max / alloy_tui

Strip COSMIC adoption from the stack After the sway pivot, COSMIC's actual footprint had collapsed to one app: cosmic-files as a GUI fallback to yazi. Everything else in the old COSMIC.md was already a "considered, not adopted" list. The same TUI-first logic that shelved Rnote applies here — cosmic-files is a libcosmic-flavored window in an otherwise ramp-themed system, and yazi covers the daily case. GUI apps that need file dialogs go through xdg-desktop-portal, not a bundled file manager, so the practical cost is small. - Delete docs/COSMIC.md. - STACK.md#file-manager rewritten: yazi is the shipped default, no GUI fallback; document the flatpak-install path for users who want one (same posture as ungoogled-chromium). - STACK.md GTK-covers list swaps "cosmic-files if GTK-based" for xdg-desktop-portal-gtk dialogs. - DESIGN-LANGUAGE.md adopted-apps roster drops cosmic-files. - MARQUEE-APPS.md file-manager row now points at yazi + STACK.md. - README.md docs index drops the COSMIC.md entry. Remaining cosmic-* names in STACK.md's Rejected lists stay — they still explain why each COSMIC piece wasn't picked and don't depend on the deleted doc.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: Max Johnson <me@maxj.phd> · 2026-07-18 14:51 UTC

Signed with PGP, not checked

Commit: cbb8bef165e14e90623c8758b02be3efc97f2701

Parent: 3a9b670

5 files changed, +6 insertions, -39 deletions

M README.md -1

			@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
22	22		- [`docs/COMPONENT-LIBRARY.md`](docs/COMPONENT-LIBRARY.md) — `alloy_ui` crate idioms (functions, builders, HOFs, `impl Widget`) and the design-token pipeline.
23	23		- [`docs/RESEARCH-IMMEDIATE-MODE-DESIGN.md`](docs/RESEARCH-IMMEDIATE-MODE-DESIGN.md) — late-term research sketch: what does Figma look like for immediate-mode UI? How do designers and engineers collaborate without designers writing Rust?
24	24		- [`docs/DESIGN-LANGUAGE.md`](docs/DESIGN-LANGUAGE.md) — tinted-greyscale chrome, color reserved for information.
25		-	- [`docs/COSMIC.md`](docs/COSMIC.md) — which System76/COSMIC components Alloy adopts, considers, and skips.
26	25		- [`docs/CONSOLE.md`](docs/CONSOLE.md) — Alloy Console: the ratatui unified control surface (`alloy net`, `alloy audio`, `alloy config <path>` schema-driven editor). Replaces the "graphical settings app" question.
27	26		- [`docs/CONTINUITY.md`](docs/CONTINUITY.md) — Tailscale and Syncthing as base-image citizens: an Alloy install should be rejoinable, not just installable.
28	27		- [`docs/SHELL.md`](docs/SHELL.md) — Nushell as the login shell; bash unchanged as `/bin/sh` and `/bin/bash`. Architecture, interop rules, accepted costs.

M docs/DESIGN-LANGUAGE.md +1 -1

			@@ -77,4 +77,4 @@
77	77
78	78		## Scope
79	79
80		-	Binding for the ratatui surfaces Alloy authors (`alloy_tui`, the console). Adopted apps (sway chrome, swaylock, mako, cosmic-files, helix, yazi, bottom) are themed toward the ramp where their theming permits, and accepted as-is where it does not. Heterogeneity at the seam between authored and adopted is a known trade, called out in [MANIFESTO.md](MANIFESTO.md#what-we-author-vs-what-we-adopt).
	80	+	Binding for the ratatui surfaces Alloy authors (`alloy_tui`, the console). Adopted apps (sway chrome, swaylock, mako, helix, yazi, bottom) are themed toward the ramp where their theming permits, and accepted as-is where it does not. Heterogeneity at the seam between authored and adopted is a known trade, called out in [MANIFESTO.md](MANIFESTO.md#what-we-author-vs-what-we-adopt).

M docs/MARQUEE-APPS.md +1 -1

			@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
14	14		\| TextEdit-equivalent \| Dropped: the editor is a TUI (helix, then deox). \|
15	15		\| Notification daemon \| Adopted: mako. See [STACK.md](STACK.md#notification-daemon). \|
16	16		\| Bar \| Adopted: swaybar (sway built-in). See [STACK.md](STACK.md#bar). \|
17		-	\| File manager \| Adopted: cosmic-files (GUI fallback to yazi). See [COSMIC.md](COSMIC.md). \|
	17	+	\| File manager \| Adopted: yazi (TUI, no GUI fallback shipped). See [STACK.md](STACK.md#file-manager). \|
18	18
19	19		## What carried over
20	20

M docs/STACK.md +4 -5

			@@ -56,12 +56,11 @@
56	56
57	57		## File manager
58	58
59		-	- TUI primary: yazi (Rust, async, plugin system, sixel/kitty/iTerm image preview). Where keyboard-driven Alloy users will live by default.
60		-	- GUI fallback: cosmic-files (Rust + iced, by System76). For drag-drop, thumbnail browsing, and the cases TUI can't cover. Accepts libcosmic's visual flavor in those windows as a knowing trade — see [COSMIC.md](COSMIC.md).
	59	+	yazi (Rust, async, plugin system, sixel/kitty/iTerm image preview). TUI-only, no GUI fallback shipped — the pivot's TUI-first line applies here the same way it applied to Rnote. Firefox and other GUI apps that need file dialogs go through xdg-desktop-portal, not a bundled file manager, so the daily case is covered.
61	60
62		-	No custom egui file manager planned. Scope is too large (file ops, permissions, drag-drop, thumbnails, archives, mounts, trash, search, batch ops, associations) and cosmic-files already does this work in Rust.
	61	+	No custom egui file manager planned. Scope is too large (file ops, permissions, drag-drop, thumbnails, archives, mounts, trash, search, batch ops, associations) for a marquee-app slot, and the pivot moved off graphical authored surfaces anyway.
63	62
64		-	Rejected: broot (Rust TUI, useful as a complement but different paradigm), nautilus / dolphin (not Rust).
	63	+	Rejected: broot (Rust TUI, useful as a complement but different paradigm), nautilus / dolphin (not Rust), cosmic-files (was the pre-pivot GUI fallback; dropped along with the rest of the graphical stack). Users who want a graphical file manager install one themselves — `flatpak install flathub com.system76.CosmicFiles` (or thunar, nautilus) — same posture as ungoogled-chromium.
65	64
66	65		## Text editor
67	66
			@@ -285,7 +284,7 @@
285	284
286	285		Config at [`etc/skel/.config/gtk-3.0/`](../etc/skel/.config/gtk-3.0/) and [`etc/skel/.config/gtk-4.0/`](../etc/skel/.config/gtk-4.0/) with matching `gtk.css` and `settings.ini` per version.
287	286
288		-	What this covers: any GTK 3 or GTK 4 app that consumes libadwaita's named tokens — swayosd (GTK-rendered overlays), Firefox's system dialogs, cosmic-files if GTK-based, etc.
	287	+	What this covers: any GTK 3 or GTK 4 app that consumes libadwaita's named tokens — swayosd (GTK-rendered overlays), Firefox's system dialogs, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk dialogs, etc.
289	288
290	289		What this doesn't cover:
291	290		- Legacy GTK 3 apps with their own token sets (rare — most have migrated).

D docs/COSMIC.md -31

		@@ -1,31 +1,0 @@
1	-	# COSMIC adoption
2	-
3	-	System76's COSMIC desktop is the deepest Rust + Linux investment outside Mozilla. GPLv3, permissively-compatible with Alloy (which authors in ratatui, MIT). Project Alloy pulls on COSMIC's libraries and one app, with deliberate restraint to avoid ceding visual identity.
4	-
5	-	Architectural note: libcosmic and iced are reactive, which conflicts with Alloy's non-reactive principle ([MANIFESTO.md](MANIFESTO.md) principle 3) for authored apps. Adopted COSMIC components are exempt: they are not our code, they are upstream's. The principle binds what Alloy writes, not what Alloy ships.
6	-
7	-	## Adopted
8	-
9	-	- cosmic-text — text rendering library (font shaping, layout, BiDi). Pure library, no visual coupling. Dependency-grade adoption. (Reaches Alloy transitively today; a direct dependency only if an authored surface needs shaping beyond what ratatui provides.)
10	-	- cosmic-files — GUI file manager, named in [STACK.md](STACK.md) as the graphical fallback to yazi. Since the pivot dropped Alloy's authored GUI, this is effectively the one non-session GUI app Alloy ships, and it wears libcosmic's visual flavor as a knowing trade.
11	-
12	-	## Considered, deferred
13	-
14	-	- cosmic-term — a Rust terminal option to revisit only if the rio decision is reopened. libcosmic-flavored but standalone-runnable.
15	-	- cosmic-edit — not relevant now: Alloy's editor is a TUI (helix, then deox). No graphical-editor default.
16	-	- cosmic-notifications — mako is settled as the notification daemon; revisit only if mako proves inadequate.
17	-	- cosmic-screenshot — skip; grim + slurp is the picked screenshot stack under sway.
18	-	- cosmic-icons — worth taking only if a graphical surface ever needs a themed icon set; the TUI uses Nerd Font glyphs (see [ICONOGRAPHY.md](ICONOGRAPHY.md)).
19	-	- cosmic-bg — wallpaper daemon; swww is the pick and works on sway.
20	-
21	-	## Skipped — conflicts with picks or DE-coupled
22	-
23	-	- libcosmic as an app framework — Alloy authors in ratatui, and libcosmic is reactive anyway.
24	-	- cosmic-panel — picked swaybar.
25	-	- cosmic-launcher — no graphical launcher (terminal-driven).
26	-	- cosmic-comp — picked sway.
27	-	- cosmic-session, cosmic-settings, cosmic-randr, cosmic-workspaces, cosmic-store — DE-coupled or overlap with the `alloy` console (`alloy update` fronts rpm-ostree, replacing the store; `alloy net`/`display`/`audio` replace the settings surfaces).
28	-
29	-	## Known tension
30	-
31	-	Adopting cosmic-files means a libcosmic-flavored window sits alongside an otherwise terminal-native, ramp-themed system. Accepted as a knowing trade: building a Rust GUI file manager is wrong-scope against the value of having a graphical fallback at all, and yazi is the primary anyway. Heterogeneity at the authored/adopted seam is the price, per [MANIFESTO.md](MANIFESTO.md#what-we-author-vs-what-we-adopt).