feat(mock): ask about live hints in setup, and default them on

CLAUDE.md

@@ -501,11 +501,21 @@ unfocusable, with no interview on screen to explain why.
 
 ### The mock interview turn
 
-**Live suggestions are off by default** (`mockLiveHintsEnabled`, and the rename is the reversal:
-see the scrub note in the config store for why the old key's value is deliberately not carried
-across). A mock interview is for answering the question yourself, and a column of model-written
+**Live suggestions are on by default** (`mockLiveHintsEnabled`), and the setting is asked outright
+rather than only discoverable. It was turned off for a real reason - a column of model-written
 answers beside the question while you are trying to think of your own is the one thing most likely
-to stop that working. One click on the session bar for the run where comparing is the point.
+to stop you composing your own - but that reason argues for asking the question, not for answering
+it silently. With the only control on the session bar, a candidate had to already know the
+comparison existed to find it, mid-question, which is the worst moment to go looking; so most
+people never met it at all. `MockHintsField` now renders the setting on the configuration page and
+as its own step in the first-run wizard, and the session bar still turns it off for the run where
+composing unaided is the point.
+
+The pre-rename key `mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled` is read forward again, the way `professionalMode`
+is: while the default was reversed it deliberately was not, because every stored `true` was the old
+migration's write rather than a choice and reading those forward would have undone the reversal on
+every machine it was for. The default now matches the old one, so a stored value is either that
+same default or a real choice, and there is nothing left to protect against.
 
 **There is no Repeat and no Skip.** Both were escape hatches from a question rather than ways of
 answering one, and both cost the interview something the candidate could not see: a skip is

src/main/store/config.store.ts

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ export interface RuntimeConfig {
   hintOnlyMode: boolean;
 
   // mock interview: also generate what the live assistant would have suggested for each
-  // question. Off by default - see the note on the default value below.
+  // question. On by default - see the note on the default value below.
   mockLiveHintsEnabled: boolean;
 }
 
@@ -60,13 +60,15 @@ const DEFAULT_RUNTIME_CONFIG: RuntimeConfig = {
   // migration below.
   hintOnlyMode: true,
 
-  // Opt-in, and a reversal: this shipped on by default on the grounds that seeing what the live
-  // assistant would have said is one of the two reasons to run a mock interview. In practice it
-  // is the other one that people run it for - answering the question yourself - and a panel of
-  // model-written answers sitting beside the question while you try to think of your own is the
-  // single thing most likely to stop that working. It is one click away on the session bar for
-  // the run where comparing is the point.
-  mockLiveHintsEnabled: false,
+  // On by default. It was turned off on the grounds that a panel of model-written answers beside
+  // the question stops the candidate composing their own, which is true and is not the whole of
+  // it: off by default with the only control on the session bar, most people never found out the
+  // comparison existed, and a hint they have to discover mid-question is worse than one they
+  // chose in advance. It is asked outright in the first-run wizard now and settable from
+  // Configuration, so the default is what someone who has not thought about it gets rather than
+  // the only answer they are ever offered - and the session bar still turns it off for the run
+  // where composing unaided is the point.
+  mockLiveHintsEnabled: true,
 };
 
 // interviewConf (full name, profile, context) used to be cached under `runtime`, but it's now
@@ -270,7 +272,12 @@ export const configStore = new ConfigStore();
     migration.hintOnlyMode = typeof legacy === 'boolean' ? legacy : true;
   }
   if (raw?.mockLiveHintsEnabled === undefined) {
-    migration.mockLiveHintsEnabled = false;
+    // `mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled` is the pre-rename name, and it is read forward for the same
+    // reason `professionalMode` is: the setting means what it meant and now defaults the way it
+    // defaulted, so a stored value is either the same default or a choice worth keeping.
+    const legacy = (raw as (StoredRuntime & Record<string, unknown>) | undefined)
+      ?.mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled;
+    migration.mockLiveHintsEnabled = typeof legacy === 'boolean' ? legacy : true;
   }
   // perform migration only if there are values to set
   if (Object.keys(migration).length > 0) {
@@ -312,12 +319,8 @@ scrubRetiredKey('lastSessionMode');
 // to carry the user's choice across. Scrubbed after that, so the two can never disagree.
 scrubRetiredKey('professionalMode');
 
-// `mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled` is `mockLiveHintsEnabled` under its old name and its old default.
-// Deliberately *not* carried across the way `professionalMode` was: that rename kept the user's
-// value because the meaning of the setting had not changed, whereas this one exists to reverse a
-// default that was wrong. Every install that ever launched holds a `true` the migration wrote for
-// it rather than a choice anyone made, so reading those forward would leave the old default in
-// place on every machine the reversal is for. The setting is one click away on the session bar.
+// `mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled` is `mockLiveHintsEnabled` under its old name, whose migration
+// above reads it one last time. Scrubbed after that, so the two can never disagree.
 scrubRetiredKey('mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled');
 
 // `headphoneNoticeAcknowledged` was replaced by the mock-interview-aware `HeadphoneNoticeDialog`

src/main/types/mock-interview.ts

@@ -214,10 +214,10 @@ export interface MockInterviewSessionState {
   /** The partial/final transcript of the answer currently being given. */
   currentAnswerText: string;
   /**
-   * What the live assistant would have suggested for each question, off unless the candidate
-   * turns it on - see `mockLiveHintsEnabled` in `RuntimeConfig`. Empty for the ordinary run. One
-   * entry per question asked (follow-ups included), oldest first, in the same shape the live
-   * panel already renders.
+   * What the live assistant would have suggested for each question, unless the candidate has
+   * turned it off - see `mockLiveHintsEnabled` in `RuntimeConfig`. Empty for a session run
+   * without them. One entry per question asked (follow-ups included), oldest first, in the same
+   * shape the live panel already renders.
    */
   liveHints: LiveSuggestion[];
   report: MockReport | null;

src/renderer/components/custom/settings/mock-hints-field.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import { Checkbox } from '@/components/ui/checkbox';
+import { useMockLiveSuggestions } from '@/hooks/use-mock-live-suggestions';
+
+/**
+ * Whether a practice interview also shows what the live assistant would have answered, on the
+ * configuration page and in the first-run wizard.
+ *
+ * The same row shape `TranscriptPanelField` uses, and here for the same reason the setting has a
+ * default at all: it used to live only on the mock session bar, where a candidate had to already
+ * know the comparison existed to find it - mid-question, which is the worst moment to go looking.
+ */
+export function MockHintsField() {
+  const { enabled, setEnabled } = useMockLiveSuggestions();
+
+  return (
+    <label className="flex cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-3 rounded-lg border p-3">
+      <div>
+        <p className="text-sm font-medium">Show hints in practice interviews</p>
+        <p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
+          Puts what the live assistant would have answered beside each practice question, so you can
+          compare it against your own. Turn it off to answer unprompted - you can switch it either
+          way from the session bar mid-practice. This changes nothing about a real interview.
+        </p>
+      </div>
+      <Checkbox
+        checked={enabled}
+        onCheckedChange={(v) => setEnabled(v === true)}
+        aria-label="Show hints in practice interviews"
+      />
+    </label>
+  );
+}

src/renderer/hooks/use-mock-live-suggestions.ts

@@ -7,22 +7,30 @@ import { useConfigStore } from './use-config-store';
  * Whether a mock session also generates what the live assistant would have suggested, plus a
  * toggle that persists the change.
  *
- * Absent means **off**, the same direction `hintOnlyMode` is read in and the opposite of what
- * this setting used to do. A mock interview is for answering the question yourself, and a panel
- * of model-written answers beside the question while you are trying to think of your own is the
- * one thing most likely to stop that working - so it is opt-in, for the run where comparing your
- * answer against the assistant's is actually the point.
+ * Absent means **on**, the same direction `hintOnlyMode` is read in, and the main-process store
+ * backfills the same default - so the two sides agree about a config written before the setting
+ * existed. Turning it off is what a candidate does for the run where composing the answer
+ * unaided is the point, and it is asked in the first-run wizard rather than only discoverable
+ * on the session bar.
+ *
+ * Shared by the session bar, the configuration page and the onboarding wizard. `toggle` reads
+ * the store imperatively so it stays referentially stable.
  */
 export function useMockLiveSuggestions() {
   const { config } = useConfigStore();
 
-  const toggle = useCallback(() => {
-    const { config: current, updateConfig } = useConfigStore.getState();
-    updateConfig({ mockLiveHintsEnabled: current?.mockLiveHintsEnabled !== true }).catch((e) => {
+  const persist = useCallback((enabled: boolean) => {
+    const { updateConfig } = useConfigStore.getState();
+    updateConfig({ mockLiveHintsEnabled: enabled }).catch((e) => {
       console.error('Failed to save mock live suggestions setting', e);
       toast.error('Failed to save live suggestions setting');
     });
   }, []);
 
-  return { enabled: config?.mockLiveHintsEnabled === true, toggle };
+  const toggle = useCallback(() => {
+    const { config: current } = useConfigStore.getState();
+    persist(current?.mockLiveHintsEnabled === false);
+  }, [persist]);
+
+  return { enabled: config?.mockLiveHintsEnabled !== false, setEnabled: persist, toggle };
 }

src/renderer/pages/configuration/index.tsx

@@ -6,22 +6,23 @@ import { HotkeyCheatsheetDialog } from '@/components/custom/hotkey-cheatsheet';
 import PageHeader from '@/components/custom/page-header';
 import { LanguageField } from '@/components/custom/settings/language-field';
 import { MicrophoneField } from '@/components/custom/settings/microphone-field';
+import { MockHintsField } from '@/components/custom/settings/mock-hints-field';
 import { SuggestionModeField } from '@/components/custom/settings/suggestion-mode-field';
 import { TranscriptPanelField } from '@/components/custom/settings/transcript-panel-field';
 import { ZoomField } from '@/components/custom/settings/zoom-field';
 import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button';
 
 /**
- * How the interview runs: the microphone, the language, how suggestions read, and whether the
- * transcript is docked.
+ * How the interview runs: the microphone, the language, how suggestions read, whether practice
+ * interviews show them at all, and whether the transcript is docked.
  *
  * Every control here writes straight through to the config store as it is changed - there is no
  * Save button, because there is nothing to batch and nothing that could be half-applied. That is
  * the other reason this is not a tab of the account page, which does have a Save and does need
  * one.
  *
- * These are the same four settings the first-run wizard walks a new user through, rendered from
- * the same components, so what the wizard set is what this page shows.
+ * These are the same settings the first-run wizard walks a new user through, rendered from the
+ * same components, so what the wizard set is what this page shows.
  */
 export default function ConfigurationPage() {
   const navigate = useNavigate();
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ export default function ConfigurationPage() {
         <MicrophoneField />
         <LanguageField />
         <SuggestionModeField />
+        <MockHintsField />
         <ZoomField />
         <TranscriptPanelField />
 

src/renderer/pages/onboarding/index.tsx

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { toast } from 'sonner';
 import { LoadingPage } from '@/components/custom/loading';
 import { LanguageField } from '@/components/custom/settings/language-field';
 import { MicrophoneField } from '@/components/custom/settings/microphone-field';
+import { MockHintsField } from '@/components/custom/settings/mock-hints-field';
 import {
   ContextField,
   FullNameField,
@@ -21,7 +22,15 @@ import { useOnboardingDismissed } from '@/hooks/use-onboarding-dismissed';
 import { APP_NAME } from '@/lib/consts';
 import { getElectron } from '@/lib/utils';
 
-type StepId = 'profile' | 'context' | 'language' | 'microphone' | 'mode' | 'zoom' | 'transcript';
+type StepId =
+  | 'profile'
+  | 'context'
+  | 'language'
+  | 'microphone'
+  | 'mode'
+  | 'mock-hints'
+  | 'zoom'
+  | 'transcript';
 
 interface Step {
   id: StepId;
@@ -33,7 +42,7 @@ interface Step {
 
 /**
  * One thing per step, in the order a first interview needs them: who you are, what you are
- * interviewing for, then the five things that decide how the session looks and behaves.
+ * interviewing for, then the six things that decide how a session looks and behaves.
  *
  * Profile first because it is the only step that can block a start - the start sequence refuses
  * to run without a name and a CV - and the only one that is worth typing rather than picking.
@@ -72,6 +81,13 @@ const STEPS: Step[] = [
     title: 'How should suggestions read?',
     description: 'Change your mind at any time, including mid-interview.',
   },
+  {
+    id: 'mock-hints',
+    label: 'Practice',
+    title: 'Hints while you practise?',
+    description:
+      'Practice interviews are the ones you run against yourself. This decides whether they hand you the answer as well.',
+  },
   {
     id: 'zoom',
     label: 'Size',
@@ -101,8 +117,8 @@ const STEPS: Step[] = [
  * that collect them, so a user who closes the app halfway through still keeps what they typed.
  *
  * Nothing here is a trap. Skip is on every step, every setting has a working default, and
- * Configuration can re-run the whole thing later - which is what lets this screen ask six
- * questions without any of them being a decision the user has to get right now.
+ * Configuration can re-run the whole thing later - which is what lets this screen ask as much as
+ * it does without any of it being a decision the user has to get right now.
  */
 export default function OnboardingPage() {
   const navigate = useNavigate();
@@ -235,8 +251,9 @@ export default function OnboardingPage() {
     if (isLast) {
       setFinishing(true);
       try {
-        // Finish stays put on a failed write, unlike Skip: the user has just answered six
-        // questions, and leaving on a write that did not land means being asked all six again.
+        // Finish stays put on a failed write, unlike Skip: the user has just worked through
+        // every step, and leaving on a write that did not land means being asked again from the
+        // top.
         if (!(await complete())) {
           toast.error('Could not save your setup. Check your connection and try again.');
           return;
@@ -252,7 +269,7 @@ export default function OnboardingPage() {
   };
 
   // Signed out, this screen has no account to read or write and every step would fail. Sent
-  // where `/` sends them, rather than rendering six steps that cannot save.
+  // where `/` sends them, rather than rendering a wizard whose every step fails to save.
   if (appState?.isLoggedIn === false) return <Navigate to="/auth/login" replace />;
   if (appState?.isLoggedIn !== true) return <LoadingPage disclaimer="Loading…" />;
 
@@ -329,6 +346,7 @@ export default function OnboardingPage() {
           {step.id === 'language' && <LanguageField />}
           {step.id === 'microphone' && <MicrophoneField />}
           {step.id === 'mode' && <SuggestionModeField />}
+          {step.id === 'mock-hints' && <MockHintsField />}
           {step.id === 'zoom' && <ZoomField />}
           {step.id === 'transcript' && <TranscriptPanelField />}
         </div>
@@ -347,9 +365,7 @@ export default function OnboardingPage() {
               className="text-muted-foreground"
               onClick={() => void handleSkip()}
               disabled={finishing}
-              title={
-                isFirstRun ? 'You can run setup again later from Configuration' : undefined
-              }
+              title={isFirstRun ? 'You can run setup again later from Configuration' : undefined}
             >
               {isFirstRun ? 'Skip for now' : 'Close'}
             </Button>

src/renderer/types/config.ts

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ export interface Config {
   // sentences. The default; full-sentence mode is the opt-out.
   hintOnlyMode: boolean;
 
-  // Mock interview: also show what the live assistant would have suggested. Off by default.
+  // Mock interview: also show what the live assistant would have suggested. The default; the
+  // session bar turns it off for the run where composing unaided is the point.
   mockLiveHintsEnabled: boolean;
 }

test/config-store.test.mjs

@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ export async function run(userDataDir) {
         // Both mechanisms that touch it are exercised below: the migration reads it once to
         // carry the choice across, then scrubRetiredKey removes it.
         professionalMode: false,
+        // The pre-rename name for `mockLiveHintsEnabled`, set to a real choice rather than the
+        // default of the day. Carried across for the same reason `professionalMode` is, and
+        // scrubbed afterwards for the same reason too.
+        mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled: false,
       },
     })
   );
@@ -93,7 +97,6 @@ export async function run(userDataDir) {
     !('professionalMode' in (store.configStore.getStoredRuntime() ?? {}))
   );
 
-
   store.configStore.updateConfig({ hintOnlyMode: true });
   check('hintOnlyMode is persisted', store.configStore.getStoredRuntime()?.hintOnlyMode === true);
 
@@ -103,6 +106,26 @@ export async function run(userDataDir) {
     store.configStore.getConfig().hintOnlyMode === true
   );
 
+  // Mock live hints default to on, so an upgrading install that had turned them off must come
+  // back off rather than being handed the new default - which is exactly what would happen if the
+  // migration stopped reading the pre-rename key.
+  check('mock live hints carry the upgrading choice across', cfg.mockLiveHintsEnabled === false);
+  check(
+    'and the pre-rename mock hints key is scrubbed',
+    !('mockLiveSuggestionsEnabled' in (store.configStore.getStoredRuntime() ?? {}))
+  );
+
+  // The other half of that: absent on disk has to read as on. Every consumer reads through
+  // getConfig, so this is the backfill the main-process service actually sees - a default flipped
+  // in one of the two places and not the other is invisible until a session runs.
+  const withoutHints = { ...(store.configStore.getStoredRuntime() ?? {}) };
+  delete withoutHints.mockLiveHintsEnabled;
+  store.configStore.setStoredRuntime(withoutHints);
+  check(
+    'an absent mockLiveHintsEnabled reads as on',
+    store.configStore.getConfig().mockLiveHintsEnabled === true
+  );
+
   // `lastSessionMode` backed the control bar's split Start button, which no longer exists.
   // Seeded above, so this pins the scrub rather than merely that RuntimeConfig stopped declaring
   // it - every read and write in the store spreads the raw stored object through, and nothing