UX bug found during smoke testing: clicking Change Instance immediately
deleted the saved instance URL and showed an empty picker, with no way
back if the user changed their mind.
Fix:
- Don't clearInstanceUrl() in recovery action 'change-instance' — picker
is now non-destructive
- Picker pre-fills the input with the current saved URL when present
- Cancel button (shown only when a saved URL exists) returns to current
instance via idempotent setInstanceUrl re-save
- Header copy switches to 'Switch instance' / 'Cancel to stay' framing
when a saved URL is present
- URL only overwrites on explicit Connect to a different instance
Also: add console.log enter/exit lines in enterRecoveryMode and the
clear-recovery-state action handlers, so smoke-test scripts can grep
stderr for recovery activity without UI introspection.
Spec + docs/systems/desktop.md updated.
Two real bugs from final review:
- Clear recovery state on window 'closed' so macOS dock-activate doesn't
drop the recovery surface (window recreated with stale recoveryStore.mode)
- Hoist setOnQuitRequested before createWindow so synchronous boot failures
reach a wired Quit handler
Three polish items:
- Tray's Change Instance now routes through handleRecoveryAction so both
paths share one implementation; recovery action's change-instance also
show()+focus() for hidden-window tray clicks
- install-update action guards against state.updateState !== 'downloaded'
(defense in depth against malicious or buggy renderers)
- Object.freeze rationale documented in RecoveryStateStore.update
- rendererReady (boot-completion ping)
- getRecoveryState / onRecoveryStateChanged (recovery.html subscribers)
- recoveryAction (button click dispatcher with enum action)
Type declarations kept ambient (no export) to preserve window.backspace
global augmentation — exporting from an ambient .d.ts converts it to a
module and breaks the Window interface extension.
buildAppMenuTemplate's actions param is Partial<MenuActions>, so the
tray-only callbacks (onShow/onHide/onQuit) are simply ignored. Removes
the three-callback duplication between the two objects without changing
behavior. Future onChangeInstance/onCheckForUpdates/onRestartToInstall
changes only need to be made in one place.
- setMainWindow on createWindow, setMainWindow(null) on closed
- attachRecoveryHandlers wires Electron unresponsive/crash/load-fail events
- Store subscriber drives tray context menu + macOS app menu + mode-gated
recovery-state-changed push to renderer; single applyMenusForState
function shared between subscriber and initial fire (no drift)
- Old hard-coded createTray Menu and macOS app-menu construction deleted;
Win/Linux Edit-only menu retained as one-time setup for keyboard accelerators
- requestQuit exported, wired via setOnQuitRequested callback
- Recovery IPC handlers: renderer-ready, recovery-action, get-recovery-state
- setAppUserModelId('com.backspace.desktop') for Win32 notification attribution
- Extended showNotification with optional onClick (existing 2-arg callers unchanged)
Adds buildAppMenuTemplate pure function to recovery.ts that produces the
three-submenu macOS app menu (App/Edit/Window), reusing MenuActions and
checkForUpdatesItem from T4. Includes Restart to Install Update item
conditionally on updateState=downloaded. Tests use destructuring to satisfy
noUncheckedIndexedAccess. 26 tests pass, tsc clean.
Pure buildTrayMenuTemplate function returns MenuItemConstructorOptions[]
without constructing real Menu objects, enabling full test coverage.
All 7 new tests pass (22 total); MenuActions interface and
checkForUpdatesItem helper are intentionally unexported.
- Snapshot listener set before notifying so subscribers can subscribe/
unsubscribe during notification without breaking the pass
- Per-callback try/catch so one throwing subscriber does not silence others
- Object.freeze on each state object so the live reference returned by
get() cannot be accidentally mutated externally (compile-time
Readonly<> is hint only)
- 3 new tests pinning these invariants
Chromium gates the PulseAudio loopback path behind the
PulseaudioLoopbackForScreenShare feature flag. Without it, returning
audio: 'loopback' from setDisplayMediaRequestHandler rejects the whole
getDisplayMedia request, so screen share never starts when the user has
"Share system audio" enabled. Also surface a clear warning toast on
loopback failure (PipeWire-only without pulse compat, macOS without
Catap) instead of failing silently — no auto-retry, since the picker
selection is already consumed.
Three branches now: macOS template (.png + @2x, auto-recolour), Windows
multi-size .ico (DPI auto-pick), Linux 22x22 PNG. Drops the runtime
.resize({16,16}) — pre-rendered assets are at correct platform sizes;
runtime resize re-introduced bicubic blur. Defensive fallback to the
programmatic blurple circle is preserved but should not trigger in
practice now that templates ship populated.
When autostart is disabled, Windows deletes the Run registry entry, so
deriveStartMinimizedFromArgs(undefined) was returning false and silently
resetting the user's startMinimized preference the next time autostart
was re-enabled. Both the get- and set-auto-launch-settings handlers now
fall back to the disk-cached value when no OS entry exists, matching the
existing macOS/Linux fallback pattern.
macOS: add args:[--hidden] alongside openAsHidden for defence-in-depth detection on macOS 13+.
Windows: add enabled/path/args/name so re-enabling the toggle clears the StartupApproved\Run disable marker.
Linux: add deterministic name:'backspace' so the .desktop filename is stable across Electron/AppImage updates.
AcceleratedVideoEncoder only enables VA-API encoding on Linux.
Windows/macOS hardware H.264 encoding in Chromium's WebRTC is not
reliably controllable — VP9 via libvpx remains the recommended codec.
The web UI records keybinds as djb2 hashes of DOM event.code strings
(e.g. "KeyM" → 2090563626), but uiohook fires native scan codes
(e.g. M → 50). These never matched, so global keybinds only worked
in-focus via the web fallback, never out-of-focus via the native hook.
Add a uiohook-to-DOM-code mapping table and pre-compute the djb2
hashes so pressedKeys uses the same numbering as the keybind store.
Installs uiohook-napi for OS-level non-consuming input hooks, creates
KeybindManager class that receives keybind configs from the renderer,
matches the OS-wide key/mouse event stream, and sends matched actions
back via IPC. Exposes syncKeybinds, onKeybindAction, onAccessibilityStatus,
onKeybindHookError, and checkAccessibility APIs through the preload bridge.
Refactor loadDictionary to accept a file path and support both legacy
bare-array (version 0) and versioned object formats. Add background
sync that fetches the latest games.json from GitHub, uses ETag-based
conditional requests (304 support), atomic cache writes, and hot-swaps
processMap/gameEntries without resetting current detection state.
On startup, the best local source (cache vs bundled seed) is loaded
immediately for instant detection, then sync runs fire-and-forget.
Add cross-platform process scanning that detects running games and apps,
then broadcasts them as Rich Presence activities via the existing Phase 1
pipeline (activityStore -> WS -> other users).
- games.json dictionary with 26 entries (games, Spotify, VLC, OBS)
- activityDetector module: polls OS process list every 15s via execFile,
matches against dictionary, emits IPC on state change only
- IPC bridge in main.ts/preload.ts with cleanup on quit
- Frontend activityBridge subscribes to IPC and feeds activityStore
- Supports Windows (tasklist CSV), macOS (ps -c), Linux (ps)
Add auto-launch settings (start at boot + start minimized) to the
Desktop section in Account settings, using Electron's built-in
setLoginItemSettings API across macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Replace the fallback colored-circle tray icon with proper B logo assets:
template images for macOS (adapts to light/dark menu bar) and colored
icons for Windows/Linux. Fix BGRA channel order bug in fallback generator
and move tray icons to resources/ so they're packaged into the app.
useSystemPicker triggers applyConstraints to re-open the system picker
(Electron #44684) and doesn't reliably pass audio capture. All platforms
now use the custom Aether Drift picker with explicit loopback control.
Electron requires setDisplayMediaRequestHandler for getDisplayMedia() to
work — removing it broke screen sharing entirely. Restored the handler
with useSystemPicker: true, which on macOS 15+ uses the native system
picker (honoring restrictOwnAudio), while Windows/Linux fall back to
the custom picker with the shareAudio toggle for echo control.
The custom screen share picker intercepted getDisplayMedia() and created
a raw loopback stream, bypassing Chromium's constraint pipeline entirely.
restrictOwnAudio was silently discarded. Removing the handler lets
Chromium 144's native getDisplayMedia run end-to-end with restrictOwnAudio
applied, eliminating the audio feedback loop in the desktop app.
Screen sharing with audio captured the app's own voice playback, causing
users to hear themselves echoed back. Fixed via two layers:
- Add restrictOwnAudio constraint (Chrome 141+/Chromium 144) to exclude
the app's own audio from system audio capture
- Add shareAudio toggle so users can disable system audio entirely
- Remove outdated macOS audio block (now supported via ScreenCaptureKit)
- Upgrade Electron 33→40 (Chromium 130→144) so restrictOwnAudio works
natively in the desktop app
- Add NSAudioCaptureUsageDescription for macOS 14.2+ audio capture
- Add GTK 3 fallback for Linux GNOME compatibility (Electron 36+)
Use titleBarStyle: 'hidden' + titleBarOverlay on Win/Linux to remove the
ugly native title bar and menu bar while keeping OS-rendered min/max/close
buttons. Hidden Edit menu preserves keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C/V/X/Z/A).
Title bar drag region and separator line rendered via web frontend, with
colors matching the Aether Drift design system.
Also adds electron-builder metadata (description, author, homepage,
artifactName) and multi-size icons for cross-platform builds.
Replace the Swift squircle hack with the correct Apple approach:
generate a proper .icns using sips + iconutil, then replace
electron.icns in the Electron bundle before launch. macOS applies
its native squircle mask + shadow from the .icns automatically.
macOS only applies the squircle mask to packaged .app bundles. For dev
mode, generate a pre-masked icon-dock.png via Swift/AppKit at launch
and set it with app.dock.setIcon(). Silently skipped on non-macOS.
Regenerate all web icons (favicon, PWA, apple-touch) from master 1024x1024
icon.png. Add BrowserWindow icon property for Windows/Linux taskbar icon
in Electron dev mode.
- Custom screen share picker for Electron (ScreenSharePicker.tsx) with
Aether Drift design: glass-bubble footer, adaptive grid, pill tabs,
border-based selection (avoids overflow clipping), hover brightness
- Instance URL picker so Electron connects to any Backspace server
- System audio loopback on Windows/Linux via desktopCapturer callback
- macOS: video-only callback (OS blocks system audio capture)
- IPC bridge for screen source enumeration and selection
- Purge stale service worker caches on Electron launch
- Dev/prod URL auto-detection (Vite 5173 in dev, server 3000 in prod)
- Typed IPC bridge via preload (notifications, badge, window controls, updates, deep links)
- Native OS notifications via NotificationController with window focus suppression
- Auto-update via electron-updater with UpdateToast UI
- Deep linking (backspace:// protocol) for macOS and Windows/Linux
- Window state persistence (position, size, maximize across restarts)
- Tray icon with graceful fallback when icon asset missing
- Suppress PWA service worker polling/reloads inside Electron
- Platform detection layer (isElectron, getElectronAPI)
- Root workspace scripts (dev:desktop, build:desktop)
- Document BACKSPACE_URL and BACKSPACE_UPDATE_URL env vars
- Add Backspace-design-prototype.html: finalized "Aether Drift" design
language with warm matte surfaces and subtle frosted glass accents
- Update CLAUDE.md with DESIGN SYSTEM section and remove Discord clone references
- Rename all Opencord references to Backspace across the full codebase
- Archive outdated design experiments and Discord-specific assets
- Add science-backed accessibility fallback (prefers-reduced-transparency)
Jannis Braun