docs(backlog): item 28 — theme UI review grounded in design theory (Bernardo)

Human-requested: a thorough visual review of the whole themed surface
(Waybar incl. whole-swaps, rofi, swaync, hyprlock, terminals, splash,
greeter) with "stunning" as the bar. Grounded in design theory rather
than taste: color-harmony models + perceptual (OKLCH) lightness
ordering of the palette roles, color-blind-safe status colors, an
extended contrast checker encoding the adopted rules, a consistent
type scale + spacing grid, and explicit visual hierarchy. Image-expert
models are available for designed artwork — slices that need graphics
stop and ask instead of shipping programmer-art. Sliced audit-first.

Placed at the head of NEXT for Bernardo to reorder.

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

agent/BACKLOG.md

@@ -26,6 +26,37 @@ next, in what order*.
 
 ## NEXT
 
+### 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 — render every theme (VM themed-screenshot
+recipe or real captures), review against the rules above, append a
+per-surface punch list to this item; (b) palette-level fixes + the
+extended contrast/harmony checker; (c) per-surface polish slices;
+(d) the whole-swap themes brought to the same bar. Visual work is
+V3-bound by nature — screenshots are the review artifact, hardware
+confirms.
+
 ### 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