[plugin-dashboard] DashboardGridLayout has no dataset path at all — an ADR-0021 dataset-bound widget renders a silent blank chart on the editable grid #4614

Found while implementing #4612 (the retired-shape half of the same asymmetry). Filed unassigned, not fixed there — #4612's scope is the RETIRED inline-analytics shape; this is the current shape failing on the same surface. Duplicate-searched (keyword + DashboardGridLayout path): no open issue covers it.

The defect

DashboardRenderer routes a dataset-bound widget to DatasetWidget:

const datasetBound = !!(widget as any).dataset;          // DashboardRenderer.tsx:528
…
{datasetBound
  ? <DatasetWidget widget={effectiveWidget} dataSource={dataSource} />
  : <SchemaRenderer schema={componentSchema} … />}       // DashboardRenderer.tsx:841-843

DashboardGridLayout has no equivalent. It never reads widget.dataset, never imports DatasetWidget, and takes no dataSource prop at all — measured on origin/main:

$ grep -n "DatasetWidget\|dataset" packages/plugin-dashboard/src/DashboardGridLayout.tsx
191:    // 8 chart families by hand while DatasetWidget covered all 19, so radar /

One hit, inside a comment about a different fix. So a widget authored in the current ADR-0021 shape — { id, type: 'bar', dataset: 'invoices', values: ['count'] } — reaches the series branch, finds widget.data and options.data both undefined, fails isObjectProvider(undefined), and falls to the static-data branch with data: [] (DashboardGridLayout.tsx:213-225). A blank chart, with no diagnostic.

This is the same shape of bug as #4612 one level up, and the outcome is arguably worse: on DashboardRenderer a dataset-bound widget with an incapable data source at least reaches DatasetWidget, which renders a named error ("This data source does not support dataset queries", DatasetWidget.tsx:767-769). On the grid there is nothing to render an error — the dataset binding is simply never read.

Blast radius

The dashboard-grid SDUI component type, registered as "Dashboard Grid (Editable)" (packages/plugin-dashboard/src/index.tsx:271-289), and the DashboardGridLayout named export from the package entry. Every widget authored the way ADR-0021 says to author them is blank on that surface.

Evidence already in the tree

#4612's new suite contains this as a negative control — DashboardGridLayout.legacyRetired.test.tsx, "does NOT show the placeholder for a dataset-bound widget". It asserts only that the retired-format placeholder is absent, which is correct and deliberately says nothing about whether a chart appeared. It did not.

Not to be conflated

The nested options.data = { provider: 'object', … } config is a different, live surface and renders fine on the grid (isObjectProvider branches). This issue is only about the top-level dataset binding.

Fix shape (not prescriptive)

Either route dataset-bound widgets to DatasetWidget on this surface too — which means DashboardGridLayout gaining a dataSource prop it does not currently have, so it is a public-props change and wants a ruling — or, if the editable grid is deliberately not a dataset surface, render a named placeholder saying so rather than a blank, reusing legacyRetiredWidget.ts's pattern of one shared diagnostic. Worth deciding which, rather than defaulting.

Generated by Claude Code