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>
punktfunk-session
The Vulkan session binary: one stream per invocation in an SDL3 window — no UI toolkit,
no widgets, terminal stats. The power-user / gamescope stream client, and the stage-2
presenter of the Linux client re-architecture (punktfunk-planning:
linux-client-rearchitecture.md).
This binary is deliberately dumb: a renderer the front-ends call INTO — the GTK shell
(punktfunk-client), the WinUI shell, and the punktfunk CLI all spawn it through the
same brain (pf_client_core::orchestrate), which resolves policy (profiles, settings,
wake) and hands the result down, normally as a --resolved-spec file. It reads the
shared stores only as the compat fallback for a bare hand-launched invocation.
punktfunk-session --connect host[:port] [--fp HEX] [--launch id] [--fullscreen] [--stats]
punktfunk-session --browse host[:port] [--mgmt PORT] [--fullscreen]
--browse opens the console game library (the Skia coverflow over the animated aurora)
instead of connecting: A launches the focused title as a stream in the same window,
session end returns to the library, B quits (Gaming Mode returns). Paired hosts only —
pairing is the desktop client / Decky plugin's job. PUNKTFUNK_FAKE_LIBRARY=<file.json>
feeds canned entries with no host (portrait paths starting with / load from disk).
Reads the same identity / known-hosts / settings stores as the desktop client
(punktfunk-client), so enrolling on either side makes the other work; this binary never
connects to a host it has no pinned fingerprint for (--fp HEX overrides the store).
Pairing is punktfunk pair <host> — the CLI, which ships alongside this binary in every
package and needs no window and no toolkit either. punktfunk-session --pair still works
for one release (someone's provisioning script calls it today) but prints a deprecation
notice: pairing is a trust ceremony and belongs to the brain, not a renderer.
Stdout is the machine interface: {"ready":true} after the first presented frame,
stats: … once per second while the overlay tier isn't Off (always the full detailed
text, whatever the OSD shows; --stats forces the overlay on), one
{"error"|"ended": …} JSON line on the way out. Logs go to stderr. Exit codes: 0
clean end, 2 connect failed, 3 trust rejected / pairing required, 4 presenter
init failed.
In-stream keys match the desktop client: click captures input (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q releases), Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D disconnects, F11 toggles fullscreen; the controller escape chord (L1+R1+Start+Select, hold to disconnect) works the same.
The default build carries the Skia console UI (ui feature): the stats OSD and capture
hint render in-window. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S cycles the OSD tier live — Off → Compact (one
line: fps · latency · Mb/s) → Normal (mode + end-to-end percentiles) → Detailed (decoder
path + per-stage latency equation); any tier but Off also emits the stdout mirror.
--no-default-features is the ~5 MB power-user build — same streaming, stats on stdout
only, no Skia anywhere in the dependency tree.
Decode follows the Settings preference (auto: Vulkan Video → VAAPI → software on Linux,
Vulkan Video → D3D11VA → software on Windows): FFmpeg's Vulkan Video decoder runs on the
presenter's own device where the stack supports it (every vendor, zero copy); VAAPI
dmabufs import per-plane elsewhere (D3D11VA textures on Windows); software is the
universal fallback. 10-bit Main10 and HDR10 are advertised
(VIDEO_CAP_10BIT|HDR): P010 decodes through all three paths, and PQ streams present
on an HDR10/ST.2084 swapchain when the desktop offers one (KDE HDR, gamescope) or
tone-map in-shader to SDR when it doesn't (PUNKTFUNK_TONEMAP_PEAK tunes the rolloff,
default ≈1000 nits). The host still gates the upgrade behind its PUNKTFUNK_10BIT
policy.
Debug/bisect knobs: PUNKTFUNK_DECODER=vulkan|vaapi|d3d11va|software, PUNKTFUNK_PRESENT_MODE= mailbox|immediate (default FIFO), PUNKTFUNK_VK_DEVICE=<index> (multi-GPU), and
PUNKTFUNK_HW_FAULT=import (fault every VAAPI dmabuf import — proves the three-strike
demotion to software on healthy hardware).