themeStore marks every dock group whose theme (the pane's own, else the global one) is bevelled with
.wb-bevel; edges.css draws tabs, toolbar, address field, wB button and the settings panel per group.
The window-level parts (title bar, caption buttons, menus, palette, scrollbars) keep following the
global theme. A Windows 98 pane is bevelled inside a flat window, and a flat pane stays flat inside a
Windows 98 window.
Open With: store_commands keeps each existing file the OS hands over (launch
argument, a second launch forwarded by single-instance with its working
directory, a macOS file:// open-URL) under a random id (Store::receive_file:
name says what it is, regular file, size cap, 8 kept, 15 minutes) and queues
LinkEvent.opened {id, name, kind}. The shell-only install_stage_opened {id}
reads that one file once and stages it exactly like a dropped file; it takes
an id only (testkit asserts that), so the shell cannot name a path. The shell
shows the same install screen; nothing installs without it. The NSIS template
lists the app under "Open with" for the declared extensions (OpenWithProgids)
and never makes it the default program, unlike Tauri's own macro.
Catalog kinds: icons (an icon pack, *.icons.json, at most 120 KB; validate_icons,
staged and committed as text for the shell, the install screen draws every icon,
.icons.json is no longer read as a theme) and builtin (a feature the app
already has, such as an area plugin: no url, sha256, size or file; never staged;
the Store view lists it as Built in with the app's own switch via the areas
prop). Rust: Kind, CatalogItem.check, verify_item, install links refuse builtin.
JS: storeModel, installController (requestOpened, icons adapter), InstallDialog,
StoreView, StoreSection (remove an icon pack, area switches), words. CLI and
JSON Schema: kinds, optional url/sha256/size on builtin, icons size cap; the
test schema validator learns not and if/then/else. docs/STORE.md.
- Rich sentences (a link or button inside text) can be replaced by data: the inventory gives a rich entry `slots`, a pack value places the site's own elements with {e0}, {e1}, ... (each once, the last may be left out; no markup, plural or other parameters). The engine returns a pieces + element order template; the page inventory carries `rich` slot counts.
- Packs may carry `when: { languages }` (applies only while the site shows one of them; `en` matches `en-GB`) and `rewrite: { words }` (whole-word rewording of the site's own text, messages keep their parameters' values; no sentences of the site in the pack). The hook tells the engine the site's language; a rewording pack makes the delivery carry the whole inventory.
- Apps can ship built-in packs (BuiltInPacks) delivered before installed ones; syncStringPacks hands the tabs a delivery at start only when it changed.
- Translate mode words are a function the app supplies (asked at each draw) and gain a `plural` word; host validates `when` and `rewrite` envelopes.
- Theme doctor: every finding says where (token path or CSS rule), what and how to fix, as catalog keys wb.doctor.*; the Theme Builder shows the full report; the import hint is translated. Doctor words are in the 17 supported catalogs.
- waybetter strings check describes conditions and rewrites.
Every radius in the chrome and the panel scales with the theme's own radius (--wb-c-rs = radius / 12,
0 to 1.5): a square theme gets a square window, a round one a rounder window; themes that keep the
site's colors keep wayBetter's own corners. A theme built from raised and sunken edges (ChromeTheme
edges: 'bevel') gets frame/edges.css on html[data-wb-edges=bevel], also from the first frame: a face
color under tabs, toolbar, menus and the panel, 98.css's four edge lines derived from that face,
the active title bar's gradient across the tab row, tabs as a tab control, small raised caption
buttons, a sunken address field, selected menu rows in the title bar's color, raised and default
buttons, etched group boxes and classic scrollbars in the panel.
ShellMenu.trigger chooses the trigger: 'pane' (default; each pane's wB button opens the menu under
itself, lined up with its end edge and kept inside the window), 'button' (titlebar) or 'logo'.
Alt+F, F10, the palette and the account menu's last row open it under the focused pane's wB (the
first one on screen otherwise). The menu's Settings row and the other panel rows still open the
panel, and Ctrl+Shift+W still does. The logo is part of the drag region again, as before 715f6f2.
On macOS the shell can hold the keyboard while its own settings tab is active; Ctrl+F then did
nothing, so typed keys and Enter went to X's search field. Find now targets the last web tab that
was in front (or the first one on screen).
The keys that open the find bar are often pressed in the page. The bar asks for the keyboard (`shell_focus`) and focuses its field; if the shell still does not have the keyboard 250 ms later, it asks once more and focuses the field again, so typing never lands in the page (seen on macOS: text typed right after Cmd+F was lost). Diagnostics lines record both steps.
themeDoctor(theme) names the lighter mechanism for what a theme's CSS does
(radius, bevel, hiding, literal colors, fonts), its performance costs (:has,
universal selectors, blur, size) and accessibility costs (outline removed,
unguarded motion, small post text, moved navigation), plus contrast fixes.
Theme import adds the count and the first hint to its message. Tested.
Appearance > Icons gets Import icon pack: a *.icons.json file is parsed by the
runtime sanitizer and shown on an install screen (name, author, licence,
source, credits, every glyph, size, data only) before it joins the persisted
theme choice (packs, at most 8, validated natively for shape and size) and
the Icons picker. Imported packs can be removed again.
With the logo as the menu's only titlebar trigger (`<AppMenu trigger={false}/>`), `--bt-tb-menu` still kept 38px free at the end of the titlebar-hosted tab strip. It is 0 when there is no `.bt-app-button`, so the right side is back to its layout before the menu.
The top-right ⋮ and the logo opened the same menu: one of them was redundant.
The logo stays as the only titlebar trigger (the app's own mark, where an app
menu lives); the right side is back to workspaces, accounts and the window
buttons. Alt+F, F10, the palette and the account menu's last row open the
menu under the logo. Apps that want a separate button keep <AppMenu/>'s
default trigger.
- ThemeChoice gains an optional icons field (absent: follow the theme's pack; site: the site's
own icons; else a pack id), validated natively as a slug (waybetter-host theme.rs, with a
test) and kept by per-theme choices; variants is an override group natively too.
- Appearance: an Icons row (Follow the theme / the site's own icons / the site's packs) when the
site lists packs; English words in the catalog.
- The chrome's glyphs follow the owner's pick as well as the theme's suggestion.
For the macOS reports (the menu never shows and the window goes inactive on a click; the find field gets no keyboard): off unless the app is started with `--diag` or WAYBETTER_DIAG=1. Then native code and the shell append to `diag.log` in the app's log folder (truncated at launch): menu open requests and every close with its reason, overlay counts, raise/lower and `shell_raise` results, native `shell_focus` calls and their result, the shell document's focus/blur/visibility, and where the find bar's focus is right after it opens and 300 ms later. A line is an event and a few words in plain ASCII (capped); never a URL, a query or page text. `diag_get` / `diag_log` are shell-only (in commands::SHELL and the template's list).
A site's theme adapter may name the pack of the global theme (iconPack); the frame's Icon draws
that pack's glyph for the same meaning (home, search, bell, mail, bookmark, user, ...) from its
validated path data, and its own line glyph where the pack has none. Rendered as React SVG
elements, never markup.
Seen live: the report said "WebView2 154.0.0.0", Chromium's reduced user agent version. The engine's brand list (`fullVersionList`) gives the full one, which the report now uses when it is a plain version (tested).
Release blocker (macOS 1.0.0: both panes stayed on the shell's loading shape). After `shell_ready` the startup cover waited, with no limit, for every visible site tab to report that it painted. A page whose report never comes (its paint check is frame-driven and gives up after 10 s, and an engine may hold a hidden window's frames back) kept the shell raised over the panes, showing the skeleton, for good. The wait is now bounded (8 s after the window is shown); the page then shows as it is.
The app menu asked for the keyboard natively (`shell_focus`) on every open. It now does so only when the shell does not have it (keys pressed in a tab); a click on the shell already gave it the keyboard.
The mode cards' default picture was shrunk to 16px by the shell's base glyph rule ("a few dots"); it keeps its size.
A mode is a starting point, never a lock and never applied again on its own. modeStatus() (runtime)
compares the flags with the mode's preset: custom, what re-applying turns on and off, and which of
those the preset gained in an update since it was applied. mode_set keeps the preset of that moment
(modes.json "preset", flag names only, bounded; forgotten when the mode changes). Settings, the
first-run screen and the app menu's Mode row show Custom; Re-apply lists what it turns on and off
before it writes anything; a preset that grew is mentioned once on the mode row (Review), never applied.
Tests: exact match, changed by the owner, preset grew, choice made before the preset was kept.
Ctrl+F pressed in a deck column (or in the shell while a deck is in front, for its focused column) opens that column's own find bar, laid over the column's header; F3 and Shift+F3 step through it. Same bar, same `tab_find`.
The app menu closed on any window blur. Taking the keyboard from a focused tab (Alt+F / F10 forwarded by the tab, then `shell_focus`) can pass through a blur on its way to the shell, which closed the menu a few milliseconds after it opened. It now closes on blur only if the focus is still away a moment later.
The app menu's "Report a problem…" opens a small dialog with the summary (reportModel.ts, English on purpose: the people who read reports do): the app and framework versions, the system and webview (coarse, from the user agent), the language and how it was chosen, the mode, the theme and icon pack ids, the file names of the plugins that are on, what paused itself (the panel's `reportDetails`), and safe mode. The model has no field for an account, a handle, an address, a tab or a path, and a value that is not made of id characters is left out rather than trimmed into shape, so nothing of that kind can ride along (tested with hostile input). The dialog sends nothing: Copy puts the text on the clipboard, and "Open the issue page" opens `ShellSite.menu.report.issueUrl` bare in the system browser (the summary is never put in a URL). Without an issue page the button is off and the dialog says so.
Host: `safe.rs` is a flag in this process's memory, never written to disk, so the next normal start is back to the owner's setup. While it is on a site tab gets the tab bridge and nothing of the app's page layers: its document-start scripts are `SiteHooks::safe_init_scripts` (default: the bridge alone) instead of `init_scripts`; `site_page_loaded`, `tab_placed` and `tab_background` are not called; `page_scripts` is empty; `eval_in_site_tabs` does nothing. So no page runtime, plugins, theme, custom CSS, feature flags, fixes, hotfix data or words reach a page: the site runs as in a browser, and only the shell is the app's. It starts from the launch argument `--safe-mode` (for when the interface itself is broken), from Shift held while the app starts (Windows), or from the shell: `safe_mode_get` / `safe_mode_set {on}` (shell-only), where a switch rebuilds every tab webview (profiles marked stale, `tabs-rebuild` asks the shell for its layout) so document-start scripts change too. Tests: the argument, the flag, and that app.rs and host.rs gate every layer.
Frame: the app menu's "Restart in safe mode…" says what it does before anything reloads; while on, the titlebar shows an amber "Safe mode | Leave" chip (one click leaves) and the row reads "Leave safe mode"; the chrome drops its theme (and pane themes) and takes it back on leaving, without touching the first-frame cache. `features.safeMode` (on by default).
Host: `updater::check_now` runs the same check the timer runs (the same updater endpoint, nothing else) for the app's shell-only `update_check`. It never queues or retries: while a check is in flight (the timer's or an earlier request's), or within 10 seconds of the last request, it only answers with the current status (`update::may_check_now`, tested). The timer's loop uses the same single-flight guard.
Frame: the menu's Updates row is that check (`updateRow`, tested): "Checking…", "Up to date · <version>", "Downloading <version>…", "Restart to update" when an update is ready (the row then installs it), and "Could not check" with a plain sentence as its tooltip when the server does not answer. The updater's error text is never shown there, and a failure is only mentioned when the owner asked for the check in this menu; the timer's own failures stay quiet.
Host: `tab_find {id, action, query}` (shell-only; start, next, previous, stop). On Windows it drives WebView2's own find (`ICoreWebView2Find` from `ICoreWebView2_28`, find options from `ICoreWebView2Environment15`; its built-in find bar suppressed, all matches highlighted) and reports the engine's match count and active match to the shell as `tab-find` events. On macOS, Linux and an older WebView2 Runtime native code evaluates the engine's `window.find` in the tab instead (next and previous work, no count); WKWebView's and WebKitGTK's native find are not wired here because this tree cannot be compiled or run for them on this machine. The query is one typed line (1..=256 characters, no control characters), goes to the engine and is kept nowhere. Tabs gain no command: a tab forwards the existing key name `find` (Ctrl+F) through tab_shortcut.
Frame: FindBar.tsx takes the address field's place in its pane's toolbar while open, so the page does not move and in split view the bar is the searched pane's. "3/17" where the engine counts, "No matches" for none; Enter / F3 next, Shift+Enter / Shift+F3 previous, Esc closes, clears the highlights and gives the page the keyboard. `features.find` (on by default) gates the menu row, the palette entry and the keys. Only what the page has rendered can be found, as in a browser.
Also: this makes `pub mod find` in lib.rs (already in HEAD) resolve again.
The logo at the start of the titlebar is now a button (aria-haspopup, keyboard reachable, tooltip) and a second trigger of the same menu: same component and model, only the anchor differs (`openAppMenu({ anchor: 'logo' })`). A submenu opens toward the middle of the window, else on the other side, else over the menu (`submenuLeft`, tested). A click on the logo never starts a window drag; a press that moves more than 5px does (the window's `startDragging`), so the logo still moves the window like the titlebar around it. A right-click shows the window's system menu. Clear of the macOS traffic lights: the logo sits after the titlebar's 78px inset and the menu hangs below it. The button at the end and the account menu's row stay.
The entry opens the notes in the page; its keywords carry the paused flags of that area. English
for the three new words; the other catalogs follow with the words step.
Frame: AppMenu.tsx is a menu at the end of the titlebar cluster (before the caption buttons; macOS has none there). Its rows are `ShellSite.menu`: ordered groups of built-in rows by name and the app's own ({id, label, icon, shortcut, hint, when, checked, run | submenu}); `DEFAULT_MENU`, `menuWith` and `menuWithout` order, add and remove. A built-in row shows only when the app serves it (decks, `menu.languages`, themes, `menu.modes`, and `features`: zoom, store, workspaces, developer, updates), so no app gets a dead row. Language, Theme, Mode, Workspaces and Developer are submenus; Language and Theme apply live and keep the menu open, Mode asks the same keep-my-changes question as Settings (panel `menuModes()`). Keyboard: arrows, Home/End, type-ahead, the arrow along the reading direction opens a submenu, Esc closes one level; ARIA menu roles; submenus stay inside the window; one highlight for pointer and keys. It is an overlay like the other shell menus (the shell is raised, panes stay visible, nothing is dimmed).
Words: menuMessages.en.json (`wb.menu.*`), read through the framework i18n with that English as the fallback until the catalogs have them; words the panel already has are reused.
Host: `tab_zoom {id, factor}` (shell-only) sets a tab's page zoom with the engine's own zoom, clamped to 25%..500% and remembered per tab id in app data `zoom.json` (a number per tab id, nothing else; a closed tab's entry goes); without a factor it reads. A tab may forward four more shortcut names: `app-menu`, `zoom-in`, `zoom-out`, `zoom-reset`. The titlebar shows a zoom chip only while the pane in front is not at 100%.
create-waybetter: `tab_zoom` in the shell capability list; the template says which panel sections it lacks (store, updates) and how to add menu rows.
- create-waybetter: the generated app has a feature table (one area, one feature, three modes), a feature module, the registry in its runtime, the cards and the first-run screen in its panel
- waybetter i18n rename --map <file> [--copy]: keys move or are copied in every catalog with each language's own value
- feature context: win (no globals in a module), text() for a feature's words (t('...') is read as a whole catalog key by the i18n tools)
- probes: `when` (only counts while the part of the page it lives in is there)
- cards: a caret, an empty area says its features come later; the first-run screen takes the whole panel
- PanelSite.features: the app's feature table; AreaPlugins draws one card per area (switch, count, grouped features, Settings button that runs the area's command in the site tab) and the core flags as Fixes
- a feature still backed by an old plugin file is switched through plugin_set_enabled from its card and left out of the JavaScript plugins list
- Modes: Onboarding (three cards, recommended preselected; an existing setup may be kept) and ModeSettings with the keep-my-changes question; openOnboardingWhenDue for ShellSite.start
- flags are saved sparsely (only what differs from the table's defaults)
- PanelSite.appearance.extra; palette commands of an area are listed under its name
- the kit's words for feature settings and health notes; English in the framework catalog
wayBetter for X took My Space (profile customization) out; the framework only named it in
comments as an example of an app's own section and runtime member.
Automatic language choices resolve only to supported languages; community
translations are listed apart in Settings and offered as a one-click switch.
waybetter i18n check reads `supported` and generates `tier` into languages.json.
Moved from wayBetter for X: 27 messages in 51 languages, and windows/languages/<Language>.nsh for the 17 NSIS languages Tauri does not ship (scripts/installer-languages.mjs writes and checks them).
run_app now keeps and serves what every app's panel and page need, with the same caller checks
as the rest (commands::SHELL: shell_only first; testkit::assert_host_guards covers them):
- app.rs: PageState (the plugin store in app data `plugins`, the feature flags, ShellSettings)
managed by the host; commands plugins_list, plugin_set_enabled, plugins_open_folder,
custom_css_get/set, features_get/set, settings_get/set (moved from wayBetter for X). The app
reads the state through app::page(), gets a loaded document's scripts from app::page_scripts()
(flags, links, custom CSS, plugins) and writes through set_features/set_settings/set_custom_css
(a backup import). AppConfig takes the app's PluginHost (AppConfig::new(site, title, plugins))
and an optional home_url. SiteHooks::navigation_started and new_window_mode default to the
owner's link settings.
- settings.rs (pure, tested): ShellSettings { homeUrl, externalLinks, siteLinks, restoreTabs }
with its input form (missing fields take the defaults; `xLinks`, the name wayBetter for X used,
is read as siteLinks), links_script ({ site: mode }), feature validation and features_script.
- commands::SITE + open_panel: a tab on the site's origin asks the shell to open the app's panel
(site_tab_only first). testkit: assert_site_only(command, site) checks that every capability
granting a site command is a tab capability limited to the site's URLs; assert_host_commands and
assert_host_guards include the site commands.
- shell frame backupModel: a settings section that still says xLinks compares as siteLinks.
packages/shell/src/panel (waybetter/shell/panel): an app's own tab. An app describes itself
(PanelSite: brand and the home page's words, its own sections and their order, its theme store,
catalog and the preview component a theme document is drawn in, Make's examples and docs, the
install controller, its languages, what its native side serves) and createPanel returns the
component for ShellSite.panel. It is in the shell package because it is drawn in the frame and
shares its stores, native bridge and language.
- Panel.tsx (header, settings search over every settings section, navigation, toasts; Accounts
and Updates), nav.ts (which built-in sections an app gets: each shows only when the app serves
what it needs; the app's sections in its order), Home.tsx (hero, highlights, About from the
app's data), controls.tsx + panel.css.
- Appearance.tsx, ThemeBuilder.tsx + builderModel.ts + builder.css, fonts/ (FontBrowser, FontRoles,
catalog, the offline Google Fonts list; scripts/google-fonts-catalog.mjs regenerates it):
the theme documents are the runtime's, the store, catalog, accents, draft palette, file suffix
and preview are the app's (PanelSite.themes).
- Plugins.tsx (the plugins list and custom CSS over the host's plugins_*/custom_css_*),
StoreSection.tsx, MakePanel.tsx + makeModel.ts + MarkdownDoc.tsx + markdown.ts + make.css (the
examples, the theme file and the docs are the app's), Settings.tsx (links and session over
settings_get/set with `siteLinks`, keyword alerts, the media panel), FeatureToggles.tsx
(useFeatures + FeatureGroups over features_get/set: the app names its flags and groups),
PowerSettings.tsx (deck defaults from site.deck: its flags and presets; DeckPreset gets `name`
and `hint`), BackupPanel.tsx + backup.css, DeveloperPanel.tsx, LanguageSettings.tsx, compare.ts.
- frame: language.ts (createLanguage: follow the site / the system / one language, i18n_set;
moved from the app), appI18n.ts (createAppI18n: the app's typed i18n instance, useT, dates and
numbers; the app passes React's useSyncExternalStore), formatDate in i18n.ts (ShellI18n.date).
- tests/panel.test.ts: every panel key has English and is used, sections per app, the builder
model, the font catalog, plugin header rules, the UI kit demos, Markdown, compare.
- npm package: exports ./shell/panel, ./shell/panel/*, ./shell/panel/*.css; the build is
scripts/build.mjs (the shell is compiled with the runtime sources it imports under one root and
its imports are pointed at dist/runtime; stylesheets and the font list are copied).
- 668 wb.* messages for the panel (navigation, settings search, accounts, updates, Appearance, the
Theme Builder, fonts, plugins, custom CSS, Make, Power User, settings, backup and sync, developer
mode, the controls), moved with every translation from wayBetter for X's catalogs; `{site}`
stands where the English said "X" (49 keys; the app passes "X", so X reads the same). Keys that
named X got site-neutral names (settings.links.site*, settings.language.followSite*,
builder.leadingSite, builder.liveOnSite, fonts.asSite, make.siteDefaultLeading, features.default).
English source: shell/src/panel/panelMessages.ts.
- One translation could not take `{site}` (hu wb.settings.alerts.hint never named the site) and
falls back to English.
- locales/en.meta.json: the translator notes of the moved keys (40), among them the one fragment a
language may leave empty (wb.make.step2Before); the catalog test reads it.
- runtime/tests/i18n.test.ts: en.json is the kit, shell-model, store, shell-frame and panel source.
packages/shell/src/frame (waybetter/shell/frame): the whole shell of an app. An app describes its
site (ShellSite: names and pages, account rules, search, address chips and completions, its panel
tab, the new-tab page, palette items, deck column kinds and flags and an optional compose dock, the
media panel's composer rule, a theme store, overlays, the native features it serves) and passes
its Tauri API and i18n instance; createShell returns the root component.
- Shell.tsx: dockview host (tabs in the titlebar row, splits, drag-link drops, shortcuts, context
menu, deck back-and-forth, session restore, workspace on start, overlay raise); state.ts (pane
placeholders, tabs_sync one-in-flight via syncGate, shell_raise layer, profiles, layout).
- WebPanel (address bar), NewTabPage, CommandPalette + paletteModel (frame groups; site items),
DeckView + AddColumnDialog + deckStore (site column kinds), PaneTheme + themeStore
(createThemeStore over the app's ThemeAdapter) + chromeTheme (ChromeTheme input) + themeScopes,
Titlebar + TitlebarExtras + icons + brand (wB mark data URI), AccountSwitcher + accountModel,
workspaces + workspaceModel, backupModel, syncHost, devHost + devModel, pluginCommandStore,
MediaPanel + mediaModel, searchInput, hooks, bridge (installPreviewMocks), i18n, boot.ts
(bootScript: the first-frame boot.js), CSS themed with --wb-* tokens.
- paneModel: paneVisibility, raiseSupported, cssRgb; deckModel: isSourcePage.
- Includes the live-QA titlebar fix (dock ResizeObserver + rAF titlebar marks, dock sized by its
insets).
- tests/frame.test.ts: every frame key has English and is used, palette order with a site,
address fallback, layout gate, boot script, chrome variables, switcher rules, workspaces,
deck settings with site flags.
- npm package 0.4.0: exports ./shell/frame, ./shell/frame/*, ./shell/frame/*.css (copied by the
build); dockview and acorn optional peers; root devDependencies dockview, acorn.
