Research 018: the operator's machine as modules

The predecessor is retired on every node and what it still owned on the two workstations — some thirty modules of dotfiles, user units and /etc files — is owned by nothing. To-be 29 covers one directory under the home; the operator wants the whole machine, system folders and home alike, as modules: one default configuration each, varied per node by settings or a kept region, never an edit; roles the machine has once as node-scoped seats with tool contracts; the graphical stack gated by a capability so the same catalogue serves the servers. Four documents: the intended behaviour in the mesh's words; the predecessor's desktop measured (34 modules, one with 88 files, 4 flavors and ~90 theme variables) against what the records already give and what is missing (the account is empty on every node, no user-scoped units, settings leak, tools run in a container per module per node); the direction the operator set for where tools run — one executor per node, host-side, module-agnostic, the console renamed and moved out of its container, superseding 0047/0150 for tools; and the candidate seats of the environment with first verbs, the shell first.
2026-10-02 15:19:25 +02:00
parent a4d24d7b65
commit 7fb59bde98
5 changed files with 423 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
 ---
 status: active
 initiated: 2026-10-02
 touches:
  - 02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md
  - 02-DECISIONS/0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md
  - 02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md
  - 02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md
  - 02-DECISIONS/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md
  - 02-DECISIONS/0161-what-deserves-a-seat.md
  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md
  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md
  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md
  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md
  - 03-DESIGN/00-as-is/10-module-catalogue.md
  - 04-ISSUES/160-a-machine-says-little-about-itself-and-only-when-asked/00-report.md
  - 04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md
 became: []
 ---
 # 018 — The operator's machine as modules
 **What.** The mesh owns the whole machine, not only the services on it. Everything a person
 configures on a node — the login manager, the display server, the window manager, the shell, the
 terminal, the launcher, the notifier, the audio setup, the boot images, the downloads folder, the
 agent at the terminal — is a module: a package, the files it owns under `/etc` and under the
 operator's home, the seat it holds, the tools it serves. One default configuration per module,
 varied per node only through settings rendered into the file or a kept operator region, never
 through an edit. The servers take the universal modules (shell, prompt, git, the agent); the
 workstations take those and the graphical stack, which a capability the machine reports gates.
 This effort writes that behaviour down, measures what the predecessor's desktop modules actually
 contain, and settles what the mesh must gain before the first of them can be written.
 **Why.** The predecessor is retired on every node. What it still owned on the two workstations —
 about thirty modules' worth of dotfiles, user units and `/etc` files — is now owned by nothing:
 no generator regenerates them, and a fix to one of them is a hand edit that nothing records. The
 migration scoped these modules out as *the workstation's own environment*, and
 [to-be 29](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) names them as the last
 thing the predecessor was keeping alive. To-be 29 covers one directory, `~/.ssh`, and draws a
 boundary inside it. The operator wants no boundary: the machine is the mesh's, as far as it makes
 sense to configure it. That is a wider scope than any design states, and it reaches three records
 that were written for services: what a module is, where a module's tools run, and what a managed
 file may be.
 **What it touches.** The module definition ([ADR 0040](../../02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md)),
 seats and their contracts ([ADR 0132](../../02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md)),
 where a module's tools run ([ADR 0150](../../02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md),
 [ADR 0152](../../02-DECISIONS/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md),
 [to-be 33](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md) §6), the host's vocabulary
 ([to-be 05](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md)), managed files and settings
 ([ADR 0011](../../02-DECISIONS/0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md),
 [issue 168](../../04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md)),
 and the catalogue's shape ([as-is 10](../../03-DESIGN/00-as-is/10-module-catalogue.md)).
 **Documents.**
 - [01 — The intended behaviour](01-the-intended-behaviour.md): the operator's wish, written as
  how the mesh behaves, in the mesh's own words.
 - [02 — What exists, and what is missing](02-what-exists-and-what-is-missing.md): the
  predecessor's desktop modules measured; which records already say what is wanted; the gaps.
 - [03 — One tool executor per node](03-one-tool-executor-per-node.md): where a module's tools
  run. The direction the operator set, the evidence for it, and what it supersedes.
 - [04 — The seats of the environment](04-the-seats-of-the-environment.md): the roles a machine
  has once, their candidate contracts, and what gates each.
 **What this must settle before it graduates.**
 1. A module is one *managed thing*, software or not, and every module may serve tools — or ADR
   0040 already says this and only its examples are narrow.
 2. One tool executor per node, host-side, module-agnostic; which records it supersedes and
   in what form the console continues.
 3. Per-node variation is a setting rendered into the file or a kept region, never an edit —
   ADR 0011 stands — and issue 168 is fixed before any environment module carries a setting.
 4. User-scoped units on the host's `service` shape, and a service-manager seat whose holder
   serves the tools about them.
 5. The operator account stated on every node; today no node record carries one.
 6. The seats of the environment and their verbs, one record per seat, slowly, because a
   seat's tools bind every future holder.
 7. Where the environment modules live: this catalogue, or one of their own as the media chain
   has; and whether a third-party organisation's tooling belongs in a public catalogue at all.
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
 # 01 — The intended behaviour
 *Written 2026-10-02 from the operator's words, in the mesh's words. What is wanted, before what
 exists. Where a sentence restates a record, the record is named; where it goes further, that is
 said.*
 ## The machine is the mesh's
 **Everything configurable on a node is declared by a module.** Not only the services the mesh
 runs: the login manager, the display server, the window manager, the bar, the launcher, the
 notifier, the compositor, the lock screen, the terminal emulator, the clipboard, the shell and its
 prompt, the editor, the audio setup, the boot images, the package manager's configuration, the
 agent a person runs at a terminal, and the folders a person works in — a downloads folder that is
 tidied, backed up, distributed to other nodes and asked questions of. System folders and the
 operator's home alike. The operator is the only person on every node, so the mesh manages the
 person's machine, not a machine with a person on it.
 This is [ADR 0040](../../02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md)'s definition applied without
 the service bias its examples carry. A module is one managed thing, named once, described
 completely by its manifest. It may have a package, files, a container, a unit, a binary, a seat it
 holds, and tools it serves — any one of these, or all, or two. There is **no kind of module**: zsh
 has a package, files, a seat claim and the tools that claim obliges it to serve; downloads has a
 folder, a process and tools; nftables has a package, files, a service, a seat and tools. The
 difference is what each declares, not what each is.
 **The home has no boundary.** [To-be 29](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md)
 owns one directory under the home and draws a line inside it between the mesh's and the person's.
 Here the line is drawn only by what the modules declare: every file some module places is the
 mesh's; what no module declares is found and left alone, exactly as the adoption rules already
 say for a machine. The reach is bounded by sense, not by a rule — the mesh configures what can
 be configured, and a person's documents, projects and history are data under
 [ADR 0051](../../02-DECISIONS/0051-shared-data-is-the-operators.md), not configuration.
 **A module names no node and no path.** The operator account is a node fact and the home is
 derived from it ([to-be 29](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) §1–2,
 shipped in the controller; its record is proposed in an open change). A module places a file
 *under the home, owned by the account*, and the same manifest lands on a server and a laptop.
 ## One default, varied by settings, never by edits
 **One module, one default configuration.** The window manager module ships the configuration
 that is right for every node. There are no flavors: the predecessor's one desktop module carried
 four, one per class of machine, and what differed between them is what settings are for.
 **A node varies a module in exactly two ways.** A **setting**, declared by the module with its
 type, meaning and default (proposed alongside the container-runtime records), set for the mesh
 or for one node, and rendered into the file at composition — the value is in the file, not in an
 environment variable the file reads. Or a **kept region**: a block in a file the mesh writes
 *into*, where the operator's own lines survive every push
 ([ADR 0102](../../02-DECISIONS/0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md)). An
 edit to a managed file outside such a region is not a third way; it is overwritten, as
 [ADR 0011](../../02-DECISIONS/0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md) says, and the
 predecessor's habit of adopting disk drift back into its database is not carried over.
 The predecessor's theming — some ninety environment variables substituted into templates at sync
 time, with tools to list and set them — is the same idea with the wrong rendering. The knobs
 become declared settings; the file carries the value.
 ## Roles a machine has once are seats, and seats carry tools
 **A role a machine fills at most once is a node-scoped seat**, declared by a module
 ([ADR 0121](../../02-DECISIONS/0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md),
 [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md)): the login shell, the
 display session, the display server, the terminal emulator, the launcher, the notifier, the
 compositor, the lock screen, the service manager, the boot loader. Several modules may be able to
 hold one — zsh, fish and bash can all hold the login shell — and the assignment on each node says
 which does. Installing a shell is installing software; holding the seat is being *the* shell.
 **A seat's contract is its tools** ([ADR 0132](../../02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md)).
 Every holder of the login-shell seat serves `execute`, which takes one string, the command, and
 runs it on the node the seat is scoped to. Every holder of the boot seat serves "rebuild the boot
 images", so *"rebuild your boot images"* is a verb addressed to a machine, not a one-off step in
 a hook. Every holder of the service-manager seat answers for the units on the machine, system and
 user scope. A module may serve its own tools beside the seat's
 ([ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md) §2): show the rendered
 configuration, set a theme value, report status.
 **Any tool may be called from any node.** The operator's statement, and the grant model it
 implies: the executor on each node may call everything, as the console already may. A verb that
 needs root on the machine is the module's concern — the tool escalates, the executor and the
 caller do not know.
 ## Servers and workstations differ by capability, not by catalogue
 The same catalogue serves every node. A module declares what it needs — a graphical session, a
 display server, a container runtime — and the machine reports what it has, as the profile already
 reports eight capabilities today ([issue 160](../../04-ISSUES/160-a-machine-says-little-about-itself-and-only-when-asked/00-report.md)).
 Assignment refuses the wrong placement by name
 ([ADR 0161](../../02-DECISIONS/0161-what-deserves-a-seat.md) §3). So every node takes the shell,
 the prompt, git and the agent; only a node with a graphical session can take the display server,
 and only a node holding the display server can take a window manager. Nothing in a module says
 "workstation".
 ## What the operator would say to the mesh
 *Set the login shell on the build node to fish. Rebuild the laptop's boot images. Show me the
 window manager's effective configuration on the desktop and where each value comes from. Give
 the downloads folder on the laptop to the home server. Run `uptime` on every node.* Each of these
 is a seat verb or a module tool, addressed to a node, answered by whatever holds the role there.
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
 # 02 — What exists, and what is missing
 *Measured 2026-10-02 on one installation: two workstations, two servers, all four converged to
 the mesh; the predecessor retired on the last workstation the day before. Numbers are from the
 machines and the repositories, not from memory.*
 ## 1. What the predecessor's desktop looks like
 The predecessor's catalogue on the laptop held **34 modules**, of which **28** are the operator's
 environment rather than services. By what they declare:
 | shape | count | examples |
 |---|---|---|
 | package only | 9 | browser, mail client, process monitor, media player, file manager, chat |
 | package + `/etc` files + system service | 5 | login manager, display server, power and thermal daemons, package manager configuration |
 | package + files under the home | 6 | shell and prompt, the agent at the terminal, scripts, the sync client, a music player |
 | files under the home + user units + hooks | 2 | the desktop environment, audio |
 | third-party organisation tooling | 6 | out of scope here |
 **The desktop module alone** declares **88 files**, **4 flavors** (the window-manager stack, and
 one per class of machine), **2 user units** with a hook to enable them, 8 files under `/etc`, a
 wallpaper shipped as an asset, and reads **about 90 environment variables** as theme knobs,
 substituted into its templates at sync time and set through a theming tool. Its hook exists
 because *shipping a unit file does not run it*: one unit had been deployed for months and ran on
 one machine only, because somebody had enabled it there by hand.
 **The shell module** ships `~/.zshrc`, the prompt configuration, an `~/.ssh/config` that the
 predecessor generated from its registry, and a `LOGIN_SHELL` variable applied with `chsh` by a
 hook. Two flavors: the prompt theme, and autocompletion.
 **Other modules write into the desktop module's files.** The chat client places i3 and notifier
 snippets into `config.d` directories the desktop module owns, and its launch flags, window
 placement and notification colours are each a variable with a default.
 **One-off steps live in hooks** across the set: enable user units, `chsh`, create a swap file,
 `mkinitcpio`, enable a vendor VPN service the package ships disabled. Every one is state the
 host could declare or a verb a seat could serve; none is today.
 ## 2. What the migration did with them
 The migration's module to-do scoped the whole set out as *desktop / workstation ricing — the
 workstation's own environment* and *node/OS tooling — managed on the node, never catalogue*. The
 last workstation's runbook then split the same set three ways: **A**, system scope, which the
 host's vocabulary can express today (the login manager, the display server, the power daemons,
 the package manager, the container runtime); **B**, under a home or a user unit, waiting on
 to-be 29; **C**, package only, the operator's call. The migration log closes the workstation with
 *the operator's desktop awaiting its design*.
 Two things followed from scoping them out. Nothing regenerates those files now, so a fix is a hand
 edit — the login manager's session script was fixed this way on the day of writing, and recorded
 in a repository nothing deploys from. And the one piece of this family written as a mesh module,
 the ssh client, was closed on hold in the catalogue until the controller carried the account fact.
 ## 3. What the records already give
 | wanted | record | state |
 |---|---|---|
 | one module per managed thing; every module may have tools | [ADR 0040](../../02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md) | accepted; examples are services, and the shell is named as a *shared* seat |
 | a module declares its own node-scoped seat | [ADR 0121](../../02-DECISIONS/0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md), [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md) | accepted |
 | a seat's contract is its tools; a holder may add its own | [ADR 0132](../../02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md), [ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md) | accepted; one node seat serves verbs live |
 | a capability the machine reports gates a holder | [ADR 0161](../../02-DECISIONS/0161-what-deserves-a-seat.md) §3 | accepted; the profile already reports `graphical-session` |
 | the account as a node fact; a file under the home owned by it | [to-be 29](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) §1–2 | built in the controller; its record proposed in an open change |
 | inside a home: owned, written into, written by the module, found | proposed in the same change | proposed |
 | a setting declared with type, meaning, default and cost | proposed with the container-runtime records | proposed |
 | a managed file is derived; an edit is overwritten | [ADR 0011](../../02-DECISIONS/0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md) | accepted |
 | the mesh writes into a shared file, never over it | [ADR 0102](../../02-DECISIONS/0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md) | accepted |
 | a module names no path; the host resolves the home | [ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md) | accepted |
 | the `user` shape: a login shell is declared state | [to-be 05](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md) | designed; used by no module |
 ## 4. What is missing
 1. **The account is recorded nowhere.** The node record has the column; on all four nodes it
   is empty. Every home-scoped module is unassignable until the operator states it.
 2. **User-scoped units.** The host's `service` shape has no user scope. To-be 29 says it
   plainly: *a workstation's per-user daemons have no form the mesh can send.* The desktop
   module's two units, the audio masks, the power module's memory guard and the thermal
   daemon's profile switcher all need it.
 3. **One-off steps.** `mkinitcpio`, `chsh`, creating a swap file. Each is either declared
   state the host lacks a shape for, or a verb a seat should serve. An action in a declaration
   is refused over the link, and rightly.
 4. **Settings leak** ([issue 168](../../04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md)):
   a setting reaches every mergeable file and every contribution of its module. Ninety theme
   knobs on that mechanism would reach ninety files. The proposed settings record says a setting
   names the file it lands in; that has to ship first.
 5. **Where tools run.** Every module that serves a tool today does so from its own container
   per node. See [03](03-one-tool-executor-per-node.md).
 6. **A seat's verbs are undecided for every seat but three.** To-be 33 leaves which verbs each
   seat serves as *a decision per seat, slowly*. The environment adds a dozen seats.
 7. **Catalogue placement.** The media chain left this catalogue for its own; whether the
   environment does the same, and whether a third-party organisation's tooling belongs in a
   public catalogue, are unasked.
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
 # 03 — One tool executor per node
 *The direction the operator set on 2026-10-02, the evidence it rests on, and what it supersedes.
 A direction, not yet a decision: the record is written when this effort graduates.*
 ## Where tools are served today
 [To-be 33](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md) names three families — a
 role's tools on the seat, a module's own tools on the module, the mesh's own verbs on the
 controller seat — and [ADR 0160](../../02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)
 says a runtime serves the subjects its membership issues. What *runs* that runtime is
 [ADR 0150](../../02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md):
 one supervised process per module, under the module's own account, carrying that module's
 compiled tools. Measured on the live mesh:
 | who answers | how it runs | count |
 |---|---|---|
 | the mesh's own verbs | the controller binary, on its node | 17 verbs |
 | the store seat | the store's own runtime | 2 verbs |
 | the packet-filter seat | **a container per node**, built on the tool-runtime base image, with the network namespace and `NET_ADMIN`, on all four nodes | 3 verbs and 1 own tool |
 | every module's own tools | the module's container, one per node it runs on | 67 tools across the catalogue |
 | the console | a container per node, loopback MCP, `invokes: *` | serves none, calls all |
 | the host | — | serves nothing; answers no question about the machine |
 **The packet-filter holder is the case to look at.** The module is a package, three files and a
 system service. To serve three verbs it also declares a built image and a container on every
 node whose only job is to answer them. Scaled to the environment — a shell, a prompt, a launcher,
 a notifier, a compositor, a login manager, a service manager, a boot loader, a downloads folder —
 that is one container per module per node for software that is itself not a container, and the
 operator's judgement is that tools should not run inside a container at all.
 ## The direction
 **One tool executor per node, on the host side.** A process the host supervises, the way the
 launcher supervises the host ([ADR 0005](../../02-DECISIONS/0005-the-node-host.md)): not a
 container, one bus credential for the node, module-agnostic. It loads the tool code of every
 module assigned to the node and serves each module's tools and each held seat's verbs on the
 subjects the membership issues — nothing changes in what [ADR 0159](../../02-DECISIONS/0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md)
 and [ADR 0160](../../02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)
 say about subjects, grants and memberships; what changes is that one process subscribes for the
 node instead of one per module.
 - **A module brings its tools as a built artifact**, a bundle the pipeline produces, never an
  image. The executor knows bundles and subjects; it knows nothing of zsh or nftables.
 - **A tool is code the module wrote**, one function behind an MCP verb. `execute` on the shell
  seat is a function with a string argument. The executor does not declare, template or
  interpret tools; it runs them.
 - **Root is the module's concern.** A tool that must change the packet filter or rebuild boot
  images escalates itself. The executor does not run as root for everyone, and the caller does
  not know.
 - **Any node may call any tool on any node.** The executor's credential may call everything,
  as the console's already does; per-module grants on the calling side are not kept.
 - **The mesh's own verbs stay with the controller** ([ADR 0154](../../02-DECISIONS/0154-the-meshs-own-verbs-are-the-controller-seats-tools.md)),
  and a mesh-scoped seat's verbs run on the node that holds it
  ([ADR 0121](../../02-DECISIONS/0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md)).
  No hub is added; the controller's node is already one.
 **The console is the executor, renamed.** It already runs on every node with a credential that
 may call everything, and it already serves the mesh's tools to whoever is on the machine over
 MCP on loopback ([ADR 0152](../../02-DECISIONS/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md)).
 It moves out of its container into the host's process tree, gains the serving half, and takes a
 name that says what it is — *the node's tool runtime* or simply *node tools*; "console" names
 the operator's half only.
 ## What it supersedes, and what it keeps
 | record | effect |
 |---|---|
 | [ADR 0047](../../02-DECISIONS/0047-a-module-runs-its-code-as-its-own-process-with-its-own-account.md), [ADR 0150](../../02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md) | superseded *for tools*: one process per node runs every module's tool code, under one account. A module's long-running service — a daemon, a container — is untouched; the executor runs tools, not services. The record must say why one account for every module's tools is acceptable: every tool may be called from every node anyway, and root is taken by the tool, not granted to the process |
 | [ADR 0152](../../02-DECISIONS/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md) | kept in substance — a module, assigned per node, loopback MCP, the machine's login is the authority — changed in form: host-side, not a container; serves as well as calls; renamed |
 | [to-be 33](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md) §6, [to-be 34](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md) | amended the same way |
 | [ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md) §3, *a container may ask for a capability* | moot for that holder: the verbs run on the host side and escalate as they need |
 | the container-runtime seat, proposed in an open change: *the holder runs as a supervised process and serves the verbs locally to the host and on the bus* | consistent — a supervised process serving verbs is what the executor is; the open question is whether that holder keeps its own process or serves through the executor like everyone else |
 | the tool-runtime base image | no longer the way tools reach a node; may remain the way a module's *service* is built |
 ## What stays open
 - **The executor's language.** The host is a static Go binary and loads no plugins, so the
  executor is a sibling process, and its language decides the language of every tool bundle.
  One decision, taken once.
 - **How a bundle reaches the node.** An artifact of the module's build, delivered as the host
  delivers everything else; whether it is a file resource in the declaration or a thing the
  executor fetches by digest.
 - **Reload.** A push that adds or upgrades a module's bundle reaches a running executor as a
  reload, not a restart, or every tool on the node blinks on every push.
 - **The host's own questions.** [Issue 160](../../04-ISSUES/160-a-machine-says-little-about-itself-and-only-when-asked/00-report.md)
  wants a machine to say more about itself. With an executor on every node, "what is this
  machine made of" is a seat verb like any other, served there.
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
 # 04 — The seats of the environment
 *Candidates, not decisions. To-be 33 says which verbs a seat serves is a decision per seat,
 taken slowly, because a seat's tools bind every future holder. This document lists the roles the
 operator's machine has once, who could hold each, what gates it, and a first verb or two — so
 each record has a starting point.*
 ## The rule for what is a seat here
 A role the machine fills **at most once** is a node-scoped seat, declared by the module family
 that fills it ([ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md)). A thing
 several of which coexist without contention — editors, browsers, media players — is not a seat;
 each is a module with its own tools, and nothing is singular about it. A seat is held by one
 assignment per node; other modules of the same family may be installed beside it without
 holding it ([ADR 0040](../../02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md) §1, read with the sharper
 distinction: *installed* is not *holding*).
 ## Candidate seats
 | seat | holders | gated by | first verbs |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | **login shell** | zsh, fish, bash | nothing: universal | `execute(command)`; `show-config`; the holding itself sets the account's login shell through the host's `user` shape |
 | **service manager** | systemd | the `service-manager` capability the profile reports | units: list, status, start, stop, restart, enable, journal; **user scope** on each |
 | **boot** | grub, systemd-boot | a machine that boots itself (not a container host) | `rebuild-images`; `entries` |
 | **package manager** | pacman, apt | the `package-manager` capability | search, installed, upgrade, orphans; today a capability the host uses, not a seat anyone holds |
 | **display server** | xorg, wayland compositors that are their own server | the `graphical-session` capability | `displays`; `layout` |
 | **display session** | i3, sway | the display server seat held on the node; i3 needs x11, sway needs wayland | `reload`; `workspaces`; `windows`; `move` |
 | **terminal emulator** | xterm, alacritty, foot | display session | `open`; `font` |
 | **launcher** | rofi, dmenu | display session | `show`; `theme` |
 | **notifier** | dunst, mako | display session | `send`; `history`; `rule` |
 | **compositor** | picom | display server (x11 only) | `restart`; `effects` |
 | **lock screen** | i3lock, swaylock | display session | `lock` |
 | **bar** | i3status-rust, waybar | display session | `reload`; `blocks` |
 | **login manager** | lemurs, greetd | graphical session | `sessions`; `default-session` |
 | **audio** | pipewire, pulseaudio | the machine reports a sound device | `sinks`, `sources`, `default`, `volume`, `mute` |
 | **clipboard** | greenclip, cliphist | display session | `history`; `clear` |
 Not seats, modules with their own tools: the editor, the browser, the mail client, the file
 manager, the media player, the chat client, the agent at the terminal, the downloads folder, the
 scripts folder, the sync client, the power and thermal daemons that are specific to one machine's
 hardware.
 ## What the table implies
 **Capabilities come first.** `graphical-session`, `service-manager` and `package-manager` are
 reported today. *A display server is held* is not a capability but a seat being held, and a
 module that needs it declares a dependency on the seat, not on a capability: *i3 needs the
 display server seat held by xorg*. Whether a held seat can gate another's assignment is a
 question for the controller's resolver, and the first environment module after the shell will
 ask it.
 **The service manager comes early.** Four of the predecessor's modules ship user units, and the
 executor itself is a unit. User scope on the host's `service` shape is a host change whichever
 module holds the seat; the seat's holder answers the questions about units, it does not apply
 them — the host does, as it does for every declared resource.
 **The shell comes first.** Universal, no capability, one verb that is immediately useful on
 every node, and the `user` shape already makes the login shell declared state. It is the module
 that proves the pattern: a package, files under the home owned by the account, a seat claim,
 tools served by the executor, settings for the few things that vary per node, and a kept region
 for the operator's own lines.
 **The login manager is the first system-scope one**, because it needs nothing new: a package,
 two files under `/etc`, a service — the same shape the ssh daemon module has today — and the
 session script it owns is the file that was hand-fixed the day this effort opened.