical was ${href}`).toBe(true);
 });
 
 test('a school page canonicalises to its own slug on the www host', async ({ page }) => {
@@ -1714,10 +1805,33 @@ test('staging answers noindex, and stays crawlable so the noindex is seen', asyn
   // The other half, and the reason this is one test rather than two: a
   // Disallow would stop Google fetching the page at all, so it would never
   // see the noindex above. The two only work together.
+  //
+  // Scoped to the `*` group. The first cut matched `Disallow: /` anywhere in
+  // the file and tripped over the AI-crawler groups Cloudflare injects —
+  // ClaudeBot, GPTBot, Amazonbot and friends all carry a blanket disallow,
+  // deliberately, and none of them is Googlebot.
   const robots = await (await page.request.get('/robots.txt')).text();
-  expect(robots).not.toMatch(/^\s*Disallow:\s*\/\s*$/mi);
+  expect(blocksEverything(robots, '*'),
+    'the * group must not disallow the whole site, or the noindex is never seen')
+    .toBe(false);
 });
 
+/** True when `agent`'s group in a robots.txt disallows the entire site. */
+function blocksEverything(robots: string, agent: string): boolean {
+  let current: string | null = null;
+  let blocked = false;
+  for (const raw of robots.split('\n')) {
+    const line = raw.split('#')[0].trim();
+    if (!line) continue;
+    const [key, ...rest] = line.split(':');
+    const value = rest.join(':').trim();
+    const k = key.trim().toLowerCase();
+    if (k === 'user-agent') current = value;
+    else if (current === agent && k === 'disallow' && value === '/') blocked = true;
+  }
+  return blocked;
+}
+
 test('a school page on staging is noindexed too, not just the homepage', async ({ page }) => {
   const list = await page.request.get('/api/schools?search=primary&per_page=1');
   const [first] = (await list.json()).schools ?? [];
@@ -1868,3 +1982,132 @@ test('phase variants are submitted in the places sitemap', async ({ page }) => {
   const xml = await (await page.request.get('/sitemaps/places-1.xml')).text();
   expect(xml).toMatch(/\/schools\/[a-z0-9-]+\/primary</);
 });
+
+test('authority phase variants are submitted, and in their own namespace', async ({ page }) => {
+  // 302 of these were in the sitemap for weeks and every one 404'd: the spec
+  // called for the route, the plan built the bare authority page and dropped
+  // it, and the sitemap — written from the registry — kept submitting them.
+  const xml = await (await page.request.get('/sitemaps/places-1.xml')).text();
+  expect(xml).toMatch(/\/schools\/authority\/[a-z0-9-]+\/primary</);
+});
+
+test('every place link a place page emits resolves', async ({ page }) => {
+  /*
+   * The guard that was missing. Each family built its own links, so a URL
+   * shape belonging to one namespace was used by all four: an authority page
+   * offered "Primary schools in Barnet" pointing at /schools/barnet/primary,
+   * the *town*. For 87 of 151 authorities that 404'd; for the other 64 it
+   * quietly served a different set of schools under the same name.
+   *
+   * Only /schools links are followed. The per-school links are the same
+   * component the school-page journeys already cover, and there are hundreds
+   * of them on a page.
+   */
+  for (const kind of ['town', 'authority', 'outcode'] as const) {
+    const place = await firstPlaceOfKind(page, kind);
+    const prefix = kind === 'authority' ? '/schools/authority/'
+      : kind === 'outcode' ? '/schools/near/' : '/schools/';
+    await page.goto(`${prefix}${place.slug}`);
+
+    const hrefs = [...new Set(
+      await page.locator('a[href^="/schools"]').evaluateAll(
+        (els) => els.map((e) => e.getAttribute('href')!)))];
+    expect(hrefs.length, `${kind} page links no other place`).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+
+    for (const href of hrefs) {
+      const res = await page.request.get(href);
+      expect(res.status(), `${kind} page links ${href}`).toBe(200);
+    }
+  }
+});
+
+test('an outcode page offers no phase link, because no such page exists', async ({ page }) => {
+  // Nobody searches "primary schools in SW11", so the spec gives outcodes no
+  // phase route. The registry computed the variants anyway and the page
+  // linked them, putting two 404s on each of 1,720 outcode pages.
+  const place = await firstPlaceOfKind(page, 'outcode');
+  const detail = await (await page.request.get(
+    `/api/places/outcode/${place.slug}`)).json();
+  expect(detail.place.phases).toEqual([]);
+
+  await page.goto(`/schools/near/${place.slug}`);
+  await expect(page.getByRole('navigation', { name: 'By phase' })).toHaveCount(0);
+});
+
+test('no page title repeats the brand', async ({ page }) => {
+  // The root layout appends '| schoolcompare' to a plain-string title. Any
+  // route whose title already carries the brand must opt out with
+  // `absolute`, or it ships '... | schoolcompare | schoolcompare' — which is
+  // how ~2,600 place pages first went out.
+  const res = await page.request.get('/api/places');
+  const { places } = await res.json();
+  const town = places.find((p: { kind: string }) => p.kind === 'town');
+
+  for (const path of ['/', '/rankings', '/admissions', `/schools/${town.slug}`]) {
+    await page.goto(path);
+    const title = await page.title();
+    const brands = (title.match(/schoolcompare/gi) ?? []).length;
+    expect(brands, `${path} repeats the brand: ${title}`).toBeLessThanOrEqual(1);
+  }
+});
+
+test('a place straddling a boundary names every authority it sits in', async ({ page }) => {
+  // A quarter of outcodes and a third of towns cross an authority boundary —
+  // SW19 is mostly Merton but partly Wandsworth. Naming only the largest
+  // asserts something false about the place.
+  const { places } = await (await page.request.get('/api/places')).json();
+  const outcode = places.find((p: { kind: string }) => p.kind === 'outcode');
+  expect(outcode).toBeTruthy();
+
+  // Find any place the registry reports as straddling.
+  let straddling: { kind: string; slug: string } | null = null;
+  for (const p of places.filter((p: { kind: string }) => p.kind === 'outcode').slice(0, 40)) {
+    const d = await (await page.request.get(`/api/places/outcode/${p.slug}`)).json();
+    if ((d.place.authorities ?? []).length > 1) { straddling = p; break; }
+  }
+  test.skip(!straddling, 'no straddling outcode found in the sample');
+
+  const detail = await (await page.request.get(
+    `/api/places/outcode/${straddling!.slug}`)).json();
+  await page.goto(`/schools/near/${straddling!.slug}`);
+
+  for (const a of detail.place.authorities) {
+    if (a.slug) {
+      await expect(page.locator(`a[href="/schools/authority/${a.slug}"]`).first())
+        .toBeVisible();
+    } else {
+      // No page of its own — City of London and the Isles of Scilly are
+      // under the threshold. Named, deliberately not linked.
+      await expect(page.locator('header p')).toContainText(a.name);
+      await expect(page.getByRole('link', { name: a.name })).toHaveCount(0);
+    }
+  }
+});
+
+test('a place page lists its schools alphabetically', async ({ page }) => {
+  // Someone on a place page is usually looking for a school they can name,
+  // so the order should serve scanning for it. /rankings is where the
+  // league-table ordering lives.
+  const { places } = await (await page.request.get('/api/places')).json();
+  const town = places.find((p: { kind: string; count: number }) =>
+    p.kind === 'town' && p.count >= 5);
+  expect(town).toBeTruthy();
+
+  await page.goto(`/schools/${town.slug}`);
+  const names = await page.locator('a[href^="/school/"]').allTextContents();
+  expect(names.length).toBeGreaterThan(1);
+
+  const sorted = [...names].sort((a, b) =>
+    a.toLowerCase().localeCompare(b.toLowerCase()));
+  expect(names).toEqual(sorted);
+});
+
+test('the rankings page still orders by score, not name', async ({ page }) => {
+  // Alphabetical is a place-page decision, not a site-wide one.
+  const res = await page.request.get('/api/rankings?metric=rwm_expected_pct&phase=primary');
+  expect(res.ok()).toBeTruthy();
+  const scores = ((await res.json()).rankings ?? [])
+    .map((r: { rwm_expected_pct: number | null }) => r.rwm_expected_pct)
+    .filter((v: number | null) => v != null);
+  expect(scores).toEqual([...scores].sort((a: number, b: number) => b - a));
+});

nextjs-app/__tests__/api/proxyDenylist.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/**
+ * The /api/* proxy is public. Anything it forwards is on the internet.
+ *
+ * @jest-environment node
+ */
+// The docblock above is load-bearing. jest.config.js sets jsdom globally, and
+// NextRequest/NextResponse need the Web Fetch API globals that only the node
+// environment provides — under jsdom this suite fails on import, not on an
+// assertion.
+import { NextRequest } from 'next/server';
+import { GET } from '@/app/api/[...path]/route';
+
+function request(path: string) {
+  return new NextRequest(`http://localhost:3000/api/${path}`);
+}
+
+describe('public API proxy', () => {
+  it('refuses to forward internal-only paths', async () => {
+    // /api/flags names every unreleased feature and its state. Forwarding it
+    // publishes the thing shipping dark exists to keep quiet.
+    const res = await GET(request('flags'), { params: Promise.resolve({ path: ['flags'] }) });
+    expect(res.status).toBe(404);
+  });
+
+  it('does not deny a path that merely starts with the same letters', async () => {
+    // A prefix match would take /api/flagship down with /api/flags.
+    const res = await GET(
+      request('flagship'), { params: Promise.resolve({ path: ['flagship'] }) });
+    expect(res.status).not.toBe(404);
+  });
+});

nextjs-app/__tests__/app/placeMetadata.test.ts

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ jest.mock('@/lib/places', () => ({
 describe('place page metadata', () => {
   it('titles the page the way the place is searched', async () => {
     const m = await placeMeta({ params: Promise.resolve({ place: 'brentwood' }) });
-    expect(m.title).toMatch(/schools in brentwood/i);
+    expect((m.title as { absolute: string }).absolute).toMatch(/schools in brentwood/i);
   });
 
   it('canonicalises to its own path on the www host', async () => {
@@ -23,6 +23,18 @@ describe('place page metadata', () => {
       .toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/schools/brentwood');
   });
 
+  it('opts out of the layout template, which would double the brand', () => {
+    // The root layout appends '| schoolcompare' to a plain string title, and
+    // these titles already carry it — every place page shipped reading
+    // '... | schoolcompare | schoolcompare' until this was made absolute.
+    return placeMeta({ params: Promise.resolve({ place: 'brentwood' }) })
+      .then((m) => {
+        expect(typeof m.title).toBe('object');
+        expect((m.title as { absolute: string }).absolute)
+          .not.toMatch(/schoolcompare.*schoolcompare/);
+      });
+  });
+
   it('an unknown place gets a not-found title rather than inventing one', async () => {
     const m = await placeMeta({ params: Promise.resolve({ place: 'atlantis' }) });
     expect(m.title).toMatch(/not found/i);

nextjs-app/__tests__/components/PlaceView.test.tsx

@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ const detail: PlaceDetail = {
            parent_authority: 'Essex', phases: ['primary'] },
   schools: [
     { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', rwm_expected_pct: 82,
-      ofsted_grade: 1 } as never,
+      ofsted_grade: 1, phase: 'Primary' } as never,
     { urn: 2, school_name: 'Beta Primary', rwm_expected_pct: 44,
-      ofsted_grade: 3 } as never,
+      ofsted_grade: 3, phase: 'Primary' } as never,
   ],
   averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: null },
 };
@@ -112,3 +112,237 @@ describe('PlaceView phase variants', () => {
       .not.toBeInTheDocument();
   });
 });
+
+describe('PlaceView presentation', () => {
+  // /schools/brentwood shipped with 8 of 27 rows blank: an unphased page shows
+  // one primary-only measure for a list that also holds secondaries.
+  const mixed: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'town', slug: 'brentwood', name: 'Brentwood', count: 4,
+             parent_authority: 'Essex', phases: ['primary', 'secondary'] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 82, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+      { urn: 2, school_name: 'Beta High', phase: 'Secondary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: null, attainment_8_score: 47 } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: 45 },
+  };
+
+  it('gives each phase its own table rather than one column of blanks', () => {
+    render(<PlaceView detail={mixed} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('heading', { name: /^Primary schools/ })).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.getByRole('heading', { name: /^Secondary schools/ })).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.getByText('82%')).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.getByText('47')).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+
+  it('names the measure in plain words, not jargon', () => {
+    // The first cut said "RWM expected", which appears nowhere else on the site.
+    render(<PlaceView detail={mixed} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByText('Reading, writing & maths')).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.getByText('Attainment 8')).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.queryByText(/RWM expected/i)).not.toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+
+  it('says a missing result is unpublished rather than showing a bare dash', () => {
+    const noResult: PlaceDetail = {
+      ...mixed,
+      schools: [{ urn: 3, school_name: 'New Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+                  rwm_expected_pct: null, attainment_8_score: null } as never],
+    };
+    render(<PlaceView detail={noResult} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByText('Not published')).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+
+  it('styles school links to the site convention rather than browser default', () => {
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={mixed} englandAverage={61}
+      neighbours={[]} />);
+    const link = container.querySelector('a[href^="/school/"]');
+    expect(link?.className).toBeTruthy();
+  });
+
+  it('a phased page shows one table and no phase headings', () => {
+    render(<PlaceView detail={mixed} phase="primary" englandAverage={61}
+      neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.queryByRole('heading', { name: /^Secondary schools/ }))
+      .not.toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PlaceView table alignment', () => {
+  const aligned: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'town', slug: 'brentwood', name: 'Brentwood', count: 2,
+             parent_authority: 'Essex', phases: ['primary'] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 82, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: null },
+  };
+
+  it('aligns the measure heading and its values with the same class', () => {
+    // They were aligned by two different selectors whose specificity did not
+    // match: `.table th:last-child` (0,2,1) won and went right, while `.num`
+    // (0,1,0) lost to `.table td` (0,1,1) and stayed left. Sharing one class
+    // is what makes them impossible to drift apart.
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={aligned} englandAverage={61}
+      neighbours={[]} />);
+    const th = container.querySelectorAll('th')[1];
+    const td = container.querySelectorAll('tbody td')[1];
+    expect(th.className).toBeTruthy();
+    expect(td.className).toBe(th.className);
+  });
+
+  it('leaves the school-name column unclassed so it takes the spare width', () => {
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={aligned} englandAverage={61}
+      neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(container.querySelectorAll('th')[0].className).toBe('');
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PlaceView authorities', () => {
+  const straddling: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'outcode', slug: 'sw19', name: 'SW19', count: 33,
+             parent_authority: 'Merton', phases: ['primary'],
+             authorities: [
+               { name: 'Merton', slug: 'merton', count: 26 },
+               { name: 'Wandsworth', slug: 'wandsworth', count: 7 },
+             ] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 82, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: null },
+  };
+
+  it('names every authority the place straddles, not just the largest', () => {
+    // SW19 is mostly Merton but partly Wandsworth. Naming one asserts
+    // something false about a quarter of outcodes.
+    render(<PlaceView detail={straddling} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: 'Merton' }))
+      .toHaveAttribute('href', '/schools/authority/merton');
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: 'Wandsworth' }))
+      .toHaveAttribute('href', '/schools/authority/wandsworth');
+  });
+
+  it('joins them readably rather than as a bare list', () => {
+    // Asserted on the summary line's whole text: a loose /and/ matcher also
+    // hits "Wandsworth".
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={straddling}
+      englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    const summary = container.querySelector('header p');
+    expect(summary?.textContent).toContain('Merton and Wandsworth');
+  });
+
+  it('falls back to the single parent when the field is absent', () => {
+    // A cached API response predating the authorities field must not blank
+    // the line entirely.
+    const legacy = { ...straddling,
+      place: { ...straddling.place, authorities: undefined } };
+    render(<PlaceView detail={legacy} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: 'Merton' })).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PlaceView list ordering', () => {
+  const detail3: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'town', slug: 'brentwood', name: 'Brentwood', count: 2,
+             parent_authority: 'Essex', phases: ['primary'] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 40, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+      { urn: 2, school_name: 'Beta Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 90, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 65, attainment_8_score: null },
+  };
+
+  it('renders schools in the order the API sent them, not by score', () => {
+    // The API sorts alphabetically now; the component must not re-sort.
+    render(<PlaceView detail={detail3} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    const links = screen.getAllByRole('link', { name: /Primary$/ });
+    expect(links.map((l) => l.textContent))
+      .toEqual(['Alpha Primary', 'Beta Primary']);
+  });
+
+  it('declares the list as ascending rather than implying a ranking', () => {
+    // An ItemList carrying `position` reads as a ranking unless it says
+    // otherwise, and the table is A-Z.
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={detail3} englandAverage={61}
+      neighbours={[]} />);
+    const ld = JSON.parse(
+      container.querySelector('script[type="application/ld+json"]')!.textContent!);
+    const list = ld['@graph'].find((n: { '@type': string }) => n['@type'] === 'ItemList');
+    expect(list.itemListOrder).toBe('https://schema.org/ItemListOrderAscending');
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PlaceView phase links', () => {
+  const authority: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'authority', slug: 'barnet', name: 'Barnet', count: 156,
+             parent_authority: null, phases: ['primary', 'secondary'] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 82, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: null },
+  };
+
+  it('keeps an authority phase link in the authority namespace', () => {
+    // The link was built as `/schools/${slug}/${phase}` for every kind, so an
+    // authority page pointed into the town namespace. For 87 of 151
+    // authorities that 404'd; for the other 64 it silently landed on the town
+    // page of the same name — a different set of schools, and exactly the
+    // duplicate the two namespaces exist to prevent. Barnet is one of the 64.
+    render(<PlaceView detail={authority} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: /^Primary schools in Barnet$/ }))
+      .toHaveAttribute('href', '/schools/authority/barnet/primary');
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: /^Secondary schools in Barnet$/ }))
+      .toHaveAttribute('href', '/schools/authority/barnet/secondary');
+  });
+
+  it('still uses the bare namespace for a town', () => {
+    render(<PlaceView detail={detail} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: /^Primary schools in Brentwood$/ }))
+      .toHaveAttribute('href', '/schools/brentwood/primary');
+  });
+
+  it('offers no phase link when the place publishes none', () => {
+    // Outcodes are the case: no phase route exists for them, so the registry
+    // reports no phases and the nav does not render.
+    const outcode = { ...detail,
+      place: { ...detail.place, kind: 'outcode', slug: 'cm13', name: 'CM13',
+               phases: [] } };
+    render(<PlaceView detail={outcode} englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.queryByRole('navigation', { name: 'By phase' }))
+      .not.toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PlaceView unlinkable authorities', () => {
+  const withUnpublished: PlaceDetail = {
+    place: { kind: 'outcode', slug: 'tr21', name: 'TR21', count: 8,
+             parent_authority: 'Cornwall', phases: [],
+             authorities: [
+               { name: 'Cornwall', slug: 'cornwall', count: 6 },
+               { name: 'Isles Of Scilly', slug: null, count: 2 },
+             ] },
+    schools: [
+      { urn: 1, school_name: 'Alpha Primary', phase: 'Primary',
+        rwm_expected_pct: 82, attainment_8_score: null } as never,
+    ],
+    averages: { rwm_expected_pct: 63, attainment_8_score: null },
+  };
+
+  it('names an authority with no page without linking it', () => {
+    // City of London and the Isles of Scilly hold fewer schools than a page
+    // needs. Saying where the place is stays right; linking there would 404.
+    const { container } = render(<PlaceView detail={withUnpublished}
+      englandAverage={61} neighbours={[]} />);
+    expect(screen.getByRole('link', { name: 'Cornwall' })).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.queryByRole('link', { name: 'Isles Of Scilly' }))
+      .not.toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(container.querySelector('header p')?.textContent)
+      .toContain('Isles Of Scilly');
+  });
+});

nextjs-app/__tests__/lib/flags.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+import { getFlags } from '@/lib/flags';
+
+// jsdom provides no global fetch, so there is nothing for jest.spyOn to attach
+// to — assign it and restore the original afterwards. This is the first test
+// here to mock fetch; later ones should follow this shape.
+const realFetch = global.fetch;
+
+function mockFetch(impl: () => Promise<unknown>) {
+  global.fetch = jest.fn(impl) as unknown as typeof fetch;
+}
+
+describe('getFlags', () => {
+  afterEach(() => { global.fetch = realFetch; });
+
+  it('returns the flags the API reports', async () => {
+    mockFetch(async () => ({
+      ok: true,
+      json: async () => ({ admission_distance: true }),
+    }));
+    await expect(getFlags()).resolves.toEqual({ admission_distance: true });
+  });
+
+  it('returns no flags rather than throwing when the API is down', async () => {
+    // A page that cannot read flags must render everything dark, not 500.
+    // Fail-closed is the same direction as the backend's default.
+    mockFetch(async () => { throw new Error('ECONNREFUSED'); });
+    await expect(getFlags()).resolves.toEqual({});
+  });
+
+  it('returns no flags rather than throwing on a non-200', async () => {
+    mockFetch(async () => ({ ok: false, status: 503 }));
+    await expect(getFlags()).resolves.toEqual({});
+  });
+});

nextjs-app/app/api/[...path]/route.ts

@@ -26,8 +26,27 @@ function backendBase(): string {
 const STRIPPED_RESPONSE_HEADERS = ['content-encoding', 'content-length', 'transfer-encoding', 'connection'];
 const METHODS_WITH_BODY = new Set(['POST', 'PUT', 'PATCH', 'DELETE']);
 
+/*
+ * API paths this public proxy must not forward.
+ *
+ * Matched on the first segment, exactly — a prefix match would take
+ * /api/flagship down with /api/flags.
+ *
+ * `flags` is here because GET /api/flags names every unreleased feature the
+ * codebase knows about, along with whether it is on. Publishing that defeats
+ * the point of shipping dark. Next reads it server-side via FASTAPI_URL, on
+ * the Docker network, which never transits this route.
+ *
+ * Anything else internal-only belongs here too.
+ */
+const INTERNAL_ONLY_SEGMENTS = new Set(['flags']);
+
 async function handler(req: NextRequest, ctx: { params: Promise<{ path: string[] }> }) {
   const { path } = await ctx.params;
+  if (INTERNAL_ONLY_SEGMENTS.has(path[0])) {
+    return NextResponse.json({ detail: 'Not Found' }, { status: 404 });
+  }
+
   const target = `${backendBase()}/${path.join('/')}${req.nextUrl.search}`;
 
   const headers = new Headers(req.headers);

nextjs-app/app/schools/[place]/[phase]/page.tsx

@@ -37,10 +37,12 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: Props): Promise<Metadata> {
   const word = phase === 'secondary' ? 'Secondary' : 'Primary';
   const { name } = detail.place;
   return {
-    title: `${word} Schools in ${name} — Ranked | schoolcompare`,
+    // Not "Ranked": the table is alphabetical, so the word would be a claim
+    // the page does not keep.
+    title: { absolute: `${word} Schools in ${name} | schoolcompare` },
     description:
-      `Every ${phase} school in ${name} ranked by results, with Ofsted grades and `
-      + `the local average against England.`,
+      `Every ${phase} school in ${name}, with results, Ofsted grades and the local `
+      + `average against England.`,
     alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/schools/${slug}/${phase}`) },
   };
 }

nextjs-app/app/schools/[place]/page.tsx

@@ -53,10 +53,13 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: Props): Promise<Metadata> {
 
   const { name, count } = detail.place;
   return {
-    title: `Schools in ${name} — Compare ${count} Schools | schoolcompare`,
+    // absolute: the root layout's template appends '| schoolcompare' to a
+    // plain string, and this title already carries it. Without this every
+    // place title read '... | schoolcompare | schoolcompare'.
+    title: { absolute: `Schools in ${name} — Compare ${count} Schools | schoolcompare` },
     description:
-      `Every school in ${name} ranked by SATs and GCSE results, with Ofsted grades, `
-      + `the local average against England, and how close you had to live to get a place.`,
+      `Every school in ${name}, with SATs and GCSE results, Ofsted grades, the local `
+      + `average against England, and how close you had to live to get a place.`,
     alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/schools/${slug}`) },
   };
 }
@@ -71,9 +74,14 @@ export default async function PlacePage({ params }: Props) {
   // defers to its authority rather than publishing a thin page.
   if (detail.averages.rwm_expected_pct == null
       && detail.averages.attainment_8_score == null) {
-    if (detail.place.parent_authority) {
-      redirect(`/schools/authority/${authoritySlug(detail.place.parent_authority)}`);
-    }
+    // The API's own slug, which is null when that authority is itself under
+    // the threshold and has no page. Re-slugifying the name here would send
+    // the reader to a 404 instead of telling them the place has no page.
+    const target = detail.place.authorities?.[0]?.slug
+      ?? (detail.place.parent_authority
+        ? authoritySlug(detail.place.parent_authority)
+        : null);
+    if (target) redirect(`/schools/authority/${target}`);
     notFound();
   }
 

nextjs-app/app/schools/authority/[la]/[phase]/page.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+/**
+ * Phase variants of an authority page.
+ *
+ * The spec called for these; the plan built the bare authority route and
+ * dropped them. Nothing caught it, because the sitemap is written from the
+ * place registry — which was right about them all along — while the routes
+ * were written by hand. 302 authority phase URLs were submitted to Google and
+ * every one 404'd, and every authority page linked to a phase page in the
+ * *town* namespace, which is a different set of schools entirely.
+ *
+ * "Primary schools in Kent" is the query these serve, and it is a real one:
+ * admissions are authority-run, so the authority is the unit a parent thinks
+ * in when they have not settled on a town.
+ */
+import { notFound } from 'next/navigation';
+import type { Metadata } from 'next';
+import { fetchPlace } from '@/lib/places';
+import { fetchNationalAverages } from '@/lib/api';
+import { PlaceView } from '@/components/places/PlaceView';
+import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
+
+interface Props { params: Promise<{ la: string; phase: string }> }
+
+export const revalidate = 604800;
+export const dynamicParams = true;
+
+const PHASES = ['primary', 'secondary'] as const;
+type Phase = (typeof PHASES)[number];
+
+const isPhase = (v: string): v is Phase => (PHASES as readonly string[]).includes(v);
+
+export async function generateMetadata({ params }: Props): Promise<Metadata> {
+  const { la, phase } = await params;
+  if (!isPhase(phase)) return { title: 'Place Not Found' };
+  const detail = await fetchPlace('authority', la, phase);
+  if (!detail || detail.schools.length === 0) return { title: 'Place Not Found' };
+
+  const word = phase === 'secondary' ? 'Secondary' : 'Primary';
+  const { name } = detail.place;
+  return {
+    // "Local Authority" stays in the title for the same reason it is on the
+    // bare authority page: 67 town names collide with an authority name, and
+    // a reader landing on both needs to know which set each covers.
+    title: { absolute: `${word} Schools in ${name} — Local Authority | schoolcompare` },
+    description:
+      `Every ${phase} school in the ${name} local authority, with results, Ofsted `
+      + `grades and the authority average against England.`,
+    alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/schools/authority/${la}/${phase}`) },
+  };
+}
+
+export default async function AuthorityPhasePage({ params }: Props) {
+  const { la, phase } = await params;
+  if (!isPhase(phase)) notFound();
+  const detail = await fetchPlace('authority', la, phase);
+  if (!detail || detail.schools.length === 0) notFound();
+
+  const national = await fetchNationalAverages().catch(() => null);
+  const englandAverage = phase === 'secondary'
+    ? national?.secondary?.attainment_8_score ?? null
+    : national?.primary?.rwm_expected_pct ?? null;
+
+  return <PlaceView detail={detail} phase={phase}
+    englandAverage={englandAverage} neighbours={[]} />;
+}

nextjs-app/app/schools/authority/[la]/page.tsx

@@ -43,10 +43,10 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: Props): Promise<Metadata> {
 
   const { name, count } = detail.place;
   return {
-    title: `Schools in ${name} — Local Authority | schoolcompare`,
+    title: { absolute: `Schools in ${name} — Local Authority | schoolcompare` },
     description:
-      `All ${count} schools in the ${name} local authority, ranked by SATs and GCSE `
-      + `results, with Ofsted grades and the authority average against England.`,
+      `All ${count} schools in the ${name} local authority, with SATs and GCSE results, `
+      + `Ofsted grades and the authority average against England.`,
     alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/schools/authority/${la}`) },
   };
 }

nextjs-app/app/schools/near/[outcode]/page.tsx

@@ -38,10 +38,10 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: Props): Promise<Metadata> {
 
   const { name, count } = detail.place;
   return {
-    title: `Schools near ${name} | schoolcompare`,
+    title: { absolute: `Schools near ${name} | schoolcompare` },
     description:
-      `${count} schools in the ${name} postcode district, ranked by results, with `
-      + `Ofsted grades and how close you had to live to get a place.`,
+      `${count} schools in the ${name} postcode district, with results, Ofsted grades `
+      + `and how close you had to live to get a place.`,
     alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/schools/near/${outcode}`) },
   };
 }

nextjs-app/components/places/PlaceView.module.css

@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-/* Tokens only — see globals.css. Matches RankingsView's conventions. */
+/* Tokens only — see globals.css. Follows RankingsView's conventions, and in
+   particular its link treatment: table links take --text-primary with no
+   underline and a brand-coloured hover, not the browser default. The first
+   cut used bare <Link> with no class at all, which rendered as default blue
+   underlined links and read as unstyled beside the rest of the site. */
 .container {
   width: 100%;
   min-width: 0;
@@ -24,6 +28,44 @@
   line-height: 1.6;
 }
 
+/* Links in running copy: brand colour, underline on hover only. */
+.inlineLink {
+  color: var(--brand);
+  text-decoration: none;
+  transition: color 0.2s ease;
+}
+
+.inlineLink:hover {
+  color: var(--brand-strong);
+  text-decoration: underline;
+}
+
+/* Phase variants are separate indexable pages, so the bare place page has to
+   link them — a sitemap entry alone leaves them with no internal path in. */
+.phaseLinks {
+  display: flex;
+  flex-wrap: wrap;
+  gap: 0.5rem 0.75rem;
+  margin: 0 0 1.25rem;
+}
+
+.phaseLink {
+  display: inline-block;
+  padding: 0.4rem 0.875rem;
+  border: 1px solid var(--border-strong);
+  border-radius: 999px;
+  font-size: 0.875rem;
+  font-weight: 500;
+  color: var(--text-primary);
+  text-decoration: none;
+  transition: border-color 0.2s ease, color 0.2s ease;
+}
+
+.phaseLink:hover {
+  border-color: var(--brand);
+  color: var(--brand-strong);
+}
+
 /* The one number a list cannot give you, so it gets its own band. */
 .compare {
   background: var(--bg-secondary);
@@ -46,6 +88,30 @@
   color: var(--text-secondary);
 }
 
+.group {
+  margin-bottom: 2rem;
+}
+
+.groupHeading {
+  display: flex;
+  align-items: baseline;
+  gap: 0.625rem;
+  font-size: 1.25rem;
+  font-weight: 600;
+  color: var(--text-primary);
+  font-family: var(--font-display);
+  margin: 0 0 0.75rem;
+}
+
+.groupCount {
+  font-size: 0.8125rem;
+  font-weight: 500;
+  color: var(--text-secondary);
+  background: var(--bg-secondary);
+  border-radius: 999px;
+  padding: 0.125rem 0.5rem;
+}
+
 /* Wide content scrolls in its own container so the page body never does. */
 .tableWrap {
   overflow-x: auto;
@@ -72,18 +138,54 @@
   color: var(--text-secondary);
   font-weight: 600;
   font-size: 0.8125rem;
-  text-transform: uppercase;
-  letter-spacing: 0.04em;
 }
 
 .table tbody tr:last-child td {
   border-bottom: none;
 }
 
-.table th:last-child,
-.num {
+/*
+ * Header and value share one class and one rule, so they cannot drift apart.
+ *
+ * The first cut aligned them with two different selectors: `.table th:last-child`
+ * at (0,2,1) beat the element rule and went right, while `.num` at (0,1,0) lost
+ * to `.table td` at (0,1,1) and stayed left. The heading and its numbers sat on
+ * opposite edges of the column.
+ *
+ * width:1% with nowrap makes the measure column hug its content so the school
+ * name takes the remaining width — without it the two columns split evenly and
+ * the gap between heading and value reads as misalignment on a wide screen.
+ */
+.table th.num,
+.table td.num {
   text-align: right;
   font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
+  width: 1%;
+  white-space: nowrap;
+}
+
+/* The measure is spelled out; the tooltip carries the definition. */
+.metricHead {
+  text-decoration: none;
+  cursor: help;
+  border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--border-strong);
+}
+
+/* Table links: site convention is body colour, brand on hover. */
+.schoolLink {
+  color: var(--text-primary);
+  text-decoration: none;
+  transition: color 0.2s ease;
+}
+
+.schoolLink:hover {
+  color: var(--brand-strong);
+}
+
+/* "Not published" is a fact about the school, not an error. */
+.noData {
+  color: var(--text-muted);
+  font-size: 0.8125rem;
 }
 
 .neighbours {
@@ -106,13 +208,3 @@
   padding: 0;
   margin: 0;
 }
-
-/* Phase variants are separate indexable pages, so the bare place page has to
-   link them — a sitemap entry alone leaves them with no internal path in. */
-.phaseLinks {
-  display: flex;
-  flex-wrap: wrap;
-  gap: 0.5rem 1rem;
-  margin: 0 0 1.25rem;
-  font-size: 0.9375rem;
-}

nextjs-app/components/places/PlaceView.tsx

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 import Link from 'next/link';
 import type { PlaceDetail, PlaceSummary } from '@/lib/places';
 import { placeUrl, authoritySlug } from '@/lib/places';
+import type { School } from '@/lib/types';
 import { schoolUrl } from '@/lib/utils';
 import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
 import styles from './PlaceView.module.css';
@@ -30,19 +31,110 @@ const OFSTED_LABELS: Array<[number, string]> = [
   [3, 'Requires improvement'], [4, 'Inadequate'],
 ];
 
+/**
+ * Column headings, taken from the site's own metric dictionary rather than
+ * invented here — see METRIC_DEFINITIONS in backend/schemas.py, surfaced at
+ * /api/metrics. The first cut said "RWM expected", which is jargon that
+ * appears nowhere else on the site.
+ */
+const METRICS = {
+  primary: {
+    key: 'rwm_expected_pct' as const,
+    heading: 'Reading, writing & maths',
+    hint: '% meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths',
+    unit: '%',
+  },
+  secondary: {
+    key: 'attainment_8_score' as const,
+    heading: 'Attainment 8',
+    hint: "Average grade across a pupil's best 8 GCSEs, including English and maths",
+    unit: '',
+  },
+};
+
+type PhaseKey = keyof typeof METRICS;
+
+/** All-through schools sit in both phases, matching the search filters. */
+function isPhase(school: School, phase: PhaseKey): boolean {
+  const p = (school.phase ?? '').toLowerCase();
+  if (p === 'all-through') return true;
+  return phase === 'secondary'
+    ? p.includes('secondary') || p === '16 plus'
+    : p.includes('primary') || p.includes('middle');
+}
+
+function SchoolTable({ schools, phase }: { schools: School[]; phase: PhaseKey }) {
+  const metric = METRICS[phase];
+  return (
+    <div className={styles.tableWrap}>
+      <table className={styles.table}>
+        <thead>
+          <tr>
+            <th scope="col">School</th>
+            {/* Same class as the value cell below: one rule aligns both, so
+                they cannot drift apart. */}
+            <th scope="col" className={styles.num}>
+              <abbr className={styles.metricHead} title={metric.hint}>
+                {metric.heading}
+              </abbr>
+            </th>
+          </tr>
+        </thead>
+        <tbody>
+          {schools.map((s) => {
+            const value = s[metric.key];
+            return (
+              <tr key={s.urn}>
+                <td>
+                  <Link href={schoolUrl(s.urn, s.school_name)} className={styles.schoolLink}>
+                    {s.school_name}
+                  </Link>
+                </td>
+                <td className={styles.num}>
+                  {value == null
+                    ? <span className={styles.noData}>Not published</span>
+                    : `${Math.round(Number(value))}${metric.unit}`}
+                </td>
+              </tr>
+            );
+          })}
+        </tbody>
+      </table>
+    </div>
+  );
+}
+
 export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props) {
   const { place, schools, averages } = detail;
-  const metric = phase === 'secondary' ? 'attainment_8_score' : 'rwm_expected_pct';
-  const local = averages[metric];
+  // Fall back to the single parent when the API predates the authorities
+  // field, so a stale cache never blanks the line entirely.
+  const authorities = place.authorities?.length
+    ? place.authorities
+    : place.parent_authority
+      ? [{ name: place.parent_authority, slug: authoritySlug(place.parent_authority), count: 0 }]
+      : [];
+  const local = averages[METRICS[phase ?? 'primary'].key];
   const phaseWord = phase === 'secondary' ? 'Secondary schools'
     : phase === 'primary' ? 'Primary schools' : 'Schools';
   const graded = OFSTED_LABELS
     .map(([grade, label]) => [label, schools.filter((s) => s.ofsted_grade === grade).length] as const)
     .filter(([, n]) => n > 0);
 
-  // ItemList tells Google this page is a ranked set rather than prose;
-  // BreadcrumbList puts the place in a hierarchy. Capped at 20 because that
-  // is what the page shows above the fold and what the markup should mirror.
+  /*
+   * An unphased page holds both primaries and secondaries, and they are
+   * scored on different measures — a percentage and a 0-90 score. Showing one
+   * column for both left 30% of rows blank on /schools/brentwood and put two
+   * incomparable scales in one column when it did not.
+   *
+   * So the phases get a table each. A blank cell inside one now means the
+   * school genuinely has no published result, which is worth saying.
+   */
+  const groups: Array<[PhaseKey, School[]]> = phase
+    ? [[phase, schools]]
+    : (['primary', 'secondary'] as PhaseKey[])
+        .map((p) => [p, schools.filter((s) => isPhase(s, p))] as [PhaseKey, School[]])
+        .filter(([, list]) => list.length > 0);
+
   const jsonLd = {
     '@context': 'https://schema.org',
     '@graph': [
@@ -50,6 +142,10 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
         '@type': 'ItemList',
         name: `${phaseWord} in ${place.name}`,
         numberOfItems: schools.length,
+        // Alphabetical, and said so. Without this an ItemList carrying
+        // `position` reads as a ranking, which would be a claim the page
+        // stopped making when the table became A-Z.
+        itemListOrder: 'https://schema.org/ItemListOrderAscending',
         itemListElement: schools.slice(0, 20).map((s, i) => ({
           '@type': 'ListItem',
           position: i + 1,
@@ -60,8 +156,7 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
       {
         '@type': 'BreadcrumbList',
         itemListElement: [
-          { '@type': 'ListItem', position: 1, name: 'Schools',
-            item: absoluteUrl('/') },
+          { '@type': 'ListItem', position: 1, name: 'Schools', item: absoluteUrl('/') },
           { '@type': 'ListItem', position: 2, name: place.name },
         ],
       },
@@ -74,16 +169,32 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
         type="application/ld+json"
         dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(jsonLd) }}
       />
+
       <header className={styles.header}>
         <h1>{phaseWord} in {place.name}</h1>
         <p className={styles.summary}>
           {place.count} schools
-          {place.parent_authority && (
+          {authorities.length > 0 && (
             <>
               {' · '}
-              <Link href={`/schools/authority/${authoritySlug(place.parent_authority)}`}>
-                {place.parent_authority}
-              </Link>
+              {/* Every authority, not just the largest. A quarter of outcodes
+                  and a third of towns cross a boundary: SW19 is mostly Merton
+                  but partly Wandsworth, and naming one asserts otherwise. */}
+              {authorities.map((a, i) => (
+                <span key={a.name}>
+                  {i > 0 && (i === authorities.length - 1 ? ' and ' : ', ')}
+                  {/* No slug means no page: City of London and the Isles of
+                      Scilly hold too few schools for one. Saying where the
+                      place is stays right; linking there would 404. */}
+                  {a.slug
+                    ? (
+                      <Link href={`/schools/authority/${a.slug}`} className={styles.inlineLink}>
+                        {a.name}
+                      </Link>
+                    )
+                    : a.name}
+                </span>
+              ))}
             </>
           )}
         </p>
@@ -92,7 +203,11 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
       {!phase && (place.phases ?? []).length > 0 && (
         <nav className={styles.phaseLinks} aria-label="By phase">
           {(place.phases ?? []).map((ph) => (
-            <Link key={ph} href={`/schools/${place.slug}/${ph}`}>
+            /* placeUrl, not a template: the bare `/schools/[slug]/[phase]`
+               shape belongs to towns alone, and using it everywhere sent
+               every authority page into the town namespace. */
+            <Link key={ph} href={placeUrl(place.kind, place.slug, ph)}
+              className={styles.phaseLink}>
               {ph === 'secondary' ? 'Secondary schools' : 'Primary schools'} in {place.name}
             </Link>
           ))}
@@ -114,28 +229,17 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
         </ul>
       )}
 
-      <div className={styles.tableWrap}>
-        <table className={styles.table}>
-          <thead>
-            <tr>
-              <th>School</th>
-              <th>{phase === 'secondary' ? 'Attainment 8' : 'RWM expected'}</th>
-            </tr>
-          </thead>
-          <tbody>
-            {schools.map((s) => (
-              <tr key={s.urn}>
-                <td>
-                  <Link href={schoolUrl(s.urn, s.school_name)}>{s.school_name}</Link>
-                </td>
-                <td className={styles.num}>
-                  {s[metric] == null ? '—' : Math.round(Number(s[metric]))}
-                </td>
-              </tr>
-            ))}
-          </tbody>
-        </table>
-      </div>
+      {groups.map(([p, list]) => (
+        <section key={p} className={styles.group}>
+          {groups.length > 1 && (
+            <h2 className={styles.groupHeading}>
+              {p === 'secondary' ? 'Secondary schools' : 'Primary schools'}
+              <span className={styles.groupCount}>{list.length}</span>
+            </h2>
+          )}
+          <SchoolTable schools={list} phase={p} />
+        </section>
+      ))}
 
       {neighbours.length > 0 && (
         <nav className={styles.neighbours} aria-label="Nearby places">
@@ -143,7 +247,7 @@ export function PlaceView({ detail, phase, englandAverage, neighbours }: Props)
           <ul>
             {neighbours.map((n) => (
               <li key={n.kind + n.slug}>
-                <Link href={placeUrl(n.kind, n.slug)}>{n.name}</Link>
+                <Link href={placeUrl(n.kind, n.slug)} className={styles.inlineLink}>{n.name}</Link>
               </li>
             ))}
           </ul>

nextjs-app/jest.setup.js

@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ jest.mock('next/navigation', () => ({
   useSearchParams: () => new URLSearchParams(),
 }));
 
+// Everything below this line is browser furniture, and this file runs for
+// every suite — including the ones that declare `@jest-environment node` to
+// test route handlers, where NextRequest needs Fetch API globals jsdom does
+// not provide. There is no `window` there, so guard rather than assume one.
+if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
+
 // Mock window.matchMedia
 Object.defineProperty(window, 'matchMedia', {
   writable: true,
@@ -52,3 +58,5 @@ const localStorageMock = {
   clear: jest.fn(),
 };
 global.localStorage = localStorageMock;
+
+} // end: browser-only globals

nextjs-app/lib/flags.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/**
+ * Reading feature flags.
+ *
+ * Server-side only. No flag value reaches the browser bundle, and there is no
+ * Unleash dependency in package.json — the SDK lives in FastAPI, which already
+ * owns every other piece of data this app renders.
+ *
+ * Flags are declared in backend/flags.py. A purely front-end flag still has to
+ * be declared there; it is a flat data edit, and the return is that one list
+ * answers "what flags exist" for the whole system.
+ */
+
+export type Flags = Record<string, boolean>;
+
+/*
+ * Reading flags pins the calling route to this ISR floor: Next uses the LOWEST
+ * revalidate among a route's fetches to set the whole route's revalidation
+ * frequency. 300s matches what /school/[slug] already sits at, so a page that
+ * reads flags is no more dynamic than a school page already is.
+ *
+ * It is also what makes a flip propagate without a webhook: five minutes on
+ * school pages, an hour on place pages, against flags that flip monthly.
+ */
+export const FLAGS_REVALIDATE = 300;
+
+const API = process.env.FASTAPI_URL || process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL
+  || 'http://localhost:8000/api';
+
+/** Every flag and its value. Never throws: an unreadable flag is a dark one. */
+export async function getFlags(): Promise<Flags> {
+  try {
+    const res = await fetch(`${API}/flags`, {
+      next: { revalidate: FLAGS_REVALIDATE },
+    });
+    if (!res.ok) return {};
+    return await res.json();
+  } catch {
+    return {};
+  }
+}

nextjs-app/lib/places.ts

@@ -18,8 +18,21 @@ export interface PlaceSummary {
   phases?: string[];
 }
 
+export interface PlaceAuthority {
+  name: string;
+  /** null when that authority has no page of its own — two English
+   *  authorities hold fewer schools than the threshold. */
+  slug: string | null;
+  count: number;
+}
+
 export interface PlaceDetail {
-  place: PlaceSummary & { parent_authority: string | null };
+  place: PlaceSummary & {
+    parent_authority: string | null;
+    /** Every authority the place meaningfully sits in, largest first. SW19 is
+     *  mostly Merton but partly Wandsworth. */
+    authorities?: PlaceAuthority[];
+  };
   schools: School[];
   averages: {
     rwm_expected_pct: number | null;
@@ -35,9 +48,20 @@ export function placeUrl(kind: string, slug: string, phase?: string): string {
   return phase ? `${base}/${phase}` : base;
 }
 
-/** An authority name as it appears in a URL. */
+/**
+ * An authority name as it appears in a URL.
+ *
+ * Only a fallback: the API sends the slug it built, and that is what should
+ * be used. This mirrors `_slugify` in backend/app.py, collapsed runs and
+ * trimmed hyphens included, so the two cannot disagree about a name like
+ * "Bristol, City of".
+ */
 export function authoritySlug(name: string): string {
-  return name.toLowerCase().trim().replace(/[^\w\s-]/g, '').replace(/\s+/g, '-');
+  return name.toLowerCase().trim()
+    .replace(/[^\w\s-]/g, '')
+    .replace(/\s+/g, '-')
+    .replace(/-+/g, '-')
+    .replace(/^-|-$/g, '');
 }
 
 const API = process.env.FASTAPI_URL || process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL

nextjs-app/lib/types.ts

@@ -361,7 +361,12 @@ export interface SchoolDetailsResponse {
    * held back as a paid feature and are not part of this public payload — see
    * data_loader._admission_distance.
    */
-  admission_distance: SchoolAdmissionDistance | null;
+  /**
+   * Absent — not null — when the admission_distance flag is off. Null means
+   * "this school has no published cut-off"; absent means "cut-offs are not
+   * being published at all". They are different claims and the type says so.
+   */
+  admission_distance?: SchoolAdmissionDistance | null;
   deprivation: SchoolDeprivation | null;
   finance: SchoolFinance | null;
 }

requirements.txt

@@ -12,4 +12,4 @@ slowapi==0.1.9
 secure==0.3.0
 typesense==0.21.0
 numpy==1.26.4
-
+UnleashClient==6.0.1