Guides sidebar fails to load in repo setup due to missing `v4-0-0-snapshot.json` file path

[zainforbjs]

Describe the bug
In the Guides page, the sidebar sections do not appear when running Wheels from the cloned repository. This is caused by a hardcoded file path in:
vendor/wheels/public/docs/guides.cfm: line 25
local.sidebarPath = ExpandPath("/wheels/../../web/sites/guides/src/sidebars/v4-0-0-snapshot.json");

The file v4-0-0-snapshot.json does not exist in the repository, causing the sidebar to fail to load.

This issue only affects contributors running the repository locally.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Clone the Wheels repository.
2. Run the application locally.
3. Navigate to the Guides page.
4. Observe that sidebar sections do not appear.

Expected behavior
The Guides sidebar should load correctly when running the repository locally, or fallback gracefully if versioned sidebar data is not present.

Screenshots

Desktop:

• OS: Any

Additional context

• The issue is caused by a hardcoded version-specific path: v4-0-0-snapshot.json
• This file appears to be missing in the local repo structure.
• The issue only affects:
• Contributors running Wheels from source
• Not production/documented builds (if they use a hosted guides site)

[wheels-bot]

Wheels Bot — Triage

Classified as bug.

Suspected layer

view — see .ai/wheels/views/ for canonical patterns. (Strictly a framework-internal .cfm template under vendor/wheels/public/docs/, but it is the view layer that renders the response.)

Fix sketch

The hardcoded sidebar path in vendor/wheels/public/docs/guides.cfm:25 points at web/sites/guides/src/sidebars/v4-0-0-snapshot.json, which no longer exists — the current snapshot file in the repo is v4-0-1-snapshot.json (and web/packages/ui/src/data/versions.ts:34 confirms v4-0-1-snapshot is the active dev version). The FileExists guard on line 26 already fails gracefully (no crash), but the result is an empty sections array, which is the empty sidebar the reporter sees. The external redirect URL on line 10 (https://guides.wheels.dev/v4-0-0-snapshot/) is the same kind of stale version reference and should be updated in the same patch. The minimal fix is to bump both strings to v4-0-1-snapshot; a slightly nicer fix is to resolve the latest snapshot dynamically (e.g. glob web/sites/guides/src/sidebars/*-snapshot.json and pick the highest version, or read the active slug from versions.ts) so this doesn't re-rot on every version bump. Either approach is one file (vendor/wheels/public/docs/guides.cfm).

Confidence: high

The report identifies the exact file and line, the symptom matches a single missing file, and the fix is a one-file string update with no cross-engine, security, middleware, migration, deploy, or DI concerns.

<!-- wheels-bot:triage:2647 -->
<!-- wheels-bot:triage-class:bug -->
<!-- wheels-bot:triage-confidence:high -->

[wheels-bot]

Wheels Bot — Fix proposed

Draft PR: #2650

Spec: vendor/wheels/tests/specs/view/guidesSidebarDiscoverySpec.cfc — failing (before) → passing (after) by static inspection; the local Wheels CLI runner isn't available in this bot environment, so CI on the PR will run the full test matrix.

Implementation:

• vendor/wheels/public/docs/guides.cfm — resolve sidebar + external base URL dynamically from web/sites/guides/src/sidebars/*.json
• vendor/wheels/public/views/ai.cfm — same dynamic discovery in getGuidesSummary()

A human review is required before merge. Reviewer A and Reviewer B will weigh in shortly. Doc updates (MDX guides, .ai/wheels/, CLAUDE.md) are handled separately by bot-update-docs.yml.