The host has been able to describe a launcher entry since M2 — `role: "launcher"`,
the `steam_ui` and `launcher_ui` kinds — and the web console has grouped them into
their own rail since M4. No other client ever looked. `pf-client-core` decoded
`role` into an `is_launcher()` helper with zero call sites, and the shared console
model dropped the field entirely on its way to the renderer.
So a launcher tile arrived everywhere else as an ordinary game with no cover art:
indistinguishable from a title whose poster failed to load, sorted into the middle
of the alphabet, and captioned "Play".
One contract, implemented in each client's own idiom:
* launchers never interleave with titles — they lead, and each group keeps the
host's title order
* grid surfaces get a labelled section; a coverflow keeps its single carousel and
names the group the cursor is in, changing as it crosses the boundary. A second
focus rail would mean a new up/down nav model in three renderers for two or
three tiles
* an art-less launcher gets an accent face naming its launcher, not a title
monogram on the neutral one — "opens Steam", not "a cover that didn't load"
* anything that is not `"launcher"` is a game, and a host that omits the field
renders exactly as before (design D4's intended degradation)
* launching is unchanged: the client sends an id, the host resolves the recipe
The grouping is enforced once per client stack rather than per screen. In the
console UI it is an invariant of `LibraryShared::set_games`, so the cursor
arithmetic, the art pump and every future consumer inherit it; on Apple and Android
it is applied where the library is fetched/parsed.
Fixed in passing: the Apple and Android store badges were hard-coded
`isCustom ? "Custom" : "Steam"`, so every Lutris, GOG, Heroic, Epic and Xbox title
was labelled "Steam". Both now carry the same store table the Rust clients use.
The CLI's `--library` gains a fourth column (`game`/`launcher`), appended rather
than folded into an existing one so anything reading the first three is untouched.
Gates: punktfunk-host 436 passed / 0 failed and pf-console-ui 49 passed / 0 failed
on .21 (three new tests), workspace clippy -D warnings and cargo fmt --check clean
there; `swift build` of the full PunktfunkClient and `:app:compileDebugKotlin` clean
on macOS; `cargo check` + `clippy -D warnings` for the Windows client on .173.
Still unproven on hardware: no launcher tile has been clicked on a real host — that
needs the plugins published, which needs this branch's base merged first.
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|fifo|immediate|fifo_relaxed (default MAILBOX, FIFO where the surface offers no
MAILBOX — AMD on Windows), 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).