steamify-cachyos/AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md

Guidance for AI coding agents working on this repository. See README.md for what the script does from a user's point of view.

Project overview

Steamify CachyOS: a bash wizard that makes CachyOS (KDE Plasma 6 + plasma-login-manager) boot into a SteamOS-style gamescope session, with working switching between gamescope and the Plasma desktop. Primary target: the Valve Steam Machine (DMI Valve/Fremont) running CachyOS Desktop edition.

Layout

• steamify.sh - the only entry point. Pre-flight checks, sources lib/*.sh, runs the menu and applies the plan. No component logic here.
• lib/*.sh - one file per responsibility, each defining functions only (no top-level side effects besides constants). See the table in README.md.
• Components. Every menu item <id> (listed in COMPONENTS and LABEL in lib/menu.sh) provides <id>_status (return 0 if on, detected from the system, no state file needed), <id>_enable and <id>_disable, all idempotent. <id>_enable is also used to re-apply. Optional <id>_available is checked via component_available (e.g. machine only on Fremont). Turn-on order is COMPONENTS order, turn-off reverse; gaming must stay first. Dependencies live in toggle_component.
• Reversibility. Every per-user KDE setting a component changes goes through kset <component> <file> <group|group> <key> <value> (lib/state.sh), which records the old value once; <id>_disable calls krevert <component>. Never call kwriteconfig6 directly for settings a component owns. System files are backed up with backup_file and restored on disable.
• Single-file build. .github/tools/bundle.sh inlines lib/*.sh in the order of the entry point's for lib in ...; do source loop and wraps everything after that loop in main(). Keep that loop on one line, keep all logic in functions, and don't rely on SCRIPT_DIR for anything but sourcing. CI (.github/workflows/bundle.yml) publishes the bundle as release v$VERSION on pushes to main; an existing version is never overwritten, so bump VERSION for every release.

Conventions

• Bash, set -uo pipefail (no -e): check exit codes of steps that matter explicitly (|| { err ...; exit 1; } or || return 1).

• Use the helpers from lib/common.sh (info, ok, warn, err, ask_yn, backup_file) for all output and prompts.

• Runs as the normal user; use sudo per command, never require root. Per-user files go in $HOME of the invoking user (the script refuses to configure another user).

• Idempotent: every step must be safe to re-run without duplicating lines or settings. Back up system files with backup_file before the first edit.

• Don't overwrite package-owned files in /etc/xdg or /usr. KDE settings go into the user's config via kwriteconfig6 (or merge_kde_config for whole Valve ini files).

• Package installs after a user already confirmed use --noconfirm: a second pacman prompt consumes the next scripted answer.

• Comments explain why (the CachyOS/Plasma quirk being worked around), not what the next line does.

• Versioning and releases. SemVer in VERSION (steamify.sh, shown in the menu header and the bundle header).

  • Every commit gets an entry in CHANGELOG.md under its version (short hash
    • subject; a commit can't contain its own hash, so fill it in with the next commit). The section heading must be ## <VERSION> - <date>: CI cuts the release notes out of the changelog by that heading.
  • Every PR that should be released bumps VERSION and adds its section. A push to main publishes release v$VERSION (tag + bundle + that changelog section) and marks it latest. An existing version is never overwritten: without a bump nothing is released, and pull requests show a warning.
  • Users install through releases/latest/download/steamify.sh (GitHub's newest release). The latest tag and release follow the newest version tag too (moved, asset replaced, when a new version is released), so the older URL releases/download/latest/... keeps working.

Non-obvious behaviour to preserve

• apply_changes sets $LOGIN_MANAGER from the menu: sddm when single user mode is wanted, else plasmalogin. Toggling single user re-applies gaming so it moves to the other login manager. Single user mode hides the launcher's Session dropdown via kickoff primaryActions=3 (restricting action/logout also hides Restart/Shut Down). Two login-manager paths: sddm (like SteamOS: steam-set-session writes /etc/sddm.conf.d/zz-steamos-autologin.conf, which SDDM honours; we add User=/Relogin= in 10-gamescope-autologin.conf, and /etc/sddm.conf must not contain [Autologin] since it's read last) and plasmalogin (needs the sync bridge and the shortcut's sudoers rule). Both must keep working.

• steam-set-session only writes /etc/plasmalogin.conf.d/zz-steamos-autologin.conf; the base /etc/plasmalogin.conf wins, hence the sync bridge. The sync service needs StartLimitIntervalSec=0, or bursts of session switches get it rate-limited and all later switches silently stop working.

• The sync script must only edit Session= inside [Autologin].

• The Steam desktop autostart unit is guarded with ExecCondition=... XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP = KDE, so it doesn't start a second Steam inside gamescope.

• Vapor theme: comes from the cachyos-vapor package (system-wide, in /usr/share); only remove it on disable if we installed it. It is applied with lookandfeeltool --resetLayout ("Desktop and window layout"), which replaces the panel/desktop layout: the layout files are backed up to $STATE_DIR/theme-layout and restored, and every key from Vapor's contents/defaults goes through kset first. plasma-apply-colorscheme runs with the ColorScheme key cleared, since it skips a scheme already named there. The layout reset drops single user's launcher settings, so single_launcher is re-applied.

• SteamOS extras (lib/steamos-extras.sh, part of the theme): downloaded from Valve's newest steamdeck-kde-presets (repo db gives name + SHA-256) into /usr/local, never /usr. gaming-return.svg is a symlink in the package: install steam-gaming-return.svg under that name. The shortcut's icon is switched with set_shortcut_icon, since the conversion is created before the theme. An existing KWallet is never replaced or removed.

• Plasma 6 has no separate systemtray containment: tray settings live on the systemtray applet itself (Valve's setup script targets Plasma 5).

• Restart plasmashell via systemctl --user (plasma-plasmashell.service), not plasmashell --replace from the script's shell: a shell without the session environment yields a light-themed desktop (context menus, apps it launches).

• Live Plasma changes (qdbus6 ... evaluateScript, lookandfeeltool) only run when plasmashell is running; config-file fallbacks cover the rest.

• plasmashell writes its in-memory config back on exit: edit panel/applet/ wallpaper files only between stop_plasmashell_for_edit and restart_plasmashell_if_stopped (lib/common.sh).

• LED driver: leds-valve-dkms-git's Makefile builds against uname -r, not DKMS's target kernel: /etc/dkms/leds-valve-dkms.conf sets MAKE[0]="make KVERSION=${kernelver}" (written before the AUR install). Without it, other kernels build against the running kernel's tree and fail (CachyOS kernels are clang-built; DKMS adds LLVM=1 only for the target's tree). Headers for every installed kernel are installed first, and ensure-kernel-headers.service installs missing ones at boot (a pacman hook can't run pacman), which triggers DKMS's install hook. The module creates /sys/class/leds/valve-leds*.

• bios is an action (ACTIONS in lib/menu.sh), not an on/off component: never preselected (not even on a first run), never re-applied by a, not listed in the state overview, and bios_status is always off. Only selectable when Valve's version differs from the installed one (component_selectable, greyed out otherwise). Download, SHA-256 and the fwupd device check (get-details --json: no UpdateError) come before the warnings. The warning box uses █ for its frame: Konsole draws a long coloured row of # narrower, so the right edge wouldn't line up. Keep both confirmations (y/N, then typing UPDATE) and the warnings; the firmware comes from the newest holo-X.Y repo (.files db names the .cab, .db gives the SHA-256), and fwupd itself refuses non-Fremont hardware. In the VM, test it with WIZARD_BIOS_DRY_RUN=1 (skips only the device check, never flashes) and a faked version (dev-env BIOS_VERSION=F7F0107 ./run.sh --fremont).

• The entry point loops: menu, run, "back to the menu" (or [m]/[r] when a restart is needed), until q; the restart question is asked once at the end. Scripted input that runs out ends the loop like q.

• Steamify shortcut (launcher): the icon runs curl | bash of releases/latest/download/steamify.sh in Konsole, so it's always the newest release. Its icon, assets/steam-gaming-settings.svg (Valve's GPL-2.0 return icon with a gear), is a release asset too, and is downloaded from there (Steam's icon if that fails). Desktop files are written with their mode already set (install_executable): Plasma opens a desktop icon it first saw non-executable in an editor. The start script closes its window after a 10-second countdown on success and waits for Enter after an error; it uses pipefail, or a failed download would run an empty script and count as success.

• Relogin=true means a gamescope that fails to start is relaunched in a tight loop; keep that in mind when changing session handling.

Checking changes

The bundle puts every module in one file, so shellcheck sees all their local variables together: don't reuse a name another module uses as an array (e.g. g in lib/state.sh), or CI's shellcheck on the bundle fails.

There is no test suite. At minimum:

for f in steamify.sh lib/*.sh; do bash -n "$f"; done
shellcheck -S warning steamify.sh lib/*.sh   # if available

Behaviour is verified in a CachyOS QEMU/KVM test VM. The VM scripts and a Claude Code skill describing the whole test workflow (snapshots, SSH, running the wizard with scripted menu input such as printf '2\n\ny\nn\n', the per-component checks; when stdin is not a terminal the menu falls back to a numbered prompt, which is what scripted runs use, reboot checks, the full test matrix, --fremont to fake Steam Machine hardware) live in steamify-cachyos-dev. Gamescope itself and the real LED bar can only be verified on hardware.