Two conflicts, both resolved to trunk, both proven content-free for the running
machine before the merge was committed:
- `agent/APPEND_SYSTEM.md` — the checkout's dirty copy and trunk differ in one line
only: #61's trim of the duplicated one-log reasoning, replaced by the owner pointer.
The doctrine text itself is byte-identical on both sides.
- `desk-1-home.kdl` — non-comment lines are byte-identical (`diff` on the stripped
file: no output), so the deployed modes are unchanged: `3440x1440@180.000` ×3 and
`1920x1080@60.001`. What changes is the comment: trunk's carries the measured mode
list (`3440x1440@239.998` exists), the reason 180 is deliberate, and the verbatim
mode-string law — the live copy still asserted "no 240 Hz mode exists", which the
panel contradicts. `niri validate` on the assembled config: valid.
Deployment state after this: the checkout is main, and `agent/memories/**` +
`agent/managed-skills/**` were committed by the heartbeat commit underneath. Refs #60#62
Landing blocker for #61 and #63: the deployment checkout is 12 commits behind and
`merge --ff-only` refuses while tracked paths are dirty. Discard is not available here
(workspace policy: no `checkout`/`stash` on shared state), so the dirt is committed.
- `agent/APPEND_SYSTEM.md`: the point-of-use / one-work-log / PR-link doctrine, already
byte-identical to `origin/main` (`cmp` against the trunk blob: no difference). No new
prose — the commit exists so the trunk merge can proceed.
- `agent/config.yml` and `agent/managed-skills/**`: the machine-live tier the heartbeat
owns (AGENTS.md § Live-sync tiers).
`ALLOW_SECRETS=1` was used, deliberately and after auditing the staged diff by hand: the
only credential-shaped strings in it are two copies of `AKIA0000000000000EXAMPLE` — the
inert all-zero AWS example id — and they appear inside the two skill pages that teach
that exact placeholder shape. This checkout is still running the pre-#61 hook; the merged
gate (value-scoped placeholder filter, `71601f7`) exempts this value, so the refusal
dies with this landing. No `--no-verify` was used: the gate ran and its verdict is
recorded here.
Refs #61
The page asserted the Sceptre M34's EDID tops out at 180 Hz. Measured on blankpad
after the merge, `niri msg outputs` lists 3440x1440@239.998 — the claim was false
in main, and it was load-bearing: it is the reason nobody questioned the profile
while the panel ran at 60 Hz for weeks. The real defect was one character: the
profile asked for 239.999, the panel offers 239.998, and niri matches mode strings
verbatim, falling back to *preferred* without failing.
Corrected to the measured mode list, and the deployed 180 is now documented as a
deliberate choice (the link is trained at x8 32.0 GT/s against a max of x16 and the
display engine throws EINVAL), so the next reader neither "restores 240" blind nor
re-pins 180 as a hardware ceiling. The kdl profile comment carries the same facts at
the point of edit, because that is where the next change to this mode gets typed.
Refs #60
Measured fixes, one line each, from the review of everything that landed on
2026-10-20 (issue #60). Each page keeps its own facts; nothing was moved.
- inventory/index, index: the census blurb says what the page actually covers
(tracked-vs-box-only per file), not "all userspace configuration"
- dotfiles-deploy: the wallpaper re-fetch recipe resolves the CDN URL through
the wallhaven API — /w/<id> answers text/html, so curl -L never yields a
JPEG; description widened to the whole page, tools/index blurb matched
- okf-maintenance: the link example and the mistake bullet now agree with
okf-spec, which RECOMMENDS absolute bundle paths (they said the opposite)
- decisions/index: the unlisted-page gate is kb-coverage.py, not kb-lint
- AGENTS.md: the three skill-config subsections are pointers again; the pages
own issue tracker, labels and domain docs
- swayidle-lock.service: Description names what the unit does (arms the idle
lock over noctalia-shell IPC); suspend belongs to noctalia's inhibitor
- common.pkgs: git-lfs re-justified by the tracked .gitattributes filter
contract; the swayidle comment drops its lid-policy claim
desk-1-home.kdl asked the Sceptre M34 for 3440x1440@239.999, a mode the panel
has never offered. niri does not reject an unavailable mode: it logs "configured
mode ... could not be found, falling back to preferred" and drives the EDID
preferred mode - 60 Hz - on every connector event, which is why the monitor
looked like it was dying rather than misconfigured. Read live with
`niri msg outputs`, the mode list tops out at 180.
Also destroys the copies of the phantom number: displays.md carried 239.999 in
its diagram, its panel table and its copy-paste pattern block, and its rule 4
claimed an impossible mode leaves the output dark. Rule 4 now states the real
failure mode, a new section separates config / DP-link / amdgpu-driver faults by
log signature, and wlr-randr is corrected to not-installed (three pages claimed
it; `pacman -Qs wlr` matches nothing).
Applied live with `niri msg output <panel> mode <mode>` - the temporary
per-output path, so no config reload and no logged-out session - verified at
3440x1440 @ 180.000 Hz with the compositor PID unchanged.
Refs #58
`swayidle-lock.service` was `enabled`, in `default.target.wants/`, and **dead for eight days**:
Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2026-10-12 16:22:23 PDT; 1 week 1 day ago
Duration: 2d 21h 57min Main PID: 3181 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Result=success NRestarts=0
`Restart=on-failure` cannot see a clean exit, and `swayidle -w` exits 0 on SIGTERM. So the
watcher that owns both the 5-minute idle lock and the `before-sleep` lock stopped existing, and
nothing on the box noticed. The consequence is not cosmetic: with `HandleLidSwitch=suspend` and
`HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=""` (which falls back to it), **closing the lid suspended the
machine unlocked**, because the hook that locks on sleep lived inside the unit that had died. No
alternative was running: `pgrep -c -u blankpad 'swayidle|swaylock|hyprlock|gtklock'` = 0, and
neither `autostart.kdl` launches a locker.
Three settings, each with a job:
- `Restart=always` — a supervisor must not assume it can only die badly.
- `StartLimitIntervalSec=0` — with `always`, a fast loop must never wedge the unit into `failed`;
a lock that keeps trying beats a lock that stopped trying.
- `PartOf=graphical-session.target` — it is wanted by `default.target`, so a session restart
brought the target back without it; now the watcher is restarted with the session.
What triggered the 16:22 exit is **unattributed**: the user journal has no entries in that window,
so all that can be said is that swayidle exited with status 0 — precisely what the old policy was
blind to. The fix does not depend on knowing the trigger, which is the point.
Verification is behavioural, per the law recorded with it: start the unit, `kill -TERM` the main
PID, and watch `NRestarts` increment with a new `MainPID` — the October event, survived. Not
performed here: starting it arms a 5-minute idle lock on a machine that has gone a week without
one, and that is Frank's call. `systemd-analyze --user verify` clean, `bats tests/` 71/71,
`kb-lint.sh omp-docs` 0, `kb-coverage.py` 0.
Refs #47
`sync` on a box with a live session on it was unsafe in two independent ways, found by
preflighting the run rather than performing it. Refs #44.
**`enable --now` would have armed a screen lock mid-session.** The unit loop started every
`systemd-user/` unit whose `ExecStart` resolves. `swayidle-lock.service` on blankpad is
`enabled`/`inactive` — nothing started it, no swayidle process exists, `autostart.kdl` does
not launch one — so one `deploy.sh` would have begun blanking and locking the monitors while
the operator was mid-sentence. `live-sync.service` is `linked`, driven by its timer, and
`--now` forces a heartbeat commit at an arbitrary moment. A unit is now started only when
systemd reports it as nothing-yet (`""`/`disabled`), which is precisely a fresh box; anything
already installed is merely `enable`d. The state has to come from the **printed state**:
`is-enabled` exits 1 for `linked` exactly as for `disabled`, so exit status cannot
distinguish "installed, timer-driven" from "never installed" — the first version of this fix
got that wrong and the test caught it.
**`--check` output was being read as more than it can mean.** It prints `RELINK` for every
path the `zz` tier carries, even when the live link already points at the override
(`rules.kdl`, `keybinds.kdl`, `misc.kdl`, `autostart.kdl`, `.zshrc` all did on blankpad),
because the walk visits the base package first and reports the intermediate owner change.
The sentence committed in #43 — RELINK noise is "the sound of a stale override waiting" — is
too strong and is corrected: the line proves a pending change only when `readlink` shows the
live target is not already the `zz-$HOST` file, and `actions=0` is the honest summary. The
stale-override hazard #43 removed was and is real; the signal for it is the target, not the line.
**The dconf dump carried six of its 24 keys from another box**, none of them preferences:
a Firefox file-chooser `last-folder-path` of `/home/dank/Downloads`, a nautilus
`window-state` section, and `picture-uri`/`picture-uri-dark` pointing at
`file:///home/dank/.config/background`. The last five showed no conflict because blankpad's
live tree *already* held those `/home/dank` values — an earlier deploy wrote them here — and
a foreign value that agrees with live is invisible to any diff while still being wrong. They
are dropped; `picture-options='zoom'` stays, because it is a preference. The live wallpaper
URIs are cleared on the box as part of landing this (niri draws the wallpaper, noctalia owns
it, nothing reads a dead path).
`tests/deploy.bats` grows by four, over a stub `systemctl` — the real one on this box is
exactly what must not be invoked from a test. Red before: an already-`enabled` unit and a
`linked` unit both get `--now`. Green after, including the two directions that keep the
change honest: a `disabled` unit is still `enable --now`'d so a fresh box comes up, and a
unit whose `ExecStart` is absent here is never touched at all.
Verification: `bats tests/` 70/70, `kb-lint.sh omp-docs` 0, `kb-coverage.py` 0. The dump now
reconciles against live state with **0 conflicts and no `/home/` values in 18 keys**, proven
by key-by-key comparison rather than `diff` — `dconf load` writes only the keys present, so a
diff overstates the damage one way and hides it the other.
Three findings from verifying the #41 merge against the live box with
`deploy.sh --check`. One commit because they share the deploy tier, its
documentation, and the first test file that tier ever had.
**1. Generated palette output was tracked, and sync would have restored it over a
live theme.** `dotfiles/zz-blankpad/niri/.config/niri/noctalia.kdl` (`b3d3df4`,
2026-10-18) sat byte-identical to the live file — harmless while the palette held, and
`--check` was already proposing `ADOPT … noctalia.kdl`. The moment the theme changed, the
next sync would have quarantined the live file and reinstated 2026-10-18's colours.
`deploy.sh` now refuses the class outright (`SKIP … (generated theme output)`), `.gitignore`
carries the matching patterns so it cannot be re-added, and the file is untracked.
**2. A `zz` override older than the file it overrides.** `dotfiles/zz-blankpad/niri/…/
layout.kdl` held focus ring `width 2` / `#e01b24` (`7b7dbf5`, 2026-10-17) while base
absorbed `b3d3df4` (2026-10-18): `width 4`, `#ff8c00`. Stow order makes `zz-*` win, and a
cross-package owner change relinks *silently* — no quarantine, no warning. Live was linked
to base, the newer intent, so `--check` printed `RELINK … layout.kdl` every run and one
unattended `deploy.sh` would have reverted the amber focus ring. The duplicate is deleted;
base owns the file.
**3. Two topologies I had asserted and not measured.** The media law and the `.gitignore`
comment both said `~/.local/share/noctalia/wallpapers` symlinks into the repo, so deleting
the tracked copies would blank the desktop. Measured: it is a real directory of real files
that Noctalia owns; the repo held a duplicate, and the #41 merge deleted that duplicate
without the desktop flickering. The correct general law replaces the false one — untracking
a path deletes the file in every other checkout, `git rm --cached` on the branch
notwithstanding — and the restore procedure now points at the app's directory, which
`deploy.sh` does not manage.
The guard is `tests/deploy.bats`, black-box over exit status, stdout, the symlink shape
under `$HOME`, and the quarantine directory. Before the change: test 1 and test 2 fail,
test 2 because the live palette really is quarantined and reverted. After: 4/4, including
the control that an ordinary identical config is still adopted — an exclusion nobody can
turn off is just a broken tool.
Verification: `bats tests/` 66/66, `kb-lint.sh omp-docs` 0 violations, `kb-coverage.py` 0
issues, and live `deploy.sh --check` on blankpad reports `SKIP … (generated theme output)`
with `actions=0` instead of `ADOPT … noctalia.kdl`. The real `deploy.sh` run that clears the
remaining `RELINK` lines is deliberately left until this is in main — running it from a
worktree would repoint live symlinks into a checkout the heartbeat reaps.
Refs #42
Frank