moonarch/DECISIONS.md

Decisions

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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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: Ragnar, 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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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, Ragnar
• 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.