mesh-catalog/modules/rofi/README.md

rofi

The launcher as a module (novox/hq ADR 0208, research 026/04 and 05).

• Installs rofi, claims the mesh's node-launcher seat and serves its verb menu. Requires x11-display on its own machine.
• The seat's dmenu-compatible command. It places ~/.local/bin/dmenu: choices on standard input, the chosen one on standard output, exit 1 when nothing was chosen. It runs rofi -dmenu, passing on dmenu's -p, -l and -i and dropping its look options. A script, a notifier or a clipboard manager calls dmenu and works whichever module holds the seat. On a node where the dmenu module holds node-launcher instead, the real dmenu answers the same calls.
• Owns ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi and the themes mesh and mesh-powermenu in ~/.config/rofi/themes/. The faces are JetBrains Mono Nerd Font for the list and the input, and Inter for messages. Both are packages of the fonts module.
• Places its key bindings as its own i3 drop-in, ~/.config/i3/config.d/50-rofi.conf. The i3 module's configuration includes that directory after it sets $mod.
• Starts nothing. rofi runs when a key is pressed.

key	runs
$mod+d	applications (rofi-launch drun)
$mod+t	a command (rofi-launch run)
$mod+Shift+t	a command with sudo, in the terminal (rofi-launch sudo)
$mod+Shift+w	the window switcher (rofi-launch window)
$mod+Escape	the power menu (rofi-powermenu)

The power menu is here

The power menu belongs to the session. It is still the launcher's, because all of it is rofi: its theme, its buttons and its confirmation. Every action it takes is a verb of logind or the service manager, so it names no window manager and no locker:

• lock is loginctl lock-session, which the holder of node-lock-screen answers;
• log out is loginctl terminate-session;
• suspend, reboot and shut down are systemctl's.

A Wayland session gets the same menu from whichever launcher holds the seat there.

Tools

tool	does
node-launcher.menu	show a list in the operator's session and answer the chosen line and its index, or cancelled (also when nobody answers within the timeout, 20 s by default, 25 s at most)
rofi_applications	the desktop entries the launcher offers, the account's own winning an id; filter by words, hidden ones on request
rofi_themes	every theme (the mesh's, the account's, the distribution's) and the one configured
rofi_run	start a desktop entry or a command in the session, under the account's service manager

What it improves on what was found

• Plain dmenu calls work again. The one found on 2026-10-04 is the notifier's context menu: on both workstations it called /usr/bin/dmenu, which neither had installed. The dunst module now calls dmenu, and this module answers it. The operator's own scripts all call rofi -dmenu, which keeps working.
• The theme is one file per face. There is no colour file imported from a cloned theme repository. The faces are the decided ones (research 026/04): Iosevka and Hack are gone.
• The retry after resume no longer reopens a closed menu. The found launchers retried rofi -dmenu on any failure, so pressing Escape in the sudo prompt reopened it four times. rofi-launch retries only a failure within half a second, which is a failed keyboard grab.
• The power menu locks through logind, so it goes through the one locker. The found one ran i3lock directly and bypassed it. Log out no longer names four window managers.
• icon-theme and window-command are gone. They named an icon theme and a program (wmctrl) that nothing installs. rofi's defaults serve.

What it leaves as found

• ~/.config/rofi/themes-repo/ (a cloned theme repository), the five symbolic links into it (applets, images, launchers, powermenu, scripts), colors/, theme.rasi and powermenu.rasi.
• The predecessor's scripts in ~/scripts: rofi-launcher-normal, rofi-launcher-terminal, rofi-launcher-terminal-sudo and powermenu (replaced here), and theme-picker with its modes (settings, once issue 168 closes).

Migration (ADR 0182)

Once the i3 module carries the main i3 configuration:

1. Delete ~/.config/rofi/theme.rasi, powermenu.rasi, colors/, the five links and themes-repo/. Nothing reads them any more.
2. Delete the four scripts above from ~/scripts.
3. Your scripts that call rofi -dmenu keep working. Calling dmenu instead lets them follow the seat, for example to a Wayland launcher later.

Blockers

• node-launcher, x11-display and the i3 drop-in directory are ADR 0208's and the i3 module's. Until the controller knows the seat, mctl reads the claim as unknown.
• ~/.local/bin is on PATH through the zsh module's environment contribution (ADR 0203). The key bindings name ~/.local/bin/… in full, so they do not depend on it. Callers of dmenu do.