Panama/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-19-desktop-integration.md

# Desktop integration: the parts an OS owns that we still hand to someone else

Written 2026-08-19, after the default-applications work landed.

Settings is now a superpowered control panel, and files open in the right
applications. What remains are the jobs a desktop environment is expected to own
but that this one currently delegates, ignores, or leaves to whatever GNOME
component happens to be installed.

Six items, ordered so each one is useful the day it lands rather than only at the
end. Effort labels are relative to each other, not to the clock.

## What the probe found

Two of these are far cheaper than assumed:

- **`sushi` 50 is already installed** and owns `org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer`, so
  Quick Look is a wiring-and-declaring job, not a build.
- **Vicinae script commands already exist and are repo-managed**
  (`config/local/share/vicinae/scripts/panama/`, linked by
  `setup/scripts/link-vicinae-scripts`), so launcher search is a generator on top
  of a mechanism that works.

And two need software this machine does not have: `restic` (backups) is not
installed, and nothing enumerates the keyring beyond lock state.

---

## Phase 1 — Finish the file-opening story (small)

Curating defaults only helps if the applications are actually present. A fresh
install seeds `org.gnome.Loupe`, `org.gnome.Papers` and `org.gnome.Decibels`
only when they exist; otherwise it correctly leaves the role alone and the
machine falls back to installation order — the exact problem we just fixed.

- Declare Loupe, Papers, Decibels, Nautilus, mpv and sushi so a fresh machine
  actually has what seeding prefers.
- Wire preview.
- Extend the family contract to assert every preferred handler is a declared
  package.

**Done when** a fresh machine gets the same handlers this one has, and the
contract fails loudly if a curated application is not a declared dependency.

**Landed 2026-08-19.** The previewer answers on `org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer2`,
not the `NautilusPreviewer` interface its bus name suggests, and it opened
*tiled* -- shoving the file manager aside for something meant to be an overlay
-- so it now has a float-and-center window rule. No compositor keybind: the
selection to preview lives in the file manager, and nothing outside it knows
what is selected. `xdg-utils` and `desktop-file-utils` were also undeclared,
which the dependency contract caught the moment seeding started calling them.

## Phase 2 — Make GTK applications wear our accent (small)

The named accents theme our own surfaces; Loupe, Papers, Nautilus and every other
libadwaita application still render in GNOME blue. GNOME exposes
`org.gnome.desktop.interface accent-color` as an enum (blue, teal, green,
yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, slate).

- Give each named accent a nearest-GNOME-enum member in `Theme.qml`, beside the
  dark/light pair it already carries.
- Apply it alongside the existing GTK theme write, so one accent change moves
  both worlds.
- Contract: every named accent maps to a member the enum actually publishes,
  read from `gsettings range` rather than a hardcoded list.

**Done when** switching accent visibly recolors Papers and Nautilus.

## Phase 3 — Disks and storage (medium)

There is no way to see what is using the disk, and removable media is handled by
`udiskie` in the tray with no surface in Settings. `udisks2` is installed.

- Helper `panama-disks`: JSON snapshot of filesystems, sizes, usage, mount
  points, removable devices, and SMART health where the device exposes it.
- Page: usage bars per filesystem, removable devices with mount / unmount /
  eject, and "open in Files".
- **Deliberately out of scope: partitioning and formatting.** A settings pane is
  the wrong place to hand someone a way to erase a disk in two clicks; that stays
  with GNOME Disks, which we can launch.

**Done when** the page answers "what is filling my drive" and "is it safe to pull
this USB stick out".

## Phase 4 — Launcher-native settings search (small)

Settings has a search index. The launcher has script commands. They do not know
about each other, so finding a setting means opening Settings first.

- Generate one script command per settings page from the same schema that feeds
  in-app search, with the page's keywords, so typing "night light" in the
  launcher opens that page directly.
- Generator gets a `--check` staleness mode, matching `panama-settings-docs`.
- Contract: every page has a command, every command resolves to a real page.

**Done when** the launcher is the fastest way to reach any setting.

**Landed 2026-08-19.** The product prefix is gone from all eighteen hand-written
commands. The nineteen generated ones are titled "Settings: <page>" -- not
branding, which was the thing being dropped, but a qualifier: a bare page label
collides with the feature of the same name ("Screen Intelligence" is both a thing
you open and a page about it), and two commands sharing a title are
indistinguishable in a launcher.

Six pages turned out to have no search vocabulary at all -- sound, privacy,
region, accounts, home-phone, about -- because their contents come from the
system rather than our schema. That was an in-app search gap too: "volume" found
nothing in Settings either. They now carry entries, so both surfaces improved.

## Phase 5 — Keychain and secrets (medium, security-sensitive)

`panama-keyring` knows whether the keyring is locked and can unlock it. Nothing
can see what is *in* it, so managing a stored credential means installing
Seahorse.

- Extend the helper to enumerate collections and items through libsecret,
  returning **attributes and labels only**.
- Page: unlock state, lock/unlock, items grouped by collection, delete, change
  password.
- Rules that are non-negotiable and get their own contracts: a secret value never
  appears in a snapshot, never reaches a command line (argv is world-readable via
  `/proc`), never lands in a log or an error message, and is revealed only on an
  explicit per-item request.

**Done when** a stored password can be found, inspected and removed without
leaving Settings, and the contracts prove no value leaks on the way.

## Phase 6 — Backups (large, staged)

The one genuinely missing safety net. `restic` is not installed.

- **6a** — destination and repository setup, plus a manual snapshot. Repository
  password lives in the keyring (which is why this follows phase 5), never in the
  repo and never on argv.
- **6b** — a systemd user timer, with the page showing schedule, last run, and
  failures.
- **6c** — restore: browse a snapshot and copy files out.

Blast radius: writes to a destination the user chooses. Nothing in this phase
modifies or deletes existing data; restore copies out rather than over.

**Done when** losing the home directory is an inconvenience rather than a
catastrophe.

---

## Order and reasoning

Phases 1 and 2 finish work already in flight and are visible immediately. Phase 3
is self-contained and answers a question people actually ask. Phase 4 is small
but changes daily habit. Phase 5 must precede 6 because 6 needs somewhere safe to
keep a repository password. Phase 6 is the largest and is staged so each part
stands alone.