Nomarchy/agent/BACKLOG.md

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 § "); 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.
• 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.

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NOW

1. Opt-in auto-commit of the flake on state mutations

Phase 4 of the in-flake-state principle (phases 1–3: night-light, keyboard memory, display resolution — shipped). Every menu write (nomarchy-theme-sync set/apply) already does git add -N; add an opt-in (a settings.autoCommit flag, itself menu-toggled) that commits owned files only (theme-state.json) with a generated message after each mutation. Why: closes the loop on "your checkout is your machine" — settings changes become history. Done when: off by default; toggleable from the System menu; commits fire on apply/set; never commits unrelated dirty files; graceful when the repo has no user git identity. Verify: V1 + a round-trip on the theme-sync CLI in a sandbox repo; V2 if wired into a check.

2. CI: run the check suite on every push (Forgejo Actions)

First slice of ROADMAP § Automated upstream lock bumps, promoted to NOW because agents now push to main autonomously — an always-on net under that is the single highest-stability lever available. A workflow that runs nix flake check + the checks.* VM suite + a system.build.toplevel build on push to main. Why: pillar 1; today nothing re-verifies a push. Done when: the workflow exists, is documented (docs/TESTING.md), and a red run is visible/notifiable; the runner requirements (Linux + KVM for the VM checks, or a documented no-KVM subset) are written down. Verify: V1 locally (the same commands the workflow runs) + a real green run on the Forgejo instance — if runner infra doesn't exist yet, deliver the workflow + a [human] note on registering a runner. Verify the runner half is possible before promising it.

3. Memory-pressure protection (no more frozen desktops)

New. A workstation that compiles from source will hit memory exhaustion (the discarded release bump died to a Hyprland OOM; a big nix build can freeze the session today — nothing mitigates OOM). Ship a default-on userspace OOM killer: pick systemd-oomd (systemd.oomd + the NixOS enables for user slices) or earlyoom — write the choice + rationale into the commit; consider protecting the session (Hyprland/greetd) and sacrificing nix-daemon build slices first. Why: "rock-stable" means the UI never locks up. Done when: on by default (lib.mkDefault), overridable natively; the choice documented in README's "beyond the surface" note. Verify: V2 — a VM check that memory pressure kills the hog, not the session.

4. btrfs-assistant segfault — attempt the nixpkgs override fix

ROADMAP § Snapshot browse/restore. btrfs-assistant 2.2 crashes in libbtrfsutil.so.1.4.0 (ABI mismatch, confirmed not a VM artifact); the nomarchy-snapshots fzf fallback ships. Try an override aligning its libbtrfsutil (or a version bump/pin); if upstream nixpkgs has since fixed it, just verify and re-point the menu. Done when: the GUI launches in the VM test, or the attempt is written up as infeasible (then re-check on each lock bump). Verify: V2 — extend the snapper VM check to launch the binary.

5. Keyboard layouts — cycle bind + summer-bar parity

ROADMAP § Keyboard layouts, remaining bullets: (a) a multi-layout cycle bind (hyprctl switchxkblayout current-device, or xkb grp: option) when >1 session layout, in the cheatsheet; (b) add hyprland/language to the summer-day/night waybar.jsonc whole-swaps (parity rule — the generated bar has it, the static ones don't; gating doesn't translate, decide the static behavior and note it). Verify: V1 + jq the rendered configs; V3 queue the on-hardware cycle check.

6. Full docs review & restructure

ROADMAP § Full docs review. The roadmap/backlog split is done (this file); remaining: reconcile every README option table against the live nomarchy.* surface; drift pass over docs/OVERRIDES.md, docs/TESTING.md, templates/downstream/README.md; read the install/first-run story end to end; add a short recovery runbook (desktop won't start → boot an older generation / nomarchy-snapshots / greetd journal — the pieces exist, the story isn't written). Site-vs-markdown is a Decision (below). Verify: V0 + a mechanical option-surface diff (eval the options, compare to the tables — consider making that a permanent check).

7. Webcam follow-ups (small)

ROADMAP § Webcam: ship v4l-utils + cameractrls (commented app-suite entries or alongside the camera toggle — respect the option-surface rule) for genuine-tuning cases; write up the portal/Flatpak libcamera-path gap (internal IR still listed there) as a PROPOSED item with options. Verify: V1.

NEXT

8. Complete-workstation viewers + default applications

New. The template ships mpv but no PDF viewer and no image viewer, and nothing sets xdg-mime defaults — so "open a PDF/photo" falls to whatever GTK guesses (GIMP for images). Two halves: (a) add a themed, lightweight PDF viewer + image viewer to the template's active home.packages (candidates: zathura or GNOME Papers; imv or loupe — prefer what Stylix themes well); (b) a mime-defaults module setting xdg.mimeApps associations (browser/PDF/image/video/text, mkDefault) — real config, so unlike bare packages this is module territory, but it must degrade gracefully when the user deletes a package from the suite. Verify: V1 + assert the rendered mimeapps.list; V3 queue an open-a-file smoke.

9. Update & rollback UX

New; extends the update-awareness story to the other half: what changed, and how do I get back. (a) sys-update prints a human diff of what the update changed (nvd diff between system generations, or nix store diff-closures); (b) a System → Rollback menu flow: desktop = pick a recent home-manager generations entry and activate it (the theme history is already generations); system = point at the boot-menu generation flow + nomarchy-snapshots rather than reimplementing it — destructive steps keep the typed-yes gate. Why: informative + rock-stable means undo is one menu away, not a Nix lesson. Verify: V1; V2 for the generation-activate path in a VM.

10. nomarchy-doctor — one-shot health check

New. A single command (+ System-menu entry) that checks the things that actually break user machines and prints a themed pass/fail sheet: failed systemd units (system + user), disk space (/, /boot, the nix store), state-file parses + is git-tracked, downstream flake dirty/ diverged, last rebuild generation age, snapper timeline running (when enabled). Read-only, no auto-fixing; each failure prints the one command that fixes it. Optionally later: a self-gating Waybar warning fed by the same script. Verify: V2 — a VM check with an induced failure.

11. State-file validation & friendly errors

New; "the user never has to master Nix" must include error messages. A hand-edited theme-state.json (trailing comma, wrong type, unknown theme slug) today surfaces as a raw Nix eval stack. Add (a) nomarchy- theme-sync validate + validate-before-write on every set/apply; (b) an eval-time schema assertion in theme.nix whose message says the field, the problem, and the fix in plain language. Verify: V1 + a corpus of broken-state fixtures round-tripped through validate; V2 if cheap.

12. Screen recording in the Capture submenu

New; screenshots ship, recording doesn't — a standard workstation need. Extend nomarchy-menu capture: record region/full → wl-screenrec (fallback wf-recorder), saved next to Screenshots, with a self-gating Waybar recording indicator that stops the recording on click (the only sane "stop" surface). Optional audio toggle. Parity rule applies. Verify: V1 + bash -n; V2 headless if the software-GL recipe supports it, else V3 queue.

13. Small niceties batch (one slice per iteration)

Each is a small, self-contained polish item in the existing patterns:

• Idle-inhibit (caffeine) toggle: Waybar idle_inhibitor module (blocks hypridle lock/suspend during video/presentations) + summer whole-swap parity + cheatsheet mention.
• Low-battery notifications: the bar colors at 25/10% but nothing notifies; gate on power.laptop (poweralertd, or a small upower watcher consistent with how the bar reads state).
• Color picker: hyprpicker → clipboard as a Tools › entry + SUPER+CTRL bind; pairs naturally with theme work.

14. Automated upstream lock bumps (maintainer CI, slices b+c) [big]

ROADMAP § Automated upstream lock bumps — the scheduled half, after NOW#2 lands: weekly job runs nix flake update (within pinned release branches) → full check suite → lands on main on green; v1 promotion stays human. Plus the fast-lane note for security bumps.

15. Display profiles — docked/undocked switching

ROADMAP § Display / monitor management, remaining: true profile switching of the same outputs (multi-layout toggles, beyond per-output hotplug rules), optionally workspace-to-monitor binding. Design first (state-file shape, menu surface) — write the plan into this entry before coding.

16. Greeter theming from the JSON

ROADMAP § Greeter. tuigreet themed from theme-state.json at system rebuild (same model as Plymouth's tint). Scope: tuigreet only (no SDDM).

17. Launch-or-focus UX scripts

ROADMAP § launch-or-focus. Hyprland dispatch scripts: a bind launches an app or focuses its existing window. Curate which apps get binds; cheatsheet entries via keybinds.nix.

18. "nomarchy" control center + first-boot welcome [big]

ROADMAP § control center. A single front-end over the common toggles on the same nomarchy-theme-sync surface, + a first-boot guided "pick your theme / essentials" flow. Needs a design pass (TUI vs GUI) → write options into Decisions before implementing. Note: items 9–11 (rollback menu, doctor, validation) are natural panels of it — design them as composable commands, not dead ends.

19. Look & Feel menu category

ROADMAP § Menu system, remaining: group Theme + night-light (+ wallpaper cycle, future appearance toggles) under a Look & Feel submenu once it earns ≥3 entries — keep the root at six.

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).
• OCR screenshot-to-text: a Capture › entry (grim region → tesseract → clipboard) — cheap once recording (#12) reshapes the submenu.
• Auto-timezone Waybar tooltip showing the detected zone (optional).
• 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.

• (empty)

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).
• Control center form factor: TUI (gum/ratatui-style) vs GUI vs "the rofi menu is the control center, just add a first-boot flow".
• 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; item #8's mime defaults need something to point text/html at — ship a browser active in the suite, or leave browserless-by-default and let mime defaults degrade?