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.

### 118. smartd fails where no drive has SMART, so the health icon greets you red

Bernardo, live ISO 2026-07-14: the Waybar doctor module shows a smartd error.

**Root cause, reproduced headlessly 2026-07-14** (scratch `runNixOSTest`, a
node whose only config is `services.smartd.enable = true` — the same block
`modules/nixos/default.nix:166` mkDefaults ON for every machine):

    smartd[567]: In the system's table of devices NO devices found to scan
    smartd[567]: Unable to monitor any SMART enabled devices. Exiting.
    smartd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=17/n/a
    Status: "No devices to monitor"

`smartctl --scan` prints **nothing** on such a machine — which is both the
cause and the ready-made gate. The rest of the chain is each part working
correctly: `systemctl --failed` lists `smartd.service`, so nomarchy-doctor's
generic failed-unit check (`nomarchy-doctor.sh:24-28`) reports "failed system
unit(s): smartd.service", and Waybar's `#custom-doctor` goes `@bad`. **Fix
smartd, not the doctor** — the doctor is telling the truth about a unit that
genuinely failed.

**Scope is wider than the live ISO** (which is why it's here and not filed as
a live-only nit): `services.smartd.enable` mkDefaults true on `nomarchy` as
well as `nomarchy-live`, and QEMU virtio disks expose no SMART — so a plain
VM install boots to a red health icon out of the box, as does a live USB whose
stick has no SMART. Every V2 QEMU run has been showing this.

Fix direction: **self-gate on the hardware**, the convention the rest of the
distro follows (`ExecCondition`, like the night-light; "each half self-gates
on its hardware"). A condition that runs `smartctl --scan` and skips the unit
when it finds nothing leaves the unit *inactive* rather than *failed*, so real
SMART failures on real drives still surface. Do **not** paper over it with
`SuccessExitStatus = 17` — that also swallows the case where smartd dies on a
machine that does have drives, which is the whole reason the daemon is here.

Pass = on a machine with no SMART-capable device the unit is inactive (not
failed), `systemctl --failed` is empty and the doctor is green; on a machine
with one, smartd runs as it does today; a permanent `checks.*` covers both
halves (the scratch repro above is most of it — the no-SMART node exists, the
with-SMART node needs a QEMU disk that answers SMART, or the gate script
tested directly against a stubbed `smartctl`).

### 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 ships NO browser by design (mime defaults name chromium,
GIO skips it while absent) — #103 adds live baseline apps. Live posture is
now explicit in the flake comment. Remains: 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).

### 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

### 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.

### 103. Live ISO baseline desktop applications

**Confirmed again on hardware, Bernardo 2026-07-14** (live ISO): still no
browser, and no office/utility apps — *"that makes a live iso useful"*. This
is the item's **why**, and it is worth more than the app list: a live ISO is
what someone judges the distro by before installing, and what a user boots to
rescue a machine that will not start — reading a wiki page, saving a document
off a dying disk, checking a webmail. Nomarchy's live session currently cannot
do any of those.

**Verified inventory 2026-07-14** (eval of `nomarchy-live`'s HM packages +
`environment.systemPackages`): `chromium=no firefox=no libreoffice=no
amberol=no snapshot=no text-editor=no`. What the live session *does* carry is
terminal tooling (yazi, btop, bat, fd, ripgrep, ghostty) plus zathura (PDF)
and imv (images) — so the gap is exactly the GUI apps a non-Nix user would
reach for. #94 established this is *by design* (the live profile never named
them) and pointed here for the fix; #94's own remaining V2 (chromium launches
post-install) is a different path and stays separate.

Make Chromium and Firefox, `libreoffice-fresh`, GNOME Text Editor, Amberol, and
GNOME Snapshot explicitly available in the live profile and application
launcher. Text Editor and Snapshot are the maintained gedit/Cheese successors;
HTTP remains assigned to Chromium. Pass = all six launch in the live session
and the resulting ISO-size delta is recorded.

**Settle before starting (`[human]`, and the reason this is not just a package
list):** the ISO-size delta is the whole trade — Firefox *and* Chromium *and*
libreoffice-fresh is plausibly +2 GB on an image people download, and the
squashfs cannot be trimmed after the fact. Options are (a) ship both browsers,
(b) one browser (Chromium, since it already owns the HTTP mime default and the
installed template), (c) a lighter office story than libreoffice-fresh for the
live medium only. Record the measured delta per option rather than guessing;
`nomarchy-live` and the installed `nomarchy` profile need not carry the same
set, and the live medium is the one with a size ceiling.

### 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**.