Learnings

CSS changes not reflected (Asset Pipeline/Cache/HTML issue)

Issue: CSS changes I added to application.css for form styling were not reflected in the browser despite server restarts and hard refreshes.
Troubleshooting Steps: I verified CSS file content. Checked browser Network tab (saw 200 OK (from memory cache), indicating stale cache). Ran rbenv exec rails assets:clobber and restarted/refreshed; still no change. Verified stylesheet_link_tag in layout. Verified asset pipeline gem (propshaft). Checked for potential Procfile.dev/manifest.js issues (none found/needed for Propshaft dev). Re-inspected CSS/HTML.
Resolution: I found that the required HTML structure changes (adding classes like form-container, form-group, placeholders) in _form.html.erb were missing/had been reverted. Re-applying the necessary HTML changes resolved the issue.
Learning: When CSS doesn't apply as expected, I learned to double-check *both* the CSS *and* the HTML structure it targets. Asset pipeline issues (caching) can occur, but often the root cause is simpler: the HTML/CSS edits weren't applied correctly or completely in the first place. rails assets:clobber is a key tool for suspected CSS/JS caching issues in development. Propshaft in development typically serves assets directly without complex manifests.