Domain Search Rewrite: Make sure Start flows behave correctly

[zaguiini]

Part of DOMAINS-1674.

Proposed Changes

Adds feature parity with production in all eligible /start flows, in order of importance:

1. /start/launch-site?siteSlug=%s
2. /start/domain
3. product flows (/start/free, /start/premium, /start/business etc.)
4. /start/with-theme?theme=retrospect&theme_type=free&intervalType=yearly
5. /start/with-plugin?plugin=dokan-lite&billing_period=
6. /start/domain-for-gravatar
7. /start/onboarding-with-email
8. /start/onboarding-affiliate

Testing Instructions

Turn the domain-search-rewrite feature flag on and verify all of the flows behave like production: the ability to skip, to use an existing domain, the free domain discount, etc.

Don't worry about Tracks events as they'll be introduced in #105944.

[github-actions]

Calypso Live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-157610

Jetpack Cloud live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-157610&env=jetpack

Automattic for Agencies live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-157610&env=a8c-for-agencies

[matticbot]

This PR modifies the release build for the following Calypso Apps:

For info about this notification, see here: PCYsg-OT6-p2

• notifications
• wpcom-block-editor

To test WordPress.com changes, run install-plugin.sh $pluginSlug domains-1674-start-flows on your sandbox.

[leonardost]

I reviewed this and I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly 😅 I noticed some differences between this PR and production. For example:

Most of the flows are showing the "Exact match", " is a common extension" notes in the features suggestions, but they aren't present in production. Also, the "Use a domain I own" link doesn't appear in this PR:

Are these changes intentional?

I think the one that was most different was `/start/onboarding-with-email:

Despite the UI changes and the omission of the "Use a domain I own" flow, I believe the behavior is the same with production.

[zaguiini]

@leonardost,

Most of the flows are showing the "Exact match", " is a common extension" notes in the features suggestions, but they aren't present in production.

That was fixed in a different PR and simply rebasing this one should do the trick. Please try again.

Also, the "Use a domain I own" link doesn't appear in this PR

@ollierozdarz, should we show the escape hatch to use my domain despite the user not searching for a FQDN? I think it makes the behavior a bit ambiguous since they'll see both escape hatches if they do search for it.

[ollierozdarz]

@ollierozdarz, should we show the escape hatch to use my domain despite the user not searching for a FQDN? I think it makes the behavior a bit ambiguous since they'll see both escape hatches if they do search for it.

@zaguiini is this just for the ../onboarding-with-email flow?

I don't have any context as to why there is, or isn't, a Use a domain I own link in the top right on this variant of this flow, so I'd personally default to what we currently show in prod until we can get some more information from someone like @ramynasr.

Side note, we should make sure we keep the same heading on these specialized flows:

[leonardost]

Reviewed again and the new flows are more similar to the ones in prod 🙂 the behavior between this PR and prod is the same in all flows, but there are still some small UI differences. I've screenshotted each of the flows and pointed out those differences:

Flow	Screenshot	Differences
/start/launch-site		None ✅
/start/domain		"Use a domain I own" link and free domain banner only in the PR
/start/domain		In the PR version, the "Use a domain I own" link appears over the mini cart - we should remove the link
/start/free		Free domain banner only in prod
/start/premium		None ✅
/start/with-theme		PR uses "Free domain for 1st year" discount, prod doesn't
/start/with-theme		The "Use a domain I own" flow content has borders above and below that doesn't exist in prod
/start/with-theme		Same as above
/start/with-plugin		WSOD in prod and this PR
/start/domain-for-gravatar		None ✅
/start/onboarding-with-email		Price rules are different
/start/onbiarding-with-affiliate		None ✅
/start/onbiarding-with-affiliate		"Use a domain I own" has borders like in the /start/with-theme flow

---

I noticed a weird behavior in the /start/launch-site domain search:

Screen.Recording.2025-09-29.at.16.09.37.mov

I think this isn't related to this PR and the culprit seems to be the hide_initial_query=yes parameter. Removing it solves the issue with the query clearing on its own.

[leonardost]

I've tested /start/with-plugin?plugin=dokan-lite&billing_period= and it works with the billing_period parameter now. The domain search page looks good, but if I click on "Use a domain I own", the flow thinks I've selected a domain:

Screen.Recording.2025-09-29.at.16.59.55.mov

[zaguiini]

Thanks for the fantastic review, @leonardost!

I think I addressed most of concerns, notably excepting:

• /start/domain should have the use my domain link at the top-right because it's possible to transfer a domain from that flow. Prod not having it is a bug;
• /start/free shouldn't have the free plan banner and that's a bug in prod. We're not offering plans in that flow;
• /start/with-theme I think having the free for a year discount is actually correct as we're showing the plans step as the user progresses. It's a production bug apparently. The same for onboarding-with-email.

[leonardost]

Thanks for all the work on this, @zaguiini!

/start/domain should have the use my domain link at the top-right because it's possible to transfer a domain from that flow. Prod not having it is a bug;
/start/free shouldn't have the free plan banner and that's a bug in prod. We're not offering plans in that flow;
/start/with-theme I think having the free for a year discount is actually correct as we're showing the plans step as the user progresses. It's a production bug apparently. The same for onboarding-with-email.

With these considerations, I believe everything LGTM!

There's one very minor thing, there's a border in the second step of the "Use a domain I own" flow:

It shows in all the flows except for /start/launch-site.