# Backlog — the prioritized task queue

The forward-looking half of the old docs/ROADMAP.md, reworked as a queue
agents can execute. Detailed design notes and decision records stay in
`docs/ROADMAP.md` (referenced as "ROADMAP § <item>"); this file is *what's
next, in what order*.

**Rules:**
- Agents take the topmost actionable item (see LOOP.md). Finished items
  are **deleted** here — the journal + git log are the record; durable
  design notes get a ✓-entry in docs/ROADMAP.md if worth keeping.
- Item numbers are **stable IDs** — never renumbered or reused. A gap in
  the sequence means shipped (or dropped) work; new items take the next
  free number regardless of tier.
- Tags: `[blocked:hw]` needs real hardware (see HARDWARE-QUEUE.md) ·
  `[human]` needs Bernardo · `[stuck]` two failed attempts, needs help ·
  `[big]` must be split before starting.
- Agents may append to **PROPOSED** and **Decisions** freely; only
  Bernardo moves items *out* of PROPOSED into the tiers.

---

## NOW

*(empty — NEXT's top item is the queue head)*

## NEXT

### 29. Laptop docking / external-monitor UX `[human]` (needs hardware)
(Raised by Bernardo, 2026-07-07.) The shipped display application is
weak and unintuitive, and Hyprland's model for workspaces across
multiple monitors is unclear to users. Make docking a laptop to
external monitors first-class:
- **Unplug → restore the panel:** when the external monitor is removed
  and the laptop's own panel is off (was the only-active output while
  docked), turn the internal panel back on *immediately* — never leave
  the user staring at a dead lid.
- **Plug → extend by default:** a newly connected external monitor
  should *extend* the laptop panel (not mirror), out of the box.
- **HDMI audio:** an easy way to route audio to the monitor when a
  display with audio (HDMI/DP) is connected — a menu toggle / quick
  action, not manual pavucontrol digging.
- **Workspaces + multi-monitor:** document (cheatsheet + menu) and,
  where sensible, sane defaults for how Hyprland binds workspaces to
  outputs so multi-monitor behavior is predictable.
Likely a `hyprland`/`kanshi`-style profile layer plus a menu surface;
split into slices before starting. `[blocked:hw]` for the real
dock/undock + HDMI-audio verification (see HARDWARE-QUEUE.md).

### 28. Theme UI review — make every surface stunning `[big]`
(Raised by Bernardo, 2026-07-05 — placed at the head of NEXT; reorder
freely.) A thorough visual pass over the whole themed UI — Waybar (the
generated bar AND the summer whole-swaps), rofi menus, swaync,
hyprlock, the cheatsheet, ghostty/btop, GTK/Qt, boot splash, greeter —
with the bar set at *stunning*, not merely consistent (pillar 4).
Grounded in design theory, not taste alone:
- **Color:** palette-role relationships that demonstrably work
  together — harmony models (analogous/complementary accents),
  perceptual lightness ordering of base→surface→overlay→text (check in
  OKLCH, not raw hex), accent/warn/bad distinguishable for color-blind
  users; extend tools/check-theme-contrast.py to encode the adopted
  rules (it currently guards legibility pairs only).
- **Typography & rhythm:** a consistent type scale across bar/menus/
  OSD, spacing on the ui.gapsIn/gapsOut grid, aligned paddings (the
  bar's per-module padding vs rofi rows vs swaync toasts).
- **Hierarchy:** what reads first — bar module ordering/weights, menu
  title vs rows, toast title vs body; icon weights consistent with the
  adjacent text.
Bernardo has offered image-expert models for designed graphics
(wallpapers, logos, glyphs, preview/branding art): an agent slice that
needs artwork must STOP and ask ("say the word") instead of shipping
programmer-art.
Slices: (a) ✓ the audit (2026-07-05, iteration #31 — findings below);
(b) palette-level fixes + the extended contrast/harmony checker —
P1s ✓ shipped 2026-07-05 (iteration #32): summer-day + flexoki-light
subtext/surface/overlay/muted retuned (flexoki to its canonical
upstream tones), miasma + kanagawa surfaces raised (kanagawa to
sumiInk4); `subtext/base ≥ 3` now GATED in check-theme-contrast.py
(all 21 pass). P2s ✓ shipped 2026-07-05 (iteration #33): 18 hex
retunes across 9 themes (OKLCH hue-preserving minimal raises;
canonical where upstream defines one — gruvbox bg4, nord #616e88,
latte overlay1, flexoki 600-series statuses for light mode) and the
four floors GATED: muted ≥ 2, text/surface ≥ 4.5, accentAlt ≥ 3,
warn ≥ 2.5 (21×7 pairings green; audit contrast findings 20 → 1 —
miasma's earthy `bad` stays as identity, good/bad floors stay
audit-only so no exemption list was needed). Remaining (b): nothing —
further palette work graduates from slices (c)/(d) findings;
(c) per-surface polish slices — capture harness ✓ shipped 2026-07-05
(iteration #34): `tools/theme-shot.nix` boots the themed desktop
headlessly at 1080p and screenshots desktop + open root menu (proven
on tokyo-night); per-surface punch items from the first full-res
review:
  - ✓ **rofi keybind hints** (shipped iteration #37): dimmed pango
    hints on root/Tools/System rows, generated from keybinds.nix via
    the cheatsheet's prettyKeys (single source, can't drift) —
    capture-verified on tokyo-night.
  - **Icon weight mix `[human]`:** full-color Papirus icons in the
    menus vs all-monochrome bar glyphs — pick: symbolic/monochrome
    menu icons for one system, or color as the menu's identity.
    A/B captured on lumon (iteration #46, side-by-side:
    https://claude.ai/code/artifact/1ccd10fe-4b6f-454a-888d-e7fdf2362b03):
    B (symbolic) matches the bar's weight but Papirus symbolic
    coverage has holes (preferences-desktop-theme-symbolic missing —
    Look & Feel lost its icon) and rofi tints symbolics a fixed dim
    gray, not the theme text color — going B needs an icon audit +
    recolor slice. A costs nothing. Awaiting the call; A stays until
    then.
  - ✓ **Bar right-cluster rhythm** (shipped iteration #36): group
    margins before pulseaudio/powerprofile/battery — heads that
    self-hide degrade to the uniform spacing.
  - ✓ **Semantic dim** (shipped iteration #36): workspaces + dnd +
    muted-volume now use `@muted` (floor-guaranteed by 28b) instead
    of `alpha(@text, 0.5)` tints; the CSS comment now documents the
    new invariant.
  - ✓ **compositor backdrop** (shipped iteration #35): Hyprland
    `misc:background_color` now the theme's base — no more black flash
    behind a missing/slow wallpaper (glaring on light themes in the
    summer-day capture).
  - summer-day whole-swap capture reviewed (iteration #35): the
    authored slate menu + island-pill bar survive the 28b retunes and
    read as one coherent identity — keep. ✓ placeholder-dim nit fixed
    (iteration #38: both summer rasi, bg0 at 60% alpha).
  - latte capture reviewed (iteration #38): the generated menu is
    fully coherent on light themes (zebra rows, retuned surface, blue
    selected, dimmed hints) — the audit's "dark terminal on latte"
    preview concern was a stale preview, not a defect. Backdrop
    probe: misc:background_color IS applied (hyprctl getoption =
    0xFFEFF1F5); captures show dark because awww's empty-state layer
    paints over it in the wallpaper-less VM — on hardware the fix
    covers its intended window (the pre-awww startup gap).
  - ✓ Harness gap fixed (iteration #44): guest `~/.nomarchy` seeded
    via tmpfiles BEFORE greetd starts the session, so the session's
    own exec-once wallpaper paint runs (a post-boot testScript seed
    was too late for exec-once, and a manual re-run fails without
    WAYLAND_DISPLAY — awww's client socket is display-named).
    Wallpaper-complete summer-night capture reviewed: lakeside night
    scene + cream inverted bar + menu-over-scene all cohere; the
    placeholder dim (#2d353b99) renders. Note: summer-night's cream
    bar/menu on dark backdrop is the authored inverted design (fg as
    surface), not a rendering bug.
  - ✓ Identity-theme capture + stub purge (iteration #45): the lumon
    capture exposed that catppuccin/lumon/nord/retro-82 shipped stub
    waybar.css files (2–14 lines, from the f211ef0 rewrite import) —
    and a theme waybar.css whole-swaps the ENTIRE generated
    stylesheet, so those four ran an unstyled default bar. Stubs
    deleted; re-capture confirms lumon falls back to the generated
    styled bar (workspace pill, padded right cluster). Their full
    ~110-line rofi.rasi designs kept. Real whole-swaps remain only
    summer-day/night (+ nord/retro-82 lost nothing: the stubs had no
    design).
(d) the whole-swap themes brought to the same bar (module parity
verified textually 2026-07-05: whole-swaps carry every functional
module; omitting cpu/memory is identity). Visual work is
V3-bound by nature — screenshots are the review artifact, hardware
confirms.

**Audit findings (slice a — `tools/audit-theme-design.py` over all 21
palettes + visual pass over previews; identity-aware curation):**
- ~~P1 · invisible-secondary-text palettes~~ ✓ fixed iteration #32
  (summer-day subtext #6e828a, surface #efe7d0; flexoki-light to
  canonical Flexoki: surface #E6E4D9, overlay #B7B5AC, subtext
  #6F6E69, muted #878580). Gate added.
- ~~P1 · inverted bg stacks~~ ✓ fixed iteration #32 (miasma surface
  #2e2e2e; kanagawa surface #2a2a37 = upstream sumiInk4). Note
  learned: in this palette model `overlay` is a MID-TONE
  (borders/dim, catppuccin semantics), not a third bg tier — the
  dark-theme overlay==muted pattern is intentional.
- **P2 · muted floor:** muted-on-base < 2.0 on gruvbox (1.27),
  everforest (1.55), lumon (1.68), nord (1.69), white (1.82), latte
  (1.91), retro-82 (1.93) — dimmed workspaces/inactive items barely
  render (visible on the lumon preview). Adopt ≥ 2.0 and retune.
- **P2 · warn barely reads:** warn-on-base ≈ 2.0–2.3 on rose-pine,
  summer-day, latte, flexoki-light — this is the bar's 25%-battery
  color. Floor 2.5 (or see the color-only rule below).
- **P2 · text-on-surface < 4.5:** ristretto 3.88, latte 4.39 (menus
  and chips draw text on surface).
- **P3 · accentAlt-on-base < 3:** latte 2.34, summer-day 2.83.
- ~~**Design rule (systemic): status is never color-only.**~~ ✓ swept
  iteration #69 (2026-07-08). good/warn collapse under protanopia and
  good/bad under deuteranopia is inherent to red/green/yellow, not
  fixable per-palette — but the sweep found every Waybar status
  indicator already carries non-color redundancy: **updates** shows a
  count (`󰚰 N`) and self-hides; **vpn/doctor/nightlight/recording**
  self-gate (presence *is* the state); **battery** changes glyph by
  level + bolt-on-charge; **idle_inhibitor** (󰅶/󰾪) and
  **pulseaudio.muted** (󰝟) are glyph-distinct. The one real gap: swaync
  **inhibited-** states reused the normal bells (󰂜/󰂚), so "notifications
  suppressed by an inhibitor" was distinguished from normal by *color
  alone* — fixed by routing every suppressed state (DND or inhibited) to
  the bell-off glyph + @muted, in the generated bar and all four
  whole-swaps (parity). V3-pending: confirm the muted bell-off renders
  while an app holds a notification inhibitor (HARDWARE-QUEUE).
- **Identity exemptions, made explicit:** vantablack + white
  (deliberately hueless statuses), lumon (all-blue), hackerman
  (matrix green statuses), matte-black/retro-82 (off-family hues) are
  identity, not defects — slice (b)'s checker gets a per-theme
  exemption list instead of silently lowered floors.
- **ANSI / greeter notes:** latte, rose-pine and white ship
  `ansi[0]` LIGHTER than `ansi[15]` — decide the light-theme ANSI
  convention (terminals conventionally keep black dark) before the
  greeter/tty theming ships to them. tokyo-night/summer-night
  `ansi[7]-on-ansi[0]` ≈ 2.8–3.0 = the greeter's muted text; fine as
  muted, watch on hardware.
- **Visual pass (480×270 previews — too small for type/spacing; the
  deep per-surface pass needs 1080p captures):** the generated bar's
  right cluster runs ~9 modules with uniform spacing — no grouping
  rhythm (consider micro-gaps between tray/net · stats · toggles ·
  battery/notify groups); latte's preview shows a DARK terminal on
  the light desktop — verify ghostty consumes the latte palette (or
  the preview is stale); summer-day's island-pill whole-swap bar and
  lumon's globe identity are strong — preserve through any polish.

### 14. Automated lock bumps — confirm the first real run
Slices b+c shipped 2026-07-05 (`.gitea/workflows/bump.yml`): weekly
schedule (Mon 05:17 UTC) + `workflow_dispatch` as the security
fast-lane; `nix flake update` → eval gate → pathspec-limited lock
commit pushed to `main` on green (that push triggers check.yml as the
second net). Update/commit/push logic simulated locally end-to-end in
a scratch clone, incl. a real update; today's bumped lock evals green.
Remaining (not confirmable from a session): the first scheduled or
dispatched run must land — watch that the runner picks up the cron and
that the Actions token can push. Then delete this item. Item 20's KVM
runner later upgrades the gate from eval-only to the VM suite.

### 20. KVM runner → VM suite in CI `[human]`
The remaining stretch of the CI item — checks-on-push is live and
**green** (run #58; runner = gitea/act_runner docker, eval tier).
Register a second runner on a host with `/dev/kvm` + nix (host-mode
label `nix-kvm`), then an agent uncomments the workflow's `vm-checks`
job: the `checks.*` VM suite + real toplevel/HM builds on every push
that later upgrades item 14's bump gate from eval-only to the full suite.

### 33. rofi page-overflow hint (scrollbar)
(Raised by Bernardo, 2026-07-07 — item 3.) When a list/grid overflows
onto another page, nothing signals there's more below. Add a scrollbar
(rofi's `scrollbar` element) or a "more ↓" hint, themed to the palette,
on the launcher grid and the long text menus. Check rofi 2.0.0's
scrollbar support/theming.
_Scoped 2026-07-07:_ rofi only draws the scrollbar when the list actually
overflows (`lines < rows`), so enabling it self-hides on short menus —
the right primitive. But it's a **visual, ~10-file slice**: the generated
palette theme (`rofi.nix`, `scrollbar = false`) **plus every authored
`.rasi`** (boreal/nord/lumon/kanagawa/retro-82/neon-glass/executive-slate/
summer-day/summer-night) — all deliberately set `scrollbar { width:0 }`
today, each needs a per-theme handle width/colour. Payoff is V3-only
(rendering), so it wants a themed session, not a headless edit.

### 41. Floating-window audit — remaining (needs hardware class checks)
(Raised by Bernardo, 2026-07-07 — item 11.) Broaden the `windowrule`
float set beyond the conservative first cut.
_Conservative cut shipped 2026-07-07 (iteration #63, on Bernardo's "take a
conservative approach"):_ float + center the mixer (item 35), **blueman**
(manager/adapters) and **system-config-printer** — the only shipped,
unambiguous config dialogs whose classes are confident. **Remaining
candidates, deliberately deferred because their window class can't be
verified headlessly** (a guessed class = dead rule): the polkit auth
prompt (hyprpolkitagent — no discoverable class in the package), GTK
file-chooser portals (`xdg-desktop-portal-gtk`), and any pinentry dialog.
Next slice: on hardware, run `hyprctl clients` while each is open, read
the real `class`, then append rules. Also revisit whether blueman/s-c-p
actually float once seen (regex tolerance for the `.…-wrapped` form).

## LATER

- **Wallpapers artifact split** (ROADMAP § Faster switches — decided,
  deferred): pinned `Nomarchy-wallpapers` input so a state write stops
  re-copying 86 MB. Follow-on: pre-built theme variants if switches are
  still slow after.
- **Installer round 2** (ROADMAP § Installer): multi-disk BTRFS RAID,
  impermanence, BIOS/legacy boot.
- **Boot-from-snapshot**: a systemd-boot equivalent of grub-btrfs.
- **Night-light geo mode**: lat/long auto sunset/sunrise (means wlsunset).
- **Per-theme icon overrides** / more icon packs (ROADMAP § Icon themes).
- **MIPI/IPU software-ISP camera** support (no-UVC machines).
- **VPN exit-node richer display** (country/city) (optional).
- **NixOS release bump → v2** `[human]`: deliberate, hand-edited, never
  automated; the previous attempt was discarded (2026-06-22) over a
  Hyprland OOM blocker — see MEMORY.md before retrying (NOW#3 should
  also soften that blocker class).

## PROPOSED (agent suggestions — await human triage)

*Agents: append here with a one-paragraph pitch (what/why/cost). Do not
implement. Bernardo moves accepted items into a tier.*



- **Battery charge-limit — make the toggle instant** `[blocked:hw]`
  (follow-up to the preset toggle shipped 2026-07-07, iteration #55).
  The control-center now has a proper toggle (Off / 80% / 90% / 60% /
  Custom…) writing `settings.power.batteryChargeLimit` — but that's a
  baked NixOS option, so it only lands on the next `sys-rebuild`. To make
  it instant (no rebuild): add a udev rule making
  `/sys/class/power_supply/BAT*/charge_control_end_threshold`
  group-writable (`MODE`/`GROUP`) so the menu can `echo N >` it live
  alongside persisting state (the sysfs oneshot in power.nix still owns
  boot + AC-replug re-apply), and/or surface a rofi-menu quick row or a
  Waybar action. `[blocked:hw]`: the sysfs write + no-rebuild effect can
  only be confirmed on a laptop exposing the threshold. Decide first
  whether the small privilege grant (a local user can set the charge cap)
  is acceptable.

- **Portal/Flatpak camera picker still lists the internal IR sensor**
  (ROADMAP § Webcam follow-up). The shipped IR-hide is a *WirePlumber
  v4l2* rule, but Flatpak/portal apps consume cameras via the
  **libcamera** path, where both sensors remain visible — a Flatpak
  Zoom user can still pick the black IR "camera". Options, roughly
  ascending cost: (a) do nothing — document it (portal camera support
  is still rare in practice); (b) a WirePlumber *libcamera* monitor
  rule disabling GREY-only nodes — needs verifying that libcamera
  monitor rules can match early enough (the v4l2 investigation found
  only `device.api` binds pre-rule, which is why surgical scoping
  failed before — same wall likely applies); (c) a libcamera
  configuration/udev quirk hiding the IR sensor at the libcamera layer
  itself. Cost: (b)/(c) need a T14s-style RGB+IR machine to verify →
  pairs with a hardware-queue session. Recommend (a) now, (b)
  investigated when the T14s is next available.

- **[stability] Interim build-tier gate for automated lock bumps**
  (surfaced by the 2026-07-08 stability survey, iteration #71). Today
  `.gitea/workflows/bump.yml` pushes a lock bump to `main` on the
  **eval tier only** (`nix flake check --no-build`), and Nomarchy ships
  **no binary cache** — so users pull `main` and *compile* whatever
  landed. A bump that evaluates but fails to *build* (a dropped patch, an
  IFD/Stylix break, an upstream package that no longer compiles) reaches
  users as a broken `home-update`/`sys-rebuild`. Item 20 (VM suite in CI)
  is the real fix but is `[human]`-blocked on a KVM runner. Cheap interim
  that needs **no KVM**: have the bump gate additionally *build*
  `homeConfigurations.nomarchy.activationPackage` and
  `nixosConfigurations.nomarchy.config.system.build.toplevel` before the
  push (V1 tier — catches build-time breakage eval misses). Cost/open
  question: the docker `act_runner` compiles Nomarchy's own derivations
  from source (cache.nixos.org still serves upstream), so a full toplevel
  build could be slow/heavy — measure once; if too heavy, gate on the HM
  activation package alone (the surface most bumps touch). Does not
  replace item 20; it raises the floor until item 20 lands.




- **[usefulness] External monitor brightness control (ddcutil)**: Laptops
  can dim their internal screens via `brightnessctl` and the OSD keys, but
  external monitors connected to a dock are stuck at blinding brightness
  unless the user reaches for physical buttons. Integrating `ddcutil` (which
  controls external monitors via DDC/CI over HDMI/DP) into a Waybar slider
  or a new rofi menu row would give Nomarchy a true "docked workstation"
  polish. Cost: moderate — requires `hardware.i2c.enable = true`, adding
  `ddcutil` to udev/groups, and building a UI path to control it.







## Decisions `[human]`

Open calls only Bernardo can make; agents add options/evidence but never
decide.

- **Formatter adoption:** repo deliberately has none; `nixfmt-rfc-style`
  would flatten the aligned hand-formatting of ~33 files. Adopt or
  declare never?
- **Docs site vs Markdown-in-repo** (from the docs-review item).

- **zram swap:** faster under pressure and pairs with NOW#3, but it
  interacts with the hibernation-swapfile story (resume device/priority
  ordering) — adopt, adopt-with-hibernation-guard, or skip?
- **Default browser:** the template comments Firefox out. The shipped
  mime defaults (item 8, done) point `text/html`/http(s) at
  `firefox.desktop` as *inert* entries — they activate the moment
  Firefox is installed and are skipped otherwise, so the remaining call
  is only: ship a browser active in the suite, or stay
  browserless-by-default?

- **Default power backend — PPD vs TLP:** (raised by Bernardo 2026-07-08:
  would TLP be more power-efficient, and should it be the default?)
  TLP does get more *idle* battery life, but only from device-level knobs
  PPD deliberately omits — PCIe ASPM, disk/NVMe link PM, USB autosuspend,
  runtime PM — which are the same knobs behind NVMe/USB flakiness that
  pillar 1 (rock-stable, never fight your machine) guards against.
  **Evidence (2026-07-08):** no credible hard-watt benchmarks exist — TLP's
  own maintainer declines to quote any ("measure on your hardware") and says
  PPD's power-saver gives *similar* savings under load; TLP's edge is
  idle-only (linrunner.de/tlp/faq/ppd.html — PPD covers a *subset* of TLP,
  "no settings to reduce consumption when the CPU is idle"). Our sibling
  distro **Omarchy** ran this exact experiment — a "replace Power Profiles
  with TLP for battery" guide — and the author **reverted to PPD** ("more
  headaches and weird issues"); Omarchy shipped PPD auto-switching instead
  (basecamp/omarchy#3907). PPD 3.4.0 now does AC/battery auto-switching,
  closing part of TLP's UX gap. **Cost of TLP-default:** TLP has no live
  D-Bus profile API, so the `powermgmt` menu + Waybar profile indicator +
  low-battery auto power-saver (all `powerprofilesctl`) would need a rework —
  it's not a one-line backend swap. **Agent rec (evidence, not a decision):
  keep PPD default;** chase battery via targeted low-risk tweaks (PCIe ASPM
  policy, battery-side EPP, the charge *start* threshold, PPD auto-switching)
  and keep TLP the documented one-line opt-in it already is
  (`nomarchy.system.power.backend = "tlp"`). Options: (i) status quo +
  targeted tweaks [rec]; (ii) TLP default (reworks the profile UX);
  (iii) nothing.
