mesh-catalog/modules/nm-applet

nm-applet

NetworkManager's tray applet on the workstations, as a module (novox/hq ADR 0208). It requires x11-display, so it is assigned only where a display server is held on the same machine.

Owns

what	where
the applet (and, as its dependencies, the connection editor and libnma)	package network-manager-applet, from the official repositories

Nothing else. It holds no seat, makes no contribution and writes no file.

• No AUR. Both workstations run the official package (extra), installed explicitly.
• NetworkManager is not this module's. The networkmanager module holds the node's uplink (node-uplink) with it, on servers as well as workstations. It declares the networkmanager package, its one drop-in and its service. This module declares none of them (ADR 0210 §4: one package, one module), and it does not declare the applet's own dependencies (nm-connection-editor, libnma) either: the package brings them.
• Why a module of its own, and not a part of networkmanager: that module runs on machines with no display, where a tray applet has nothing to draw on and the package would pull in GTK. The applet is a desktop piece, beside blueman (for bluetooth) in the same way.
• The connections stay the operator's. The applet is NetworkManager's secret agent: it asks for a network's password and can keep it in the keyring. Profiles, networks, secrets and addresses are joined at the machine (the networkmanager module's README). The tools never ask for them.
• The applet's settings are found. It keeps its switches in dconf (org.gnome.nm-applet): the notifications it shows and whether it shows itself. The module neither sets nor resets them.

How it starts: the package's autostart entry, and nothing else

The package ships /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop (nm-applet, NotShowIn=KDE;GNOME;). The session runs it once at login through the i3 module's dex --autostart --environment i3. That entry is the applet's one start. The module adds no xinitrc slot and no node-display-session exec, because either would start it a second time.

• Excluded: the window manager's exec … nm-applet, which the i3 module's configuration dropped.

Tools

They are served by the node's runtime as the operator account (ADR 0175).

tool	does
nm_applet_status (r)	whether the applet runs: pid, since, and the scope or unit it runs in the installed version, and what starts it at login its switches in org.gnome.nm-applet NetworkManager's overall state: state, connectivity, Wi-Fi and networking on or off. Never a connection, a network, a secret or an address
nm_applet_restart (a)	asks the applet to end (SIGTERM), forces it after 5 s, and starts nm-applet in the operator's session as a transient user unit mesh-nm-applet, so it outlives the tools runtime. NetworkManager and its connections are not touched; for those few seconds no secret agent answers a password prompt. Refused plainly when nobody is logged in to the desktop
nm_applet_check (r)	the package is installed exactly one start: the package's entry is present and not hidden by an entry of the account, and dex is installed no window-manager exec one applet runs in a desktop session NetworkManager.service is active Each finding says what to do

The tools find the session's DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY from the window manager's own environment, as blueman does. Every command has a timeout and capped output. Everything runs through an injected runner and a fake root in the tests.

What changes when it is assigned

	laptop	desktop
package	none: network-manager-applet 1.36.0, explicit, from extra	the same
start	none: dex starts the applet from the package's entry, in the login session's scope	none on disk. The applet running now came from the predecessor's window-manager line (nm-applet --sm-disable, a child of i3, since the session of 2026-10-04 16:00). That session began before the i3 module dropped the line and installed dex, so the next login is the first that starts it from the entry

Migration (ADR 0182)

Nothing is required on either machine. On the desktop, log out and in once, or run nm_applet_restart, and the applet runs from its one start. nm_applet_check then answers ok.

Leaves as found

• The applet's dconf settings (/org/gnome/nm-applet/).
• /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop, the package's own file.
• Every connection profile and secret.

Relies on

• The networkmanager module, for NetworkManager. There is no dependency mechanism between two modules that hold no seat, so nothing refuses nm-applet without it; nm_applet_check reports it. networkmanager holds node-uplink, but a module cannot depend on a seat without a resource or a contribution that derives it (ADR 0207, ADR 0210 §3). Assign both.
• i3's dex line for the start, which is equally undeclared: XDG autostart has no seat. Assigned without i3, the applet is installed and does not start. nm_applet_check says so.
• A display server on the same machine (x11-display, ADR 0208 §3).