Configuration silently discards unsaved changes during navigation

[romanlutz]

Describe the bug

The frontend silently discards unsaved edits in both PyRIT Configuration and Environment & Secrets when the user navigates away or changes Configuration tabs. The UI identifies the editor state as "Unsaved changes," but it does not warn, block navigation, or preserve the draft.

This can cause users to lose substantial configuration work through ordinary navigation.

Steps/Code to Reproduce

1. Open Configuration > PyRIT Configuration.
2. Edit the YAML without saving it.
3. Navigate to Scanner, then return to Configuration.
4. Observe that the editor has reverted to the saved file without confirmation.
5. Open Environment & Secrets and edit an environment source without saving it.
6. Switch to Initializers, then return to Environment & Secrets.
7. Observe that this draft has also been discarded without confirmation.

The Environment & Secrets draft remains present while switching between environment files inside the mounted tab. It is lost specifically when changing Configuration tabs because the component is unmounted.

Expected Results

Before leaving an editor with unsaved changes, the frontend should either preserve the draft or ask the user to confirm that it should be discarded. This should cover Configuration tab changes, application navigation, reload, and browser close/back behavior as appropriate.

Actual Results

The navigation succeeds immediately, no confirmation appears, and returning to the editor restores only the saved source.

Relevant implementation:

• Configuration.tsx computes hasUnsavedChanges, but tab selection immediately unmounts the active editor.
• EnvironmentFiles.tsx keeps unsaved content only in component state.

Screenshots

Captured during the September 7 frontend audit using synthetic, non-secret content:

• daily-2026-09-07/manual/configuration-unsaved-before-navigation.png
• daily-2026-09-07/manual/configuration-unsaved-lost-after-navigation.png
• daily-2026-09-07/manual/environment-unsaved-ux.json

Versions

• OS: Windows
• Browser: Chromium through Playwright 1.62.1
• Python: 3.14.4
• Frontend: 1.2.0-dev.0
• PyRIT: main at 623d57a3b26e214f53e671c593953b21da6d8b77
• Python package listing: N/A; this is a frontend state-management defect.

[WilliamK112]

I would like to take this as a follow-up to #2606. I will use the URL-backed tab navigation from that PR so one React Router blocker can cover Configuration tab changes, application navigation, and browser Back/Forward, add a beforeunload guard for reload/close, surface Environment & Secrets dirty state to the parent, and add focused keep/discard regression coverage. I will keep the change separate and rebase it after #2606 so the resulting PR does not duplicate that patch.