moonarch/DECISIONS.md

# Decisions

## 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.