[hturnbull93]

Screenshots: https://fedora.taila91c66.ts.net:8444/docs/20261023-114405-pr-356-join-and-claim-a-task.html

A volunteer now joins a project by asking to take one of its tasks. The bare "Join this project" button is gone. Offering to lead an ownerless project still works, from its own button.

UI (project page)

• The header no longer has a "Join this project" button. A volunteer who isn't on the project sees Join and claim a task, which opens a modal task picker (full screen on mobile) listing open tasks with an inline Ask to take this action — no need to leave the Overview tab. Picking a task opens a second dialog with an optional message to the owner, then holds the task and sends the request. Once accepted, they can claim more tasks the same way, or from the Tasks tab, which shares the same ProjectTaskList component as the picker.
• If no task is open, the header says No open tasks yet instead.
• Offer to lead shows only while the project seeks an owner (isSeekingOwner). It opens a lead-only dialog ("Offer to lead this project") with an optional message.
• Invites, accepting invites, and admins' Invite / Add now are unchanged. Owners still answer pending requests, including old plain join requests, from the People tab and the Inbox.

API

• projects.expressInterest without a taskId now only accepts want_to_own, and only on a project that has no owner. A plain want_to_contribute gets a BAD_REQUEST: "Join a project by claiming one of its tasks". Joining a task as a helper with a taskId is unchanged.
• Claiming used to be blocked for anyone who had withdrawn or turned down an invite. Now it is blocked only for someone the owner declined or removed (CLAIM_BLOCKING_INTEREST). Claiming is now the only way back onto a project, and the "You can ask again at any time" toast now holds true.
• notifyOwnerOfInterest is only used by the claim path now. The owner's notification names the task and carries the volunteer's message: "Hal asked to take 'Design flyer': happy to do this", so it can be answered from the Inbox without opening the project. The email names the task in its subject and opening line, and shows "Their message" only when there is one.
• Offering to lead an ownerless project now notifies the chapter's staff (project_lead_offer), cleared when the offer is answered. Previously nothing told anyone: admin triage only surfaces pending_review/needs_discussion projects, which never overlap with the statuses a project seeks an owner in, so this was the only way to request leadership on an approved project and it went unheard.
• Holding a second task while an earlier request was still pending no longer skips notifying the owner. Each held task is new information to the owner, regardless of whether an earlier request from the same volunteer is still pending.
• updateTask's self-claim path takes an optional message, shown on the interest and in the owner's email.

Tests

• Router tests: refusing a plain join, an offer to lead on an owned project or a proposal, the invite check, claiming again after withdrawing or after turning down an invite versus after being declined, the chapter-staff notification on an offer to lead, and notifying the owner on a second held task. A new askToJoin helper in test/rpc.ts sets up applicants through the claim path.
• Component tests: Offer to lead, No open tasks yet, the task-picker and claim-message dialogs (including closing each by Escape and by Cancel), and the request waiting beside Withdraw.
• e2e (09): joining through the task-picker modal from the project page, Offer to lead on an ownerless project, and the no-open-tasks state. Old Join-button flows moved to these. API setup in 11, 20, 38, 42, 43 and 44 uses the new askToJoinViaApi.
• Fixed a flaky ProjectEditor test (separate commit). The owner picked while a new draft was being created was saved as nobody whenever the session hadn't loaded yet.

Decisions

• The API refuses plain joins; it doesn't only change the UI. In production, nothing else sends a plain want_to_contribute through expressInterest. Invites use invite, admins use assign, claims go through updateTask, and MCP and import don't touch interests. Leaving the endpoint open would keep a way round the new rule. Only test setup used it, and that now goes through the claim path.
• Offer to lead needs a project with no owner, at the API as well. Otherwise a want_to_own request on an owned project would be a back door to a plain join. An old pending want_to_own on a project that has since found an owner is still accepted as a helper.
• The label is "Join and claim a task". The issue calls it "Join and claim"; New-volunteer feedback: phases 3 to 6 and the status standard #314 had renamed the old tab-switch button to "Ask to take this" (lib/action-labels.ts), which the picker's own per-task action keeps.
• No follow option. The app has no follow feature, so "No open tasks yet" stands alone.
• The only plain join was on the project page. Project cards, lists, the dashboard and the task page only ever offered task claims, so they are unchanged.

Data impact: None. No migration. Existing pending plain-join requests can still be accepted or declined.

Closes #338

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