# desk-channel

The desk as a channel of the operator's conversation: kind `desktop` of the `channel` and `intake` benches the
router (`messenger`) declares (novox/hq ADR 0258, ADR 0259). It shows the router's messages on the notifier of
each machine the operator sits at (the `node-notifier` seat), and says which button was chosen there.

- **It proves nothing about who clicked.** Any process of the operator's account can choose a notification's
  action (`dunstctl action`), so its claim declares no `verified-sender`: the router offers here only
  acknowledgements (Silence for a week, Details) and says in the words where an approval can be given.
- **An answer is taken only on a machine its message was shown on**, and once; a refused click is said where it
  was made. A message with buttons stays until it is dismissed.
- **A notifier that started again** (`dunst.started`) is shown again every open message with buttons it showed.
- A message no machine took is said to the router as failed; the router tries it again.

## What the operator gives

The machines to show on, as a setting: `settings` for `desk-channel` with
`{"desktop-machines": ["<the machine the operator sits at>", …]}`. Until then it says it cannot send, and the
router sends warnings to the channel that reaches the operator away.

## Where it runs

Held once for the mesh, on the same machine as the router, which is where it is assigned. **It runs as the
account `desk-channel`, in a runtime of its own, on a bus account of its own** (`runs-as`), as telegram does:
what it shows and the answers it says are out of reach of the operator's account, which agents run as. It asks
each machine's notifier through the mesh: nothing new runs on the machines.

## A link's code (the review of 2026-10-09)

- **It is shown only where it is seen.** Each machine's notifier says whether it is paused (`dunst.paused`, at
  least every two minutes). A message the router marks secret is shown only on a named machine heard unpaused in
  the last five minutes; while there is none, it is said to the router as failed and the desk says it cannot
  send, so the router starts no link. A code held by a paused notifier would appear later, to whoever is at the
  screen then.
- **It is kept nowhere.** Not in this module's state, and sent `secret` to the notifier, which sends it
  transient in the category `mesh.secret`: dunst's rules keep it out of its history, and
  `node-notifier.history`, which every caller of the mesh's verbs may read, leaves it out.
- **What remains**: while it is on screen, a program of the operator's account on that X display can read it
  (X11 isolates no client from another). It is shown for as long as the router's code lives.

## Tools

| tool | does |
|---|---|
| `desk_channel_status` | whether it can show messages, the machines and each one's last answer, and its rules |