moonarch/DECISIONS.md

# Decisions

## 2026-04-22 – moonarch-doctor housekeeping: drop stale check, add missing services
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Noticed while running `moondoc` on a healthy system that it reported `Paru [moonarch-pkgbuilds] repo missing from /etc/paru.conf` — a false failure. The paru PKGBUILD-repo mechanism was retired on 2026-04-20 in favor of the registry-only flow, and the `moonarch-git` install hook strips the legacy paru.conf section on upgrade; the doctor script was not updated in lockstep. Audit of the rest of the script surfaced two related gaps: the user-services loop skipped `walker.service` and `nautilus.service`, even though the PKGBUILD ships both in `/etc/systemd/user/` and enables them via `graphical-session.target.wants` symlinks. A silently missing walker or nautilus would not show up in diagnostics.
- **How**: Removed the `[moonarch-pkgbuilds]` check from `scripts/moonarch-doctor`. Added `walker` and `nautilus` to the user-service loop. Updated `CLAUDE.md` user-services listing to match (also filled in the missing `wlsunset`). The `[moonarch]` pacman-repo check stays — that is the path that matters now.

## 2026-04-22 – Seed Stasis user config from post-install.sh
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Moonarch shipped `defaults/xdg/stasis/stasis.rune` (deployed to `/etc/xdg/stasis/stasis.rune` by the PKGBUILD) on the assumption that stasis honors the XDG system config hierarchy. It does not. Verified against upstream source (v1.1.0, `src/config/mod.rs:30` + `src/config/bootstrap.rs`): stasis only reads `~/.config/stasis/stasis.rune` (primary) or `/etc/stasis/stasis.rune` (fallback, no `xdg/`). On every start with no user config, `ensure_user_config_exists()` writes its own hardcoded default (laptop/desktop template compiled into the binary) to `~/.config/stasis/stasis.rune`. Net effect: Moonarch's Idle-Manager tuning (AC/battery plans, moonlock integration, inhibit apps, niri DPMS commands) was never active on fresh installs — users got the upstream defaults with `swaylock` as locker.
- **Tradeoffs**: Three options were considered. (A) Service drop-in with `--config /etc/stasis/stasis.rune` — cleanest, upgrades propagate via package, no user-home touching; rejected because it takes stasis out of the standard config path users expect when they want to customize, and requires packaging a drop-in unit. (B) Seed once from post-install.sh into `~/.config/stasis/stasis.rune` — chosen: user-owned file, immediately editable, no magic. Cost: package updates to the template never reach users who already ran post-install; they have to merge manually. (C) Recurring systemd user service that keeps seeding — ruled out, too clever, user edits would race with it. Stasis has no config hierarchy / merging, so "system default + user override" cannot be modeled at all.
- **How**: Added a block to `scripts/post-install.sh` before the user-services-enable step: if `~/.config/stasis/stasis.rune` does not exist and `/etc/xdg/stasis/stasis.rune` does, `install -Dm644` copies the template into the user home. Order is correct — moonarch-git is installed earlier in the script (deploys `/etc/xdg/…`), and stasis.service is only *enabled* (not started) later, so the seed is in place before stasis ever runs. The `/etc/xdg/stasis/` payload stays as the canonical template source inside the package.

## 2026-04-21 – post-install.sh pulls aur.txt, rust for paru build, rustup out of official
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Three related gaps uncovered while fixing the paru bootstrap: (1) `moonarch-git` cannot depend on AUR packages, so every AUR package in `aur.txt` (walker-bin, elephant-*-bin, awww's theme, waypaper, stasis, …) was silently never installed by post-install.sh — a fresh install would have a working pacman but no launcher, no idle manager, no theming. (2) `makepkg -si` for `paru` (AUR source build) needs `rust` as makedep; neither archinstall nor post-install.sh installed it, so the restored paru bootstrap would have crashed on rust-less systems. (3) `rustup` sat in `official.txt` "for something we don't remember" — turned out to be a leftover; `rust` suffices for the paru build, and rustup is only needed for dev toolchain management which is a per-user concern, not a Moonarch default.
- **Tradeoffs**: Installing `rust` (~350MB) just to bootstrap paru feels heavy. Alternative `paru-bin` avoids the compile step entirely; rejected because Dominik's documented workflow uses `paru` (source) and consistency with that matters more than ~30s of build time. rustup can be re-added to official.txt if the dev workflow grows that demand.
- **How**: (1) post-install.sh now runs `read_packages "$AUR_PACKAGES" | paru -S --needed` after `paru -S moonarch-git`. (2) `sudo pacman -S base-devel rust` before the paru git-clone. (3) `rustup` removed from `official.txt` (remains in PKGBUILD `optdepends` for discoverability).

## 2026-04-21 – Restore AUR bootstrap for paru in post-install.sh
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Commit 0726451 (2026-03-29) replaced the working `git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git && makepkg -si` bootstrap with `sudo pacman -S paru`, on the (wrong) assumption that paru had landed in `[extra]`. Verified against archlinux.org API: paru and paru-bin are AUR-only, not in any official repo. Fresh installs have been silently broken since — the command fails, the installer aborts before the moonarch registry is configured.
- **Tradeoffs**: Bootstrap builds paru from source, which needs `base-devel` (already pulled by archinstall). Alternative `paru-bin` would skip the compile step; chose `paru` to match the upstream recommendation the user follows. Alternative "bundle paru in the Moonarch registry" would be internally consistent but adds a dependency on a running Gitea during install.
- **How**: Replaced the `pacman -S paru` line in `post-install.sh` with the original bootstrap — `mktemp -d`, `git clone`, `makepkg -si --noconfirm`, `rm -rf`. Wrapped in an EXIT trap so the tempdir gets cleaned up even on failure.

## 2026-04-21 – Drop transform.sh and legacy update.sh shim
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: transform.sh was added 2026-03-29 to onboard users from existing Arch+Wayland systems, but was never actually used — Moonarch is installed fresh via archinstall. Maintaining it meant duplicated paru/repo/key setup, a second entry point with its own backup/pre-flight logic, and a second reason for the `/opt/moonarch` clone. scripts/update.sh was a deprecation shim from before moonarch-update moved into the moonarch-git package; obsolete now that the package ships moonup/moondoc.
- **Tradeoffs**: Existing Arch+Wayland users now have to install paru, add the `[moonarch]` repo + key manually, then `paru -S moonarch-git`. That's three commands instead of one script — acceptable since nobody actually uses that path. If the need returns, transform can be resurrected from git history.
- **How**: Deleted `scripts/transform.sh` and `scripts/update.sh`. `lib.sh` stays (still sourced by post-install.sh). README "Transform" section removed, project-structure listing trimmed. Fresh-install flow via archinstall + post-install.sh is unchanged.

## 2026-04-20 – Registry-only install: drop paru --pkgbuilds from setup scripts
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Two parallel paths for finding moonarch packages (Arch registry via `[moonarch]` in pacman.conf, and paru's PKGBUILD-repo via `[moonarch-pkgbuilds]` in paru.conf) caused ambiguity during debugging: `paru -S moonarch-git` was resolving against the registry's stale DB (zombie r99 entry) while the PKGBUILD source would have had r105. Also: the PKGBUILD-repo path triggered a local build on every client, while the registry ships prebuilt binaries. With the registry DB now stable (see `moonarch-pkgbuilds/DECISIONS.md`, same date), the second mechanism is redundant.
- **Tradeoffs**: If the registry is down or broken, clients have no local-build fallback. Acceptable — a broken registry is a server-side bug to fix, not something to mask with a parallel mechanism that complicates diagnostics.
- **How**: `post-install.sh` and `transform.sh` no longer write `Mode = arp` or a `[moonarch-pkgbuilds]` section to `/etc/paru.conf`, and no longer call `paru -Syu --pkgbuilds`. They run `pacman -Sy` + `paru -S moonarch-git` against the registry. The `moonarch-git` install hook now strips the legacy paru.conf entries on upgrade (see moonarch-pkgbuilds repo).

## 2026-04-19 – moonup i18n: reuse pacman gettext catalog + inline fallback
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: moonup prompts looked foreign next to pacman/paru output (`[y/N]` vs `[J/n]`, English strings on a German system). User wanted consistency with the rest of the pacman UX.
- **Tradeoffs**: Full `.po`/`.mo` build-chain for moonarch was overkill for ~15 strings. gettext-only approach misses most moonarch-specific strings (no matching msgids in pacman catalog). Chose hybrid: `TEXTDOMAIN=pacman` for strings that match upstream msgids (prompts like `Proceed with installation?`, `Do you want to remove these packages?`, `[Y/n]`, `Starting full system upgrade...`), inline `_t()` helper for moonarch-specific strings.
- **How**: `moonarch-update` sets `TEXTDOMAIN=pacman`/`TEXTDOMAINDIR=/usr/share/locale`. `_t "en" "de"` picks by `${LANG%%.*}` matching `de_*`. `confirm()` now uses `::` prefix, default Y, accepts `y/Y/j/J`. No PKGBUILD change — `gettext` is in `base`. pacman msgids with trailing `\n` (e.g. `Starting full system upgrade...\n`) require ANSI-C quoting `$'...\n'` to match.

## 2026-04-08 – Battery conservation mode: udev + sysfs + Waybar toggle
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Laptops with `charge_control_end_threshold` support benefit from limiting charge to 80% to extend battery lifespan. Needed a user-friendly toggle without requiring sudo.
- **Tradeoffs**: udev RUN approach for permissions (group wheel gets write access) vs polkit/pkexec (password prompt on every toggle). Chose udev for seamless UX. State persisted in `/var/lib/moonarch/` (system-wide, not per-user) — acceptable since charge threshold is a hardware setting, not a user preference. Fixed 80% threshold instead of configurable — KISS, matches industry standard.
- **How**: udev rule grants wheel group write on `charge_control_end_threshold`. Toggle script writes sysfs + state file. systemd oneshot service restores on boot. Waybar shows ♥ icon when active, hidden when inactive. Click on battery module toggles.

## 2026-04-07 – Walker theme: gtk-inherit → moonarch with fixed colors
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: gtk-inherit theme relied on GTK4 color inheritance which works but doesn't update live when switching GTK themes (Walker service needs restart). Explicit color definitions make the theme self-contained and predictable.
- **Tradeoffs**: Colors no longer auto-follow GTK theme changes. Acceptable since moonarch uses a fixed Catppuccin Mocha palette anyway.
- **How**: Renamed theme to moonarch, added @define-color with Colloid-Grey-Dark-Catppuccin values, reduced border/shadow weight.

## 2026-04-07 – Migrate archinstall config to v4 format
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: archinstall v4.1 introduced new canonical key names. Old keys (audio_config, bootloader, custom-commands) are soft-deprecated and auto-mapped, but custom-commands (hyphen) vs custom_commands (underscore) was risky.
- **Tradeoffs**: Config now requires archinstall v4+. Older ISOs with v2/v3 may not parse the new keys.
- **How**: Migrated audio_config into app_config, bootloader into bootloader_config, custom-commands to custom_commands, gfx_driver value updated.

## 2026-04-07 – kanshi config: no ABOUTME, no overwrite on transform
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: ABOUTME comments in kanshi config broke the profile parser in wdisplays-persistent store.c, preventing config saves. Additionally, transform.sh was overwriting user display profiles on every run.
- **Tradeoffs**: kanshi default template is now empty (no comments). Users get no guidance in the seed file, but wdisplays-persistent provides the GUI for config management.
- **How**: Removed ABOUTME from defaults/xdg/kanshi/config. Added skip logic in transform.sh to preserve existing kanshi user configs.

## 2026-04-07 – Move paru repo config into moonarch.install hook
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: paru PKGBUILD repo config was only set up by post-install.sh and transform.sh. If paru updated and overwrote /etc/paru.conf, or the config was missing on existing systems, moonarch-git couldn't update itself — bootstrap loop where the fix requires the package that delivers the fix.
- **Tradeoffs**: Config setup is now in two places: moonarch.install (for updates) and post-install.sh (for first install before moonarch-git exists). Acceptable duplication to break the circular dependency.
- **How**: Added paru repo config (Mode=arp + [moonarch-pkgbuilds] section) to moonarch.install post_install/post_upgrade hook. Kept post-install.sh setup for bootstrap. Removed redundant setup from transform.sh.

## 2026-04-02 – Rename paru PKGBUILD repo, move config to /etc/paru.conf
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: paru PKGBUILD repo and pacman package registry both used `[moonarch]` as section name. When pkgver-bot pushed version bumps, paru tried to resolve PKGBUILD targets (moongreet-git, moonlock-git) against the pacman repo — which only contains moonarch-git — causing "nicht alle benötigten Pakete gefunden" errors.
- **Tradeoffs**: Renaming the PKGBUILD repo section means existing installations need a one-time manual fix. Using `/etc/paru.conf` instead of `~/.config/paru/paru.conf` is consistent with moonarch's system-wide config philosophy.
- **How**: Renamed PKGBUILD repo section from `[moonarch]` to `[moonarch-pkgbuilds]`. Moved paru config (Mode + repo) from user-level `~/.config/paru/paru.conf` to system-wide `/etc/paru.conf`. Updated post-install.sh accordingly.

## 2026-04-01 – Replace dunst with swaync as notification daemon
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Dunst lacks wp_fractional_scale_v1 support, causing aliased/jagged font rendering on external monitors in mixed-DPI setups (laptop eDP-1 at 2.5x, externals at 1x). Confirmed by testing: removing fractional scaling fixed the issue. swaync uses GTK4 which handles fractional scaling natively.
- **Tradeoffs**: swaync is heavier than dunst (GTK4 + libadwaita dependency). Loses dunstctl CLI (replaced by swaync-client). Gains notification center panel with DnD toggle, grouping, MPRIS widget support. Waybar already had swaync-client integration with exec-if guard.
- **How**: Replaced dunst with swaync in packages/official.txt and archinstall config. Niri spawn-at-startup updated. Waybar dunstctl widget removed (swaync-client widget already present). New swaync config.json and style.css based on catppuccin/swaync upstream theme with Lavender accent instead of Blue.

## 2026-03-31 – Audit: shell script quoting fixes, PKGBUILD permissions

- **Who**: ClaudeCode, Dom
- **Why**: Security audit found command injection risk in moonarch-cpugov (unquoted array expansion with pkexec), word-splitting in moonarch-btnote (upower output from Bluetooth devices), and nmcli argument injection in moonarch-vpn. PKGBUILD for moongreet had world-readable cache dir.
- **Tradeoffs**: `eval` in cpugov is safe because COMMANDS values are hardcoded string literals, not user input. Alternative (function dispatch) would be cleaner but over-engineered for 3 fixed entries. moonarch-btnote switched from for-loop to while+read with process substitution to avoid subshell.
- **How**: (1) `eval "${COMMANDS[$choice]}"` in cpugov. (2) `while IFS= read -r` + process substitution + quoted `$DEVICE_DATA` in btnote. (3) `--` guard before `$connection` in vpn nmcli calls. (4) `install -dm700` for moongreet cache dirs in PKGBUILD. (5) `else err` logging in post-install.sh when USER_DEFAULTS missing.

## 2026-03-29 – /opt/moonarch stays root-owned, no chown to user
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Multi-user system — chown to UID 1000 locks out other users from moonarch-update
- **Tradeoffs**: sudo required for git operations in update.sh vs. simpler user-owned repo
- **How**: Repo stays at /opt/moonarch owned by root:root. update.sh uses `sudo git` for fetch/pull. All scripts already use sudo for system-level operations, so this is consistent.

## 2026-03-29 – Add transform.sh for existing Arch+Wayland systems
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Users with existing Arch+Wayland setups should be able to adopt Moonarch without reinstalling
- **Tradeoffs**: Hard overwrite of all configs (user + system) vs. selective/merge approach — chose hard overwrite for simplicity and consistency
- **How**: New transform.sh with pre-flight summary, backup, DM conflict resolution, and --dry-run flag. Shared helpers extracted to lib.sh.

## 2026-03-29 – Package moonarch as moonarch-git PKGBUILD
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: System artifacts (XDG configs, helper scripts, zsh config, wallpaper) should be managed by pacman for clean deployment, versioning, rollback, and deinstallation
- **Tradeoffs**: /etc/xdg/ configs NOT in backup= (moonarch philosophy: system defaults flow through, users override in ~/.config/). /etc/greetd/ and /etc/moongreet/ NOT owned by package (owned by greetd/moongreet-git, overwritten via .install hook). Helper scripts move from /usr/local/bin/ to /usr/bin/ (FHS for package-managed files)
- **How**: moonarch-git PKGBUILD in moonarch-pkgbuilds repo. sweet-cursors-git as separate package. moonarch-update simplified (no git-sync, pacman handles file deployment). Installer scripts (post-install.sh, transform.sh) remain for orchestration, will be refactored in a follow-up to delegate file deployment to `paru -S moonarch-git`

## 2026-03-30 – Replace Rofi with Walker as application launcher
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: Walker is Wayland-native (GTK4 + gtk4-layer-shell), has built-in providers for clipboard, bluetooth, audio (wireplumber), and Niri integration. Reduces custom shell scripts from 8 to 3. Rofi required a Wayland fork (rofi-lbonn-wayland-git) and every applet was a custom bash script.
- **Tradeoffs**: Walker is newer/less battle-tested than Rofi. Requires separate Elephant daemon with per-provider packages. Dmenu mode lacks Rofi's `-a`/`-u` (active/urgent) and `-mesg` flags. Settings menu (moonarch-setmen) dropped entirely — apps are findable via Walker's app search.
- **How**: Walker + Elephant as systemd user services. Native providers replace 5 rofi scripts (launcher, clipboard, bluetooth, volume, sink-switcher). 3 scripts ported to walker dmenu (vpn, cpugov, sink-switcher). Walker theme inherits GTK4 system theme colors (gtk-inherit). Old rofi configs preserved in `legacy/rofi/`.

## 2026-03-30 – Use nm-applet as VPN secret agent, add WireGuard support
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: VPN auth previously spawned a foot terminal for `nmcli --ask`, which was fragile and ugly. WireGuard connections were invisible to the VPN script and Waybar indicator because both only checked for OpenVPN (`tun0` / `vpn` type).
- **Tradeoffs**: nm-applet adds a tray indicator (mitigated with `--indicator` mode which is minimal). Requires nm-applet running at session start. Alternative was gnome-keyring or a custom secret agent — nm-applet is simpler and handles all NM secret types.
- **How**: nm-applet started via niri spawn-at-startup. moonarch-vpn rewritten to support both vpn and wireguard types, uses nm-applet for auth instead of foot terminal, sends notify-send for connect/disconnect results. Waybar VPN module uses `nmcli` active connection check instead of `/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0`, plus RTMIN+9 signal for instant updates after toggle.

## 2026-03-30 – Standardize GTK theme to Colloid-Grey-Dark-Catppuccin
- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
- **Why**: gsettings had `Colloid-Dark-Catppuccin` while config files had `Colloid-Catppuccin` — inconsistent. Grey accent matches the icon theme (Colloid-Grey-Catppuccin-Dark). Explicit `-Dark` variant is more reliable than depending on `prefer-dark` color-scheme setting.
- **Tradeoffs**: Explicit dark locks out light mode toggle — acceptable since Moonarch is dark-only by design.
- **How**: Updated transform.sh, post-install.sh, gtk-3.0/settings.ini, and gsettings to `Colloid-Grey-Dark-Catppuccin`. GTK4 symlinks updated accordingly.