diff --git a/config/dot/hypr/monitors.lua b/config/dot/hypr/monitors.lua
index 43c86c7..beff4f9 100644
--- a/config/dot/hypr/monitors.lua
+++ b/config/dot/hypr/monitors.lua
@@ -287,18 +287,25 @@ hl.monitor({
 -- empty monitor leaves the previous binding in place. So the config is the only
 -- honest source, and applying a change is a reload.
 if prefs.get("workspacesOnPrimaryOnly", false) == true then
-    local primary = nil
-    for output, entry in pairs(displays) do
-        if type(entry) == "table" and entry.primary == true
-            and type(output) == "string" and output:match("^[%w_.-]+$") ~= nil then
-            primary = output
-            break
+    -- Only a record display_entry accepts counts. A half-written entry is one
+    -- the monitor rules above already refuse, so pinning ten workspaces to it on
+    -- the strength of a `primary` flag nothing else trusts would put them on a
+    -- screen that never got a rule of its own.
+    local primaries = {}
+    for output, _ in pairs(displays) do
+        local entry = display_entry(output)
+        if entry ~= nil and entry.primary == true then
+            primaries[#primaries + 1] = output
         end
     end
 
     -- Without a primary there is nothing to pin to, and guessing one would move
-    -- every workspace onto whichever screen happened to sort first.
-    if primary ~= nil then
+    -- every workspace onto whichever screen happened to sort first. Two records
+    -- both claiming primary is the same problem wearing a different hat: pairs()
+    -- has no order, so picking one of them would pin the workspaces to a
+    -- different screen from one reload to the next. Neither case guesses.
+    if #primaries == 1 then
+        local primary = primaries[1]
         for i = 1, 10 do
             hl.workspace_rule({ workspace = tostring(i), monitor = primary })
         end
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/config/DesktopPreferences.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/config/DesktopPreferences.qml
index a42f17d..76eb438 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/config/DesktopPreferences.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/config/DesktopPreferences.qml
@@ -57,7 +57,12 @@ Singleton {
         const coerced = PreferenceSchema.coerce(key, value);
         if (coerced === undefined)
             return false;
-        if (root.values[key] === coerced)
+        // A json value comes out of coerce() with a fresh identity every time,
+        // so `===` never held for one and an identical write still bumped the
+        // revision. The revision is what drives the video restore, the scheme
+        // reconciliation and the theme coalesce timer, so re-storing the same
+        // display map ran all three again for a change nobody made.
+        if (root.sameStoredValue(key, coerced))
             return true;
 
         // Reassign rather than mutate: QML does not notify on in-place changes
@@ -70,6 +75,19 @@ Singleton {
         return true;
     }
 
+    // Whether the store already holds `coerced` for `key`. Scalars compare by
+    // value; json compares by serialization, which is the only comparison an
+    // object or array has here. Two equal objects written in a different key
+    // order serialize differently and are treated as a change -- that is the
+    // old behaviour, so the comparison can only ever remove churn, never
+    // swallow a real write.
+    function sameStoredValue(key: string, coerced: var): bool {
+        const stored = root.values[key];
+        if (PreferenceSchema.spec(key)?.type === "json")
+            return stored !== undefined && JSON.stringify(stored) === JSON.stringify(coerced);
+        return stored === coerced;
+    }
+
     // Restores every schema default in one write. Complete by construction --
     // there is no hand-maintained list to fall out of sync with the schema.
     function resetDesktopDefaults(): void {
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/config/PreferenceSchema.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/config/PreferenceSchema.qml
index 651c9b8..e79dfcc 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/config/PreferenceSchema.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/config/PreferenceSchema.qml
@@ -294,10 +294,14 @@ Singleton {
                 }
             ]
         },
+        // Grouped with the workspaces rather than with focus, because a group is
+        // where a setting is found rather than what it is about: the slider that
+        // sets this is a schema-bound row on WorkspacesPage. The focus group
+        // routes to Notifications, which is where focusModes renders.
         {
             key: "focusDurationMinutes", type: "int", def: 45, min: 5, max: 180, step: 5,
             unit: "min",
-            group: "focus",
+            group: "workspaces",
             label: "Focus session length",
             detail: "How long a focus session runs before it ends itself"
         },
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/Dock.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/Dock.qml
index ebad4c5..d41c1e7 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/Dock.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/Dock.qml
@@ -129,16 +129,34 @@ PanelWindow {
         onTriggered: root.revealed = false
     }
 
-    // Other modules (the bar, the capture overlay) read this. It is one
-    // shared flag but there is one Dock per monitor, so only the instance on
-    // the currently-focused monitor is allowed to write it -- otherwise
-    // whichever instance last changed reveal state would stomp the others,
-    // and a reader would see an arbitrary monitor's value. This scopes the
-    // flag to mean "is the dock revealed on the monitor the user is on",
-    // which is what a capture overlay or the bar actually care about.
-    // (A true per-monitor flag would need ShellState.dockRevealed itself to
-    // become keyed by screen, which is out of scope here -- see the report.)
-    readonly property bool isFocusedMonitorInstance: root.monitor === null || root.monitor === Hyprland.focusedMonitor
+    // ShellState.dockRevealed is one shared flag and there is one Dock per
+    // monitor, so exactly one instance may write it -- otherwise whichever
+    // instance last changed reveal state stomps the others and a reader gets an
+    // arbitrary monitor's answer. Scoped this way the flag means "is the dock
+    // revealed on the monitor the user is on", which is the only question a
+    // reader outside the dock can sensibly ask of it. (A genuinely per-monitor
+    // answer would need the property itself keyed by screen.)
+    //
+    // Two things disqualify an instance. One is not being on the focused
+    // monitor, which is the whole point. The other is not being on screen at
+    // all: a Dock whose screen is not in `dockScreens` is invisible, and an
+    // invisible dock reporting itself as revealed is a lie a reader acts on. An
+    // instance whose monitor could not be resolved -- created standalone, or
+    // asked before Hyprland has reported the screen -- knows nothing about
+    // which monitor the user is on, so it writes only when there is no focused
+    // monitor to be wrong about rather than stomping the instance that knows.
+    //
+    // Nothing reads the flag today: the bar and the capture overlay it was
+    // written for both stopped. It is written correctly rather than left
+    // half-wrong, and when ShellState is next opened the property, this
+    // arbitration and _syncShellState should go together.
+    readonly property bool isFocusedMonitorInstance: {
+        if (!root.onThisScreen)
+            return false;
+        if (root.monitor !== null)
+            return root.monitor === Hyprland.focusedMonitor;
+        return Hyprland.focusedMonitor === null;
+    }
 
     onRevealedChanged: root._syncShellState()
     onIsFocusedMonitorInstanceChanged: root._syncShellState()
@@ -183,6 +201,33 @@ PanelWindow {
         Item {
             id: maskItem
 
+            // Where the body comes to rest once the slide finishes, mirroring
+            // DockBody's own x/y bindings in their revealed case.
+            //
+            // The revealed region is built from these rather than from the
+            // body's live position. The body slides in over a couple of hundred
+            // milliseconds, and a region that follows it in is a region that is
+            // a few pixels tall on the frame the dock is summoned -- the exact
+            // frame the pointer that summoned it needs to be inside, and the
+            // exact frame it drops the hover and sends the dock back. Following
+            // the animation also means an input-region commit to the compositor
+            // on every one of those frames, for a rectangle that is only right
+            // on the last of them.
+            //
+            // Clamped rather than assigned outright so the mask still tracks
+            // the body if anything else ever moves it: the reveal only ever
+            // approaches these values from outside the screen edge.
+            readonly property real settledX: {
+                if (!root.vertical)
+                    return body.x;
+                return root.position === "left"
+                    ? Math.max(body.x, root.tooltipSpace)
+                    : Math.min(body.x, surface.width - body.width - root.tooltipSpace);
+            }
+            readonly property real settledY: root.vertical
+                ? body.y
+                : Math.min(body.y, root.tooltipSpace)
+
             x: {
                 if (!root.revealed)
                     return root.position === "right" ? surface.width - root.revealStripHeight : 0;
@@ -194,25 +239,27 @@ PanelWindow {
                 // to its own edge, which is x 0 on the left and the body on
                 // the right.
                 if (!root.vertical)
-                    return body.x;
-                return root.position === "right" ? body.x : 0;
+                    return maskItem.settledX;
+                return root.position === "right" ? maskItem.settledX : 0;
             }
             y: {
                 if (!root.revealed)
                     return root.vertical ? 0 : surface.height - root.revealStripHeight;
-                return body.y;
+                return maskItem.settledY;
             }
             width: {
                 if (!root.revealed)
                     return root.vertical ? root.revealStripHeight : surface.width;
                 return root.vertical
-                    ? (root.position === "right" ? surface.width - body.x : body.x + body.width)
+                    ? (root.position === "right"
+                        ? surface.width - maskItem.settledX
+                        : maskItem.settledX + body.width)
                     : body.width;
             }
             height: {
                 if (!root.revealed)
                     return root.vertical ? surface.height : root.revealStripHeight;
-                return root.vertical ? body.height : surface.height - body.y;
+                return root.vertical ? body.height : surface.height - maskItem.settledY;
             }
         }
 
@@ -226,7 +273,7 @@ PanelWindow {
                 body.dismissPreview();
                 dockContextMenu.anchorItem = anchorItem;
                 dockContextMenu.app = app;
-                dockContextMenu.visible = true;
+                dockContextMenu.requested = true;
             }
 
             vertical: root.vertical
@@ -284,6 +331,33 @@ PanelWindow {
         id: dockContextMenu
     }
 
+    // The safety net for a latched interaction flag.
+    //
+    // Every term of `interactionHeld` is cleared by an event that can go
+    // missing: a drag by its release, which a stolen grab eats; a preview by
+    // the pointer leaving, which a destroyed anchor never reports; a menu by a
+    // row being chosen, which a menu whose anchor died is never offered. Any
+    // one of them left set holds the dock revealed with the pointer nowhere
+    // near it, and there is no gesture that gets it back -- the flag is stuck,
+    // so the dock is out until the shell restarts.
+    //
+    // Eight seconds of held-but-untouched is not a gesture. The pointer being
+    // on the previews or on the menu counts as touched, because both are their
+    // own surfaces and leaving the dock is how you reach them.
+    Timer {
+        id: interactionWatchdog
+
+        interval: 8000
+        running: root.interactionHeld && !pointer.hovered
+            && !dockPreviews.hovered && !dockContextMenu.hovered
+
+        onTriggered: {
+            body.cancelDrag();
+            body.dismissPreview();
+            dockContextMenu.requested = false;
+        }
+    }
+
     // Its own surface rather than something drawn inside the dock: the dock's
     // input mask is a thin strip when hidden and the bar's own rectangle when
     // shown, and widening it to cover a preview would hand the dock every
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockBody.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockBody.qml
index 7388e14..9dc6e73 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockBody.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockBody.qml
@@ -248,13 +248,34 @@ Rectangle {
     // are their own surface: leaving the icon to reach them would otherwise
     // close the thing being reached for.
     property Item previewAnchor: null
-    property var previewApp: null
+
+    // Looked up in the live model rather than snapshotted when the dwell fires.
+    // `items` is rebuilt into fresh objects whenever any window opens or
+    // closes, so a snapshot keeps the window list the app had when the pointer
+    // stopped moving: a window closed while its preview is up stays in the
+    // strip, and its ScreencopyView goes on holding a handle to a surface that
+    // no longer exists. Reading it back out of `items` means the strip empties
+    // itself, and an app whose last window closed drops the preview entirely.
+    readonly property var previewApp: {
+        const anchor = root.previewAnchor;
+        if (!anchor || !anchor.app)
+            return null;
+        const id = anchor.app.appId;
+        for (let i = 0; i < root.items.length; i++) {
+            if (root.items[i].appId === id)
+                return root.items[i];
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
 
     // Written by the Dock from the preview popup's own hover.
     property bool previewHovered: false
 
     onHoveredItemChanged: root.reconsiderPreview()
     onPreviewHoveredChanged: root.reconsiderPreview()
+    // A window opening or closing changes what the strip should be showing --
+    // including, when it was the last one, whether there should be a strip.
+    onItemsChanged: root.reconsiderPreview()
 
     function reconsiderPreview(): void {
         const item = root.hoveredItem;
@@ -277,7 +298,6 @@ Rectangle {
         previewDwell.stop();
         previewGrace.stop();
         root.previewAnchor = null;
-        root.previewApp = null;
         root.previewHovered = false;
     }
 
@@ -289,7 +309,6 @@ Rectangle {
             if (!item || !item.app || !item.app.windows || item.app.windows.length === 0)
                 return;
             root.previewAnchor = item;
-            root.previewApp = item.app;
         }
     }
 
@@ -375,6 +394,13 @@ Rectangle {
                 onDragMoved: travel => root.moveDrag(travel)
                 onDragEnded: root.endDrag()
                 onDragCancelled: root.cancelDrag()
+
+                // Keying the model keeps a delegate alive through a rebuild,
+                // but not through the app's last window closing while it is
+                // being dragged: that row is gone, and the release it owed is
+                // gone with it. Without this the dock keeps dragIndex forever,
+                // which reads as a dock that will not hide again.
+                Component.onDestruction: if (root.dragIndex === dockItem.index) root.cancelDrag()
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockContextMenu.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockContextMenu.qml
index f4358d0..d850af1 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockContextMenu.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockContextMenu.qml
@@ -32,9 +32,24 @@ PopupWindow {
     implicitWidth: Math.min(360, Math.max(menu.implicitWidth + Theme.popoverPadding * 2, 240))
     implicitHeight: menu.implicitHeight + Theme.popoverPadding * 2
     color: "transparent"
-    visible: false
     grabFocus: true
 
+    // Whether the dock has asked for the menu. Visibility is that AND a live
+    // anchor, rather than the request alone: the dock icon a menu is anchored
+    // to is a delegate, and a delegate dies when its app's last window closes.
+    // An anchored PopupWindow whose anchor has gone stays mapped with a null
+    // anchor -- a menu hanging over the desktop, attached to nothing, holding
+    // the dock revealed behind it.
+    property bool requested: false
+    visible: root.requested && root.anchorItem !== null
+
+    onAnchorItemChanged: if (root.anchorItem === null) root.requested = false
+
+    // Read by the Dock's interaction watchdog. A menu with the pointer on it is
+    // a menu being read, not a stuck flag -- and the pointer being here means
+    // it is not on the dock, which is the only other thing the dock can see.
+    readonly property bool hovered: menuPointer.hovered
+
     // Long window titles are the one thing here that can be arbitrarily wide,
     // and a menu as wide as a browser tab's title is not a menu.
     function shortTitle(toplevel: var): string {
@@ -99,6 +114,10 @@ PopupWindow {
         border.width: 1
         border.color: Theme.alpha(Theme.fg, 0.08)
 
+        HoverHandler {
+            id: menuPointer
+        }
+
         PrismEdge {
             anchors.top: parent.top
             anchors.topMargin: 1
@@ -125,7 +144,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                     label: root.shortTitle(modelData)
                     onActivated: {
                         root.focusToplevel(modelData);
-                        root.visible = false;
+                        root.requested = false;
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -151,7 +170,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                     label: modelData.name
                     onActivated: {
                         modelData.execute();
-                        root.visible = false;
+                        root.requested = false;
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -175,7 +194,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                 onActivated: {
                     if (root.entry)
                         root.entry.execute();
-                    root.visible = false;
+                    root.requested = false;
                 }
             }
 
@@ -191,7 +210,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                         root.unpin();
                     else
                         root.pin();
-                    root.visible = false;
+                    root.requested = false;
                 }
             }
 
@@ -201,7 +220,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                 rowEnabled: root.windows.length > 0
                 onActivated: {
                     root.quit();
-                    root.visible = false;
+                    root.requested = false;
                 }
             }
 
@@ -218,7 +237,7 @@ PopupWindow {
                 label: "Dock settings"
                 onActivated: {
                     ShellState.openSettings("dock");
-                    root.visible = false;
+                    root.requested = false;
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockItem.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockItem.qml
index dca3fac..eebe628 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockItem.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/dock/DockItem.qml
@@ -187,6 +187,17 @@ Item {
         }
 
         onPressed: mev => {
+            // A press arriving while a drag is still marked active means the
+            // last one never got its release -- a grab stolen by a surface that
+            // opened over the dock, most often. Clearing the flag alone would
+            // leave DockBody still holding a dragIndex, and with it the
+            // interaction hold that keeps the dock revealed forever; the drag
+            // has to be cancelled through the same path a stolen grab uses.
+            if (mouse.dragActive) {
+                mouse.dragActive = false;
+                mouse.dragConsumed = false;
+                root.dragCancelled();
+            }
             mouse.pressX = mev.x;
             mouse.pressY = mev.y;
             mouse.dragActive = false;
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ColorWell.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ColorWell.qml
index 33ab631..05b406d 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ColorWell.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ColorWell.qml
@@ -167,7 +167,6 @@ Rectangle {
                     activeFocusOnTab: true
                     verticalAlignment: TextInput.AlignVCenter
                     maximumLength: 7
-                    text: String(root.swatchColor).toLowerCase()
                     color: root.invalid ? Theme.danger : Theme.fg
                     selectionColor: Theme.alpha(Theme.accent, 0.4)
                     selectedTextColor: Theme.fg
@@ -178,6 +177,14 @@ Rectangle {
                     Accessible.role: Accessible.EditableText
                     Accessible.name: root.role + " colour, hex"
 
+                    // Seeded once, then written only by the guarded handlers
+                    // below and by onSwatchColorChanged. A binding here would
+                    // be a second writer for the same text, silently dropped
+                    // the first time one of them assigned to it -- so which of
+                    // the two was in charge depended on what had happened
+                    // earlier in the session.
+                    Component.onCompleted: hexInput.text = String(root.swatchColor).toLowerCase()
+
                     onTextEdited: root.invalid = false
                     onAccepted: root.commit()
 
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/CountdownRing.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/CountdownRing.qml
index 5a49f2f..fbdc538 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/CountdownRing.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/CountdownRing.qml
@@ -17,8 +17,15 @@ Item {
     implicitWidth: 40
     implicitHeight: 40
 
+    // A Canvas reads Theme inside onPaint, where nothing records a dependency
+    // on it, so a palette change would leave the ring drawn in the old warn
+    // tone until the next tick -- or for good, on a countdown sitting still.
+    // Naming the colour as a property gives the repaint something to watch.
+    readonly property color ringColor: Theme.warn
+
     onSecondsLeftChanged: ring.requestPaint()
     onTotalSecondsChanged: ring.requestPaint()
+    onRingColorChanged: ring.requestPaint()
     onVisibleChanged: if (root.visible) ring.requestPaint()
 
     Canvas {
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DisplayArrangement.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DisplayArrangement.qml
index a72cdb4..a11b86d 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DisplayArrangement.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DisplayArrangement.qml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 // mirroring, rather than drawing it wherever its stale coordinates point.
 
 import QtQuick
+import Quickshell
 import qs.config
 import qs.widgets
 import "../../services/DisplayLayout.js" as DisplayLayout
@@ -198,7 +199,20 @@ Item {
             }
 
             Repeater {
-                model: root.tiles
+                // Keyed on the output name rather than fed the array directly.
+                // Every drag step and every arrow key rewrites draftLayout,
+                // which rebuilds `tiles` into a fresh array of fresh objects --
+                // a new model, which resets the Repeater and destroys the tile
+                // being dragged on its first millimetre of travel. The drag
+                // ended there, silently, and nothing was ever applied; the
+                // arrow keys lost focus after a single step for the same
+                // reason. Keyed, the same rebuild is "this row moved", and the
+                // tile under the pointer keeps its handler and its focus.
+                model: ScriptModel {
+                    values: root.tiles
+                    objectProp: "name"
+                    comparisonMode: ObjectComparison.Structure
+                }
 
                 Rectangle {
                     id: tile
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DockPinsStrip.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DockPinsStrip.qml
index e9ffd37..5857e5b 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DockPinsStrip.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/DockPinsStrip.qml
@@ -91,7 +91,17 @@ Column {
     property int draggingIndex: -1
     property var workingOrder: []
 
-    readonly property var displayed: root.draggingIndex >= 0 ? root.workingOrder : root.pinned
+    // The order the strip is drawing, as rows the Repeater can identify. A
+    // plain array of ids is a NEW model every time the order changes, and
+    // reordering is the one thing this strip does: handing that to a Repeater
+    // resets it and destroys the delegate the pointer is holding, mid-press, on
+    // the first cell crossed. The gesture dies there and draggingIndex stays
+    // set, which latches the strip. Keyed on the pin id -- the only thing a pin
+    // is -- a reorder becomes a row move instead, and the delegate under the
+    // hand survives it. One-property objects because ScriptModel identifies a
+    // row by a property of it, which a bare string has none of.
+    readonly property var displayed: (root.draggingIndex >= 0 ? root.workingOrder : root.pinned)
+        .map(id => ({ id: id }))
 
     function beginDrag(index: int): void {
         root.workingOrder = root.pinned.slice();
@@ -119,12 +129,23 @@ Column {
         root.commit(next);
     }
 
+    // The drag let go of without a decision. Used when the cell being dragged
+    // is destroyed under the pointer -- an unpin from somewhere else, a
+    // settings file rewritten underneath -- where the working order is a
+    // rearrangement of a list that no longer exists, and writing it back would
+    // undo whatever really happened.
+    function cancelDrag(): void {
+        root.draggingIndex = -1;
+        root.workingOrder = [];
+    }
+
     // ── Keyboard ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     //
-    // The Repeater's model is a plain array, so committing a move rebuilds
-    // every delegate and the focused one is destroyed mid-keystroke. The
-    // focused position is remembered here instead of in the delegate, and the
-    // cell that lands on it takes focus back as it is created.
+    // Which POSITION has the keyboard, remembered here rather than left to the
+    // delegate that happens to hold focus. Unpinning really does destroy the
+    // focused cell, and a keyed model still cannot keep focus on a row that is
+    // gone; remembering the index means the cell that lands on it takes focus
+    // back as it arrives, so Delete twice in a row deletes twice.
 
     property int keyboardIndex: -1
 
@@ -159,7 +180,13 @@ Column {
         spacing: root.cellSpacing
 
         Repeater {
-            model: root.displayed
+            // Keyed on the pin id: see `displayed`. This is the same reason
+            // DockBody keys the dock's own icons.
+            model: ScriptModel {
+                values: root.displayed
+                objectProp: "id"
+                comparisonMode: ObjectComparison.Structure
+            }
 
             delegate: Item {
                 id: cell
@@ -167,9 +194,10 @@ Column {
                 required property var modelData
                 required property int index
 
+                readonly property string appId: cell.modelData ? cell.modelData.id : ""
                 readonly property bool dragging: root.draggingIndex === cell.index
-                readonly property string appName: root.nameFor(cell.modelData)
-                readonly property string iconSource: root.iconFor(cell.modelData)
+                readonly property string appName: root.nameFor(cell.appId)
+                readonly property string iconSource: root.iconFor(cell.appId)
 
                 width: root.cellSize
                 height: root.cellSize
@@ -194,6 +222,12 @@ Column {
                 onActiveFocusChanged: if (cell.activeFocus) root.keyboardIndex = cell.index
                 Component.onCompleted: if (root.keyboardIndex === cell.index) cell.forceActiveFocus()
 
+                // A cell that goes away while it is the one being dragged takes
+                // the release with it -- there is no MouseArea left to report
+                // one -- and the strip would sit there with draggingIndex still
+                // set, refusing every later press.
+                Component.onDestruction: if (cell.dragging) root.cancelDrag()
+
                 Connections {
                     target: root
                     function onKeyboardIndexChanged(): void {
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/GradientSliderRow.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/GradientSliderRow.qml
index b827b37..15d5d9e 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/GradientSliderRow.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/GradientSliderRow.qml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // A slider whose track carries a meaning, and whose value is committed once the
-// drag settles rather than on every pixel.
+// gesture is over rather than on every pixel.
 //
 // Two rows on the Displays page need something SliderRow cannot give them:
 //
@@ -8,7 +8,14 @@
 //     like, and this is the one slider whose numbers most people cannot picture.
 //   * The SDR trims, which write through the display transaction. A transaction
 //     per pixel of drag would arm a fifteen-second countdown dozens of times;
-//     the value is applied once, when the pointer stops moving.
+//     the value is applied once, when the button comes up.
+//
+// On release, not on an idle timer. Holding a slider still for a third of a
+// second is not the end of a gesture, and the commit an idle timer made
+// mid-hold armed a display transaction that turned this row's `enabled` false
+// with the button still down -- the control went dead under the hand using it.
+// The wheel has no release, so it keeps the timer, and that is all the timer is
+// for now.
 //
 // Not schema-bound and not a SettingRow: the caller says what the value is and
 // what to do with a new one, and the row stacks its control below the label in
@@ -59,6 +66,16 @@ Item {
         return colors[Math.min(index, colors.length - 1)];
     }
 
+    // Hands the pending value to the caller. Called on release, and by the
+    // wheel's idle timer, which is the one input that never has one.
+    function commit(): void {
+        commitTimer.stop();
+        if (root.pending === null)
+            return;
+        root.committed(root.pending);
+        releaseTimer.restart();
+    }
+
     function quantise(ratio: real): real {
         const raw = root.minimum + ratio * (root.maximum - root.minimum);
         const snapped = Math.round(raw / root.step) * root.step;
@@ -166,7 +183,6 @@ Item {
                 function move(positionX: real): void {
                     root.pending = root.quantise(
                         Math.max(0, Math.min(1, (positionX - 8) / track.width)));
-                    commitTimer.restart();
                 }
 
                 onPressed: event => drag.move(event.x)
@@ -174,6 +190,14 @@ Item {
                     if (drag.pressed)
                         drag.move(event.x);
                 }
+                onReleased: root.commit()
+                // A grab taken away mid-drag is not a decision. The row goes
+                // back to showing whatever is really in effect rather than
+                // keeping a number nobody asked it to apply.
+                onCanceled: {
+                    commitTimer.stop();
+                    root.pending = null;
+                }
                 onWheel: event => {
                     const direction = event.angleDelta.y > 0 ? 1 : -1;
                     root.pending = Math.max(root.minimum,
@@ -208,15 +232,13 @@ Item {
         color: Theme.alpha(Theme.fg, 0.065)
     }
 
+    // The wheel's release. A notch is a whole gesture on its own, and a hand
+    // spinning through a range means one commit at the end of the spin rather
+    // than one per notch -- there is no button coming up to say when that is.
     Timer {
         id: commitTimer
         interval: root.commitDelay
-        onTriggered: {
-            if (root.pending === null)
-                return;
-            root.committed(root.pending);
-            releaseTimer.restart();
-        }
+        onTriggered: root.commit()
     }
 
     // Hands the readout back to whatever is really in effect. If the change was
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/SoundPage.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/SoundPage.qml
index 9d49de6..2999cf4 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/SoundPage.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/SoundPage.qml
@@ -60,6 +60,24 @@ SettingsPage {
             setting: "overAmplification"
             divider: false
         }
+
+        // Turning over-amplification off has to bring the level down with it.
+        // The preference only moves the top of the range; PipeWire keeps
+        // whatever was set, so a device left at 140% stays there with a slider
+        // that now ends at 100 and shows itself pinned at full. Nothing the
+        // page can do afterwards expresses the difference, and the reading is
+        // wrong until something else happens to move the volume.
+        Connections {
+            target: Settings
+
+            function onOverAmplificationChanged(): void {
+                if (Settings.overAmplification)
+                    return;
+                const audio = root.currentOutput?.audio ?? null;
+                if (audio && audio.volume > 1)
+                    audio.volume = 1;
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     SettingsCard {
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ThemeSaturationRow.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ThemeSaturationRow.qml
index a6fddbe..e745939 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ThemeSaturationRow.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/ThemeSaturationRow.qml
@@ -165,6 +165,12 @@ SettingRow {
                             root.moveTo(drag.ratioAt(event.x));
                     }
                     onReleased: root.apply()
+                    // A grab taken away mid-drag never releases, so nothing
+                    // would ever apply the reading left on screen -- and the
+                    // next commit would measure its ratio against a number the
+                    // palette was never re-saturated to. Back to the last
+                    // reading that was really applied.
+                    onCanceled: root.shown = root.committed
                     onWheel: event => {
                         root.moveTo((root.shown + (event.angleDelta.y > 0 ? 0.05 : -0.05))
                             / root.maximum);
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-lock b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-lock
index 6f3eec5..f7a0c9d 100755
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-lock
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-lock
@@ -92,7 +92,11 @@ resolve_wallpaper_path() {
     # A video wallpaper cannot play on the lock screen; VideoWallpaper.qml
     # grabs a still frame when one is selected, and that frame stands in.
     # A video with no cached frame falls through to the shipped image.
-    if [[ "$candidate" =~ \.(mp4|mkv|webm)$ ]]; then
+    #
+    # Lowercased first, because panama-video-wallpaper scans with -iname: a
+    # HOLIDAY.MP4 it happily offers would otherwise be handed to the lock screen
+    # as an image and render as nothing at all.
+    if [[ "${candidate,,}" =~ \.(mp4|mkv|webm)$ ]]; then
         local frame="${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/panama/video-wallpaper-frame.png"
         if valid_path "$frame"; then
             resolved_wallpaper="$frame"
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-osd b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-osd
index 9e0e76e..5662563 100755
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-osd
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-osd
@@ -15,25 +15,41 @@ settings_file() {
     printf '%s/panama/settings.json\n' "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}"
 }
 
-setting_bool() {
-    local key="$1" fallback="$2" file value
+# Both switches the volume keys care about, read in a single jq. A held-down
+# volume key repeats about twenty times a second, and each repeat used to spawn
+# jq twice -- once for the ceiling, once for the click. Prints them as
+# "<overAmplification> <volumeChangeBlip>", falling back to the schema defaults
+# whenever the file cannot be read or does not carry the key.
+volume_settings() {
+    local file value over=false blip=true
     file="$(settings_file)"
-    [[ -r $file ]] || { printf '%s\n' "$fallback"; return 0; }
-    command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || { printf '%s\n' "$fallback"; return 0; }
-    value="$(jq -r --arg key "$key" '
-        if type == "object" and (.[$key] | type) == "boolean" then .[$key] else empty end
-    ' "$file" 2>/dev/null)" || value=""
-    [[ $value == true || $value == false ]] || value="$fallback"
-    printf '%s\n' "$value"
+    if [[ -r $file ]] && command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+        value="$(jq -r '
+            def flag($key; $fallback):
+                if type == "object" and (.[$key] | type) == "boolean"
+                then (.[$key] | tostring)
+                else $fallback
+                end;
+            [flag("overAmplification"; "false"), flag("volumeChangeBlip"; "true")]
+                | join(" ")
+        ' "$file" 2>/dev/null)" || value=""
+        read -r over blip <<<"$value"
+        [[ $over == true || $over == false ]] || over=false
+        [[ $blip == true || $blip == false ]] || blip=true
+    fi
+    printf '%s %s\n' "$over" "$blip"
 }
 
-# wpctl clamps to 1.0 by default, and it clamps the *result* -- so the ceiling
-# has to be passed on the way down as well. Without it, stepping down from 130%
-# would snap to 100% instead of 124%, which reads as the slider jumping on its
-# own. The microphone never gets this: gain past 100% on a capture device buys
-# noise, not signal, and the Sound page's input slider stays 0-100 to match.
-volume_limit() {
-    if [[ $(setting_bool overAmplification false) == true ]]; then
+# `wpctl set-volume -l` caps the *result*, and without it wpctl does not cap at
+# all -- 100% is not a ceiling it enforces on its own. So the limit is passed on
+# the way down too, deliberately: with over-amplification off, stepping down
+# from a volume that is somehow already above 100% lands under the ceiling
+# rather than merely one step lower, which is what having the switch off means.
+# The microphone never gets the raised ceiling: gain past 100% on a capture
+# device buys noise, not signal, and the Sound page's input slider stays 0-100
+# to match.
+volume_ceiling() {
+    if [[ $1 == true ]]; then
         printf '1.5\n'
     else
         printf '1\n'
@@ -42,14 +58,28 @@ volume_limit() {
 
 # The click that says the volume moved. Backgrounded and never waited on: it is
 # feedback about something that has already happened, so it must not sit between
-# the key press and the OSD. A distribution without the freedesktop sound theme
-# has no file to play, which is a silent desktop rather than a broken key.
+# the key press and the OSD.
+#
+# Under a non-blocking lock, in the same runtime directory the DDC lock lives in,
+# because key repeat would otherwise start a fresh pw-play over the top of the
+# last one twenty times a second. The first press clicks; the repeats that
+# arrive while it is still sounding are dropped rather than stacked.
+#
+# A distribution without the freedesktop sound theme has no file to play, which
+# is a silent desktop rather than a broken key.
 play_blip() {
+    local enabled="$1"
     local sound="${PANAMA_OSD_BLIP_SOUND:-$PANAMA_OSD_BLIP_DEFAULT}"
-    [[ $(setting_bool volumeChangeBlip true) == true ]] || return 0
+    local runtime_dir="${PANAMA_OSD_RUNTIME_DIR:-${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/tmp}/panama-osd-${UID}}"
+    [[ $enabled == true ]] || return 0
     [[ -f $sound ]] || return 0
-    pw-play "$sound" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
-    disown 2>/dev/null || true
+    mkdir -p "$runtime_dir" 2>/dev/null || return 0
+    chmod 700 "$runtime_dir" 2>/dev/null || true
+    (
+        exec {blip_fd}>"$runtime_dir/blip.lock" || exit 0
+        flock -n "$blip_fd" || exit 0
+        pw-play "$sound" >/dev/null 2>&1
+    ) &
 }
 
 strict_delivery() {
@@ -96,15 +126,17 @@ show_volume() {
 }
 
 adjust_volume() {
-    local action="${1:-}" step="${2:-6}" target="@DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@" limit
-    limit="$(volume_limit)"
+    local action="${1:-}" step="${2:-6}" target="@DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@"
+    local over blip limit
+    read -r over blip <<<"$(volume_settings)"
+    limit="$(volume_ceiling "$over")"
     case "$action" in
         up) wpctl set-volume -l "$limit" "$target" "${step}%+" || return ;;
         down) wpctl set-volume -l "$limit" "$target" "${step}%-" || return ;;
         toggle) wpctl set-mute "$target" toggle || return ;;
         *) printf 'Usage: panama-osd volume up|down|toggle [step]\n' >&2; return 2 ;;
     esac
-    play_blip
+    play_blip "$blip"
     show_volume "$target" volume
 }
 
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-settings-docs b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-settings-docs
index 7519228..1ac0a22 100755
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-settings-docs
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-settings-docs
@@ -139,10 +139,23 @@ def read_entries():
             return (found.group(2) if found.group(2) is not None
                     else found.group(1).strip())
 
+        def default_value():
+            """The default, or None when the literal is a block rather than a value.
+
+            A "json" setting's `def:` opens an array or an object that runs for
+            twenty lines, and the scalar reader above captures only the bracket
+            that opened it. A Default column reading "[" documents nothing and
+            looks like a parsing bug, which is what it was mistaken for. None
+            renders as an em dash instead, and the schema stays the place to read
+            the shape.
+            """
+            value = scalar("def")
+            return None if value in ("[", "{") else value
+
         entry = {
             "key": name,
             "type": scalar("type"),
-            "default": scalar("def"),
+            "default": default_value(),
             "group": scalar("group"),
             "label": scalar("label"),
             "detail": scalar("detail"),
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-theme-apps b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-theme-apps
index 8295910..81b5d66 100755
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-theme-apps
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/scripts/panama-theme-apps
@@ -103,8 +103,14 @@ for token in black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white \
     [[ -n "${!name:-}" ]] || ansi_ok=false
 done
 
+# Every token render_vicinae reads, in both schemes. The renderer runs under
+# `set -u` in a subshell, so a token missing from one side is not a slightly
+# duller launcher theme -- it aborts that render and the file is left as it was.
+# The gate has to cover what the renderer actually reads, or it passes and the
+# render fails anyway.
 both_schemes_ok=true
-for token in bg bgDark bgHighlight bgPanel bgPopover fg fgDim fgMuted gutter red; do
+for token in bg bgDark bgHighlight bgPanel bgPopover fg fgDim fgMuted gutter red \
+             accentAlt green magenta orange pink yellow cyan; do
     for side in dark light; do
         name="${side}_pal_$token"
         [[ -n "${!name:-}" ]] || both_schemes_ok=false
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ColorScheme.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ColorScheme.qml
index 5125fd1..23ef871 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ColorScheme.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ColorScheme.qml
@@ -71,16 +71,27 @@ Singleton {
         return Object.keys(palette).sort().map(token => palette[token]).join(",");
     }
 
-    // What the last push actually sent, so apply() can tell an accent-only
+    // What the last push actually LANDED, so apply() can tell an accent-only
     // change apart from a scheme or theme change and skip the steps that do
     // not depend on whichever did not move. Their starting values do not
     // matter: the first apply() always runs with force set, which ignores all
     // of them.
+    //
+    // Written by settleQueue() once the whole queue has drained without a
+    // failure, never by apply(). Recording them at enqueue time meant a
+    // gsettings write that failed, or a hyprctl issued before the compositor
+    // was listening, left the shell believing the desktop already agreed with
+    // it -- and nothing pushed again until some unrelated preference moved.
     property bool appliedDark: false
     property string appliedAccentName: ""
     property string appliedThemeId: ""
     property string appliedPalettePrint: ""
 
+    // What the in-flight queue is trying to make true, and whether any step of
+    // it has already failed.
+    property var pendingApplied: null
+    property bool queueFailed: false
+
     // Applied one command at a time: Process runs a single command, and several
     // of these are separate programs.
     property var pending: []
@@ -88,15 +99,39 @@ Singleton {
     Process {
         id: runner
         onExited: (exitCode, exitStatus) => {
-            if (exitCode !== 0)
+            if (exitCode !== 0) {
                 root.lastError = "The color scheme could not be applied everywhere.";
+                root.queueFailed = true;
+            }
             root.drain();
         }
     }
 
-    function drain(): void {
-        if (runner.running || root.pending.length === 0)
+    // Only a queue that emptied without a single failure counts as applied. A
+    // failed one leaves the fingerprint alone, so the next apply() sees the same
+    // difference it saw before and pushes the whole thing again.
+    function settleQueue(): void {
+        if (root.pendingApplied === null)
             return;
+        const target = root.pendingApplied;
+        root.pendingApplied = null;
+        if (root.queueFailed) {
+            root.queueFailed = false;
+            return;
+        }
+        root.appliedDark = target.dark;
+        root.appliedAccentName = target.accentName;
+        root.appliedThemeId = target.themeId;
+        root.appliedPalettePrint = target.palettePrint;
+    }
+
+    function drain(): void {
+        if (runner.running)
+            return;
+        if (root.pending.length === 0) {
+            root.settleQueue();
+            return;
+        }
         const next = root.pending[0];
         root.pending = root.pending.slice(1);
         runner.exec(next);
@@ -236,10 +271,14 @@ Singleton {
             commands.push([root.appThemePath, root.dark ? "dark" : "light", accentName]);
         }
 
-        root.appliedDark = root.dark;
-        root.appliedAccentName = accentName;
-        root.appliedThemeId = themeId;
-        root.appliedPalettePrint = palettePrint;
+        // The target, not the record: settleQueue() promotes it to applied*
+        // once every command in the queue has come back clean.
+        root.pendingApplied = {
+            dark: root.dark,
+            accentName: accentName,
+            themeId: themeId,
+            palettePrint: palettePrint
+        };
 
         root.enqueue(commands);
     }
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Displays.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Displays.qml
index f80f3ab..139969b 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Displays.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Displays.qml
@@ -156,7 +156,12 @@ Singleton {
         onExited: (exitCode, exitStatus) => {
             // Exit status is advisory only. Hyprland's Lua bridge can report
             // success without applying a value, so exact readback decides.
-            root.revertVerificationActive = true;
+            //
+            // performRevert already armed the timer; restarting it here gives
+            // the readback its full window from the moment the command actually
+            // returned, rather than from the moment it was issued.
+            if (!root.revertVerificationActive)
+                return;
             revertVerifyTimer.ticks = 0;
             revertVerifyTimer.restart();
         }
@@ -177,9 +182,16 @@ Singleton {
         }
         // Nothing in flight, so a display genuinely arrived or left. Give it
         // back the arrangement it was last confirmed with -- see restoreStored.
+        root.restoreDeferrals = 0;
         restoreDebounce.restart();
     }
 
+    // How many times the pending restore has been put off because something was
+    // in flight. Reset by every fresh hotplug and by every decision actually
+    // acted on; see restoreStored.
+    property int restoreDeferrals: 0
+    readonly property int restoreDeferralLimit: 20
+
     // Docking and undocking should not cost you your arrangement.
     //
     // hypr/monitors.lua applies the stored per-output entries, but only when
@@ -207,12 +219,18 @@ Singleton {
     // says so, which is recoverable. Silence would not be.
     // The decision, with no side effects, so it can be tested without driving
     // a real compositor. Returns one of:
-    //   { action: "none" }              nothing stored, or already correct
-    //   { action: "apply",  layout }    restore this
-    //   { action: "refuse" }            stored arrangement does not fit
+    //   { action: "none", reason: "settled" }      nothing stored, or already correct
+    //   { action: "none", reason: "unavailable" }  cannot decide yet, ask again
+    //   { action: "apply",  layout }               restore this
+    //   { action: "refuse" }                       stored arrangement does not fit
+    //
+    // The two "none" answers are not the same answer. "Nothing to do" is final;
+    // "not now" is a question that has to be asked again, and a dock changes the
+    // topology and the readback at once, so "not now" is the common case exactly
+    // when the restore matters most.
     function plannedRestore(): var {
         if (root.busy || root.awaitingConfirmation || root.monitors.length === 0)
-            return { action: "none" };
+            return { action: "none", reason: "unavailable" };
 
         const stored = DesktopPreferences.get("displays");
         const persisted = stored && typeof stored === "object" ? stored : {};
@@ -248,7 +266,7 @@ Singleton {
         }
 
         if (!changed)
-            return { action: "none" };
+            return { action: "none", reason: "settled" };
 
         // Exactly one primary, on a display that is actually here. Undocking
         // takes the primary away, and a layout with none is one
@@ -271,8 +289,21 @@ Singleton {
 
     function restoreStored(): void {
         const plan = root.plannedRestore();
-        if (plan.action === "none")
+        if (plan.action === "none") {
+            // Deferred, not dropped: a query or an apply in flight is a "ask me
+            // again", and dropping it meant the arrangement stayed lost until
+            // somebody opened Settings and applied it by hand. Bounded so a
+            // stuck operation cannot leave this rescheduling itself all session
+            // -- twenty tries outlasts a full confirmation countdown.
+            if (plan.reason === "unavailable"
+                    && root.restoreDeferrals < root.restoreDeferralLimit) {
+                root.restoreDeferrals += 1;
+                restoreDebounce.restart();
+            }
             return;
+        }
+
+        root.restoreDeferrals = 0;
 
         if (plan.action === "refuse") {
             StatusEvents.publish({
@@ -428,13 +459,20 @@ Singleton {
 
     // The framebuffer format is the only honest report of the bit depth in
     // effect: asking for 10-bit and getting it are different things, and a
-    // panel that cannot carry the link rate quietly stays at 8. Formats outside
-    // this map are read as "unknown", never as a mismatch.
+    // panel that cannot carry the link rate quietly stays at 8.
+    //
+    // Matched on the channel widths rather than on the two names Panama happens
+    // to have seen. The channel order is the compositor's business -- XRGB,
+    // XBGR and ARGB all carry ten bits per channel in 2101010 and eight in 8888
+    // -- and pinning the whole string reported an output as "unknown" for the
+    // one part of it that says nothing about depth. Anything else is still read
+    // as unknown, which is never treated as a mismatch.
     function formatBitdepth(format: string): int {
-        if (format === "XRGB8888")
-            return 8;
-        if (format === "XRGB2101010")
+        const text = String(format);
+        if (/2101010$/.test(text))
             return 10;
+        if (/8888$/.test(text))
+            return 8;
         return 0;
     }
 
@@ -544,7 +582,7 @@ Singleton {
             const saved = root.savedEntry(monitor.name);
             const live = DisplayLayout.validColorProfile(monitor.colorPreset)
                 ? monitor.colorPreset : "auto";
-            return {
+            const record = {
                 name: monitor.name,
                 width: monitor.width,
                 height: monitor.height,
@@ -560,15 +598,25 @@ Singleton {
                 // Keeping the stored policy stops one apply from pinning the
                 // display to whatever automatic happened to pick today.
                 colorProfile: saved && saved.colorProfile === "auto" ? "auto" : live,
-                bitdepth: monitor.bitdepth !== 0
-                    ? monitor.bitdepth
-                    : (saved && DisplayLayout.validBitdepth(saved.bitdepth) ? saved.bitdepth : 8),
                 sdrBrightness: DisplayLayout.validSdrBrightness(monitor.sdrBrightness)
                     ? monitor.sdrBrightness : 1.0,
                 sdrSaturation: DisplayLayout.validSdrSaturation(monitor.sdrSaturation)
                     ? monitor.sdrSaturation : 1.0,
                 mirrorOf: typeof monitor.mirrorOf === "string" ? monitor.mirrorOf : ""
             };
+            // The bit depth is the one field with no honest default. A
+            // framebuffer format Panama cannot read means the depth is unknown,
+            // and filling in 8 turns that ignorance into a request: monitorRule
+            // would write `bitdepth = 8` at a panel that may well be running at
+            // 10, and confirm() would store the guess as though it were read.
+            // Left off instead, which every consumer already understands as "no
+            // opinion" -- the rule omits the key, the compositor keeps what it
+            // has, and isPersistedLayoutEntry accepts an entry without one.
+            if (monitor.bitdepth !== 0)
+                record.bitdepth = monitor.bitdepth;
+            else if (saved && DisplayLayout.validBitdepth(saved.bitdepth))
+                record.bitdepth = saved.bitdepth;
+            return record;
         });
     }
 
@@ -847,7 +895,7 @@ Singleton {
         const stored = DesktopPreferences.get("displays");
         const next = Object.assign({}, (stored && typeof stored === "object") ? stored : {});
         for (const record of root.pendingRequestedLayout) {
-            next[record.name] = {
+            const entry = {
                 mode: record.mode,
                 scale: record.scale,
                 transform: record.transform,
@@ -856,11 +904,16 @@ Singleton {
                 primary: record.primary,
                 vrrMode: record.vrrMode,
                 colorProfile: record.colorProfile,
-                bitdepth: record.bitdepth,
                 sdrBrightness: record.sdrBrightness,
                 sdrSaturation: record.sdrSaturation,
                 mirrorOf: record.mirrorOf
             };
+            // Absent rather than guessed, as currentLayout leaves it. A stored
+            // 8 that nobody read is one the next start would push at the display
+            // as a request.
+            if (DisplayLayout.validBitdepth(record.bitdepth))
+                entry.bitdepth = record.bitdepth;
+            next[record.name] = entry;
         }
         if (!DesktopPreferences.set("displays", next)) {
             root.lastError = "That display setting could not be saved. Revert it and try again.";
@@ -926,10 +979,20 @@ Singleton {
         root.revertExpectedLayout = previous.length > 0 ? previous : null;
         root.revertVerificationActive = false;
         root.clearPending();
-        if (previous.length > 0)
+        if (previous.length > 0) {
+            // Armed here, before the push, and not only from revertRun.onExited.
+            // A hyprctl that fails to start never emits `exited`, and the
+            // verification timer is the only thing that ever clears
+            // revertExpectedLayout -- which `busy` counts. So the one failure
+            // that most needs a way out used to latch the whole Displays page
+            // busy for the rest of the session, with no error to say why.
+            root.revertVerificationActive = true;
+            revertVerifyTimer.ticks = 0;
+            revertVerifyTimer.restart();
             root.pushLayout(previous, revertRun);
-        else
+        } else {
             root.lastError = root.revertReason;
+        }
     }
 
     // Clears any stored override for an output so it returns to the value
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/KdeConnect.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/KdeConnect.qml
index a32b58c..3b6991e 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/KdeConnect.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/KdeConnect.qml
@@ -25,12 +25,12 @@ Singleton {
     property string actionKind: ""
     property string actionPath: ""
 
-    // actionProc's `exited` and its stdout `streamFinished` are not guaranteed
-    // to fire in a particular order (same hazard HomeAssistantConfig.qml's
-    // settle-both pattern guards against). These track which of the two have
-    // been observed for the action currently in flight so finishAction() is
-    // only ever called once both have arrived, with the real stdout JSON as
-    // the authoritative result.
+    // actionProc's `exited` and its stdout `streamFinished` carry half the
+    // result each -- the exit and the JSON -- and Quickshell documents no order
+    // between them. So neither one finalizes on its own: these track which have
+    // been observed for the action currently in flight, and settleAction() runs
+    // finishAction() once, on whichever arrives last, with the collected stdout
+    // as the authoritative result.
     property bool actionExited: false
     property bool actionStdoutDone: false
     property string actionStdoutText: ""
@@ -151,9 +151,8 @@ Singleton {
     }
 
     // Called from both actionProc.onExited and its stdout streamFinished.
-    // Only finalizes once both signals have arrived for the in-flight action,
-    // since their firing order is not guaranteed -- see the actionExited /
-    // actionStdoutDone comment above.
+    // Only finalizes once both signals have arrived for the in-flight action --
+    // see the actionExited / actionStdoutDone comment above.
     function settleAction(): void {
         if (root.actionKind === "")
             return;
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Notifs.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Notifs.qml
index 04b5cfe..4e220c4 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Notifs.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Notifs.qml
@@ -265,11 +265,36 @@ Singleton {
         if (notification.urgency === NotificationUrgency.Low)
             return;
 
+        // The freedesktop sound hints. This is the fix for the double chime:
+        // an application that plays its own sound sets suppress-sound so the
+        // notification server stays quiet, and Panama ignoring it meant one
+        // notification made two noises a beat apart.
+        //
+        // The other two say what to play instead of the theme bell --
+        // sound-file is an absolute path the application supplies, sound-name
+        // is a theme sound resolved through the same chain the bell uses.
+        const hints = notification.hints ?? {};
+        if (hints["suppress-sound"] === true)
+            return;
+
+        const soundFile = String(hints["sound-file"] ?? "");
+        const soundName = String(hints["sound-name"] ?? "");
+        const candidates = soundFile.startsWith("/")
+            ? [soundFile]
+            : (soundName !== ""
+                ? SoundFeedback.soundCandidates(soundName)
+                : SoundFeedback.bellCandidates);
+        // A hint naming something unresolvable is a request for that sound, not
+        // a request for the bell -- substituting would be a lie about which
+        // notification arrived.
+        if (candidates.length === 0)
+            return;
+
         const now = Date.now();
         if (bell.running || now - root.lastBellAt < 1000)
             return;
         root.lastBellAt = now;
-        bell.command = SoundFeedback.bellCommand;
+        bell.command = SoundFeedback.playCommand(candidates);
         bell.running = true;
     }
 
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SettingsSearch.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SettingsSearch.qml
index d36b99d..fde5f78 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SettingsSearch.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SettingsSearch.qml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Singleton {
         "wallpaper": "appearance",
         "lockAppearance": "appearance",
         "dock": "dock",
-        "focus": "workspaces",
+        "focus": "notifications",
         "display": "displays",
         "nightLight": "displays",
         "idle": "power",
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundCards.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundCards.qml
index b7e7c05..7e838e8 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundCards.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundCards.qml
@@ -38,9 +38,19 @@ Singleton {
     // that instead of the live daemon.
     readonly property string fixturePath: Quickshell.env("PANAMA_SOUND_CARDS_FIXTURE") || ""
 
+    // Assigning `running = true` to a Process that is already running is a
+    // no-op, not a queue, so a refresh that arrived mid-read was simply lost --
+    // and a profile switch's own re-read is exactly the refresh most likely to
+    // land on top of one, leaving the list showing the profile the card no
+    // longer has. Remembered here and re-run from lister.onExited instead.
+    property bool refreshPending: false
+
     function refresh(): void {
-        if (lister.running)
+        if (lister.running) {
+            root.refreshPending = true;
             return;
+        }
+        root.refreshPending = false;
         lister.command = root.fixturePath !== ""
             ? ["cat", root.fixturePath]
             : ["pactl", "-f", "json", "list", "cards"];
@@ -149,6 +159,10 @@ Singleton {
                 root.lastError = "Device profiles could not be read.";
                 root.loaded = true;
             }
+            // Deferred a turn so this listing's stdout is parsed before the
+            // next one starts filling the same collector.
+            if (root.refreshPending)
+                Qt.callLater(() => root.refresh());
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundDefaults.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundDefaults.qml
index f5155d9..7c80d63 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundDefaults.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundDefaults.qml
@@ -87,9 +87,19 @@ Singleton {
         return output ? root.absentSink : root.absentSource;
     }
 
+    // Assigning `running = true` to a Process that is already running is a
+    // no-op, not a queue. The default sink and source change together, so the
+    // two Pipewire signals below arrive back to back and the second read was
+    // always the one dropped -- which is how a ghost row survived the device
+    // coming back. Remembered here and re-run from reader.onExited instead.
+    property bool refreshPending: false
+
     function refresh(): void {
-        if (reader.running)
+        if (reader.running) {
+            root.refreshPending = true;
             return;
+        }
+        root.refreshPending = false;
         reader.command = root.fixturePath !== ""
             ? ["cat", root.fixturePath]
             : ["pw-metadata", "-n", "default", "0"];
@@ -173,6 +183,10 @@ Singleton {
                 : "PipeWire's remembered default devices could not be read.";
             if (code !== 0)
                 root.loaded = true;
+            // Deferred a turn so this read's stdout is parsed before the next
+            // one starts filling the same collector.
+            if (root.refreshPending)
+                Qt.callLater(() => root.refresh());
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundFeedback.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundFeedback.qml
index adeb337..1354d64 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundFeedback.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/SoundFeedback.qml
@@ -43,19 +43,37 @@ Singleton {
     // free of file probing on a hot path.
     readonly property string homeDir: Quickshell.env("HOME") || ""
 
-    readonly property var bellCandidates: [
-        root.homeDir !== ""
-            ? `${root.homeDir}/.local/share/sounds/${root.soundTheme}/stereo/bell.oga` : "",
-        `/usr/share/sounds/${root.soundTheme}/stereo/bell.oga`,
-        "/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/bell.oga"
-    ].filter((path, index, all) => path !== "" && all.indexOf(path) === index)
+    // The candidate paths for one XDG sound name, in preference order. Shared
+    // with Notifs.qml, which resolves a notification's own `sound-name` hint
+    // through exactly this chain rather than a second copy of it.
+    function soundCandidates(name: string): var {
+        const sound = String(name ?? "").trim();
+        // A sound name is one entry in a theme directory, never a path. Anything
+        // that could climb out of it is not a sound name, and these strings
+        // arrive from other applications.
+        if (!/^[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._-]*$/.test(sound))
+            return [];
+        return [
+            root.homeDir !== ""
+                ? `${root.homeDir}/.local/share/sounds/${root.soundTheme}/stereo/${sound}.oga` : "",
+            `/usr/share/sounds/${root.soundTheme}/stereo/${sound}.oga`,
+            `/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/${sound}.oga`
+        ].filter((path, index, all) => path !== "" && all.indexOf(path) === index);
+    }
 
-    // The argv that plays the current theme's bell once, or nothing at all if
-    // no candidate exists. Shared with Notifs.qml, which plays the same bell
-    // for Panama's own notification popups.
-    readonly property var bellCommand: ["sh", "-c",
-        'for candidate in "$@"; do [ -f "$candidate" ] && exec pw-play "$candidate"; done; exit 0',
-        "qs-sound-feedback"].concat(root.bellCandidates)
+    readonly property var bellCandidates: root.soundCandidates("bell")
+
+    // The argv that plays the first candidate that exists, or nothing at all if
+    // none does.
+    function playCommand(candidates: var): var {
+        return ["sh", "-c",
+            'for candidate in "$@"; do [ -f "$candidate" ] && exec pw-play "$candidate"; done; exit 0',
+            "qs-sound-feedback"].concat(Array.isArray(candidates) ? candidates : []);
+    }
+
+    // The current theme's bell. Shared with Notifs.qml, which plays it for
+    // Panama's own notification popups.
+    readonly property var bellCommand: root.playCommand(root.bellCandidates)
 
     function previewAlert(): void {
         if (preview.running)
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfileModel.js b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfileModel.js
index e93bf7e..1a741b2 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfileModel.js
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfileModel.js
@@ -238,27 +238,29 @@ function normalizeStoredProfile(value) {
     return result;
 }
 
+// The id is the identity here, and every custom id is custom-* namespaced, so
+// it can never collide with a shipped one by accident; a repeat inside the
+// stored list is a genuine duplicate and is dropped.
+//
+// A NAME is only a label, and a colliding one is renamed rather than dropped.
+// Dropping was data loss on a delay: this list is also what gets written back
+// to the preference, so a custom theme whose name a later Panama release
+// happened to ship was silently deleted at the user's next theme edit.
 function validCustomProfiles(values, shipped) {
     if (!Array.isArray(values))
         return [];
 
+    var catalog = shippedList(shipped);
     var ids = {};
-    var names = {};
-    shippedList(shipped).forEach(function(profile) {
-        ids[profile.id] = true;
-        names[profile.name.toLowerCase()] = true;
-    });
+    catalog.forEach(function(profile) { ids[profile.id] = true; });
 
     var result = [];
     values.forEach(function(value) {
         var profile = normalizeStoredProfile(value);
-        if (!profile)
-            return;
-        var foldedName = profile.name.toLowerCase();
-        if (ids[profile.id] || names[foldedName])
+        if (!profile || ids[profile.id])
             return;
         ids[profile.id] = true;
-        names[foldedName] = true;
+        profile.name = uniqueName(profile.name, catalog.concat(result));
         result.push(profile);
     });
     return result;
@@ -537,7 +539,11 @@ function resaturatePalette(palette, factor) {
         var next = clamp(hsv.s * (1 + (scale - 1) * strength), 0, 100);
         result[key] = hsvToHex(hsv.h, next, hsv.v);
     });
-    return result;
+    // Validated on the way out like every other palette this module builds: a
+    // factor that is not a number survives clamp() as NaN and turns every token
+    // into a string no palette reader can use. Returning null makes that a
+    // rejection the caller can see instead of a corrupt theme it stores.
+    return normalizePalette(result);
 }
 
 // Terminal colors for a custom theme that has none of its own: semantic
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfiles.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfiles.qml
index 280243a..d08a97c 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfiles.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/ThemeProfiles.qml
@@ -45,11 +45,17 @@ Singleton {
 
     // The remembered theme for a scheme, falling back to the catalog default.
     function themeForScheme(target: string): string {
-        const key = target === "light" ? "themeLight" : "themeDark";
-        const fallback = target === "light" ? ThemeCatalog.defaultLight : ThemeCatalog.defaultDark;
+        const scheme = target === "light" ? "light" : "dark";
+        const key = scheme === "light" ? "themeLight" : "themeDark";
+        const fallback = scheme === "light" ? ThemeCatalog.defaultLight : ThemeCatalog.defaultDark;
         const stored = String(DesktopPreferences.get(key) || "");
-        return ThemeProfileModel.findProfile(root.customProfiles, stored, root.shippedThemes)
-            ? stored : fallback;
+        const profile = ThemeProfileModel.findProfile(
+            root.customProfiles, stored, root.shippedThemes);
+        // Existing is not enough: the slot has to hold a theme OF that scheme.
+        // A custom theme edited from dark to light stayed in the dark slot, so
+        // asking for dark selected a light theme, which flipped the scheme back
+        // to light -- the light/dark toggle simply stopped working.
+        return profile && profile.scheme === scheme ? stored : fallback;
     }
 
     function commitActive(profile: var): bool {
@@ -64,7 +70,11 @@ Singleton {
             profile.scheme === "light" ? "themeLight" : "themeDark", profile.id);
         SystemSettings.commitPreference("accentName",
             ThemeProfileModel.nearestCuratedName(profile.scheme, profile.accent));
-        root.applyProfileEffects(profile);
+        // Effects are the theme's own snapshot of blur, shadow and motion.
+        // Restoring them for a theme that did not actually become active left
+        // the desktop wearing half of a theme nobody selected.
+        if (schemeAccepted && profileAccepted)
+            root.applyProfileEffects(profile);
         return schemeAccepted && profileAccepted;
     }
 
@@ -126,6 +136,11 @@ Singleton {
 
     // The editor's saturation slider. factor 1.0 is neutral.
     function setSaturation(factor: real): bool {
+        // NaN survives the model's clamp and comes back out as a palette of
+        // unreadable tokens. Reject it here, where there is still a caller to
+        // tell about it.
+        if (!isFinite(factor))
+            return false;
         const palette = ThemeProfileModel.resaturatePalette(root.activePalette, factor);
         if (!palette)
             return false;
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/VideoWallpaper.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/VideoWallpaper.qml
index 891050c..e8c16ef 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/VideoWallpaper.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/VideoWallpaper.qml
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ pragma Singleton
 //
 // hyprpaper and mpvpaper both claim the background layer and stacking within a
 // layer is creation order — a race. So while a video is active hyprpaper's
-// service is stopped, and stopping the video starts it again; Wallpaper.qml
-// reapplies the still policy once it returns.
+// service is stopped, and stopping the video starts it again; this service then
+// reapplies the still policy through Wallpaper.qml once it returns.
 //
 // mpvpaper 1.9 (Terra) is the floor: it carries the libmpv fence-leak
 // workaround. Known upstream sharp edges — a hotplug segfault and a
@@ -125,6 +125,9 @@ Singleton {
         root.lastError = "";
         root.path = video;
         root.manuallyPaused = false;
+        // A new video starts its own patience; the previous file's crashes are
+        // not evidence about this one.
+        root.crashStreak = 0;
         hyprpaperControl.command = ["systemctl", "--user", "stop", "hyprpaper.service"];
         hyprpaperControl.running = true;
         frameProc.command = ["sh", "-c",
@@ -141,6 +144,19 @@ Singleton {
         root.restoreConsumed = true;
         root.path = "";
         root.manuallyPaused = false;
+        root.crashStreak = 0;
+        root.teardownPlayers();
+        // The stored path is the restore path, the picker's "current" ring and
+        // what Wallpaper.setSingle reads back. Leaving it set after a deliberate
+        // stop meant the next login started playing the video again.
+        DesktopPreferences.set("videoWallpaperPath", "");
+        stillHandback.restart();
+    }
+
+    // Everything both stop() and the crash bail-out have to do: no player left
+    // running, no timer armed to start another, and hyprpaper handed back the
+    // layer it owns.
+    function teardownPlayers(): void {
         playerRespawn.stop();
         spawnDelay.stop();
         for (const player of root.players) {
@@ -151,7 +167,22 @@ Singleton {
         reaper.running = true;
         hyprpaperControl.command = ["systemctl", "--user", "start", "hyprpaper.service"];
         hyprpaperControl.running = true;
-        Qt.callLater(() => Wallpaper.refreshActive());
+    }
+
+    // hyprpaper's service needs a beat to be back on the bus before it can be
+    // asked to draw anything — the same settle Wallpaper.setSingle uses for its
+    // own video→still handoff. When that handoff is the reason we are stopping,
+    // it owns the policy (it holds the new one, which is not yet persisted) and
+    // this stays out of the way.
+    Timer {
+        id: stillHandback
+        interval: 300
+        onTriggered: {
+            if (root.active || Wallpaper.pendingStillPolicy !== null)
+                return;
+            if (!Wallpaper.applyCurrentPolicy(false))
+                Wallpaper.refreshActive();
+        }
     }
 
     // Players are created per current output set each (re)spawn, so hotplug
@@ -181,15 +212,32 @@ Singleton {
         reaper.running = true;
     }
 
+    // pkill returns when the signal is delivered, not when the process is gone,
+    // and mpvpaper takes a moment to tear its GL context down. So the reaper
+    // waits for the corpses rather than the shell guessing at how long that
+    // takes: TERM, then poll pgrep in 50ms steps, escalating to KILL halfway
+    // through and giving up after two seconds so a wedged process cannot hold
+    // the wallpaper hostage.
     Process {
         id: reaper
-        command: ["pkill", "-x", "mpvpaper"]
+        command: ["sh", "-c", `
+            pkill -x mpvpaper 2>/dev/null || true
+            step=0
+            while [ "$step" -lt 40 ]; do
+                pgrep -x mpvpaper >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+                [ "$step" -eq 20 ] && pkill -9 -x mpvpaper 2>/dev/null
+                sleep 0.05
+                step=$((step + 1))
+            done
+        `]
         onExited: spawnDelay.restart()
     }
 
+    // The reaper already waited for the old players to die, so this is only the
+    // hand-back to the event loop, not a guess at how long a kill takes.
     Timer {
         id: spawnDelay
-        interval: 300
+        interval: 50
         onTriggered: {
             if (!root.active)
                 return;
@@ -201,10 +249,37 @@ Singleton {
                 spawned.push(player);
             }
             root.players = spawned;
+            root.playersStartedAt = Date.now();
+            root.crashCounted = false;
             pauseSync.restart();
         }
     }
 
+    // A crash loop has to end somewhere. mpvpaper dying within three seconds of
+    // being spawned is not the hotplug segfault the supervisor exists for — it
+    // is a file it cannot decode or a VAAPI stack that is not there — and
+    // respawning forever flashes the desktop black once a second for as long as
+    // the session lasts, with no error anywhere to explain it.
+    property real playersStartedAt: 0
+    property int crashStreak: 0
+    // One count per spawned set: on two monitors a single crash fires two
+    // onExited, and counting each would trip the limit half a cycle early.
+    property bool crashCounted: false
+    readonly property int crashStreakLimit: 3
+    readonly property int crashWindowMs: 3000
+
+    function giveUp(): void {
+        root.path = "";
+        root.manuallyPaused = false;
+        root.crashStreak = 0;
+        // Nothing may start it again this session, not even a preference write
+        // landing in tryRestore's lap.
+        root.restoreConsumed = true;
+        root.teardownPlayers();
+        root.lastError = "Video wallpaper kept crashing — check the file and VAAPI decode";
+        stillHandback.restart();
+    }
+
     Component {
         id: playerComponent
 
@@ -213,12 +288,31 @@ Singleton {
             property string output: ""
             property bool retiring: false
             onExited: {
+                // The object is spent either way: a Process cannot be restarted
+                // and every respawn builds a fresh one per output, so holding
+                // this one leaked a Process per crash cycle.
+                root.players = root.players.filter(candidate => candidate !== player);
+                Qt.callLater(() => player.destroy());
+
+                // A retiring player died because the supervisor killed it —
+                // reacting to that is how the reap loop once ate its young.
+                if (player.retiring || !root.active)
+                    return;
+
                 // A dead player while a video is meant to be active is a
                 // crash (mpvpaper has a known hotplug segfault): respawn the
                 // whole set after a beat rather than reasoning per-output.
-                // A retiring player died because the supervisor killed it —
-                // reacting to that is how the reap loop once ate its young.
-                if (!player.retiring && root.active && !playerRespawn.running)
+                if (!root.crashCounted) {
+                    root.crashCounted = true;
+                    root.crashStreak = Date.now() - root.playersStartedAt < root.crashWindowMs
+                        ? root.crashStreak + 1
+                        : 0;
+                }
+                if (root.crashStreak >= root.crashStreakLimit) {
+                    root.giveUp();
+                    return;
+                }
+                if (!playerRespawn.running)
                     playerRespawn.restart();
             }
         }
@@ -289,7 +383,11 @@ Singleton {
     // The service restores its own video, reactively: at cold start the
     // preferences file and the mpvpaper probe both land asynchronously, so a
     // one-shot timer (the still pipeline's approach) raced them and lost.
-    // Once per session — a user's stop() is not to be overridden.
+    // Once per session, and consumed by stop() and giveUp() as well as by the
+    // restore itself: a preference write is all it takes to re-enter tryRestore,
+    // so neither a video the user turned off nor one that crashed out may come
+    // back under them. stop() also clears the stored path, so there is nothing
+    // left to restore at the next login either.
     property bool restoreConsumed: false
     // Harness seam, mirroring Wallpaper.startupRestoreEnabled: a test instance
     // must never start playing the user's real wallpaper.
diff --git a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Wallpaper.qml b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Wallpaper.qml
index f8c53da..5cbb4d3 100644
--- a/config/dot/quickshell/services/Wallpaper.qml
+++ b/config/dot/quickshell/services/Wallpaper.qml
@@ -97,8 +97,18 @@ Singleton {
             if (root.transaction === null)
                 return;
             if (exitCode !== 0) {
-                root.lastError = "Hyprpaper did not apply that background.";
                 root.transaction = null;
+                // Coming back from a video, hyprpaper's service is being
+                // started again underneath us and may not have its socket yet.
+                // That is a "not ready", not a "no", so the handoff is retried
+                // a few times before it counts as a failure.
+                if (root.pendingStillPolicy !== null
+                        && root.stillHandoffAttempts < root.stillHandoffLimit) {
+                    stillAfterVideo.restart();
+                    return;
+                }
+                root.lastError = "Hyprpaper did not apply that background.";
+                root.abandonStillHandoff();
                 root.schedulePendingHotplug();
                 return;
             }
@@ -116,6 +126,34 @@ Singleton {
         onExited: (exitCode, exitStatus) => root.finishVerification(exitCode)
     }
 
+    // `busy` is the gate on every apply path, on refreshActive and on the
+    // slideshow timer, and a transaction is the only thing that clears it. So a
+    // hyprctl that never returns does not fail a wallpaper change — it takes the
+    // whole wallpaper surface out of service for the rest of the session, with
+    // no error to say why. Nothing here is a ten-second operation.
+    Timer {
+        id: transactionWatchdog
+        interval: 10000
+        onTriggered: {
+            if (root.transaction === null)
+                return;
+            root.transaction = null;
+            root.abandonStillHandoff();
+            // Killing the stuck child is part of the release: `busy` counts the
+            // processes too, so leaving one running would keep the latch shut.
+            applyProcess.running = false;
+            verifyProcess.running = false;
+            root.lastError = "Hyprpaper stopped responding while setting that background.";
+        }
+    }
+
+    onTransactionChanged: {
+        if (root.transaction === null)
+            transactionWatchdog.stop();
+        else
+            transactionWatchdog.restart();
+    }
+
     Component.onCompleted: {
         root.rescan();
         root.refreshActive();
@@ -253,11 +291,17 @@ Singleton {
         const normalized = root.normalizePolicy(policy);
         if (normalized === null) {
             root.lastError = "That wallpaper policy is not valid.";
+            // Nothing will reach schedulePendingHotplug from here, and a flag
+            // left standing turns the next unrelated apply into a surprise
+            // hotplug reapply. The signature change that armed it will arm it
+            // again if a display really did move.
+            root.pendingHotplugReapply = false;
             return false;
         }
         const outputs = root.outputNames();
         if (outputs.length === 0) {
             root.lastError = "No display to set a wallpaper on.";
+            root.pendingHotplugReapply = false;
             return false;
         }
         const expected = WallpaperPolicy.effectiveMap(
@@ -266,6 +310,7 @@ Singleton {
         if (Object.keys(expected).length !== outputs.length
                 || Object.values(expected).some(path => path === "")) {
             root.lastError = "That wallpaper policy is not valid.";
+            root.pendingHotplugReapply = false;
             return false;
         }
         root.lastError = "";
@@ -318,6 +363,7 @@ Singleton {
         if (!matches) {
             root.lastError = "Hyprpaper did not confirm that background.";
             root.transaction = null;
+            root.abandonStillHandoff();
             root.schedulePendingHotplug();
             return;
         }
@@ -325,6 +371,7 @@ Singleton {
         const completed = root.transaction;
         root.activeByOutput = observed;
         root.transaction = null;
+        root.abandonStillHandoff();
         root.lastError = "";
         if (completed.automatic) {
             root.slideshowPath = completed.policy.slideshowPath;
@@ -413,28 +460,53 @@ Singleton {
         policy.mode = "single";
         policy.globalPath = effectivePath;
         policy.slideshowPath = effectivePath;
-        // Returning from a video: stop mpvpaper first, then give hyprpaper's
-        // service a beat to come back before the transaction talks to it.
+        // Returning from a video: stop mpvpaper first, then offer the policy to
+        // hyprpaper once its service is back, retrying while it is still coming
+        // up rather than betting on one long wait (see attemptStillHandoff).
         if (VideoWallpaper.active) {
             VideoWallpaper.stop();
             root.pendingStillPolicy = policy;
+            root.stillHandoffAttempts = 0;
             stillAfterVideo.restart();
             return true;
         }
         return root.applyPolicy(policy, true, false);
     }
 
+    // The still policy waiting for hyprpaper to come back, and how many times it
+    // has been offered to it. A single blind wait used to stand in for this: it
+    // was long enough to be felt on every switch and still short enough to lose
+    // whenever systemd was busy, and losing meant the desktop kept the video's
+    // last frame with an error in Settings and no wallpaper behind it.
     property var pendingStillPolicy: null
+    property int stillHandoffAttempts: 0
+    readonly property int stillHandoffLimit: 3
 
     Timer {
         id: stillAfterVideo
-        interval: 900
-        onTriggered: {
-            if (root.pendingStillPolicy) {
-                root.applyPolicy(root.pendingStillPolicy, true, false);
-                root.pendingStillPolicy = null;
-            }
+        interval: 300
+        onTriggered: root.attemptStillHandoff()
+    }
+
+    function attemptStillHandoff(): void {
+        if (root.pendingStillPolicy === null)
+            return;
+        // The previous attempt's verification may still be winding down.
+        if (root.busy) {
+            stillAfterVideo.restart();
+            return;
         }
+        root.stillHandoffAttempts += 1;
+        if (!root.applyPolicy(root.pendingStillPolicy, true, false)) {
+            // Rejected before hyprpaper was ever asked — retrying an invalid
+            // policy would only fail identically three more times.
+            root.abandonStillHandoff();
+        }
+    }
+
+    function abandonStillHandoff(): void {
+        root.pendingStillPolicy = null;
+        root.stillHandoffAttempts = 0;
     }
 
     function setMode(mode: string): bool {
@@ -458,6 +530,7 @@ Singleton {
             DesktopPreferences.set("videoWallpaperPath", "");
             VideoWallpaper.stop();
             root.pendingStillPolicy = policy;
+            root.stillHandoffAttempts = 0;
             stillAfterVideo.restart();
             return true;
         }
diff --git a/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-notifications b/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-notifications
index b9afd50..0314c41 100755
--- a/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-notifications
+++ b/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-notifications
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@
 # @vicinae.mode silent
 # @vicinae.icon ../../icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/panama-settings.svg
 # @vicinae.description Open Notifications & Focus in Settings.
-# @vicinae.keywords ["settings", "notification duration", "critical notification duration", "notification history", "visible banners"]
+# @vicinae.keywords ["settings", "focus modes", "notification duration", "critical notification duration", "notification history", "visible banners"]
 
 exec "$HOME/.config/quickshell/scripts/panama-action" settings-page notifications
diff --git a/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-workspaces b/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-workspaces
index 2533c15..71aadd2 100755
--- a/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-workspaces
+++ b/config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/settings-workspaces
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@
 # @vicinae.mode silent
 # @vicinae.icon ../../icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/panama-settings.svg
 # @vicinae.description Open Workspaces in Settings.
-# @vicinae.keywords ["settings", "focus modes", "focus session length", "switch back and forth", "wrap around at the ends", "let applications take focus", "hide the terminal that launched a window", "pointer changes active display"]
+# @vicinae.keywords ["settings", "focus session length", "switch back and forth", "wrap around at the ends", "let applications take focus", "hide the terminal that launched a window", "pointer changes active display"]
 
 exec "$HOME/.config/quickshell/scripts/panama-action" settings-page workspaces
diff --git a/docs/settings.md b/docs/settings.md
index 8179883..b8de58e 100644
--- a/docs/settings.md
+++ b/docs/settings.md
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ Found on **Shell › Dock**.
 | **Icon size**<br>`dockIconSize` | 48 px | How large the Dock's application icons are drawn. Range 32–80. |
 | **Reveal delay**<br>`dockRevealDelayMs` | 0 ms | Zero reveals the Dock the instant the pointer reaches the edge. Range 0–1000. |
 | **Hide delay**<br>`dockHideDelayMs` | 250 ms | Prevents flicker when crossing between icons. Range 0–2000. |
-| **Pinned applications**<br>`dockPinned` | [ | Applications that stay in the Dock whether or not they are running |
+| **Pinned applications**<br>`dockPinned` | — | Applications that stay in the Dock whether or not they are running |
 
 ## edges
 
@@ -149,12 +149,11 @@ Found on **Appearance**.
 
 ## focus
 
-Found on **Shell › Workspaces**.
+Found on **Notifications & Focus**.
 
 | Setting | Default | What it does |
 |---|---|---|
-| **Focus modes**<br>`focusModes` | [ | What quiets this machine, and what turns it on |
-| **Focus session length**<br>`focusDurationMinutes` | 45 min | How long a focus session runs before it ends itself. Range 5–180. |
+| **Focus modes**<br>`focusModes` | — | What quiets this machine, and what turns it on |
 
 ## gaming
 
@@ -409,6 +408,7 @@ Found on **Shell › Workspaces**.
 
 | Setting | Default | What it does |
 |---|---|---|
+| **Focus session length**<br>`focusDurationMinutes` | 45 min | How long a focus session runs before it ends itself. Range 5–180. |
 | **Switch back and forth**<br>`workspaceBackAndForth` `binds:workspace_back_and_forth` | false | Selecting the workspace you are already on returns you to the previous one |
 | **Wrap around at the ends**<br>`allowWorkspaceCycles` `binds:allow_workspace_cycles` | false | Moving past the last workspace continues from the first |
 | **Let applications take focus**<br>`focusOnActivate` `misc:focus_on_activate` | false | An application asking for attention is switched to, rather than only highlighted |
diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-23-settings-redesign-test-backlog.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-23-settings-redesign-test-backlog.md
index fc1ae99..285b1d8 100644
--- a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-23-settings-redesign-test-backlog.md
+++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-23-settings-redesign-test-backlog.md
@@ -345,3 +345,16 @@ re-checked against their files as those landed:
   constructs `SoundPage`, whose microphone test and channel strip are one
   IPC-less click away from `pw-play`. The harness exposes no method that
   triggers either; keep it that way.
+
+## Stabilization pass — 2026-08-24 — THE RUN HAPPENED
+
+Three read-only reviewers swept the whole redesign (37 findings), three fix
+waves applied them all, and the full suite then ran three times with Gabriel's
+go-ahead: 162/169, 168/169, then **169/169 green**. The seven interim failures
+were four suite-contention flakes (pass solo; theme-profiles hardened with a
+catalog-settle wait) and three contract bugs (display-layout's stale mirror
+expectation, osd-helper's non-atomic stub log + a set -u `local` expansion
+trap, sound-cards' jq context rebind). displays-contract and switcher-contract
+— the locked-session holdovers — both pass unlocked. Later phases append new
+deferred contracts below as before; this line is the baseline they diverge
+from.
diff --git a/setup/packages/hyprland-packages b/setup/packages/hyprland-packages
index 0d96097..2d0a3b3 100644
--- a/setup/packages/hyprland-packages
+++ b/setup/packages/hyprland-packages
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ orca
 pamixer
 # pw-dump backs the privacy indicators, pw-play the sound-test button.
 pipewire-utils
+# pactl. SoundCards.qml reads and writes card profiles with it and SoundRouting
+# moves a running stream between outputs; wireplumber's own wpctl does neither.
+pulseaudio-utils
 playerctl
 qrencode
 qt6-qtwayland
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/declared-assets-contract b/tests/quickshell/declared-assets-contract
index a7b0350..3c041f8 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/declared-assets-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/declared-assets-contract
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@ qml_package() {
         wl-copy|wl-paste)   printf 'wl-clipboard' ;;
         xdg-open)           printf 'xdg-utils' ;;
         pw-dump|pw-play)    printf 'pipewire-utils' ;;
+        pactl)              printf 'pulseaudio-utils' ;;
         *)                  printf '%s' "$1" ;;
     esac
 }
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/declared-dependencies-contract b/tests/quickshell/declared-dependencies-contract
index 6b6bafe..5c34593 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/declared-dependencies-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/declared-dependencies-contract
@@ -83,6 +83,8 @@ package_for() {
         getenforce)     printf 'libselinux-utils' ;;
         nmcli)          printf 'NetworkManager' ;;
         wpctl)          printf 'wireplumber' ;;
+        pw-play)        printf 'pipewire-utils' ;;
+        pactl)          printf 'pulseaudio-utils' ;;
         nvim)           printf 'neovim' ;;
         fwupdmgr)       printf 'fwupd' ;;
         dnf4)           printf 'python3-dnf' ;;
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/display-layout-contract b/tests/quickshell/display-layout-contract
index 229ad68..08ba88e 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/display-layout-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/display-layout-contract
@@ -61,14 +61,15 @@ jq -e 'all(. == false)' <<<"$invalid" >/dev/null || fail "an invalid layout was
 # canvas draws it on top of what it mirrors rather than at stale coordinates.
 mirror="$(qs_for_harness ipc call display-layout-test mirror)"
 #
-# The mirrored record keeps the coordinates it was stored with -- normalize
-# shifts everything by the primary's anchor, and applying that to a position
-# nothing reads back would be arithmetic for its own sake. It contributes
-# nothing to the bounds, so the desktop measures 3000 x 2000: one display.
+# The mirrored record is given its target's normalized position -- its stored
+# coordinates stopped meaning anything the moment mirroring was turned on, and
+# the compositor chooses the real ones. Keeping a stale pair would still draw
+# it somewhere false on the canvas. It contributes nothing to the bounds, so
+# the desktop measures 3000 x 2000: one display.
 jq -e '.valid == true
     and .normalized == [
       {"name":"DP-2","x":0,"y":0,"primary":true,"mirrorOf":""},
-      {"name":"HDMI-A-1","x":3140,"y":80,"primary":false,"mirrorOf":"DP-2"}]
+      {"name":"HDMI-A-1","x":0,"y":0,"primary":false,"mirrorOf":"DP-2"}]
     and .bounds == {"x":0,"y":0,"width":3000,"height":2000}
     and (.rects | length) == 2
     and .rects[1].mirrorOf == "DP-2" and .rects[1].mirrored == true
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/osd-helper-contract b/tests/quickshell/osd-helper-contract
index 0bb9e77..6cee9fe 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/osd-helper-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/osd-helper-contract
@@ -12,9 +12,10 @@ log="$scratch/calls"
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/wpctl" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'wpctl' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='wpctl'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 if [[ $1 == "get-volume" ]]; then
     printf '%s\n' "${WPCTL_OUTPUT:-Volume: 0.58}"
 fi
@@ -22,9 +23,10 @@ SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/brightnessctl" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'brightnessctl' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='brightnessctl'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 if [[ " $* " == *" -m "* && " $* " != *" set "* ]]; then
     [[ ${BACKLIGHT_AVAILABLE:-true} == true ]] || exit 1
     printf '%s\n' "${BRIGHTNESS_OUTPUT:-intel_backlight,backlight,500,50%,1000}"
@@ -33,9 +35,10 @@ SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/panama-brightness" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'panama-brightness' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='panama-brightness'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 
 case "${1:-}" in
     list)
@@ -69,24 +72,27 @@ SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/hyprctl" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'hyprctl' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='hyprctl'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 printf '[{"name":"%s","focused":true}]\n' "${FOCUSED_MONITOR:-DP-2}"
 SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/notify-send" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'notify-send' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='notify-send'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/playerctl" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'playerctl' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='playerctl'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 if [[ $1 == "metadata" ]]; then
     printf '%s\n' "${PLAYER_OUTPUT:-Horizon — Tycho}"
 elif [[ $1 == "status" ]]; then
@@ -96,16 +102,18 @@ SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/pw-play" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'pw-play' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='pw-play'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 SH
 
 cat >"$scratch/bin/qs" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
-printf 'qs' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf ' <%s>' "$@" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
-printf '\n' >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
+# One atomic append per call: the blip's pw-play runs in the background
+# and a multi-write log line would interleave with the next stub's.
+line='qs'; for a in "$@"; do line+=" <$a>"; done
+printf '%s\n' "$line" >>"$OSD_TEST_LOG"
 [[ ${OSD_TEST_FAIL_QS:-false} != true ]]
 SH
 
@@ -123,7 +131,12 @@ mkdir -p "$scratch/config-default"
 # is what a fresh install looks like: the helper must fall back to the schema
 # defaults rather than treating an absent file as an error.
 settings_root() {
-    local name="$1" body="${2:-}" root="$scratch/config-$name"
+    # Three separate statements on purpose: bash expands every word of one
+    # `local` command before performing any of its assignments, so $name in
+    # the third RHS would be unbound (set -u) if these shared a line.
+    local name="$1"
+    local body="${2:-}"
+    local root="$scratch/config-$name"
     rm -rf "$root"
     mkdir -p "$root/panama"
     [[ -n "$body" ]] && printf '%s\n' "$body" >"$root/panama/settings.json"
@@ -202,10 +215,10 @@ assert_line 'wpctl <set-mute> <@DEFAULT_AUDIO_SOURCE@> <toggle>'
 assert_line 'qs <ipc> <call> <osd> <progress> <microphone-muted> <72> <100> <Muted>'
 
 # ── Over-amplification: the ceiling is a setting, not a constant ─────────────
-# `wpctl set-volume` clamps to 1.0 unless told otherwise, and it clamps the
-# *result* -- so the limit has to be on the down step too. Without it, coming
-# down from 130% would snap to 100% instead of stepping to 124%, which reads as
-# the slider jumping on its own.
+# `-l` caps the *result*, and without it wpctl caps nothing -- 100% is not a
+# ceiling it enforces on its own. The limit is on the down step for that reason:
+# with over-amplification off, stepping down from a volume already above 100%
+# has to land under the ceiling rather than merely one step lower.
 : >"$log"
 OSD_CONFIG_HOME="$(settings_root overamp '{"overAmplification": true}')" \
     run_helper volume up 6
@@ -245,6 +258,11 @@ assert_line 'qs <ipc> <call> <osd> <progress> <volume> <58> <100> <58%>'
 # ── The volume blip ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Default on, per the schema, so a settings.json that has never been written
 # still clicks. Fire-and-forget: the blip must never gate the OSD.
+#
+# Each case below awaits its own click before the next one starts, which is also
+# what keeps them independent: the helper takes a non-blocking lock in its
+# runtime directory so a held-down volume key clicks once rather than stacking
+# one pw-play per repeat, and a click still sounding would suppress the next.
 : >"$log"
 run_helper volume up 6
 await_line "pw-play <$blip_sound>"
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/sound-cards-contract b/tests/quickshell/sound-cards-contract
index 712c59e..f067ab7 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/sound-cards-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/sound-cards-contract
@@ -260,8 +260,9 @@ jq -e '.cards[0].name == "alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3"
 # Profiles become an ordered list. An object has no order, and a dropdown does.
 jq -e '.cards[0].profiles | type == "array"' >/dev/null <<<"$state" \
     || fail "profiles are still keyed by name, so the dropdown has no order: $state"
-jq -e '(.cards[0].profiles | map(.name)) | index("output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo") != null
-    and (.cards[0].profiles | map(.name) | index("output:hdmi-stereo")) != null' \
+jq -e '(.cards[0].profiles | map(.name)) as $names
+    | ($names | index("output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo")) != null
+    and ($names | index("output:hdmi-stereo")) != null' \
     >/dev/null <<<"$state" || fail "a profile pactl reported went missing: $state"
 jq -e '(.cards[0].profiles[] | select(.name == "output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo") | .description)
         == "Analog Stereo Duplex"' >/dev/null <<<"$state" \
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/theme-profiles-contract b/tests/quickshell/theme-profiles-contract
index 509674c..81195c4 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/theme-profiles-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/theme-profiles-contract
@@ -100,14 +100,19 @@ const free = model.createCustomProfile([], {
 })
 assert.equal(free.profile.name, 'Nord')
 assert.equal(free.profile.id, 'custom-nord')
-// A stored custom colliding with a catalog name is dropped; the same record
-// against the three-entry fallback is kept, because there "Nord" is free.
+// A stored custom colliding with a catalog name is RENAMED, never dropped —
+// upgrades that add shipped themes must not delete a user's saved theme. The
+// same record against the three-entry fallback keeps its name, because there
+// "Nord" is free. Ids stay the identity either way.
 const impostor = {
   id: 'custom-nord', name: 'Nord', scheme: 'dark',
   accent: '#88c0d0', secondary: '#81a1c1', shipped: false
 }
-assert.equal(model.validCustomProfiles([impostor], shippedCatalog).length, 0)
-assert.equal(model.validCustomProfiles([impostor]).length, 1)
+const renamed = model.validCustomProfiles([impostor], shippedCatalog)
+assert.equal(renamed.length, 1)
+assert.equal(renamed[0].id, 'custom-nord')
+assert.equal(renamed[0].name, 'Nord 2')
+assert.equal(model.validCustomProfiles([impostor])[0].name, 'Nord')
 
 // ── createCustomProfile carries the optional fields through ─────────────────
 const rich = model.createCustomProfile([], {
@@ -287,7 +292,7 @@ cleanup() {
 trap cleanup EXIT
 
 qs_for_test --daemonize >/dev/null
-for _ in $(seq 1 40); do
+for _ in $(seq 1 100); do
     qs_for_test ipc show 2>/dev/null | rg -q '^target theme-profiles-test$' && break
     sleep 0.1
 done
@@ -297,8 +302,16 @@ qs_for_test ipc show 2>/dev/null | rg -q '^target theme-profiles-test$' \
 status() { qs_for_test ipc call theme-profiles-test status; }
 
 # The catalog is live here, so the profile list is the ten shipped themes, not
-# the three-entry pre-load fallback.
-jq -e '.active.id == "moon" and (.profiles | length) == 10' <<<"$(status)" >/dev/null
+# the three-entry pre-load fallback. The catalog arrives through an async
+# FileView read, so under a loaded machine (the full suite) it can land a
+# beat after the IPC target does -- wait for it rather than asserting the
+# race.
+for _ in $(seq 1 50); do
+    jq -e '(.profiles | length) == 10' <<<"$(status)" >/dev/null 2>&1 && break
+    sleep 0.1
+done
+jq -e '.active.id == "moon" and (.profiles | length) == 10' <<<"$(status)" >/dev/null \
+    || { printf 'theme profiles contract: catalog never loaded ten themes: %s\n' "$(status)" >&2; exit 1; }
 
 # ── A scheme flip lands on the remembered theme for that side ───────────────
 # This is the whole point of themeDark/themeLight. Before them, flipping to
diff --git a/tests/quickshell/video-wallpaper-contract b/tests/quickshell/video-wallpaper-contract
index 67063bb..d9e2c56 100755
--- a/tests/quickshell/video-wallpaper-contract
+++ b/tests/quickshell/video-wallpaper-contract
@@ -130,8 +130,10 @@ rg -Fq '["systemctl", "--user", "stop", "hyprpaper.service"]' "$service" \
     || fail 'starting a video does not stop hyprpaper, so the two race for the layer'
 rg -Fq '["systemctl", "--user", "start", "hyprpaper.service"]' "$service" \
     || fail 'stopping a video does not bring hyprpaper back'
+rg -Fq 'Wallpaper.applyCurrentPolicy(' "$service" \
+    || fail 'the still policy is not reapplied once hyprpaper returns'
 rg -Fq 'Wallpaper.refreshActive()' "$service" \
-    || fail 'the still wallpaper is not reapplied once hyprpaper returns'
+    || fail 'the fallback readback of hyprpaper state is gone'
 
 # Wallpaper.qml routes a video away from the hyprpaper transaction, which would
 # only fail validation, and gives hyprpaper a beat to come back on the way out.