dotfiles/systemd-user/.config/systemd/user/swayidle-lock.service

@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 Description=swayidle idle lock (locks via noctalia-shell IPC, suspends on lid)
 Documentation=https://github.com/swaywm/swayidle
 After=graphical-session.target
+# Restart together with the session, not merely at boot: this unit is wanted by
+# default.target, so a compositor restart used to leave it orphaned while the target came
+# back without it. Refs #47.
+PartOf=graphical-session.target
+# With Restart=always below, a fast failure loop must never wedge the watcher into `failed`:
+# a lock that keeps trying beats a lock that stopped trying. Refs #47.
+StartLimitIntervalSec=0
 
 [Service]
 # Locks via the noctalia v5 shell; `noctalia msg` resolves the running instance
@@ -11,7 +18,10 @@ ExecStart=/usr/bin/swayidle -w \
   timeout 300 '/usr/bin/noctalia msg session lock' \
   before-sleep '/usr/bin/noctalia msg session lock' \
   after-resume '/usr/bin/noctalia msg session lock'
-Restart=on-failure
+# `swayidle -w` exits 0 on SIGTERM, and that is how this watcher died on 2026-10-12: a clean
+# exit that `Restart=on-failure` cannot see, leaving the box unlocked for a week. A supervisor
+# restarts always. Refs #47.
+Restart=always
 RestartSec=5s
 
 [Install]

omp-docs/tools/dotfiles-deploy.md

@@ -205,3 +205,33 @@ it in the other. Re-dump on the box whose settings are canonical (`dconf dump /
 dotfiles/dconf/dump.txt`), then delete the state sections before committing — the census's
 *Never track: app state* class applies inside a tracked file, not just to whole directories.
 Refs #44.
+
+## Law: a watcher must restart on a clean exit too
+
+`swayidle-lock.service` was `enabled`, present in `default.target.wants/`, and **dead for eight
+days**: `Result=success`, `NRestarts=0`, gone since 2026-10-12 16:22 after 2d 21h of uptime.
+`Restart=on-failure` cannot see a clean exit, and `swayidle -w` exits 0 on SIGTERM — so the
+watcher that owns the 5-minute idle lock *and* the `before-sleep` lock quietly stopped existing,
+and nothing noticed. With it dead and logind at `HandleLidSwitch=suspend`, closing the lid
+suspended the machine **unlocked**: the lock hook lived inside the thing that had died. No
+alternative existed — `pgrep -c -u blankpad 'swayidle|swaylock|hyprlock|gtklock'` = 0, and neither
+`autostart.kdl` launches a locker.
+
+Three settings, each with a job: `Restart=always`, because a supervisor must not assume it can
+only die badly; `StartLimitIntervalSec=0`, because a fast loop must never wedge it into `failed` —
+a lock that keeps trying beats one that stopped trying; and `PartOf=graphical-session.target`,
+because the unit is wanted by `default.target`, so the session coming back did not bring *it*
+back.
+
+Verify by behaviour rather than by reading the file — the point is surviving the event that killed
+it in October:
+
+```bash
+systemctl --user start swayidle-lock.service
+kill -TERM "$(systemctl --user show swayidle-lock.service -p MainPID --value)"
+sleep 8 && systemctl --user show swayidle-lock.service -p NRestarts -p MainPID -p ActiveState
+```
+
+The general shape: `deploy.sh` only ever *enables*. Nothing on any box re-checks that a unit the
+system depends on is still running, so a security posture can lapse silently and stay lapsed for a
+week. A liveness check for this tier belongs in the heartbeat, not in a human's memory. Refs #47.