Clarify portal cleanup priorities and behavior-preserving consolidation plan

Codex/Portal/OPEN_ITEMS.md

@@ -7,9 +7,30 @@ Only keep unfinished Portal work here.
 - Portal-owned email notification preferences/status UX once the API contract exists.
 - checkpoint-specific backup metadata presentation once the API sends the final fields.
 
+## Cleanup / consolidation priorities
+- fold repeated API-client/status-polling patterns and shared state-mapping logic where behavior is already the same
+- fold repeated table/detail/action rendering helpers only where it reduces duplication without hiding page intent
+- split oversized page/component/state files by responsibility without changing user-visible behavior
+- keep restore/status wording explicit, but remove duplicate operation-label and status-reason mapping where possible
+- centralize shared server-management action handling so files/backups/restore/restart flows do not re-implement the same request/toast/poll logic
+- standardize repo-local Node version declaration with the current pinned platform version
+
+## Cleanup rule
+- prefer behavior-preserving folding over broad refactors
+- merge repeated flows, not concepts
+- keep helpers small and concrete
+- reduce page-local duplication before introducing new abstractions
+- treat Node/runtime/dependency upgrades as separate validation work, not part of cleanup-only changes
+
 ## Repo cleanup
 - remove stray root binary `testdameon` from the Portal repo.
 
+## Verify before re-opening
+- restore accepted -> status polling -> completion UX
+- backup metadata rendering, including checkpoint-aware presentation
+- console reconnect/state behavior during restart/restore transitions
+- server management flows that share action/polling/toast logic
+
 ## Not Portal-owned
 - agent-local backup implementation details.
 - API transport semantics.