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1 files changed, 83 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/docs/apps.md b/docs/apps.md
index ef8cc1a..7819dc9 100644
--- a/docs/apps.md
+++ b/docs/apps.md
@@ -130,9 +130,10 @@ any app with similar per-group local state.
## 3. Enable/disable: the mechanism
-Same shape as `member_upload` (`meshbay-draft-v6.md` §2.1b) — an
+Same shape as a root's `writable` flag (`refactor-groups.md` §1.1) — an
operator-signed setting, stored on the node, enforced by absence rather than
-by the client's honesty.
+by the client's honesty. It used to be described against `member_upload`,
+which was the group-wide upload switch; that was removed in the same refactor.
**Node side** (`meshbay_node/roster.py`):
```python
@@ -145,11 +146,22 @@ async def set_enabled_apps(group_id, apps, set_by="") -> list[str]: ...
from exactly one place: `webrtc_server.py`'s `_admin_exec_apps_enabled`, after
`_verify_admin_sig` — nothing is applied before the signature checks out.
+**An app's directories are the same shape one level down** (2026-09-06):
+`ops.set_app_directories(state, group_id, app_key, paths)`, stored under
+`<app_key>_directories`, reached by one MNP message (`app_directories`) and one
+loopback route. Adding an app adds no function, no message type and no route —
+which is what "plugin architecture" has to mean to be worth the phrase.
+
`_do_apps_enabled` in `webrtc_server.py` validates before it ever issues a
challenge:
- `apps` non-empty — the operator can never lock a group down to nothing.
-- every entry in `WebRTCPeerSession.ALLOWED_APPS` (`{"chat", "files"}` today)
- — **this is the line a new app's node-side registration touches.**
+- every entry in `WebRTCPeerSession.ALLOWED_APPS`
+ (`{"chat", "files", "video", "music", "photo"}` today) — **this is the line
+ a new app's node-side registration touches.**
+- `files` is added to the list if it is absent, at both writers
+ (`_do_apps_enabled` and `ops.set_enabled_apps`, both at the front so the two
+ agree). It is not a toggle: MNP permits root exploration regardless of what
+ this list says, so hiding the tab only ever misled.
The whole set is signed in one message (`apps_enabled`, `OP_APPS_ENABLED` in
`meshbay_common.adminop`) rather than one op per app — ticking several boxes
@@ -158,11 +170,42 @@ sorted, comma-joined app list (`"chat,files"`), built the same way on both
sides so the operator's browser and the node arrive at identical bytes to
sign/verify.
-`enabled_apps` rides in `handshake_ack` and `node_status`, next to
-`member_upload`. Changing it broadcasts `apps_enabled_ack` to everyone already
-connected — `transport.js`'s `onAppsEnabled` — so a disabled tab disappears
-without waiting for a reconnection, the same as `member_upload`'s live
-broadcast.
+`enabled_apps` rides in `handshake_ack` and `node_status`, next to the roots
+table. Changing it broadcasts `apps_enabled_ack` to everyone already connected
+— `transport.js`'s `onAppsEnabled` — so a disabled tab disappears without
+waiting for a reconnection. The root ops (`root_update_ack`, `root_eject_ack`,
+`root_plug_ack`) broadcast the same way, through `onRootsChanged`.
+
+### 3b. An app's settings
+
+Each app that has settings exports a component from
+`static/<app>-app-settings.js` and names it in its `apps.js` entry. The Settings
+page renders one collapsible section per registry entry, with the app's own
+on/off switch in the header — the toggle *is* the enablement control, rather
+than a checkbox list somewhere else that could disagree with it.
+
+Every pane takes the same props, and nothing else: `roots`, `dirs`, `settings`,
+`saveDirectories` (bound to this app), `transport`, `signFn`. The split is the
+point — **what every app has, the page does generically; what one app alone
+has, the pane does itself.** Pointing an app at folders goes through
+`saveDirectories`; a TMDB credential or a link-preview switch is the pane's own
+business, made with the transport it is handed. An app that only needs
+directories therefore touches neither `group-settings.js` nor `group-page.js`,
+and `test_app_settings_plugin.py` fails if either of them starts naming apps
+again.
+
+Two constraints that are not obvious:
+
+- **A pane must not import `group-settings.js`.** That is a cycle
+ (`group-settings` → `apps` → pane → `group-settings`), and ES modules answer
+ it with a temporal-dead-zone `ReferenceError` at first render — the component
+ does not appear, with nothing in the console to say why. The shared widgets
+ (`CollapsibleSection`, `ToggleSwitch`, `useSaver`) live in `settings-ui.js`
+ for this reason.
+- **A new module must be added to `_ASSETS`** in `meshbay_hub/api/webapp.py`.
+ A file reached through the registry is not imported by name anywhere, so
+ nothing else would notice it changing, and a browser would go on serving the
+ cached copy. `test_asset_versioning` enforces it.
**Client side:** `apps.js`'s `visibleApps(enabledKeys)` filters the registry;
`group-page.js` calls it with `enabledApps` state (from the ack, `null` until
@@ -181,8 +224,17 @@ registry, so a newly-registered app gets a checkbox for free.
`icon.js` — do not re-implement `formatSize`, the download pipeline, or
`Icon`.
2. **Register it** in `apps.js`'s `APPS` array: `{ key, icon, labelKey,
- Component }`. `key` is the wire identifier — it must match what you add to
- the node's allow-list next.
+ Component, Settings? }`. `key` is the wire identifier — it must match what
+ you add to the node's allow-list next, and it is also the row an app's
+ directories are stored under (`<key>_directories`). One identifier per app,
+ everywhere; `test_app_settings_plugin.py` checks the registry against
+ `ALLOWED_APPS`.
+2b. **`<name>-app-settings.js`**, if the app has anything to configure,
+ exporting a component that takes `{ roots, dirs, settings,
+ saveDirectories, transport, signFn }` and nothing else (§3b). Folders go
+ through `saveDirectories`; anything only this app has, it does itself with
+ the transport. **Do not import `group-settings.js`** — that is a cycle, and
+ it fails as a component that silently does not render.
3. **Node-side allow-list**: add the key to `ALLOWED_APPS` in
`webrtc_server.py`. Without this the node refuses `apps_enabled` for any
set naming it (`"Unknown app(s): ..."`), so an operator can never turn it
@@ -190,7 +242,7 @@ registry, so a newly-registered app gets a checkbox for free.
4. **i18n**: at minimum, a `group.tab_<name>` key (the tab's tooltip/label,
reused as the Settings checkbox label) in all ten `static/locales/*.js`
files. `test_locales.py` holds them to the same key set.
-5. **`webapp.py`'s `_ASSETS`** tuple: add the new file. This is the
+5. **`webapp.py`'s `_ASSETS`** tuple: add both new files. This is the
cache-busting hash's input list — a file imported by the page but missing
here can change without the served URL changing, which is the exact bug
class `test_asset_versioning.py` exists for. Forgetting this step used to be
@@ -210,6 +262,11 @@ registry, so a newly-registered app gets a checkbox for free.
No protocol change, no hub change, no `daemon.py` change — steps 3 and 6 are
the only node-side touches, and both are allow-lists, not new wire messages.
+Directories in particular need nothing server-side at all: `app_directories` is
+one generic op keyed by the app's name (§3), and an app storing its folders
+under a key nobody wrote code for is the case
+`test_app_directories.py::test_an_app_nobody_wrote_code_for_stores_its_directories`
+pins.
## 5. What does not exist yet
@@ -234,9 +291,17 @@ the only node-side touches, and both are allow-lists, not new wire messages.
machinery again; unlike Videos/Music it needs several root folders per
group rather than one, has a single album-grid view with no third-party
matching step, and reads EXIF locally on the node instead.
-- **The offline/loopback settings path.** `member_upload` can be toggled two
- ways: over a live MNP connection, or (Electron only) via the node's local
- HTTP API when MNP isn't connected (`platform.node.call('PUT', .../member-
- upload')`, `group-settings.js`). `apps_enabled` only has the MNP path today.
- Adding the loopback twin is a `meshbay_node.ui` endpoint plus a
- `group-settings.js` branch, mirroring the existing `member_upload` one.
+- **The offline/loopback settings path.** A root's flags can be changed two
+ ways: over a live MNP connection (any browser, anywhere), or — Electron
+ only, and only when MNP is not connected — via the node's local HTTP API
+ (`platform.node.call('PATCH', '/api/groups/<id>/roots/<name>')`,
+ `SharedDirectoriesTable` in `group-settings.js`). `apps_enabled` only has
+ the MNP path today. Adding the loopback twin is a `meshbay_node.ui` endpoint
+ plus a branch in the table's `run()` helper, mirroring the root ops.
+
+ **MNP is the path that must exist, not the fallback.** The operator of a
+ node is not necessarily sitting at it. The first version of the shared
+ directories table read its roots exclusively from the loopback API, which
+ resolves to "not available" in a browser — so the whole section rendered for
+ nobody on the web, while the controls it replaced had worked there. Any
+ operator-facing setting added here needs the MNP route first.