fix(waybar): inhibited notification state reads by shape, not color alone

Item 28 color-only accessibility sweep. Swept every Waybar status
indicator for shape/glyph redundancy: all already carry non-color
distinction (updates shows a count + self-hides; vpn/doctor/nightlight/
recording self-gate; battery/idle/muted are glyph-distinct) except the
swaync notification module — its `inhibited-*` states reused the normal
bells (󰂜/󰂚), so an app-inhibited (suppressed) state was distinguished
from a normal one by color alone.

Route every suppressed state (DND + inhibited) to the bell-off glyph 󰂛
+ @muted, so "notifications are off right now" reads by SHAPE. Applied
to the generated bar and all four whole-swaps (summer-day/night use
their own bell-off glyph; executive-slate/boreal use 󰂛) — parity rule.
Reuses the glyph DND already ships, so no new codepoint / tofu risk.

Verified: V0 (flake check --no-build; 4 jsoncs valid JSON) + V1 (built
homeConfigurations.nomarchy.activationPackage — the built config has
inhibited-* = U+F009B and style.css routes .inhibited-* → @muted).
V3 pending: live inhibited-state render with an app holding an inhibitor
(HARDWARE-QUEUE). MEMORY gains the "status is never color-only" invariant.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

agent/BACKLOG.md

@@ -175,13 +175,21 @@ palettes + visual pass over previews; identity-aware curation):**
 - **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, beats palette surgery): status is never
+- ~~**Design rule (systemic): status is never color-only.**~~ ✓ swept
-  color-only.** good/warn collapse under protanopia on ~half the
+  iteration #69 (2026-07-08). good/warn collapse under protanopia and
-  themes and good/bad under deuteranopia (59 pair-findings) — that's
+  good/bad under deuteranopia is inherent to red/green/yellow, not
-  inherent to red/green/yellow, not fixable per-palette. Battery and
+  fixable per-palette — but the sweep found every Waybar status
-  recording already carry glyph changes; sweep the remaining
+  indicator already carries non-color redundancy: **updates** shows a
-  color-only indicators (updates count, notification dot, VPN shield
+  count (`󰚰 N`) and self-hides; **vpn/doctor/nightlight/recording**
-  states) for shape/glyph redundancy.
+  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

agent/HARDWARE-QUEUE.md

@@ -15,6 +15,15 @@ QA machine), the **T14s** (webcam case).
 - [ ] **SSH_AUTH_SOCK for GUI clients** — after relogin, launch a GUI git
       client (or `rofi`-launched terminal-less app) and confirm it reaches
       gpg-agent's SSH socket without an interactive shell parent.
+- [ ] **Notification inhibited-state glyph** (item 28 color-only sweep,
+      iteration #69) — have an app hold a notification inhibitor (e.g. run
+      a fullscreen video, or `busctl --user call org.freedesktop.Notifications
+      … Inhibit`); the Waybar bell must switch to the muted **bell-off** 󰂛
+      (same glyph as DND), NOT the normal bell 󰂜/󰂚. Then release it → the
+      bell returns. Repeat on a whole-swap bar (summer-day/night use their
+      own bell-off glyph, executive-slate/boreal use 󰂛). The glyph itself
+      already renders (DND uses it); this only confirms swaync emits the
+      `inhibited-*` class and the bar routes it.
 - [x] **Night-light full cycle** — first menu enable rebuilds + hyprsunset
       starts; later toggles are instant (no rebuild); an *off* survives
       reboot (ExecCondition); stopping hyprsunset restores gamma.

agent/JOURNAL.md

@@ -17,6 +17,30 @@ Template:
 
 ---
 
+## 2026-07-08 — Color-only status sweep + inhibited-bell fix (iteration #69)
+- **Task:** BACKLOG #28 slice — the audit's systemic "status is never
+  color-only" finding (accessibility): sweep the remaining Waybar status
+  indicators for shape/glyph redundancy.
+- **Did:** swept every status module. All already carry non-color
+  redundancy (updates shows a count + self-hides; vpn/doctor/nightlight/
+  recording self-gate; battery/idle/muted are glyph-distinct) EXCEPT one:
+  swaync `inhibited-*` reused the normal bells (󰂜/󰂚), so an inhibitor
+  suppressing notifications was distinguished from normal by *color alone*.
+  Fixed: route every suppressed state (DND + inhibited) to the bell-off
+  glyph 󰂛 + @muted — generated bar (waybar.nix) AND all four whole-swaps
+  (summer-day/night use their own bell-off, executive-slate/boreal 󰂛;
+  parity rule). Reused the proven DND glyph → zero tofu risk.
+- **Verified:** V0 (flake check --no-build green; all 4 jsoncs valid JSON).
+  V1: built homeConfigurations.nomarchy.activationPackage; confirmed in the
+  *built* artifact that inhibited-none/notification = U+F009B (bell-off,
+  was F009C/F009A) and style.css routes .inhibited-* → @muted.
+- **Pending:** V3 queued (HARDWARE-QUEUE, Any-machine) — confirm the muted
+  bell-off renders while an app holds a notification inhibitor. Low risk:
+  the glyph already ships for DND. MEMORY gains the "status is never
+  color-only" design invariant (regression guard).
+- **Next suggestion:** #28 remaining is [human] (icon-weight call) or
+  V3-visual; likely a QA sweep or await Bernardo on #29/#33.
+
 ## 2026-07-08 — Migration guide: existing NixOS → Nomarchy (docs, direct request)
 - **Task:** Bernardo asked whether THIS machine (TuringMachine, NixOS 25.11)
   can migrate to Nomarchy without a reinstall, keeping all files — and to

agent/MEMORY.md

@@ -62,6 +62,15 @@ iteration would otherwise rediscover.
   state write re-copies the source before eval — the wallpapers-artifact
   split (BACKLOG LATER) is the decided fix (§ Faster switches).
 
+## Design invariants
+- **Waybar status is never color-only** (item 28 sweep, iteration #69):
+  every status module must distinguish its states by SHAPE (glyph) or
+  presence (self-hide), never color alone — good/warn/bad collapse under
+  color-blindness. When adding a state, give it a distinct glyph or gate
+  the module on it; a new `class` that only recolors an existing glyph is
+  a regression. Suppressed notification states (DND *and* app-inhibited)
+  all use the bell-off glyph + @muted.
+
 ## Gotchas (cost a debugging session once)
 - Waybar `layer: top` renders above **even real-fullscreen windows** — the
   bar draws over a fullscreen video. `layer: bottom` lets the fullscreen

modules/home/waybar.nix

@@ -291,7 +291,10 @@ let
     # swaync notification bell + Do-Not-Disturb state. `-swb` streams JSON
     # (text/tooltip/class) on every change, so it tracks count and DND with
     # no polling. Left-click toggles the panel; right-click toggles DND.
-    # The `dnd-*` classes (bell-off glyph) are styled muted below.
+    # Every *suppressed* state — DND or app-inhibited — maps to the bell-off
+    # glyph 󰂛 and the muted color below, so "notifications are off right now"
+    # reads by SHAPE, not color alone (color-blind sweep, item 28): inhibited
+    # used to reuse the normal 󰂜/󰂚 bells, distinguishable only by color.
     "custom/notification" = {
       exec = "swaync-client -swb";
       return-type = "json";
@@ -302,8 +305,8 @@ let
         notification = "󰂚";
         dnd-none = "󰂛";
         dnd-notification = "󰂛";
-        inhibited-none = "󰂜";
+        inhibited-none = "󰂛";
-        inhibited-notification = "󰂚";
+        inhibited-notification = "󰂛";
         dnd-inhibited-none = "󰂛";
         dnd-inhibited-notification = "󰂛";
       };
@@ -405,10 +408,13 @@ let
        size them up a touch more so they read at a glance. */
     #custom-powerprofile, #idle_inhibitor { font-size: ${toString (t.fonts.size + 3)}pt; }
 
-    /* notifications waiting → accent; Do-Not-Disturb → muted bell-off */
+    /* notifications waiting → accent; suppressed (DND or app-inhibited) →
+       muted bell-off, so it reads by shape+color, never color alone. */
     #custom-notification.notification { color: @accent; }
     #custom-notification.dnd-none,
-    #custom-notification.dnd-notification { color: @muted; }
+    #custom-notification.dnd-notification,
+    #custom-notification.inhibited-none,
+    #custom-notification.inhibited-notification { color: @muted; }
 
     #pulseaudio.muted { color: @muted; }
     #battery.warning { color: @warn; }

themes/boreal/waybar.css

@@ -145,7 +145,9 @@ window#waybar {
 
 #custom-notification.notification { color: @accent; }
 #custom-notification.dnd-none,
-#custom-notification.dnd-notification { color: @muted; }
+#custom-notification.dnd-notification,
+#custom-notification.inhibited-none,
+#custom-notification.inhibited-notification { color: @muted; }
 
 /* Tray shares the pill's glass — same transparent background, its own
    modest padding so nm-applet & friends breathe with the status icons. */

themes/boreal/waybar.jsonc

@@ -163,8 +163,8 @@
       "notification": "󰂚",
       "dnd-none": "󰂛",
       "dnd-notification": "󰂛",
-      "inhibited-none": "󰂜",
+      "inhibited-none": "󰂛",
-      "inhibited-notification": "󰂚",
+      "inhibited-notification": "󰂛",
       "dnd-inhibited-none": "󰂛",
       "dnd-inhibited-notification": "󰂛"
     }

themes/executive-slate/waybar.css

@@ -159,7 +159,9 @@ window#waybar {
 
 #custom-notification.notification { color: @accent; }
 #custom-notification.dnd-none,
-#custom-notification.dnd-notification { color: @muted; }
+#custom-notification.dnd-notification,
+#custom-notification.inhibited-none,
+#custom-notification.inhibited-notification { color: @muted; }
 
 #tray { color: @text; }
 

themes/executive-slate/waybar.jsonc

@@ -159,8 +159,8 @@
       "notification": "󰂚",
       "dnd-none": "󰂛",
       "dnd-notification": "󰂛",
-      "inhibited-none": "󰂜",
+      "inhibited-none": "󰂛",
-      "inhibited-notification": "󰂚",
+      "inhibited-notification": "󰂛",
       "dnd-inhibited-none": "󰂛",
       "dnd-inhibited-notification": "󰂛"
     }

themes/summer-day/waybar.jsonc

@@ -145,8 +145,8 @@
       "notification": "",
       "dnd-none": "",
       "dnd-notification": "",
-      "inhibited-none": "",
+      "inhibited-none": "",
-      "inhibited-notification": "",
+      "inhibited-notification": "",
       "dnd-inhibited-none": "",
       "dnd-inhibited-notification": ""
     }

themes/summer-night/waybar.jsonc

@@ -144,8 +144,8 @@
       "notification": "",
       "dnd-none": "",
       "dnd-notification": "",
-      "inhibited-none": "",
+      "inhibited-none": "",
-      "inhibited-notification": "",
+      "inhibited-notification": "",
       "dnd-inhibited-none": "",
       "dnd-inhibited-notification": ""
     }