Document the settings vocabulary and its traps

Records how to add a setting -- one schema entry -- and the failure
modes found building the pages. Every one of them fails silently rather
than loudly, which is why they are worth writing down: a wrong readAs
makes successful writes look rejected, hyprpaper accepts an all-outputs
wallpaper request and ignores it, and a copy of the Quickshell config
shares the live shell's ID so an "isolated" harness can kill the running
desktop.

Also documents the two generated configurations and why they are
generated: ~/.config/hypr is a symlink into this repository, so writing
there at runtime would commit machine state to a tracked file.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BRvzt4H8XXLPVH5MyYdk9L

config/dot/hypr/README.md

@@ -44,6 +44,30 @@ Validate any change without leaving your session:
 Hyprland --verify-config
 ```
 
+## Generated configuration
+
+Two ecosystem tools cannot read the shared settings file, and their configs live
+in this directory — which is a symlink into the Panama repository, so writing to
+them at runtime would put machine state into a tracked file. Both are therefore
+generated elsewhere:
+
+| Tool | Generated to | Pointed there by |
+|---|---|---|
+| `hypridle` | `$XDG_STATE_HOME/panama/hypridle.conf` | a systemd user drop-in installed by `panama-idle install` |
+| `hyprpaper` | not generated — the wallpaper is applied over IPC and re-applied at shell start | — |
+
+`quickshell/scripts/panama-idle` regenerates the hypridle config from the
+settings store and restarts the daemon. `hypridle.conf` in this directory
+remains the shipped default and is what runs when the drop-in is not installed;
+Panama Settings shows which of the two states you are in rather than presenting
+controls that quietly do nothing.
+
+Remove the drop-in and go back to the shipped config with:
+
+```sh
+~/.config/quickshell/scripts/panama-idle remove
+```
+
 ## Settings: one file, both sides
 
 `~/.config/panama/settings.json` is shared with the Quickshell side. The
@@ -67,6 +91,29 @@ wrong-typed settings file costs you your customisations and nothing else;
 `tests/hypr/prefs-fallback-contract.sh` pins that, including that Hyprland still
 accepts the config in each of those states.
 
+### Adding a keybind: use `bind`, not `hl.bind`
+
+Every bind in `keybinds.lua` goes through a local `bind()` wrapper that
+substitutes the chord from a stored override, so shortcuts can be moved from
+Panama Settings without editing this file.
+
+```lua
+bind(mod .. " + Q", hl.dsp.window.close(), { description = "Close window" })
+```
+
+Only the **chord** is ever taken from settings — the action is always the Lua
+value written here. A stored override can therefore move a shortcut but can
+never make one do something else, which is what makes reading overrides from a
+file the user can edit safe.
+
+Overrides are keyed by the **shipped chord**, not the description. Descriptions
+are not unique: "Calculator" is both `SUPER + C` and the `XF86Calculator`
+hardware key, and keying by description moved both onto the same new chord,
+silently costing the hardware key.
+
+An override whose value is not a plausible chord is ignored in favour of the
+shipped one, so a hand-edited `settings.json` cannot cost you a keymap.
+
 ### Keybind descriptions are required
 
 Every `hl.bind` must pass a `description`. Hyprland reports Lua-defined binds

config/dot/quickshell/modules/settings/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+# Panama Settings
+
+The control centre for everything Panama owns. Anything the system owns —
+hardware, accounts, printers — is delegated to GNOME Settings and labelled as
+such rather than half-reimplemented.
+
+## Adding a setting
+
+One schema entry. That is the whole job.
+
+```qml
+// config/PreferenceSchema.qml
+{
+    key: "blurSize", type: "int", def: 8, min: 1, max: 20, step: 1,
+    unit: "px", group: "effects",
+    label: "Blur radius",
+    detail: "Larger is softer and costs more frame time",
+    hypr: { path: ["decoration", "blur", "size"], option: "decoration:blur:size", readAs: "int" }
+}
+```
+
+```qml
+// the page
+SliderRow { setting: "blurSize" }
+```
+
+Persistence, validation, clamping, reset, search indexing, and — with a `hypr`
+block — live application to the compositor and the startup replay all derive
+from that entry. There is nothing else to register.
+
+If it is compositor-backed, add the matching `prefs.get("blurSize", 8)` in
+`hypr/looks.lua` so the Hyprland config still stands alone with no settings
+file.
+
+## The rows
+
+| Component | For |
+|---|---|
+| `SettingsPage` | The page scaffold: title, lede, optional pinned `header` |
+| `ToggleRow { setting }` | A boolean |
+| `SliderRow { setting }` | A number; `zeroLabel` renders 0 as "Never"/"Instant"/"None" |
+| `ChoiceRow { setting }` | An enum, as a segmented control |
+| `ActionRow` | A button: opens a GNOME panel, runs a one-shot |
+| `TextRow` | A genuinely read-only fact |
+
+`TextRow` is for facts, not for settings that were merely expensive to wire.
+Before Stage 3 more than half of all rows were static text standing in for
+controls; that is the failure this vocabulary exists to prevent.
+
+Rows write through `SystemSettings.commitPreference(key, value)`, which routes
+compositor-backed keys through apply-and-verify and local keys straight to the
+store. A row never needs to know which kind it holds.
+
+## Things that will bite you
+
+**`readAs` describes the answer, not the setting.** `hyprctl getoption` returns
+the value in a different JSON field per type — `int`, `bool`, `float`, `str`,
+and `css` for gaps (a four-value box). Declaring the wrong one does not fail
+loudly: it makes every write to that key look *rejected*, and the user sees an
+error for a change that worked. `tests/quickshell/schema-hypr-shape-contract.sh`
+asks the compositor for the real shape of every mapped option.
+
+**Never trust an exit code from `hyprctl`.** `keyword` refuses to work on a
+Lua-configured Hyprland, prints the refusal to stdout, and exits 0. `eval` exits
+0 on syntax and runtime errors too. The only trustworthy signal that a write
+landed is reading the value back.
+
+**The Settings window is tiled.** `implicitWidth` is a hint; the layout decides,
+and it ranges from a half-screen split to the full display. `SliderRow` stacks
+its control under the label below 520px. Test narrow.
+
+**Binding an anchor to `undefined` does not reliably release it.** Switching
+layouts that way left a slider anchored to both edges with the label squeezed
+into what was left. Position explicitly instead.
+
+**Inside a `SettingsCard`, `parent` is the card's internal Column.** So
+`parent.modelData` in a nested `Repeater` is undefined and the rows silently
+never appear — you get a card with a heading and nothing under it. Address the
+outer model through an explicit `id`.
+
+**A `TapHandler` declared as a child of `SettingRow` lands in the trailing
+slot**, because that is the row's default property, so only the right-hand edge
+becomes clickable. Use `activatable: true` with `onActivated` for a whole-row
+target.
+
+**A copy of the Quickshell config shares the live shell's ID.** Quickshell
+derives the Shell ID from config *content*, not path, so
+`cp -a config/dot/quickshell $tmp && qs -p $tmp kill` kills the running
+desktop, and `qs -p $tmp ipc call …` can drive it. Harnesses that point at a
+single distinct `.qml` file are safe; copying the whole directory is not.
+
+## Where state lives
+
+| File | Holds |
+|---|---|
+| `~/.config/panama/settings.json` | Everything in the schema. Read by the shell *and* by `hypr/prefs.lua` |
+| `$XDG_STATE_HOME/panama/panama-home.json` | Home accessory favourites and aliases |
+| `$XDG_STATE_HOME/panama/backups/` | Settings snapshots |
+| `$XDG_STATE_HOME/panama/hypridle.conf` | Generated idle config |
+
+`SystemSettings.restoreDefaults()` spans all of them. A reset that silently
+skipped one would be worse than having no reset, because nothing would say so.
+
+## Not stored by Panama
+
+Timezone and network time are read from and written to `timedatectl` directly.
+They belong to the machine and are shared with sessions that never see Panama's
+file; storing a copy would create a second answer to a question the system
+already answers.

docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-17-panama-cohesion.md

@@ -285,3 +285,64 @@ can run in parallel with it.
 
 Nothing here is committed yet; `main` has 20+ uncommitted paths from prior work
 that should get a restore point before Stage 1 begins.
+
+---
+
+## Stage 5 — Replace GNOME Settings for what Panama owns
+
+Not in the original plan. Added after the settings vocabulary made new pages
+cheap enough that the limiting factor stopped being effort and started being
+scope. Built jointly with the codex agent, which took default applications, the
+page migrations, and the remaining hardcoded values.
+
+- [x] **Wallpaper** — thumbnail grid, applied over hyprpaper IPC.
+- [x] **Power & Lock** — screen blank, lock, suspend, lock-before-sleep.
+- [x] **Date & Time** — timezone and network time via `timedatectl`.
+- [x] **Accessibility** — pointer size, text scale, motion, contrast.
+- [x] **Search that indexes settings**, not page names.
+- [x] **Editable Dock** — reorder, unpin, add.
+- [x] **Settings snapshots** — save, list, restore.
+- [x] **Rebindable shortcuts.**
+- [ ] Displays: resolution, refresh rate, scale, rotation.
+- [ ] Per-application notification rules.
+- [ ] Window rules (float/tile/workspace) as a page.
+
+**Landed.** Each of these turned up something the compositor or its tools do
+differently than documented, and in every case the failure mode was silence
+rather than an error:
+
+* **hyprpaper 0.8 ignores the "all outputs" form.** `<empty>,<path>` is accepted
+  and does nothing, so a wallpaper set that way appears to succeed and never
+  changes. Its IPC is also much smaller than older versions suggest — `preload`,
+  `listloaded`, `unload`, and `reload` all answer "invalid hyprpaper request".
+* **`cursor:inactive_timeout` is answered as `float`, not `int`.** A wrong
+  `readAs` does not fail loudly; it makes every write to that key look rejected,
+  and the user sees an error for a change that worked.
+* **Snapshot filenames collided at one-second resolution.** A save followed
+  promptly by a restore produced the same name twice, and the restore's own
+  safety snapshot overwrote the file it was about to read. Found by the
+  contract, which restores immediately after saving.
+* **Keying bind overrides by description moved every bind sharing one.**
+  Rebinding `SUPER+C` also dragged `XF86Calculator` onto the same chord.
+  Descriptions are not unique; chords are.
+* **The GNOME delegation allow-list named a panel that does not exist.**
+  `users` is not in `gnome-control-center --list`, so that button opened
+  nothing.
+* **A copy of the Quickshell config shares the live shell's ID.** Quickshell
+  derives it from content rather than path, so an "isolated" harness built by
+  copying the config directory can kill or drive the running desktop. This took
+  the live shell down twice during development. Harnesses pointing at a single
+  distinct `.qml` file are unaffected.
+
+Two configurations are now generated rather than edited, because `~/.config/hypr`
+is a symlink into this repository and writing there at runtime would put machine
+state into a tracked file: hypridle's config, into `XDG_STATE_HOME` with a
+systemd drop-in pointing at it, and the wallpaper, which is applied over IPC and
+re-applied at shell start instead of being written into `hyprpaper.conf`.
+
+The schema gained a `json` type for structured values — the dock's pinned list
+and the keybind overrides — so they live in the one settings file and are
+covered by the one reset, rather than each growing a preference store of its
+own. `restoreDefaults()` spans every store Panama owns, including the Home
+accessory arrangement, which it reaches through that service's existing public
+aliases rather than an API added for the purpose.