Nomarchy/agent/BACKLOG.md

# Backlog — the prioritized task queue

**This is the only executable work list for agents.** Product themes and
v1.0 intent live in [`docs/VISION.md`](../docs/VISION.md); design history
in [`docs/ROADMAP.md`](../docs/ROADMAP.md); map in
[`docs/README.md`](../docs/README.md) and [`agent/README.md`](README.md).

**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 (and/or a note in VISION)
  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 (include
  `VISION § …` or `ROADMAP § …` when relevant); only Bernardo moves items
  *out* of PROPOSED into the tiers.

---

## NOW

### Live ISO hardware findings — Acer Aspire M5-481T (Bernardo, 2026-07-13)

These are separate queue items from one real install/session pass. Preserve
that separation when fixing them: the installer blocker, unclear installer
copy, and post-install desktop failures have different verification paths.

### 94. Live ISO/install: no default browser observed

**Progress 2026-07-13:** installed path VERIFIED at V1 — the exact HM
generation the ISO pins for offline installs contains the chromium binary,
`chromium-browser.desktop`, and all three HTTP/HTML handlers
(mime.nix sets them; template ships the package). The Acer sighting is the
LIVE session, which shipped NO browser by design (mime defaults name chromium,
GIO skips it while absent).

**Update 2026-07-14:** the live half is **gone** — #103 shipped, so the live
session now carries chromium (plus office/editor/music/camera) on PATH and in
the launcher, and `checks.live-baseline-apps` asserts HTTPS still resolves to
`chromium-browser.desktop` *and* that the entry it names is actually present —
the exact "mime names a package nothing ships" trap this item found. What
remains here is only the **installed** path: a test-install VM run proving
chromium launches post-install (chain #97's Bluetooth-click V2 into the same
run).

Chromium is the resolved default-browser decision and is present in the
downstream template, but this hardware pass found no usable default browser.
Trace the live-to-installed Home Manager path rather than merely checking the
template source. Pass = Chromium launches after installation and HTTP/HTTPS
mime defaults resolve to `chromium-browser.desktop` (and the intended live-ISO
browser posture is explicit).

### 119. `text/plain` names vscode, which the live ISO does not ship

Found while shipping #103 (2026-07-14), deliberately not fixed there — same
bug class as #94, one mime key over. `modules/home/mime.nix:48` assigns
`text/plain = code.desktop`, and vscode ships only in the **template**, never
on the live ISO. GIO silently skips an entry whose desktop file is absent, so
opening a text file in the live session finds no handler at all — the exact
shape of the no-default-browser bug, and now the only one left of its kind
since #103 put chromium on the live medium.

Two ways it bites, and a fix should settle both: (1) the live session, which
now ships `gnome-text-editor` (`org.gnome.TextEditor.desktop`) — the obvious
live handler; (2) any installed machine where the user takes the template at
its word and deletes the `vscode` line (opt-out = delete the line, per the
option-surface convention), which silently breaks `text/plain` with no warning.

The general trap is worth fixing once rather than per-key: a mime default
naming a package the profile does not carry is invisible until a user
double-clicks a file. `checks.live-baseline-apps` now guards exactly this for
HTTPS (asserts the named .desktop is present, not merely named) — the cheap
version of this item is extending that assertion to every key in
`defaultApplications`, which would have caught both #94 and this. Pass = no
mime default names a desktop entry the profile lacks, on the live ISO and on
a template install, and a guard fails on a regression.

### 95. Live ISO/install: Ghostty does not open

Reproduce from the launcher and a terminal, capture its stderr/journal, and
fix the packaging/session/runtime cause. Pass = the default terminal opens in
the installed graphical session and the SUPER+Return path works.

### 98. Boreal: button text renders black and is difficult to read

Audit GTK button foreground/background contrast under Boreal, including the
installer surface where it was observed. Follow THEME-DESIGN's two-theme
visual protocol. Pass = normal, hover, focused, and disabled button labels
remain legible and palette-consistent.

**Progress 2026-07-13:** scripted checks pass all 24 themes — not
palette-level. Stylix gtk.css for Boreal audited: fg roles are light
(#d3dae0); the near-black values are `accent/warning/error_fg_color`
(#21272f) on their pastel bgs (deliberate, ~4.4:1). Candidate surfaces:
adw-gtk3 (light base) + dark recolor edge cases, or gum's TUI confirm
buttons in the installer (VM gum screens under Boreal look legible —
artifacts in `/tmp/nomarchy-v2-swap-93/`). Needs Bernardo's screenshot or
an Acer repro to pin the actual widget before fixing.

### 113. Live session: offline theme switch rebuilds the world from source

Surfaced by #99's evidence run (2026-07-13, `/tmp/nomarchy-v2-theme-99/`):
in the **live ISO** session, offline `nomarchy-theme-sync apply gruvbox`
fails — its `home-manager switch` tries to build **1176 derivations** from
the `stage0`/`hex0` bootstrap up, then dies on offline source fetches
(`vala`, `yasm`, `config.jsonc`, `ghostty-config`, `easyeffects.svg`,
`typogrify`…), ending `error: Build failed due to failed dependency`. This
contradicts docs/TESTING.md item 6 ("apply gruvbox → switch runs offline").
The failing generation is `bvl30ggn…-home-manager-generation.drv`; it is
**not** the drv the ISO pins (the pin is the *default*-theme
`homeConfigurations.${username}.activationPackage`, i.e. Boreal — confirmed
drv-identical to the failing one only for gruvbox state, so a non-default
theme's generation is unpinned). NOT caused by #99's git-seed: the drv is
byte-identical path-seeded vs git-seeded. **Decide the contract:** either
pin every baked theme's live activationPackage into the ISO (size cost) or
scope the offline-switch promise to the shipped theme + correct
TESTING.md/MEMORY. Pass = a fresh live ISO either switches to any baked
theme offline, or fails with a clear "needs network for this theme" message
and accurate docs. **Not caused by anything in today's batch** — separate
pre-existing ISO-pinning gap.

## NEXT

### 120. A netinstall ISO, next to the fat offline one

Bernardo 2026-07-14, after seeing the measured size: **keep the current ISO
exactly as it is** — the guaranteed offline install is the feature it buys —
and ship a **much lighter netinstall variant alongside it**. Two products, one
distro: "works on a plane" and "8 GiB is absurd to download" are both true, and
a second target settles them without compromising either.

**Measured facts (2026-07-14), so this starts from numbers, not vibes.**
*(These stand as measured: #121 would have cut ~0.67 GiB of duplicate chromium
from them, but it was **reverted** — decided against, ROADMAP § one chromium,
not two. If a netinstall ships, revisit it: the duplicate is worth ~195 MiB of
**download**, which is this item's whole currency, even though it is worth
almost nothing on disk or on the ISO.)*

> **Read this before using the numbers below.** They are **closure arithmetic**,
> and #121 proved the hard way that closure size is neither disk size nor image
> size: removing a 687 MiB path shrank the ISO by **8 KiB**, because
> **mksquashfs dedupes duplicate files** and **`auto-optimise-store` hardlinks**
> them on disk. So a change that looks like it sheds gigabytes of closure can
> shed nothing off the actual image. **Measure the artifact — build the ISO and
> `stat` it.** The corollary cuts the other way and is the good news for this
> item: what dedupe cannot help is the **wire**, so a netinstall's download is
> the one figure closure/NAR size predicts honestly (`nix path-info --store
> https://cache.nixos.org --json` gives the real `downloadSize`).
- Current ISO **8.078 GiB** compressed; **18.03 GiB** of store uncompressed
  (`zstd -19`, 2.23:1 — compression is already near-max, not the lever).
- The offline pin (`system.extraDependencies`, 60 roots: a representative
  installed system + the template HM closure + all flake inputs) is **4.02 GiB
  uncompressed of that — only ~22%**. Dropping it entirely still leaves a
  **~13.3 GiB** desktop → roughly **6 GiB** compressed at the same ratio.
  **So "no pin" alone is NOT the lighter ISO** — this is the trap to avoid.
- The desktop's own top weights: libreoffice 1457 MiB, initrd 1369,
  linux-firmware 770, chromium 1391 (two builds — #121, left in), llvm-lib 540,
  bibata-cursors 322, mesa 264, mbrola-voices 259, nerd-fonts ~420 combined.
  Note what that list implies: no single lever gets a desktop ISO under ~4 GB —
  which is the case for (b) below.

**So the real decision is what a netinstall ISO IS**, and it should be settled
first (`[human]`): (a) the full try-before-install desktop minus the pin
(~6.3 GiB — barely lighter, probably not worth a second target); (b) a **TUI
installer only, no desktop** (~1 GiB, the actual "netinstall" in the Debian
sense) which drops "try before install" from that medium — the fat ISO still
offers it; (c) a middle desktop (no libreoffice/chromium — but note #103 just
put those there deliberately, and a *demo* desktop that can't browse is the
bug #103 fixed).

**The gotcha that decides feasibility:** without the pin, a netinstall target
fetches from `cache.nixos.org` for stock nixpkgs paths — but **Nomarchy's own
derivations are in no binary cache**, so they would build *from source on the
user's machine* during install. That is the same failure `tools/vm/gap-analysis.py`
exists to diagnose (and #113 is a live instance of). So this item probably
depends on a public binary cache (cachix) for the flake's own outputs, or it
trades an 8 GiB download for a 40-minute install. Establish that before
building the target.

Pass = a second, documented ISO target that is *substantially* smaller (state
the measured number, both ISOs built from one tree), installs successfully with
a network in a QEMU run, says clearly at boot that it needs one, and leaves the
offline ISO's behaviour untouched (`checks.*` for the offline path stay green).

### 115. Suspend-then-hibernate, with a way to set it up

Bernardo, 2026-07-14: a suspended laptop should be able to fall through to
hibernate after a while, so a bag-carried machine stops draining, and setting
that up must be easy — not a systemd-sleep man-page trip.

The mechanism is `systemd`'s `suspend-then-hibernate` plus
`HibernateDelaySec`; the work is the surfacing, and the constraints are
already in the tree. Hibernate needs the resume offset + swap the installer
detects (`resumeOffset`/`rootUuid` in patch-template.py) — on a machine
without them this must self-gate, not fail at suspend time, the way Battery
limit gates on a battery. `modules/nixos/default.nix` already declines to
hyprlock before an encrypted hibernate (the LUKS resume gates it); check that
reasoning still holds when the suspend leads to hibernate. Menu placement: it
belongs with the power settings, not the root (§ menu placement convention).

Settle first (`[human]`): whether the delay is a preset list (30 min / 1 h /
2 h / never) or a free-form entry, and whether it applies on battery only or
always — the same on-AC question `modules/home/idle.nix`'s suspend listener
already answers with `${onAc} ||`.

In-flake state like the rest (`settings.*`), menu-writable, and read via
`theme-state-read.nix` on the NixOS side — NOT `config.nomarchy.settings`,
which does not exist there (ROADMAP § *NixOS-side state bridges (#116)*; copy
the `bluetooth.enable` shape in `modules/nixos/default.nix` and add a case to
`checks.state-bridges`). Pass = the toggle survives a rebuild,
a suspended machine hibernates after the configured delay and resumes, and a
machine without hibernate support hides the row instead of offering a
suspend that never wakes.

### 107. Rename `theme.json` to reflect that it is the system state

The state file long ago stopped being about themes: it carries night-light,
keyboard memory, display resolution and profiles, auto-commit, services and
more, so `theme.json` now misnames its own contents and misleads anyone
reading the flake. Rename it to `state.json` (Bernardo's call, 2026-07-14 —
settled, do not revisit), and carry the `nomarchy-theme-sync` tool name along
with it.

Standalone task — do not fold it into a feature. Ships with a compatibility
shim that keeps reading an existing `theme.json` so downstream checkouts do
not break on a pull, plus a migration note. Pass = a fresh install and an
existing downstream checkout both work, every in-repo reference (modules,
tools, template, docs) uses the new name, and the shim is documented with the
release it can be dropped in.

### 104. Runtime Airplane mode

Add Airplane mode under System connectivity controls. It must disable Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth together, remember their prior states, and restore those states
when disengaged. Pass = the runtime round trip works, and a Waybar indicator is
visible only while engaged with parity across every whole-bar swap.

### 105. `[big]` System-menu information architecture

Keep exactly six root menu entries while reorganizing System into
Connectivity, Devices, Recovery, and Preferences. This item must be split into
scoped implementation/verification tasks before work starts. Pass = every
current route has one deliberate home, navigation remains shallow, and no
root-level entry is added or lost.

### 106. Internal menu Back/Left navigation contract

Reproduce the reported internal leaf with neither Back nor Left behavior, then
fix any breach of the already-intended navigation contract. Add a permanent
guard covering every internal leaf; external GUIs and free-text prompts retain
their explicit Esc exceptions. Pass = no internal leaf can strand the user and
the guard fails on a regression.

### 108. Keybindings menu presentation and completeness audit

Group the menu as Window, Workspace, Menu, and Media, then prove every live
Hyprland binding appears from the canonical source. Do not repeat the obsolete
claim that float/move bindings are absent. Pass = presentation is scannable and
an automated comparison detects omissions or stale displayed bindings.

### 110. `[big]` Retire Control Center safely

Split this into two phases before implementation: first build a migration/drop
matrix for every unique setting, then remove the package and all references.
Keyboard and terminal replacements must reject unsafe free-text values. Pass =
no supported setting silently disappears and the second phase leaves no stale
launcher, menu, package, documentation, or generated-artifact reference.

**Facts for the matrix, from #116 (2026-07-14):** its Bluetooth and Printing
rows write `settings.{bluetooth,printing}.enable`, and those keys became live
bridges to the NixOS config in a9f3a64 — until then they wrote JSON nothing
read, so *these two toggles have never actually worked for any user*. That
cuts both ways: "preserve existing behavior" is not a reason to keep them
(there is no behavior to preserve), but the state keys and their bridges are
real now and outlive the TUI — dropping the rows must not drop the keys, or a
machine whose theme-state.json already says `bluetooth.enable = false` will
silently flip back on at the next rebuild. `checks.state-bridges` covers those
two keys and will fail loudly if the bridges go with the tool; keep it green,
and if a key is deliberately retired, remove its case in the same commit.
Whatever inherits the rows should rebuild on toggle rather than print
"requires rebuild" (#117). Updates (`settings.updates.enable`) is HM-side,
where `nomarchy.settings` genuinely exists, and needs none of this.

### 111. Scope-first Recovery menu

Replace confusing Rollback/Snapshots duplication with explicit Desktop
generation, System boot generation, and Files/root BTRFS scopes. Pass = labels
state what is restored and from where before action, with destructive or reboot
effects made clear and each existing recovery path represented once.

### 112. Installer disk-picker safety

Exclude floppy, pseudo, tiny, and otherwise non-installable devices such as
`/dev/fd0`; never select them by default. **Reproduced in QEMU 2026-07-13**
(#93's V2 run): with OVMF the guest exposes `/dev/fd0` and the picker listed
it FIRST — a blind Enter selected it (artifacts:
`/tmp/nomarchy-v2-swap-93/20-review.png`, `Disk: /dev/fd0 (WILL BE ERASED)`). Pass = the real install disk is clear,
invalid devices cannot reach destructive setup, a permanent guard covers the
filter/default logic, and a pre-destructive KVM run proves the picker behavior.

## 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.
- **MIPI/IPU software-ISP camera** support (no-UVC machines).
- **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).

## FUTURE (decided deferred — not the agent queue head)

Work we **intend** someday but explicitly **not** NEXT. Agents do not
pick these unless Bernardo promotes one into NEXT/NOW.

### 20. KVM runner → VM suite in CI `[human]`
**Status (2026-07-10):** keep **eval-only** CI on the current Gitea
stack (act_runner in docker-compose on the 4c/4 GB IONOS VPS). Nested
KVM + RAM headroom on that host are a poor fit next to Gitea; full
`checks.*` VMs stay local / promotion-time until a **separate**
KVM-capable machine exists.

**When ready:** register a second runner (host-mode nix + `/dev/kvm`,
label `nix-kvm` — not the existing docker eval runner), then uncomment
the `vm-checks` job in `.gitea/workflows/check.yml` (`runs-on: nix-kvm`,
`nix flake check` + toplevel/HM builds). Do not enable the job until
that label is online (Gitea queues forever otherwise).

### Formatter — adopt later `[human]`
**Intent:** add a Nix formatter (likely `nixfmt-rfc-style`) in a dedicated
pass: reformat the tree once, document in CONVENTIONS, optional CI
check. **Not** the queue head — no drive-by reformats until that pass.

## 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.*

*Open work only. Shipped exam/A–C items (#47–#63, #14, #52 theme
high-ROI, etc.) live in the journal + ROADMAP — not here.*

### Product / day-2

### 117. Control Center says "requires rebuild" and leaves the user to do it

**Filed as an input to #110 (Retire Control Center safely), not as standalone
work** — Bernardo 2026-07-14: the Control Center is going away, so fixing its
toggles would be building on a condemned surface. Recorded because the
observation outlives the tool: it is a fact the #110 migration matrix needs,
and whatever menu inherits these settings must not repeat it.

Noticed while fixing #116 (2026-07-14). `nomarchy-control-center.sh`'s
Bluetooth, Printing and Updates toggles set the state and print "…​ (requires
rebuild)", so the setting only lands whenever the user next thinks to run
`nomarchy-rebuild`. Every menu toggle written since does the rebuild itself
and toasts the outcome (`nomarchy-autologin`, `nomarchy-fingerprint`,
`nomarchy-autotimezone`) — the state-write-then-rebuild shape. A user who
toggles Bluetooth off and sees Bluetooth still running cannot tell "needs a
rebuild" from "the toggle is broken again", which is exactly the symptom #116
removed. Migrating these rows into the rofi menu resolves it for free, since
that shape is the convention there.

### 114. Greeter ignores per-device keyboard layouts

Found by Bernardo 2026-07-14: logging out while docked lands on tuigreet,
where his external keyboard (remembered as `us` via
`settings.keyboard.devices`) types the session layout `gb` — so the password
prompt fights him. Not a regression and not docking-related: per-device
layouts are applied with `hyprctl keyword device[<name>]:kb_layout`, which
only exists inside a running Hyprland session, while tuigreet draws on a
kernel VT whose single keymap comes from `console.useXkbConfig` ←
`services.xserver.xkb.layout`. A VT structurally cannot do per-device
layouts, so this is a design gap, not a bug to patch. Options, cheapest
first: (a) document it and stop there; (b) a greeter layout-cycle key
(tuigreet has no such feature — would need the keymap swapped under it);
(c) host tuigreet inside a small Wayland compositor (cage/labwc), which
*does* get per-device XKB and would let the greeter honour the same
in-flake state the session uses — real work, and it changes the greeter's
whole rendering path (`modules/nixos/greeter.nix` themes tuigreet through
the 16 ANSI console slots, so (c) is not a drop-in). Worth deciding whether
the greeter is meant to be layout-aware at all before costing it.

- **NVIDIA first-class options** — **deferred past v1** (Bernardo
  2026-07-10). Keep #59 commented install guidance; no
  `nomarchy.hardware.nvidia.*` until a hybrid maintainer + queue.

- **Post-install hardware hints** (`VISION § B`) — After the general
  “you're set” card (#81), optionally fire **one** additional
  self-gated notify when the machine actually has the hardware:
  (a) `fwupdmgr` on PATH → “System › Firmware to check LVFS updates”;
  (b) `fprintd-list` on PATH → “System › Fingerprint to enroll”.
  One-shot markers in `settings.*` (same in-checkout discipline as
  `firstBootShown`); never a permanent MOTD nag. Cost: small — extend
  `nomarchy-first-boot` or a sibling oneshot + `checks.first-boot`
  fixture. Control-center / MOTD already mention these; the gap is the
  silent first *graphical* session for people who never open those.

_(#80–#83 + #85–#88 shipped 2026-07-11. Theme A day-2 + neon-glass finish
  shipped — VISION ✓. Dock/hibernate V3 → HARDWARE-QUEUE. Parallel
  fingerprint-or-password shipped 2026-07-12 (Bernardo promoted it live;
  `fingerprint.parallel`, pam-fprint-grosshack) — reader V3 →
  HARDWARE-QUEUE.)_

### v1.0 pointer

See **VISION**. Open PROPOSED: post-install hardware hints; NVIDIA
deferred past v1; IR portal (b)/(c) need T14s (HARDWARE-QUEUE § T14s).
Standing calls: browser = Chromium; power = PPD.


## Decisions `[human]`

Open calls only Bernardo can make; agents add options/evidence but never
decide. **Resolved** entries stay for history; agents treat them as closed.

### Resolved (2026-07-10)

- **Docs site vs Markdown-in-repo** — **markdown in-repo for now**
  (`docs/`, README). A rendered docs site is FUTURE if wanted.
- **Default browser** — **ship Chromium** in
  `templates/downstream/home.nix`; mime → `chromium-browser.desktop`.
  Opt out: delete the line / override mime.
- **Default power backend** — **keep PPD** (`nomarchy.system.power.backend`
  default). TLP remains the one-line opt-in. Rationale: stability + live
  profile API for menu/Waybar; Omarchy’s TLP experiment reverted.

### Resolved (2026-07-10, more)

- **Formatter adoption** — **yes, but not now.** Tracked as FUTURE
  (below). Nix-source style only (`nixfmt-rfc-style` or similar); one
  bulk reformat + CI/check when promoted. Until then: hand-aligned
  style per CONVENTIONS.

- **Hibernation** — **want by default** (product intent). Needs a
  disk-backed swap (file or partition) sized for resume; not zram alone.
  **Shipped as #76**; V3 power-cycle PASSED on TuringMachine 2026-07-12
  (ROADMAP § Hibernation + zram by default).

### Resolved (2026-07-10, #76 design)

- **Swap sizing** — **exactly RAM** (installer default, unchanged). Hibernate
  image ≤ RAM; zram takes day-to-day paging. **`swapSize=0`** stays no-swap.
- **Migration** — **docs runbook** (`docs/MIGRATION.md`), not a tool.
- **No-swap Hibernate** — keep the menu row; **notify on failure**.