Provider Mode

The Dual-Role User

In Karmyq, the same person is often both a community member and a service provider. A tutor might request a ride from a neighbor (member role) and offer tutoring sessions for karma or compensation (provider role). These two roles share the same identity, karma balance, and trust graph — but they call for different views of the platform.

How It Works

Provider Mode is a client-side view toggle stored in localStorage as karmyq_provider_mode. It never affects API calls or server state. When set to 'provider':

• The dashboard feed filters to requests matching the user's provider service type(s)
• A stats card surfaces provider-specific metrics (active commitments, completion rate, avg response)
• The notification system surfaces a separate provider stream via a second amber briefcase bell

Switching modes is instant — no page reload, no data re-fetch.

Notification Separation

Notifications are split into two streams by type:

Community notifications (red bell): match offers, karma awards, community invites, join requests, messages

Provider notifications (amber bell): preferred_provider_selected, provider_request_matched, provider_review_received, match_reminder

The split is computed client-side by filtering notification.type against a constant set (PROVIDER_NOTIFICATION_TYPES in lib/notificationCategories.ts). No database column or server-side routing is needed — the full notification array is fetched once and split via useMemo.

Provider Routing

When a new request is posted, the notification service sends two kinds of alerts additively:

1. new_request → all community members (the mutual aid layer)
2. provider_request_matched → providers whose service type matches (the service layer)

This is additive: disabling provider routing would never affect community notifications.

Design Principle

Provider Mode is a lens, not a separate app. Both modes share all context — community membership, karma, social graph. This avoids the complexity of role-based routing while still giving providers a focused work surface.