feat(tools): seed guest state at boot so captures render wallpapers (item 28c)

theme-shot guests had no ~/.nomarchy, so the session's exec-once
`nomarchy-theme-sync wallpaper` died on missing state and captures
showed a bare base-color backdrop. Seed theme-state.json via tmpfiles
before greetd starts the session — the real exec-once path now paints.
(A post-boot testScript seed is too late for exec-once, and a manual
re-run fails without WAYLAND_DISPLAY: awww's client socket is
display-named.)

V2: summer-night capture renders wallpaper + inverted cream bar +
menu + placeholder dim, all coherent.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

agent/BACKLOG.md

@@ -99,10 +99,17 @@ review:
     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: wallpaper needs `~/.nomarchy` seeded in the guest
-    (theme-sync reads runtime state there) — add before vibe-review
-    captures; latte + an identity theme (lumon/retro-82) captures
-    still pending;
+  - ✓ 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.
+  - An identity theme (lumon/retro-82) vibe capture still pending;
 (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

agent/JOURNAL.md

@@ -17,6 +17,23 @@ Template:
 
 ---
 
+## 2026-07-05 — capture harness paints wallpapers (iteration #44, item 28c)
+- **Task:** item 28c harness gap — captures rendered a bare base-color
+  backdrop because the guest had no `~/.nomarchy` runtime state.
+- **Did:** tools/theme-shot.nix now seeds theme-state.json via tmpfiles
+  at boot (before greetd), so the session's exec-once
+  `nomarchy-theme-sync wallpaper` paints naturally; dropped the
+  testScript seed+manual-repaint (too late for exec-once; manual runs
+  also lack WAYLAND_DISPLAY, which awww's client needs to find its
+  socket).
+- **Verified:** V2 — summer-night capture shows wallpaper + cream
+  inverted bar + menu + placeholder dim, all coherent. V1 flake check
+  green.
+- **Pending:** identity-theme vibe capture (lumon/retro-82); the
+  `[human]` icon-weight call; HARDWARE-QUEUE eyeballs.
+- **Next suggestion:** item 28c identity capture, or park 28 for
+  Bernardo's taste calls.
+
 ## 2026-07-05 — clock zone tooltip (iteration #43, LATER item)
 - **Task:** LATER › auto-timezone Waybar tooltip. Bullet deleted.
 - **Did:** the clock tooltip's first line is now the zone —

tools/theme-shot.nix

@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@
 # Maintainer tool, NOT a checks.* gate (a full-desktop VM is far too
 # heavy for CI). Impure: THEME env picks the theme slug.
 #   THEME=<slug> nix build --impure -f tools/theme-shot.nix --no-link --print-out-paths
-# Known gap: the wallpaper does not paint — nomarchy-theme-sync resolves
-# state from ~/.nomarchy at runtime, absent in the guest; seed it
-# (cp the flake to ~nomarchy/.nomarchy in testScript) if the wallpaper
-# matters to the shot. Bar + menus render fully.
+# The guest gets a minimal ~/.nomarchy (just the theme JSON as
+# theme-state.json), seeded via tmpfiles BEFORE greetd starts the
+# session, so the session's own exec-once wallpaper paint works —
+# assets come from the themesDir baked into the tool. Bar, menus AND
+# wallpaper render.
 let
   flake = builtins.getFlake ("git+file://" + toString ../.);
   inherit (flake.inputs) nixpkgs home-manager;
@@ -38,6 +39,14 @@ pkgs.testers.runNixOSTest {
       extraGroups = [ "wheel" "video" ];
     };
     nomarchy.system.stateFile = flake + "/themes/${slug}.json";
+    # Seed the runtime state (theme-sync reads $NOMARCHY_PATH, default
+    # ~/.nomarchy) before greetd auto-starts the session, so the
+    # exec-once `nomarchy-theme-sync wallpaper` finds it and paints.
+    # NixOS activation creates /home/nomarchy before systemd runs.
+    systemd.tmpfiles.rules = [
+      "d /home/nomarchy/.nomarchy 0755 nomarchy users -"
+      "C /home/nomarchy/.nomarchy/theme-state.json 0644 nomarchy users - ${flake + "/themes/${slug}.json"}"
+    ];
     services.greetd.settings.initial_session = {
       command = "start-hyprland";
       user = "nomarchy";
@@ -52,10 +61,9 @@ pkgs.testers.runNixOSTest {
   testScript = ''
     machine.wait_for_unit("multi-user.target")
     machine.wait_for_file("/run/user/1000/hypr", 180)
-    machine.sleep(12)
-    # Paint the wallpaper explicitly (awww timing was flaky in the spike).
-    machine.execute("su - nomarchy -c 'XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 nomarchy-theme-sync wallpaper' >/dev/null 2>&1")
-    machine.sleep(18)
+    # The session exec-once paints the wallpaper (softGL first paint at
+    # 1920x1080 is slow) — give it a generous settle.
+    machine.sleep(30)
     machine.screenshot("desktop")
     # Open the root menu for the polish review.
     hy = "su - nomarchy -c 'XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE=$(ls /run/user/1000/hypr | head -1) hyprctl dispatch exec"