fix(clients): the settings you chose reach the stream again, and four more that never did

Since spec mode (`f32c3aaa`, shipped in 0.22.0) the GTK shell has handed the session
a `--resolved-spec` built from `Settings::default()`. A session running from a spec
performs ZERO store reads by design, so every stream since has run at the defaults:
`bitrate_kbps: 0` reaches the host, which reads it as its 20 Mbps fallback — the
field report this starts from, "my bitrate seems to be stuck at 20 MBPS" on 0.22.3 —
and with it the resolution, refresh, render scale, codec, decoder, HDR, 4:4:4, audio
channels, mic, touch/mouse mode, invert scroll, stats tier, match-window and gamepad
type. Profiles never applied at all: the spec's `profile` was None, and spec mode
ignores `--profile`. The tell in the wild is that the GPU and audio-device pickers
kept working — the session reads those three off disk into env vars before it reads
the spec.

The plan carried a comment explaining that `settings` "carries only what the argv
needs (the fullscreen flag)". That was true when it was written and stopped being
true one commit later, in another file. `ConnectPlan::for_target` answers that shape
of bug: a front-end holding its own request type resolves through the same helper the
session's compat path uses, so there is no hand-built `Settings` left to go stale.
The GTK shell's `fullscreen_on_stream` parameter goes with it — that is a tier-P
field, and a shell-read global was beating a profile that set it. The Windows shell
was never affected (it spawns with no spec) but had the same fullscreen-vs-profile
bug, so it moves onto the resolver too.

The audit that followed found four more settings stored, rendered in two UIs, and
read by nothing:

- `enable_444` never became `VIDEO_CAP_444`. "Full chroma (4:4:4)" is announced in
  the 0.22.0 notes for Linux and Windows and did nothing on either; only Apple
  advertised the bit. The host already gates it on its own policy, its capturer,
  HEVC and a real GPU probe, and answers the resolved chroma in the Welcome before
  we build a decoder — the client only has to ask. There is no desktop decode probe
  (Apple has `Stage444Probe`), but the presenter bails cleanly on a plane format it
  doesn't know and demotes to software, so the downside is a slow decode, not a
  broken one.
- `session_params` picked the HEIGHT fallback off `settings.width == 0`.
- `cli::exec_session` dropped `--profile` from its forward list, so
  `punktfunk --connect … --profile Work` from a script or a Decky wrapper streamed
  with the host's binding instead.
- `ResolvedSpec::write_temp` named the spec by the SPAWNER's pid alone, so a
  cancelled connect and the retry behind it shared one path — and the first child's
  exit deleted the file the second was still starting up to read.

The regression test asserts the plan carries the profile-overlaid bitrate and that
the spec equals it. On the old code both are 0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

clients/linux/src/app.rs

@@ -417,15 +417,11 @@ impl SimpleComponent for AppModel {
                 self.hosts.emit(HostsMsg::ClearError);
                 self.hosts
                     .emit(HostsMsg::SetConnecting(Some(req.card_key())));
-                let fullscreen = self.settings.borrow().fullscreen_on_stream;
+                // No settings ride along: the spawner resolves this host's effective ones
-                if let Err(e) = spawn::spawn_session(
+                // (globals + its profile) for both the argv and the child's spec.
-                    sender.input_sender().clone(),
+                if let Err(e) =
-                    req,
+                    spawn::spawn_session(sender.input_sender().clone(), req, fp_hex, tofu, opts)
-                    fp_hex,
+                {
-                    tofu,
-                    fullscreen,
-                    opts,
-                ) {
                     self.busy = false;
                     self.hosts.emit(HostsMsg::SetConnecting(None));
                     self.hosts.emit(HostsMsg::ShowError(e));

clients/linux/src/cli.rs

@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ pub fn exec_session() -> glib::ExitCode {
         "--launch",
         "--mgmt",
         "--connect-timeout",
+        // A one-off profile pick, same grammar the session documents (`--profile ""` forces
+        // the global defaults). Without it here, `punktfunk --connect … --profile Work` from a
+        // script or a Decky wrapper streamed with the host's binding instead.
+        "--profile",
     ];
     let mut cmd = std::process::Command::new(crate::spawn::session_binary());
     let mut args = std::env::args().skip(1).peekable();

clients/linux/src/spawn.rs

@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 use crate::app::AppMsg;
 use crate::ui_hosts::ConnectRequest;
 use pf_client_core::orchestrate::{self, ConnectPlan, HostTarget, SessionEvent};
-use pf_client_core::trust::Settings;
 
 /// Spawn tunables beyond a plain connect.
 #[derive(Debug, Default)]
@@ -32,11 +31,49 @@ pub struct SpawnOpts {
 
 pub use orchestrate::{session_binary, CancelHandle};
 
+/// The plan one card click resolves to. `for_target` does ALL of the resolving — this
+/// device's settings with the host's bound profile (or the "Connect with ▸" one-off) overlaid,
+/// and the per-host clipboard decision — through the same helpers the session's own compat path
+/// uses, so the two cannot disagree.
+///
+/// Resolving is not optional: `orchestrate::spawn_session` writes `plan.settings` into the
+/// child's `--resolved-spec`, and a session running from a spec reads NO stores. This used to
+/// build the plan with `..Settings::default()`, on the theory that only the argv read it —
+/// which meant every stream since the arch-split ran at the DEFAULTS: the host's fallback
+/// bitrate (20 Mbps), the native resolution, `auto` codec, stereo, and no profile.
+fn plan_for(req: &ConnectRequest, fp_hex: &str, tofu: bool, opts: &SpawnOpts) -> ConnectPlan {
+    let mut plan = ConnectPlan::for_target(
+        HostTarget {
+            name: req.name.clone(),
+            addr: req.addr.clone(),
+            port: req.port,
+            fp_hex: Some(fp_hex.to_string()),
+            mac: req.mac.clone(),
+            id: None,
+        },
+        req.launch.as_ref().map(|(id, _)| id.clone()),
+        // A plain card click carries no one-off: the resolver honors the host's own binding
+        // (design/client-settings-profiles.md §4.6). Only a "Connect with ▸" pick (or a URL's
+        // `profile=`) sets one, and it applies to this session alone.
+        req.profile.clone(),
+    );
+    // This shell still runs its own dial-first wake fallback in `app.rs`, so the plan's own
+    // wake stays off (it becomes real when the GTK connect path moves onto
+    // `ConnectOrchestrator`, arch-split C0).
+    plan.wake = false;
+    plan.connect_timeout_secs = opts.connect_timeout_secs;
+    plan.tofu = tofu;
+    plan
+}
+
 /// Spawn the session binary for a connect with `fp_hex` pinned and translate its
 /// lifecycle into [`AppMsg`]s. `tofu` = the fingerprint came from the host's advert
 /// rather than the store — the app persists it once the child reports ready (the child
 /// connects pinned to it, so ready proves the host really holds that identity).
 ///
+/// Settings are NOT a parameter: the plan resolves them (including the fullscreen policy,
+/// which is a profileable field — a shell-read global would override a profile that set it).
+///
 /// The caller has already taken `busy`; [`AppMsg::SessionExited`] releases it. `Err` =
 /// the spawn itself failed (binary missing?) — surfaced as a connect error.
 pub fn spawn_session(
@@ -44,48 +81,9 @@ pub fn spawn_session(
     req: ConnectRequest,
     fp_hex: String,
     tofu: bool,
-    fullscreen_on_stream: bool,
     opts: SpawnOpts,
 ) -> Result<(), String> {
-    // The plan this connect resolves to. A plain card click carries no `--profile`: it honors
+    let plan = plan_for(&req, &fp_hex, tofu, &opts);
-    // the host's own binding, which the session resolves through the same helper this shell
-    // would have used (design/client-settings-profiles.md §4.6) — passing it here would be a
-    // second source of truth for one decision. Only a "Connect with ▸" pick (or a URL's
-    // `profile=`) sets one, and it applies to this session alone.
-    //
-    // Two fields are deliberately not the shell's state yet, because nothing in the spawn path
-    // reads them: `settings` carries only what the argv needs (the fullscreen flag), and `wake`
-    // is false because this shell still runs its own dial-first wake fallback in `app.rs`. Both
-    // become real when the GTK connect path moves onto `ConnectOrchestrator` (arch-split C0).
-    let plan = ConnectPlan {
-        host: HostTarget {
-            name: req.name.clone(),
-            addr: req.addr.clone(),
-            port: req.port,
-            fp_hex: Some(fp_hex.clone()),
-            mac: req.mac.clone(),
-            id: None,
-        },
-        launch: req.launch.as_ref().map(|(id, _)| id.clone()),
-        profile: None,
-        // A one-off pick rides the flag; without one the session resolves the host's own
-        // binding through the same helper this shell would have used.
-        profile_override: req.profile.clone(),
-        settings: Settings {
-            fullscreen_on_stream,
-            ..Default::default()
-        },
-        wake: false,
-        connect_timeout_secs: opts.connect_timeout_secs,
-        tofu,
-        // The per-host clipboard decision, resolved here so the child doesn't look it up
-        // again — matched by address, the way every other per-host lookup matches.
-        clipboard: pf_client_core::trust::KnownHosts::load()
-            .hosts
-            .iter()
-            .any(|h| h.addr == req.addr && h.port == req.port && h.clipboard_sync),
-    };
-
     let persist_paired = opts.persist_paired;
     let (mut error, mut ended) = (None::<(String, bool)>, None::<String>);
     orchestrate::spawn_session(&plan, opts.cancel, move |ev| match ev {
@@ -116,3 +114,104 @@ pub fn spawn_session(
     })?;
     Ok(())
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The plan a card click builds carries THIS DEVICE'S settings, with the host's bound
+    /// profile overlaid — not `Settings::default()`.
+    ///
+    /// This is the 0.22.x regression, and it was invisible because the defaults are all
+    /// plausible: the spec's `bitrate_kbps: 0` means "host default", which the host reads as
+    /// its 20 Mbps fallback. A stream that ignores every setting looks exactly like a stream
+    /// that is merely capped. One test, one `HOME` — the stores are read from it, so this
+    /// deliberately does not split into several that would race over the same env var.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_plan_carries_resolved_settings_not_defaults() {
+        use pf_client_core::profiles::{ProfilesFile, SettingsOverlay, StreamProfile};
+        use pf_client_core::trust::{KnownHost, KnownHosts, Settings};
+
+        let home = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("pf-spawn-test-{}", std::process::id()));
+        let cfg = home.join(".config/punktfunk");
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&cfg).unwrap();
+        std::env::set_var("HOME", &home);
+
+        // A device whose owner has set a bitrate, and a host bound to a profile that raises it
+        // further — the two layers the spec has to carry.
+        let globals = Settings {
+            bitrate_kbps: 200_000,
+            width: 2560,
+            height: 1440,
+            codec: "av1".into(),
+            fullscreen_on_stream: false,
+            ..Default::default()
+        };
+        globals.save();
+        let mut catalog = ProfilesFile {
+            version: 1,
+            profiles: vec![StreamProfile {
+                id: "aaaaaaaaaaaa".into(),
+                name: "Game".into(),
+                overrides: SettingsOverlay {
+                    bitrate_kbps: Some(750_000),
+                    ..Default::default()
+                },
+                ..StreamProfile::new("")
+            }],
+        };
+        catalog.save().unwrap();
+        let known = KnownHosts {
+            hosts: vec![KnownHost {
+                name: "Desk".into(),
+                addr: "192.168.1.50".into(),
+                port: 9777,
+                fp_hex: "a".repeat(64),
+                paired: true,
+                profile_id: Some("aaaaaaaaaaaa".into()),
+                clipboard_sync: true,
+                ..Default::default()
+            }],
+        };
+        known.save().unwrap();
+
+        let req = ConnectRequest {
+            name: "Desk".into(),
+            addr: "192.168.1.50".into(),
+            port: 9777,
+            fp_hex: Some("a".repeat(64)),
+            pair_optional: false,
+            launch: None,
+            mac: vec![],
+            profile: None,
+        };
+        let opts = SpawnOpts::default();
+
+        // A card click: globals, with the BOUND profile's overrides on top.
+        let plan = plan_for(&req, &"a".repeat(64), false, &opts);
+        assert_eq!(plan.settings.bitrate_kbps, 750_000, "profile override");
+        assert_eq!((plan.settings.width, plan.settings.height), (2560, 1440));
+        assert_eq!(plan.settings.codec, "av1");
+        assert_eq!(plan.profile.as_ref().map(|p| p.name.as_str()), Some("Game"));
+        assert!(plan.clipboard, "the host's own opt-in");
+        // …and the spec the child actually runs from is those same settings.
+        assert_eq!(plan.spec(plan.clipboard).settings, plan.settings);
+        // The fullscreen policy rides the argv from the resolved settings, not a shell global.
+        assert!(!plan.session_args().contains(&"--fullscreen".to_string()));
+
+        // "Connect with ▸ Default settings" (`Some("")`) drops back to the globals, and the
+        // flag still rides so the session agrees about which layer it is on.
+        let defaults_req = ConnectRequest {
+            profile: Some(String::new()),
+            ..req.clone()
+        };
+        let plan = plan_for(&defaults_req, &"a".repeat(64), false, &opts);
+        assert_eq!(plan.settings.bitrate_kbps, 200_000, "back to the globals");
+        assert_eq!(plan.profile, None);
+        let args = plan.session_args();
+        let i = args.iter().position(|a| a == "--profile").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(args[i + 1], "");
+
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&home);
+    }
+}

clients/session/src/main.rs

@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ mod session_main {
             } else {
                 settings.width
             },
-            height: if settings.width == 0 {
+            height: if settings.height == 0 {
                 native.height
             } else {
                 settings.height
@@ -245,11 +245,22 @@ mod session_main {
             // slice NALs, so the host may keep its multi-slice low-latency default (§7 LN1).
             // The mobile/TV embedders must NOT copy this blindly — Amlogic MediaCodec wedges
             // on multi-slice AUs (see `VIDEO_CAP_MULTI_SLICE`), so they advertise per-decoder.
+            // 4:4:4 is opt-in and off by default (Settings "Full chroma"): the bit only says
+            // "upgrade me if you can" — the host still gates on its own policy, its capturer,
+            // HEVC, and a real GPU 4:4:4 encode probe, and answers the resolved chroma in the
+            // Welcome BEFORE we build a decoder. Advertised unconditionally when the user asks
+            // for it because every decode path here can produce it: the hardware ones where the
+            // driver decodes RExt, and swscale for the rest (the decoder demotes on its own).
             video_caps: punktfunk_core::quic::VIDEO_CAP_MULTI_SLICE
                 | if settings.hdr_enabled {
                     punktfunk_core::quic::VIDEO_CAP_10BIT | punktfunk_core::quic::VIDEO_CAP_HDR
                 } else {
                     0
+                }
+                | if settings.enable_444 {
+                    punktfunk_core::quic::VIDEO_CAP_444
+                } else {
+                    0
                 },
             // No portable Wayland/X11 display-volume query yet, so the host keeps its EDID
             // defaults for Linux clients; `PUNKTFUNK_CLIENT_PEAK_NITS` (read in the session

clients/windows/src/app/connect.rs

@@ -222,7 +222,16 @@ fn connect_spawn(
     *ctx.shared.session.lock().unwrap() = child.clone();
     ctx.shared.stats_line.lock().unwrap().clear();
     ctx.shared.browse.store(false, Ordering::SeqCst);
-    let fullscreen = ctx.settings.lock().unwrap().fullscreen_on_stream;
+    // Through the same resolver the session uses, not the raw globals: "Start streams
+    // fullscreen" is a profileable (tier-P) field, so a host bound to a windowed profile has to
+    // win here too — the child takes this decision from the argv, not from its own settings.
+    let fullscreen = pf_client_core::trust::effective_settings(
+        &target.addr,
+        target.port,
+        target.profile.as_deref(),
+    )
+    .0
+    .fullscreen_on_stream;
     set_status.call(String::new());
     set_screen.call(if opts.awaiting_approval {
         Screen::RequestAccess

crates/pf-client-core/src/orchestrate.rs

@@ -110,6 +110,48 @@ impl ConnectPlan {
         }
     }
 
+    /// The plan for a host a front-end carries in its OWN request type rather than as a stored
+    /// [`KnownHost`] (the GTK shell's `ConnectRequest`, a resolved link target). Settings,
+    /// profile and the clipboard decision are resolved here, through the same helpers
+    /// [`ConnectPlan::for_host`] uses; the caller then sets only what is genuinely its own
+    /// (`wake` when it runs its own wake fallback, `tofu`, `connect_timeout_secs`).
+    ///
+    /// It exists because hand-building the struct is a trap. [`spawn_session`] writes
+    /// `settings` into the child's `--resolved-spec`, and a session running from a spec reads
+    /// NO stores — so a `..Settings::default()` in a front-end does not fall back to the
+    /// user's settings, it silently streams at every default: the host's fallback bitrate, the
+    /// native resolution, `auto` codec, stereo audio. That shipped on the GTK shell (fixed
+    /// 2026-07-31) and presented as "my bitrate is stuck at 20 Mbps".
+    pub fn for_target(
+        host: HostTarget,
+        launch: Option<String>,
+        one_off_profile: Option<String>,
+    ) -> ConnectPlan {
+        let known = KnownHosts::load();
+        // No record yet — a first connect straight off an advert. A default record says
+        // exactly the right thing: no profile binding, no clipboard opt-in.
+        let fallback = KnownHost::default();
+        let stored = known
+            .hosts
+            .iter()
+            .find(|h| h.addr == host.addr && h.port == host.port)
+            .unwrap_or(&fallback);
+        let mut plan = ConnectPlan::resolve(
+            stored,
+            launch.as_deref(),
+            one_off_profile.as_deref(),
+            &ProfilesFile::load(),
+            &Settings::load(),
+        );
+        // The CALLER's target wins over the stored record's: its fingerprint can be one the
+        // host just advertised and we haven't persisted (trust on first use), and its name/MAC
+        // come from the same discovery snapshot the card was drawn from — so `wake` has to be
+        // re-decided against that MAC rather than the record's.
+        plan.wake = plan.settings.auto_wake && !host.mac.is_empty();
+        plan.host = host;
+        plan
+    }
+
     /// The same plan, built from stores the caller already has — no disk, no clock, no
     /// environment. This is the form the URL router uses: a front-end loads the three stores
     /// once per event and every decision below is a pure function of them.
@@ -492,8 +534,16 @@ impl ResolvedSpec {
     /// than a pipe because the session already takes a file path elsewhere and a crashed
     /// spawner leaves something inspectable; the name carries the pid so concurrent launches
     /// (a shell and a CLI, or two Decky invocations) never overwrite each other's spec.
+    ///
+    /// The pid alone was not enough: it is the SPAWNER's, so two launches from one shell — a
+    /// cancelled connect and the retry right behind it — shared a single path, and the first
+    /// child's exit deleted the file the second was still starting up to read ("resolved spec:
+    /// No such file"). A per-launch counter separates them.
     pub fn write_temp(&self) -> std::io::Result<std::path::PathBuf> {
-        let path = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("punktfunk-spec-{}.json", std::process::id()));
+        static LAUNCH: std::sync::atomic::AtomicU64 = std::sync::atomic::AtomicU64::new(0);
+        let n = LAUNCH.fetch_add(1, std::sync::atomic::Ordering::Relaxed);
+        let path =
+            std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("punktfunk-spec-{}-{n}.json", std::process::id()));
         let json = serde_json::to_vec_pretty(self)
             .map_err(|e| std::io::Error::new(std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidData, e))?;
         std::fs::write(&path, json)?;