docs(changelog): curate v1.8.1-alpha notes + What's New block

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,7 +1,17 @@
 # Changelog
 
-## Unreleased
+## v1.8.1-alpha (2026-08-13)
 
+- **Apps that refused to open inside the dashboard now embed like everything else.** Some apps ship browser headers that forbid being shown inside another page — correct hardening on the open web, but inside Archipelago it produced a dead grey pane when you opened them from My Apps (Alby Hub was the first to hit it). The app gate, which already checks your login on every request to an app, now removes just those framing headers on the way through; each app's own content-security rules pass through untouched. No more per-app proxy workarounds.
+- **The network map no longer freezes kiosk TVs.** The animated federation map at 4K was too much for the deliberately conservative graphics settings the on-screen display used on every machine — settings chosen years back to stop audio crackle on much older hardware. Two fixes: on kiosk screens the map now opens in its flat 2D view (the 3D globe is one tap away, and remembered) and animates at half rate — invisible from the couch, half the work. And the display itself now recognizes what machine it runs on: older kiosk boxes keep the proven careful settings, modern ones finally get real GPU rendering.
+- **New Settings → Display → Graphics choice for the on-screen display.** Auto (recommended) picks the right rendering mode for the machine by itself; Compatibility forces the most conservative mode if a screen ever stutters, tears, or crackles; Quality forces full GPU rendering on hardware the automatic detection doesn't recognize. Changing it restarts the on-screen display, like the size presets.
+
+## v1.8.0-alpha (2026-08-12)
+
+- **Archipelago is now open source.** The full source code of the node you are running — the orchestrator, the dashboard, the app platform, the mesh, the release tooling — is published for anyone to read, build and audit at source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy. A node that holds your money, your files and your communications should not ask to be taken on faith: from this release onward you, or anyone you trust, can see exactly what it does and follow every change we make in the open.
+- **Installing an update is reliable again, and tells you what happened when it isn't.** Some nodes could download an update but never apply it — the button stayed on "Install", and no amount of retrying worked. The cause: applying the update consumed the downloaded files as it went, so if any one step hit a snag partway through, the leftover files were incomplete and every later attempt failed the safety re-check forever, needing a technician to recover. Applying no longer consumes the download — a failed apply can always be retried from the same files — and the pieces are now applied in a fixed order with the program itself last, so a hiccup can't leave a half-swapped node. When an apply does fail, the screen now shows the real reason and what to do ("download the update again"), and offers Download again instead of a dead "Install" button, rather than a generic "it failed".
+- **Video on the kiosk stops tearing.** The kiosk's display had no vertical sync at all, so fast motion — IndeedHub films especially — showed horizontal tearing lines. The display driver now syncs every frame to the panel (no extra hardware needed, existing kiosks pick it up with this update), and on machines with a GPU, video decoding moves off the CPU onto the video hardware — smoother playback that also leaves more headroom for audio, not less.
+- **The Back button finally does what you expect.** Pressing Back — the mouse's side button on a kiosk, a swipe on a phone, the toolbar button in any browser — used to navigate the screen underneath an open window, or leave the dashboard entirely. Back now closes the topmost open window first, one per press, exactly like a native app; closing a window yourself never leaves a phantom entry that makes you press Back twice.
 - **No more bare IP addresses in your update or app-registry settings.** The update mirrors and the app registry each listed the same server twice — once by its proper name, once as a raw `http://146…` address left over from before the domain existed. The raw-address entries are retired: new nodes never see them, and existing nodes clean them out of their saved lists automatically on the next read. Everything now goes through the named, TLS-protected origin — which was always the same machine.
 - **The phone companion app downloads over the proper domain.** The download QR pointed at a raw address over plain HTTP; it now points at the same file on the https domain. Scanning it gets you an encrypted download from a named server.
 - **The Receive window now tells you when the money is on its way.** Previously it showed a QR code and left you to check elsewhere whether anything happened. Now, the moment the sender's transaction is broadcast, the QR gives way to a clock: the amount, the transaction ID (tap to copy), and a note that the funds arrive on their own — with a single Done button. If you keep the window open, the clock becomes a green check at the first confirmation. Verified live on a real node: payment detected within seconds of broadcast.

apps/alby-hub/manifest.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+app:
+  id: alby-hub
+  name: Alby Hub
+  version: 1.23.0
+  description: Self-custodial Lightning wallet hub. Runs its own Lightning node on your Archipelago and connects your apps to it over Nostr Wallet Connect — one hub, every app pays through it.
+  category: money
+
+  container:
+    image: source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/alby-hub:v1.23.0
+    pull_policy: if-not-present
+
+  dependencies:
+    - storage: 1Gi
+
+  resources:
+    cpu_limit: 1
+    memory_limit: 512Mi
+    disk_limit: 2Gi
+
+  security:
+    capabilities: []
+    readonly_root: true
+    no_new_privileges: true
+    network_policy: bridge
+
+  ports:
+    - host: 8187
+      container: 8080
+      protocol: tcp
+      bind: 127.0.0.1
+      auth: gated
+
+  volumes:
+    - type: bind
+      source: /var/lib/archipelago/alby-hub
+      target: /data
+      options: [rw]
+
+  environment:
+    - WORK_DIR=/data
+    - PORT=8080
+    # LDK peers are dialed outbound-only in v1; no inbound p2p port is
+    # advertised, so no extra port mapping is needed for payments to work.
+    - LOG_LEVEL=info
+
+  health_check:
+    type: http
+    endpoint: http://localhost:8080
+    path: /
+    interval: 30s
+    timeout: 5s
+    retries: 5
+
+  interfaces:
+    main:
+      name: Web UI
+      description: Alby Hub wallet interface
+      type: ui
+      port: 8187
+      protocol: http
+
+  metadata:
+    icon: /assets/img/app-icons/alby-hub.svg
+    repo: https://github.com/getAlby/hub
+    tier: optional
+    launch:
+      # Embedded: the gate neutralizes Alby Hub's X-Frame-Options: DENY on
+      # proxied responses. Nodes older than the gate fix show a blocked
+      # frame — flip to true only if targeting such nodes.
+      open_in_new_tab: false
+    features:
+      - Self-custodial Lightning node (LDK) with a friendly wallet UI
+      - Connect wallets and apps via Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)
+      - Per-app budgets and isolated sub-wallets
+      - Works with the Alby browser extension and mobile app

apps/phoenixd/manifest.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+app:
+  id: phoenixd
+  name: phoenixd
+  version: 0.9.0
+  description: Headless Lightning daemon by ACINQ (the Phoenix wallet team). No screen of its own — it exposes a small local API that other apps and tools use to send and receive Lightning payments. Channel liquidity is managed automatically for a fee.
+  category: money
+
+  container:
+    # Image entrypoint already runs with --agree-to-terms-of-service and
+    # --http-bind-ip 0.0.0.0, as user "phoenix"; no custom args needed.
+    image: source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/phoenixd:0.9.0
+    pull_policy: if-not-present
+    # The image runs as user phoenix (1000:1000); the datadir bind source
+    # must be chowned to that identity or phoenixd dies on
+    # "Failed to open /data/phoenix.conf with Permission denied".
+    data_uid: "1000:1000"
+
+  dependencies:
+    - storage: 500Mi
+
+  resources:
+    cpu_limit: 1
+    memory_limit: 512Mi
+    disk_limit: 1Gi
+
+  security:
+    capabilities: []
+    readonly_root: true
+    no_new_privileges: true
+    network_policy: bridge
+
+  ports:
+    - host: 9740
+      container: 9740
+      protocol: tcp
+      bind: 127.0.0.1
+      auth: none
+      auth_rationale: >-
+        Loopback-only JSON API, not a web page. Every request is
+        authenticated by the http password phoenixd generates in its own
+        data directory on first run; the app gate's browser login page
+        would break the API clients this port exists for.
+
+  volumes:
+    # The wallet seed (seed.dat) and phoenix.conf live here. This directory
+    # must survive reinstall/migration like any other app data dir —
+    # losing it means losing funds.
+    # Target is /data (via PHOENIX_DATADIR below), NOT the image's default
+    # /phoenix/.phoenix: the orchestrator treats any bind path containing a
+    # dot as a file mount and skips creating its source directory, so a
+    # hidden-dir target never gets its host dir and the unit crash-loops.
+    - type: bind
+      source: /var/lib/archipelago/phoenixd
+      target: /data
+      options: [rw]
+
+  environment:
+    - PHOENIX_DATADIR=/data
+
+  health_check:
+    type: tcp
+    endpoint: localhost:9740
+    interval: 30s
+    timeout: 5s
+    retries: 5
+
+  metadata:
+    icon: /assets/img/app-icons/phoenixd.svg
+    repo: https://github.com/ACINQ/phoenixd
+    tier: optional
+    features:
+      - Ultra-light Lightning node — no bitcoin node required
+      - Automated channel and liquidity management (fees apply)
+      - Simple HTTP API + websockets for payments
+      - Backed by the team behind the Phoenix mobile wallet

core/Cargo.lock

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "archipelago"
-version = "1.7.129-alpha"
+version = "1.8.0-alpha"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "archipelago-container",

core/archipelago/Cargo.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "archipelago"
-version = "1.7.129-alpha"
+version = "1.8.0-alpha"
 edition = "2021"
 license.workspace = true
 description = "Archipelago Bitcoin Node OS - Native backend"

core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/middleware.rs

@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ pub(super) fn sanitize_error_message(msg: &str) -> String {
         "must be",
         "cannot",
         "Password",
+        // OTA apply/download errors are all operator-actionable ("download it
+        // again", "download first") — sanitizing them to "Operation failed"
+        // left users stuck with no idea what to do, and hid the "already
+        // running" text the update UI matches on to join an in-flight apply
+        // instead of showing a false failure. Every such message starts "Update".
+        "Update",
         // The federation escalation sentinel. "Password" above does NOT cover
         // it — starts_with is case-sensitive and the sentinel is ALL-CAPS —
         // so the frontend's isPasswordRequired() never saw it and the

core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/system/handlers.rs

@@ -1268,7 +1268,14 @@ impl RpcHandler {
         } else {
             "auto"
         };
-        Ok(serde_json::json!({ "has_kiosk": has_kiosk, "preset": preset }))
+        let graphics = if conf.contains("KIOSK_GRAPHICS=performance") {
+            "performance"
+        } else if conf.contains("KIOSK_GRAPHICS=quality") {
+            "quality"
+        } else {
+            "auto"
+        };
+        Ok(serde_json::json!({ "has_kiosk": has_kiosk, "preset": preset, "graphics": graphics }))
     }
 
     /// system.kiosk-display.set — Write the kiosk display preset and restart
@@ -1279,24 +1286,56 @@ impl RpcHandler {
         params: Option<serde_json::Value>,
     ) -> Result<serde_json::Value> {
         let params = params.ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("Missing params"))?;
-        let preset = params
+        let preset = params.get("preset").and_then(|v| v.as_str());
-            .get("preset")
+        let graphics = params.get("graphics").and_then(|v| v.as_str());
-            .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
+        if preset.is_none() && graphics.is_none() {
-            .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("Missing preset"))?;
+            anyhow::bail!("Missing preset or graphics");
+        }
 
-        let conf = match preset {
+        // The conf carries two independent settings (display scale preset +
+        // graphics tier). A set of one must not clobber the other, so the
+        // half not being changed is carried over from the file as-is.
+        let existing = tokio::fs::read_to_string(KIOSK_DISPLAY_CONF)
+            .await
+            .unwrap_or_default();
+
+        let display_part = match preset {
             // Resolution-derived default: 4K -> 2.0 (1920-wide layout),
             // 1080p TV -> 1.5, laptop panels -> 1.0.
-            "auto" => String::new(),
+            Some("auto") => String::new(),
             // Biggest UI: every panel targets a 1280-wide layout.
-            "large" => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_TARGET_CSS_WIDTH=1280\n".to_string(),
+            Some("large") => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_TARGET_CSS_WIDTH=1280\n".to_string(),
             // Full-HD layout on any panel that can carry it.
-            "balanced" => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_TARGET_CSS_WIDTH=1920\n".to_string(),
+            Some("balanced") => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_TARGET_CSS_WIDTH=1920\n".to_string(),
             // No scaling: native CSS viewport, most content, smallest UI.
-            "native" => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_SCALE=1\n".to_string(),
+            Some("native") => "ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_SCALE=1\n".to_string(),
-            other => anyhow::bail!("Unknown display preset: {other}"),
+            Some(other) => anyhow::bail!("Unknown display preset: {other}"),
+            None => existing
+                .lines()
+                .filter(|l| l.starts_with("ARCHIPELAGO_KIOSK_"))
+                .map(|l| format!("{l}\n"))
+                .collect(),
         };
 
+        let graphics_part = match graphics {
+            // Auto: the launcher classifies the hardware itself (CPU/iGPU
+            // generation) — legacy boxes keep the choppy-audio-safe flags,
+            // modern iGPUs get GPU rasterization.
+            Some("auto") => String::new(),
+            // Force the conservative legacy flag set (troubleshooting).
+            Some("performance") => "KIOSK_GRAPHICS=performance\n".to_string(),
+            // Force the modern flag set even on unclassified hardware.
+            Some("quality") => "KIOSK_GRAPHICS=quality\n".to_string(),
+            Some(other) => anyhow::bail!("Unknown graphics mode: {other}"),
+            None => existing
+                .lines()
+                .find(|l| l.starts_with("KIOSK_GRAPHICS="))
+                .map(|l| format!("{l}\n"))
+                .unwrap_or_default(),
+        };
+
+        let conf = format!("{display_part}{graphics_part}");
+
         host_sudo(&["/usr/bin/mkdir", "-p", "/etc/archipelago"]).await?;
         if conf.is_empty() {
             let _ = host_sudo(&["/usr/bin/rm", "-f", KIOSK_DISPLAY_CONF]).await;
@@ -1332,8 +1371,8 @@ impl RpcHandler {
         ])
         .await;
 
-        info!(preset, "Kiosk display preset applied");
+        info!(?preset, ?graphics, "Kiosk display settings applied");
-        Ok(serde_json::json!({ "preset": preset, "applied": true }))
+        Ok(serde_json::json!({ "preset": preset, "graphics": graphics, "applied": true }))
     }
 }
 

core/archipelago/src/appgate/mod.rs

@@ -520,11 +520,63 @@ async fn proxy_to_app(
 
     let client = hyper::Client::new();
     match client.request(Request::from_parts(parts, body)).await {
-        Ok(resp) => resp,
+        Ok(mut resp) => {
+            neutralize_frame_blocking(resp.headers_mut());
+            resp
+        }
         Err(_) => app_down_page(app),
     }
 }
 
+/// Make gate-proxied app responses embeddable by the dashboard's My Apps
+/// iframe. Apps that were never designed for framing ship
+/// `X-Frame-Options: DENY` (Alby Hub) or a CSP `frame-ancestors` directive,
+/// and either one makes the embedded app session a dead grey pane — the
+/// historical workaround was a bespoke per-app nginx proxy (gitea), which is
+/// exactly the per-app patching the manifest platform exists to delete.
+///
+/// Framing protection exists to stop a FOREIGN origin from framing an authed
+/// page and clickjacking it. Behind the gate that threat model is already
+/// handled the way the gate's own pages handle it: every proxied request is
+/// authenticated by the gate first, and the gate's own responses declare
+/// `frame-ancestors 'self' http://*:* https://*:*` (see `page()`) because the
+/// dashboard is reached by LAN IP, mDNS name, and onion alike. Upstream
+/// X-Frame-Options is dropped entirely; only the `frame-ancestors` directive
+/// is removed from the app's CSP — the rest of the app's policy (script-src,
+/// connect-src, …) is the app's business and passes through untouched.
+fn neutralize_frame_blocking(headers: &mut hyper::HeaderMap) {
+    headers.remove("x-frame-options");
+    let Some(csp) = headers.get("content-security-policy") else {
+        return;
+    };
+    let Ok(raw) = csp.to_str() else {
+        return;
+    };
+    if !raw.to_ascii_lowercase().contains("frame-ancestors") {
+        return;
+    }
+    let kept: Vec<&str> = raw
+        .split(';')
+        .map(str::trim)
+        .filter(|d| !d.to_ascii_lowercase().starts_with("frame-ancestors") && !d.is_empty())
+        .collect();
+    if kept.is_empty() {
+        headers.remove("content-security-policy");
+        return;
+    }
+    match header::HeaderValue::from_str(&kept.join("; ")) {
+        Ok(v) => {
+            headers.insert("content-security-policy", v);
+        }
+        Err(_) => {
+            // Unrepresentable after filtering — fail open for framing but
+            // closed for the policy: better to drop a mangled CSP than to
+            // serve one we rewrote incorrectly.
+            headers.remove("content-security-policy");
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// Cookie names owned by the gate/daemon, never the app's to see.
 const GATE_COOKIE_NAMES: &[&str] = &["session", "csrf_token"];
 
@@ -1072,6 +1124,50 @@ mod tests {
     /// 2026-08-05). It must still be uncacheable, and still refuse to be
     /// framed by a foreign origin, which `frame-ancestors` expresses and
     /// `X-Frame-Options` cannot.
+    /// Upstream frame-blocking must not survive the proxy: X-Frame-Options
+    /// goes away entirely, CSP loses ONLY its frame-ancestors directive —
+    /// the app's remaining policy must pass through byte-preserving in
+    /// content (Alby Hub's DENY + strict CSP was the real-world case,
+    /// archi-dev-box 2026-08-12).
+    #[test]
+    fn proxied_responses_lose_frame_blocking_but_keep_the_apps_csp() {
+        let mut headers = hyper::HeaderMap::new();
+        headers.insert("x-frame-options", "DENY".parse().unwrap());
+        headers.insert(
+            "content-security-policy",
+            "default-src 'self'; frame-ancestors 'none'; img-src 'self' https://cdn.example"
+                .parse()
+                .unwrap(),
+        );
+        neutralize_frame_blocking(&mut headers);
+        assert!(!headers.contains_key("x-frame-options"));
+        let csp = headers["content-security-policy"].to_str().unwrap();
+        assert!(!csp.contains("frame-ancestors"));
+        assert!(csp.contains("default-src 'self'"));
+        assert!(csp.contains("img-src 'self' https://cdn.example"));
+
+        // CSP that is ONLY a frame-ancestors directive disappears entirely.
+        let mut only = hyper::HeaderMap::new();
+        only.insert(
+            "content-security-policy",
+            "frame-ancestors 'self'".parse().unwrap(),
+        );
+        neutralize_frame_blocking(&mut only);
+        assert!(!only.contains_key("content-security-policy"));
+
+        // No frame directives at all → CSP untouched.
+        let mut plain = hyper::HeaderMap::new();
+        plain.insert(
+            "content-security-policy",
+            "default-src 'self'".parse().unwrap(),
+        );
+        neutralize_frame_blocking(&mut plain);
+        assert_eq!(
+            plain["content-security-policy"].to_str().unwrap(),
+            "default-src 'self'"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn challenge_pages_are_uncacheable_and_framable_only_by_this_node() {
         let resp = login_page(&app(), None, StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED);

core/archipelago/src/update.rs

@@ -1013,7 +1013,7 @@ pub async fn dismiss_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<()> {
 /// partially-corrupt resume still fails cleanly.
 pub async fn download_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<DownloadProgress> {
     let _op = UPDATE_OP_LOCK.try_lock().map_err(|_| {
-        anyhow::anyhow!("another update operation (download or apply) is already running")
+        anyhow::anyhow!("Update already in progress — another download or apply is already running")
     })?;
     let mut state = load_state(data_dir).await?;
     if state.available_update.is_none() {
@@ -1406,8 +1406,8 @@ async fn verify_staged_components(staging_dir: &Path, manifest: &UpdateManifest)
             .unwrap_or(0);
         if len != component.size_bytes {
             anyhow::bail!(
-                "staged component {} is {} bytes but the manifest says {} — \
+                "Update staging is inconsistent: component {} is {} bytes but the manifest says {} — \
-                 refusing to apply (incomplete or concurrently-rewritten download)",
+                 re-download before applying (incomplete or concurrently-rewritten download)",
                 component.name,
                 len,
                 component.size_bytes
@@ -1519,11 +1519,11 @@ pub(crate) async fn host_sudo_output(args: &[&str]) -> Result<std::process::Outp
 /// Apply a downloaded update. Backs up current binaries, replaces with staged versions.
 pub async fn apply_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<()> {
     let _op = UPDATE_OP_LOCK.try_lock().map_err(|_| {
-        anyhow::anyhow!("another update operation (download or apply) is already running")
+        anyhow::anyhow!("Update already in progress — another download or apply is already running")
     })?;
     let staging_dir = data_dir.join("update-staging");
     if !staging_dir.exists() {
-        anyhow::bail!("No staged update found. Download first.");
+        anyhow::bail!("Update not staged — download it first, then apply.");
     }
 
     // Gate 1: the completion marker is written only after EVERY component
@@ -1531,7 +1531,7 @@ pub async fn apply_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<()> {
     // or in-flight download — exactly what got installed on .198.
     if !has_staged_update(data_dir).await {
         anyhow::bail!(
-            "Staged update is incomplete (no completion marker) — download the update again before applying"
+            "Update download was incomplete (no completion marker) — download the update again before applying"
         );
     }
 
@@ -1540,9 +1540,7 @@ pub async fn apply_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<()> {
         .await?
         .available_update
         .ok_or_else(|| {
-            anyhow::anyhow!(
+            anyhow::anyhow!("Update manifest missing from state — re-download the update")
-                "no update manifest in state to verify staged files against — re-download the update"
-            )
         })?;
     verify_staged_components(&staging_dir, &manifest).await?;
 
@@ -1578,41 +1576,83 @@ pub async fn apply_update(data_dir: &Path) -> Result<()> {
         info!("Current binary backed up");
     }
 
-    // Apply staged components
+    // Apply staged components in a DETERMINISTIC order, binary LAST.
-    let mut entries = fs::read_dir(&staging_dir)
+    // read_dir order is filesystem-arbitrary, and each component used to be
-        .await
+    // consumed destructively — so a mid-apply failure could leave staging
-        .context("Failed to read staging dir")?;
+    // half-emptied and un-reappliable (Gate 2 re-verifies EVERY manifest
+    // component against staging, so a missing one wedges every retry:
+    // "doesn't apply, still says install, can never apply again"). Two
+    // guards against that now: (a) nothing is removed from staging here —
+    // the binary is copied, not moved (see its block) — so a failed apply
+    // is always retryable from the same staged files; (b) the binary, the
+    // one component whose swap changes what runs after restart, is applied
+    // only after the frontend/runtime succeed, so a frontend failure never
+    // leaves a new binary staged to run against an old frontend on the next
+    // restart.
+    let mut names: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+    {
+        let mut entries = fs::read_dir(&staging_dir)
+            .await
+            .context("Failed to read staging dir")?;
+        while let Some(entry) = entries.next_entry().await? {
+            names.push(entry.file_name().to_string_lossy().to_string());
+        }
+    }
+    names.sort_by_key(|n| match n.as_str() {
+        "archipelago" => 2, // binary last
+        n if n.contains("runtime") && n.ends_with(".tar.gz") => 1,
+        _ => 0, // frontend and everything else first
+    });
 
-    while let Some(entry) = entries.next_entry().await? {
+    for name in &names {
-        let name = entry.file_name().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+        let name = name.as_str();
-        let src = entry.path();
+        let src = staging_dir.join(name);
 
-        match name.as_str() {
+        match name {
             "archipelago" => {
-                // Two namespace gotchas this block works around:
+                // Three constraints this block works around:
                 //   1. We're running FROM /usr/local/bin/archipelago, so
                 //      `install`/`cp` (O_TRUNC + write) fail with ETXTBSY.
-                //      Use `mv`, which is atomic rename() and tolerates a
+                //      rename() over a busy destination is fine.
-                //      busy destination.
                 //   2. archipelago.service sets ProtectSystem=strict, so
                 //      even `sudo mv` into /usr/local/bin/ fails EROFS —
                 //      sudo inherits the service's mount namespace. Route
-                //      the rename through systemd-run so it runs in a
+                //      through host_sudo (systemd-run transient unit with
-                //      transient unit with default protections.
+                //      default protections).
+                //   3. The staged binary must SURVIVE this so a later
+                //      component's failure leaves the apply retryable. So we
+                //      COPY the staged file to a sibling temp in the target
+                //      dir, then atomic-rename the temp over the target —
+                //      the staging copy is never moved. (mv'ing the staged
+                //      file itself was the wedging bug: binary applied, then
+                //      frontend fails, staging now missing the binary, every
+                //      retry fails re-verification forever.)
                 let staged = src.to_string_lossy().to_string();
-                let _ = host_sudo(&["chmod", "0755", &staged]).await;
+                let tmp = format!(
-                let _ = host_sudo(&["chown", "root:root", &staged]).await;
+                    "/usr/local/bin/.archipelago.new.{}",
-                let status = host_sudo(&["mv", &staged, "/usr/local/bin/archipelago"])
+                    chrono::Utc::now().timestamp_millis()
+                );
+                let cp = host_sudo(&["cp", "-f", &staged, &tmp])
+                    .await
+                    .with_context(|| format!("Failed to copy staged binary for {}", name))?;
+                if !cp.success() {
+                    let _ = host_sudo(&["rm", "-f", &tmp]).await;
+                    anyhow::bail!("copy of staged binary failed for {}", name);
+                }
+                let _ = host_sudo(&["chmod", "0755", &tmp]).await;
+                let _ = host_sudo(&["chown", "root:root", &tmp]).await;
+                let status = host_sudo(&["mv", &tmp, "/usr/local/bin/archipelago"])
                     .await
                     .with_context(|| format!("Failed to spawn mv for {}", name))?;
                 if !status.success() {
+                    let _ = host_sudo(&["rm", "-f", &tmp]).await;
                     anyhow::bail!(
                         "mv into /usr/local/bin failed for {} (exit {:?})",
                         name,
                         status.code()
                     );
                 }
-                info!(name = %name, "Backend binary applied");
+                info!(name = %name, "Backend binary applied (staging preserved)");
             }
             _ if name.contains("frontend") && name.ends_with(".tar.gz") => {
                 // Tarball contents are the *inside* of web-ui/ (root entries
@@ -2738,9 +2778,20 @@ mod tests {
         save_state(dir.path(), &state).await.unwrap();
         let err = apply_update(dir.path()).await.unwrap_err();
         assert!(
-            err.to_string().contains("refusing to apply"),
+            err.to_string().contains("re-download before applying"),
             "got: {err:#}"
         );
+        // Resilience: a refused apply must leave the update still available and
+        // still staged, so the user can re-download and retry — never a wedge.
+        let loaded = load_state(dir.path()).await.unwrap();
+        assert!(
+            loaded.available_update.is_some(),
+            "a refused apply must not clear the available update"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            loaded.update_in_progress,
+            "a refused apply must leave the staged-update flag set for retry"
+        );
     }
 
     #[tokio::test]

docs/app-developer-guide.md

@@ -130,7 +130,38 @@ app:
 
 Additional extension keys may exist for current integrations, for example Bitcoin, Lightning, or app-specific launch/interface metadata. Treat extension keys as transitional unless they are documented as reusable platform primitives.
 
-Use `metadata.launch.open_in_new_tab: true` when the app UI is known to reject iframe embedding with headers such as `X-Frame-Options` or restrictive CSP. The frontend app-session metadata is generated from this flag during release work.
+### Iframe embedding — the rules
+
+The dashboard opens apps in an **embedded frame** (My Apps → app session) by
+default. Whether that works is decided by HTTP headers, not by wishes, so
+know the mechanics:
+
+- Browsers refuse to render a page in an iframe when the response carries
+  `X-Frame-Options: DENY`/`SAMEORIGIN` (the dashboard and the app are
+  different origins — different port at minimum) or a CSP `frame-ancestors`
+  directive that excludes the dashboard's origin.
+- Many upstream apps ship exactly those headers (Alby Hub sends
+  `X-Frame-Options: DENY`). In a normal deployment that is correct hardening;
+  behind Archipelago's app gate the clickjacking threat those headers address
+  is already handled — every proxied request is authenticated by the gate
+  first.
+- Therefore **the gate neutralizes frame blocking on proxied responses**: it
+  removes `X-Frame-Options` and strips only the `frame-ancestors` directive
+  from the app's CSP. The rest of the app's CSP (script-src, connect-src, …)
+  passes through untouched — the gate never weakens the app's own content
+  policy, only its framing policy. You do not need a bespoke reverse proxy,
+  header patches, or app config to be embeddable.
+
+Set `metadata.launch.open_in_new_tab: true` only when embedding is broken by
+things headers can't fix — the app frame-busts in JavaScript, requires being
+the top-level origin (OAuth redirect flows, WebAuthn), or sets
+`SameSite=Strict` session cookies that never accompany framed requests. Test
+in the real embedded app session, **not** a plain browser tab: tabs don't
+enforce framing headers, so a tab proves nothing about the iframe.
+
+(Historical note: before the gate handled this, embeddable-but-blocking apps
+each carried a hand-built nginx strip proxy — gitea's port-3000 proxy is the
+surviving example. Do not copy that pattern for new apps.)
 
 ### Launch Interfaces
 
@@ -406,19 +437,73 @@ curl http://localhost:8180/health
 podman logs my-app
 ```
 
-### On an Archipelago Node
+### On an Archipelago Node (before your app is in the catalog)
 
-1. Install via the marketplace UI or RPC:
+The App Store lists **signed-catalog apps and Nostr-discovered apps only** —
-   ```bash
+a manifest on the node's disk never appears in the store by itself. That is
-   curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://archipelago.local/rpc/v1 \
+deliberate: the store is a trust surface. But the orchestrator installs from
-     -d '{"method":"package.install","params":{"id":"my-app","dockerImage":"docker.io/myorg/my-app:1.0.0"}}'
+disk manifests just fine, so you can test the complete install/run/uninstall
-   ```
+lifecycle on your own node before your app is published anywhere.
-2. Verify the container is running:
+
-   ```bash
+**1. Stage the manifest where it survives reboots.**
-   curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://archipelago.local/rpc/v1 \
+
-     -d '{"method":"container-list"}'
+`/opt/archipelago/apps/` is *rebuilt on every backend start* from the runtime
-   ```
+payload that ships inside the frontend bundle
-3. Check the UI. The app's detail page is `http://archipelago.local/dashboard/apps/my-app`; the embedded launch surface is `http://archipelago.local/dashboard/app-session/my-app`
+(`/opt/archipelago/web-ui/archipelago-runtime/apps/`). If you copy your
+manifest only into `/opt/archipelago/apps/`, the next restart silently deletes
+it. Stage into the payload directory instead — the boot sync then promotes it
+for you:
+
+```bash
+sudo mkdir -p /opt/archipelago/web-ui/archipelago-runtime/apps/my-app
+sudo cp apps/my-app/manifest.yml /opt/archipelago/web-ui/archipelago-runtime/apps/my-app/
+sudo systemctl restart archipelago   # manifests are loaded at startup
+```
+
+Watch `journalctl -u archipelago` after the restart — the orchestrator
+validates every manifest on load and tells you about problems immediately
+(for example a host-port collision with another installed app).
+
+**2. Install over JSON-RPC.**
+
+The repo ships the same session helper the release lifecycle gate uses.
+Three things to know before using it: it needs `jq`; it reuses a cached
+session from `/tmp/archy-rpc-session-<uid>` unless `ARCHY_FORCE_LOGIN=1` is
+set (a stale cache fails every call quietly); and it sets `set -euo pipefail`,
+so run it inside a script or subshell — sourcing it into your interactive
+shell makes the first failed step kill the whole chain without printing
+anything.
+
+```bash
+bash <<'EOF'
+export ARCHY_PASSWORD='<your dashboard password>' ARCHY_FORCE_LOGIN=1
+# Stock nodes serve HTTPS on 443; dev boxes behind plain nginx use:
+#   export ARCHY_HOST=127.0.0.1 ARCHY_SCHEME=http
+source tests/lifecycle/lib/rpc.bash
+rpc_login && echo "login ok"
+# Both fields are required: `dockerImage` is normally supplied by the App
+# Store from the signed catalog — pre-catalog, you pass your manifest's
+# image yourself (it must match, and must come from a trusted registry).
+rpc_call package.install '{"id":"my-app","dockerImage":"docker.io/myorg/my-app:1.0.0"}'
+EOF
+```
+
+**3. Verify the lifecycle, not just the install:**
+
+```bash
+rpc_call package.status '{"id":"my-app"}'        # state + health (run inside the same subshell pattern)
+podman ps --filter name=my-app                   # container is up
+rpc_call package.stop '{"id":"my-app"}'          # …and start, restart
+sudo systemctl restart archipelago               # app must survive this
+rpc_call package.uninstall '{"id":"my-app","preserve_data":true}'
+rpc_call package.install '{"id":"my-app"}'       # data still there?
+```
+
+The app's detail page is `https://<node>/dashboard/apps/my-app`; a gated web
+UI is reachable through the app gate on its manifest port once running.
+
+Only after this loop is green does the app belong in a catalog submission —
+catalog inclusion is what makes it appear in the App Store.
 
 ### Validate Manifest
 

image-recipe/_archived/build-auto-installer-iso.sh

@@ -408,6 +408,10 @@ DOCKERFILE_HEAD
     xorg \
     xdotool \
     chromium \
+    mesa-va-drivers \
+    intel-media-va-driver \
+    i965-va-driver \
+    vainfo \
     pipewire \
     pipewire-pulse \
     pipewire-alsa \

image-recipe/configs/archipelago-kiosk-launcher.sh

@@ -1,5 +1,28 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+# TearFree BEFORE X starts: bare Xorg with the stock modesetting driver has
+# no vsync and no compositor, so video page-flips land mid-scanout — visible
+# tearing on every kiosk (reported 2026-08-11, "really bad" on IndeedHub
+# playback). The modesetting driver's TearFree option double-buffers the
+# scanout at the driver level: no compositor needed, one frame of latency,
+# no interaction with the 2026-06-28 choppy-audio GPU decisions. Written
+# here (idempotently) rather than baked into the image so existing kiosk
+# nodes pick it up through the launcher's own OTA path (bootstrap.rs
+# reinstalls this script on every node).
+XORG_CONF_DIR=/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
+XORG_TEARFREE="$XORG_CONF_DIR/20-archipelago-kiosk-tearfree.conf"
+mkdir -p "$XORG_CONF_DIR"
+if [ ! -f "$XORG_TEARFREE" ] || ! grep -q TearFree "$XORG_TEARFREE"; then
+    cat > "$XORG_TEARFREE" <<'EOF'
+# Written by archipelago-kiosk-launcher — vsynced scanout for kiosk video.
+Section "Device"
+    Identifier "Archipelago Kiosk GPU"
+    Driver "modesetting"
+    Option "TearFree" "true"
+EndSection
+EOF
+fi
+
 # Start a dedicated X server for the attached kiosk display.
 /usr/bin/Xorg :0 vt1 -nolisten tcp -keeptty &
 XPID=$!
@@ -149,16 +172,71 @@ xset s noblank 2>/dev/null || true
 pkill -u archipelago -f 'chromium.*localhost' 2>/dev/null || true
 sleep 1
 
-# GPU vs headless (#36, choppy-audio incident 2026-06-28). --enable-gpu-rasterization
+# ── Graphics tier ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-# spins a dedicated GPU process at 55-92% CPU even on real GPU hardware (Intel HD 5500)
+# One flag set does not fit all kiosk hardware. The June-2026 choppy-audio
-# because under X11 it falls back to software compositing anyway — that CPU
+# incident (#36) proved HD 5500-era boxes melt with GPU rasterization on
-# starvation is what caused choppy HDMI audio. --in-process-gpu avoids the
+# (under X11 they fall back to software compositing while a GPU process
-# separate process; GpuRasterization is also disabled via --disable-features below.
+# burns 55-92% CPU) — but holding MODERN iGPUs to those same defensive
-# On a GPU-less / headless server (no /dev/dri), disable GPU entirely instead.
+# flags (single raster thread, raster ban) froze framework-pt outright on
+# the animated network map at 4K (2026-08-13). So: two tiers.
+#
+#   legacy — the proven HD 5500 tuning: --in-process-gpu, ONE raster
+#            thread, GpuRasterization banned via --disable-features.
+#   modern — --in-process-gpu, Chromium's default raster threads,
+#            GpuRasterization allowed.
+#
+# KIOSK_GRAPHICS in /etc/archipelago/kiosk-display.conf overrides:
+#   auto (default) | performance (force legacy) | quality (force modern)
+# Set from Settings → Display; sourced with the rest of the conf above.
+#
+# Auto classifies by CPU model string — transparent and greppable, and the
+# iGPU generation tracks the CPU generation on this hardware. Rules:
+#   * "NNth Gen Intel"      → only stamped on gen 10+ model names → modern
+#   * AMD Ryzen             → modern
+#   * Intel iN-NNNNN (5 dig)→ gen 10+ desktop → modern
+#   * Intel iN-8xxx/9xxx    → gen 8/9 → modern
+#   * anything else         → legacy (fail conservative: slow-but-stable)
+detect_graphics_tier() {
+    case "${KIOSK_GRAPHICS:-auto}" in
+        performance) echo legacy; return ;;
+        quality)     echo modern; return ;;
+    esac
+    _cpu=$(grep -m1 '^model name' /proc/cpuinfo 2>/dev/null || true)
+    case "$_cpu" in
+        *"Gen Intel"*) echo modern; return ;;
+        *AMD*Ryzen*)   echo modern; return ;;
+    esac
+    _num=$(printf '%s' "$_cpu" | grep -oE 'i[3579]-[0-9]{4,5}' | head -1 | cut -d- -f2)
+    case "$_num" in
+        [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]) echo modern; return ;;  # 5 digits = gen 10+
+        [89][0-9][0-9][0-9])       echo modern; return ;;  # gen 8/9
+    esac
+    echo legacy
+}
+
 if [ -e /dev/dri/card0 ] || [ -e /dev/dri/renderD128 ]; then
-    GPU_FLAGS="--in-process-gpu --num-raster-threads=1"
+    GRAPHICS_TIER=$(detect_graphics_tier)
+    if [ "$GRAPHICS_TIER" = "modern" ]; then
+        GPU_FLAGS="--in-process-gpu"
+        EXTRA_DISABLED_FEATURES=""
+    else
+        GPU_FLAGS="--in-process-gpu --num-raster-threads=1"
+        EXTRA_DISABLED_FEATURES=",GpuRasterization"
+    fi
+    # Hardware VIDEO DECODE (VA-API) on GPU hardware — both tiers. Decode
+    # offload REDUCES the CPU pressure that caused the choppy-audio
+    # incident, it doesn't re-create it. Falls back silently to software
+    # decode when the platform lacks a va driver — never a black player.
+    # IgnoreDriverChecks: older Intel gens (HD 5500-era kiosks) are wrongly
+    # blocklisted upstream.
+    ENABLE_FEATURES="OverlayScrollbar,VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks"
+    echo "archipelago-kiosk: graphics tier=$GRAPHICS_TIER (KIOSK_GRAPHICS=${KIOSK_GRAPHICS:-auto})"
 else
+    # GPU-less / headless server (no /dev/dri): no GPU at all.
+    GRAPHICS_TIER=headless
     GPU_FLAGS="--disable-gpu --num-raster-threads=1"
+    EXTRA_DISABLED_FEATURES=",GpuRasterization"
+    ENABLE_FEATURES="OverlayScrollbar"
 fi
 
 ARCHIPELAGO_UID=$(id -u archipelago)
@@ -193,8 +271,8 @@ while true; do
       --disable-translate \
       --no-first-run \
       --check-for-update-interval=31536000 \
-      --disable-features=TranslateUI,MetricsReporting,AutofillServerCommunication,PasswordManagerEnabled,GpuRasterization \
+      --disable-features=TranslateUI,MetricsReporting,AutofillServerCommunication,PasswordManagerEnabled${EXTRA_DISABLED_FEATURES} \
-      --enable-features=OverlayScrollbar \
+      --enable-features=$ENABLE_FEATURES \
       --disable-session-crashed-bubble \
       --disable-save-password-bubble \
       --disable-suggestions-service \

neode-ui/package-lock.json

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "neode-ui",
-  "version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+  "version": "1.8.0-alpha",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "neode-ui",
-      "version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "version": "1.8.0-alpha",
       "dependencies": {
         "@scure/bip39": "^2.2.0",
         "@types/dompurify": "^3.0.5",

neode-ui/package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "neode-ui",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+  "version": "1.8.0-alpha",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "start": "./start-dev.sh",

neode-ui/public/assets/img/app-icons/alby-hub.svg

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<svg id="Layer_1" data-name="Layer 1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 8000 8000">
+  <path d="M1404.94034,2404.75143c.19948.39893.416.79745.63896,1.19934-.21965-.3998-.4293-.7996-.63896-1.19934ZM1398.36987,2392.55825c.01.02001.01999.03996.01999.04996.01999.02001.03998.04996.04998.06997-.01999-.03996-.04998-.07997-.06997-.11993ZM7957.22848,6407.80899c-75.3022-453.82005-341.31246-1051.68618-631.76608-1536.83905-217.58172,280.41299-443.70125,543.12568-695.66263,796.78364,151.96083,272.22676,381.52012,831.33939,371.78586,1131.07073-3.34955,103.13742-84.59871,186.38404-187.48323,193.03587-323.69068,20.92769-761.15088-169.80941-1126.96417-352.01125-274.08918,250.36976-539.73074,478.97192-815.02811,690.20321,570.85548,338.56749,1305.54247,669.74202,1904.46573,668.08293,872.77622,46.26671,1378.68446-776.20339,1180.65263-1590.32607ZM5249.15884,5683.56479c1101.91285-1101.01171,2353.03599-2527.31198,2708.11113-4090.5697,253.93721-1273.80049-760.34667-1869.98142-1895.16006-1469.66567,211.65045,278.23428,364.22738,589.33979,457.73054,914.98744,86.80988-20.20216,196.93112-34.80914,289.99476-31.50156,103.33929,3.67279,186.93541,86.38156,191.60732,189.77353,13.96581,309.07109-235.73659,902.8025-402.1382,1193.8406,0,.01-.01.02001-.01.03001l-.04998.07991c-624.44753,1143.09071-1591.89389,2208.42396-2600.29743,3077.06633l-.22964-.19984c-263.64443,226.46298-526.16056,433.98687-804.2439,626.56893.39938.34966.79882.69956,1.19826,1.04946-509.31622,353.04862-1419.46673,925.33606-2012.13405,893.44541-103.82534-5.58671-186.23795-90.1864-188.67838-194.22674-6.97909-297.53161,215.6413-843.71786,363.83869-1111.11806-237.05325-259.94423-464.71032-529.69327-686.31643-814.38364-1228.33988,1900.32534-772.83666,3911.20697,1772.96127,2814.86279,1004.95316-454.63593,1968.00538-1208.05697,2803.81609-2000.0392ZM2528.2177,4000.38756c-468.17105-551.20508-806.89093-1020.88409-1125.16461-1599.13417h-.01c-.00197-.02709-.02111-.04517-.02999-.07997h-.01c-.00225-.03154-.04191-.05163-.03986-.08992,0,0-.01,0-.01-.01-1.46642-2.7001-3.08021-5.72568-4.5634-8.46529.01999.02001.03998.04996.04998.06997-165.01013-287.23702-415.64692-882.63022-403.53149-1193.46936,4.07951-104.66591,88.1281-188.31126,192.71288-192.04153,92.1143-3.28547,200.69379,10.46969,286.62767,30.61985,93.58312-325.69743,246.26999-636.85321,458.06014-915.09749C797.66386-275.84563-214.1867,319.25478,39.32792,1592.99819c208.75964,1126.24494,1140.55524,2354.14531,1865.30175,3206.20191-1.24817,1.76903,1.23818-1.76903,0,0,177.91975,202.67638,363.17881,406.52227,558.17368,604.08153,267.29912-191.50259,530.82373-396.10806,795.10723-617.7438-259.10108-257.46588-503.73334-520.6384-729.69288-785.15026ZM1420.59738,2433.86513c.84886,1.56913,1.71746,3.17821,2.5963,4.82725-.85885-1.58908-1.72745-3.19816-2.5963-4.82725ZM1457.40366,2502.26682c.92857,1.699,1.83716,3.39806,2.73599,5.07711-.89883-1.64904-1.80742-3.3481-2.73599-5.07711ZM1403.01311,2401.17342c-.01-.01-.01987-.02995-.02986-.03996.01.01.01987.02995.01987.03996.01999.03001.02999.04996.03998.06997-.01-.02001-.01999-.03996-.02999-.06997ZM1404.94034,2404.75143c.19948.39893.416.79745.63896,1.19934-.21965-.3998-.4293-.7996-.63896-1.19934Z" fill="#ffe480"/>
+  <path d="M2762.56314,2987.43935c-683.41752-683.42045-683.41752-1791.46134,0-2474.87781,683.41752-683.41755,1791.45841-683.41755,2474.87885,0,683.41068,683.41648,683.41068,1791.45737,0,2474.87781l-1237.44089,1237.44089-1237.43796-1237.44089Z" fill="#fff"/>
+</svg>

neode-ui/public/assets/img/app-icons/phoenixd.svg

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<svg viewBox="0 0 94 94" id="vector" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
+  <g id="group" transform="matrix(1, 0, 0, 1, -6.999915, -7)">
+    <path id="path" d="M 30 81 C 23 80 21.63 71.49 29.16 45.87 C 35 26 46.18 26 58 26 C 73.17 26 81.61 29.18 83.79 35.73 C 84.243 36.883 84.39 38.135 84.214 39.362 C 84.039 40.589 83.548 41.75 82.79 42.73 C 82.613 42.96 82.419 43.178 82.21 43.38 C 85.1 45.31 86.88 48.02 86.52 51.9 C 86.13 56.26 83.16 58.55 78.52 59.66 C 78.849 60.396 79.013 61.194 79 62 C 78.988 63.199 78.695 64.378 78.147 65.444 C 77.598 66.51 76.808 67.433 75.84 68.14 C 70.09 72.76 60 75 46 73 C 43 72.57 41 75 39 77 C 36.62 79.38 34.24 81.61 30 81 Z" fill="#25A5FF"/>
+    <path id="path_1" d="M 58 30 C 66 30 78 31 80 37 C 82.24 43.71 69 43 59 42 C 68 43 83.18 44 82.5 51.5 C 82 57 72 57 55 56 C 63 57 75 58 75 62 C 75 68.28 58.74 71 47.67 69.31 C 39 68 38.06 76.77 31 75 C 27 74 28 63 33 47 C 38.29 30.09 46.49 30 58 30 Z" fill="#ffffff" stroke="#25A5FF" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"/>
+  </g>
+</svg>

neode-ui/public/packages/archipelago-companion.json

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "versionName": "0.5.27",
+  "versionCode": 47
+}

neode-ui/src/App.vue

@@ -1,5 +1,39 @@
 <template>
   <div id="app">
+    <!-- KAMMERGUT GLOSS TEST (2026-08-12): SVG paint filter lifted verbatim
+         from plan-b's Kammergut wordmark (#paintGloss). Consumed by the
+         .logo-gradient-border::after override in style.css. Revert by
+         deleting this svg block + that css block (one commit). -->
+    <svg width="0" height="0" style="position:absolute" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false">
+      <defs>
+        <filter id="paintGloss" x="-12%" y="-30%" width="124%" height="160%" color-interpolation-filters="sRGB">
+          <feMorphology in="SourceAlpha" operator="dilate" radius="2.5" result="dilated"/>
+          <feGaussianBlur in="dilated" stdDeviation="6" result="puddle"/>
+          <feFlood flood-color="#fff4dc" flood-opacity="0.85" result="puddleColor"/>
+          <feComposite in="puddleColor" in2="puddle" operator="in" result="puddleHi"/>
+          <feFlood flood-color="#1A1A18" flood-opacity="0.18" result="puddleShadowColor"/>
+          <feComposite in="puddleShadowColor" in2="puddle" operator="in" result="puddleShadow"/>
+          <feOffset in="puddleShadow" dx="0" dy="3" result="puddleShadowOff"/>
+          <feGaussianBlur in="SourceAlpha" stdDeviation="1.4" result="bump"/>
+          <feSpecularLighting in="bump" surfaceScale="4" specularConstant="0.9"
+                              specularExponent="40" lighting-color="#fff2d4" result="spec2">
+            <fePointLight x="600" y="-200" z="380"/>
+          </feSpecularLighting>
+          <feComposite in="spec2" in2="SourceAlpha" operator="in" result="specClip2"/>
+          <feGaussianBlur in="SourceAlpha" stdDeviation="4" result="dsBlur"/>
+          <feOffset in="dsBlur" dx="0" dy="6" result="dsOff"/>
+          <feComponentTransfer in="dsOff" result="dsFinal">
+            <feFuncA type="linear" slope="0.45"/>
+          </feComponentTransfer>
+          <feMerge>
+            <feMergeNode in="dsFinal"/>
+            <feMergeNode in="SourceGraphic"/>
+            <feMergeNode in="specClip2"/>
+          </feMerge>
+        </filter>
+      </defs>
+    </svg>
+
     <!-- Splash Screen (only on first visit) -->
     <SplashScreen v-if="showSplash" @complete="handleSplashComplete" />
 

neode-ui/src/components/BaseModal.vue

@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ import { ref, computed, watch } from 'vue'
 import { useRoute } from 'vue-router'
 import { useModalKeyboard } from '@/composables/useModalKeyboard'
 import { useBodyScrollLock } from '@/composables/useBodyScrollLock'
+import { useModalHistory } from '@/composables/useModalHistory'
 
 const props = withDefaults(defineProps<{
   show: boolean
@@ -105,6 +106,10 @@ function close() {
 
 useModalKeyboard(modalRef, computed(() => props.show), close)
 useBodyScrollLock(computed(() => props.show))
+// Browser/mouse/gesture Back closes the modal instead of navigating the
+// router out from under it — the native-app behaviour kiosk and mobile
+// browsers expect (the companion webview already provides it natively).
+useModalHistory(computed(() => props.show), close)
 </script>
 
 <style scoped>

neode-ui/src/components/CompanionIntroOverlay.vue

@@ -71,6 +71,11 @@
                   I've installed it
                 </button>
               </div>
+              <!-- Which version the Download button installs — read from the
+                   metadata staged beside the APK; absent file, absent note -->
+              <p v-if="companionVersion" class="text-xs text-white/40 text-center mt-3">
+                Version {{ companionVersion.versionName }}<template v-if="companionVersion.versionCode"> (build {{ companionVersion.versionCode }})</template>
+              </p>
             </div>
 
             <!-- Screen 2: pair the app with this node -->
@@ -153,6 +158,22 @@ const DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_URL = IS_DEMO
   ? `${window.location.origin}/packages/archipelago-companion.apk`
   : 'https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/packages/archipelago-companion.apk'
 
+// Version note for the download step. Read from the node's own copy of the
+// metadata (ships in the frontend beside the APK at /packages/), written by
+// publish-companion-apk.sh from the same gradle config that built the APK.
+// Best-effort: no file, no note.
+const companionVersion = ref<{ versionName: string; versionCode: number } | null>(null)
+async function loadCompanionVersion() {
+  try {
+    const res = await fetch('/packages/archipelago-companion.json', { cache: 'no-store' })
+    if (!res.ok) return
+    const meta = await res.json()
+    if (meta && typeof meta.versionName === 'string' && meta.versionName) {
+      companionVersion.value = { versionName: meta.versionName, versionCode: Number(meta.versionCode) || 0 }
+    }
+  } catch { /* metadata is a nicety — the download works without it */ }
+}
+
 // Deep-link scheme the companion app registers; carries the server entry the
 // app should create (see docs/companion-pairing-qr.md for the contract).
 const PAIR_SCHEME = 'archipelago://pair'
@@ -239,6 +260,7 @@ watch(companionIntroRequested, (requested) => {
 
 watch(visible, async (isVisible) => {
   if (!isVisible) return
+  if (!companionVersion.value) void loadCompanionVersion()
   // Generate large and let CSS scale down — at 112px source a ~45-module QR
   // is 2.5px/module, which camera decoders (the companion app included)
   // routinely fail on. 512px keeps every module crisp.

neode-ui/src/components/federation/NetworkMap3D.vue

@@ -853,7 +853,25 @@ function render() {
   }
 }
 
+/** Kiosk TVs run the kiosk image's conservative rasterizer (single raster
+ *  thread, GPU raster off — the June choppy-audio tuning), so a 60fps
+ *  SVG-attribute animation at 4K froze the browser outright (framework-pt,
+ *  2026-08-12). On kiosks the ticker renders every OTHER frame (~30fps at a
+ *  60Hz panel) with the skipped frame's delta carried over so spin speed is
+ *  unchanged — at couch distance the half rate is invisible, the paint cost
+ *  halves. */
+const kioskLowPower =
+  typeof document !== 'undefined' && document.documentElement.classList.contains('kiosk-mode')
+let lowPowerPhase = 0
+let carriedDeltaMS = 0
+
 function tick(_time: number, deltaMS: number) {
+  if (kioskLowPower) {
+    carriedDeltaMS += deltaMS
+    if ((lowPowerPhase++ & 1) === 1) return
+    deltaMS = carriedDeltaMS
+    carriedDeltaMS = 0
+  }
   elapsed += deltaMS / 1000
   if (!dragging) cam.rotY += cam.spin * (deltaMS / 1000)
   render()
@@ -1169,11 +1187,14 @@ function initialBuild() {
   applyGraph()
 
   // First measurement decides the default projection: saved preference wins,
-  // otherwise portrait containers (phone/companion) open in the flat 2D view.
+  // otherwise portrait containers (phone/companion) AND kiosk TVs open in the
+  // flat 2D view — the depth view stays one tap away and is remembered. The
+  // kiosk default exists for the same reason as the half-rate ticker above.
   modeInitialized = true
   let saved: string | null = null
   try { saved = localStorage.getItem('federation-map-projection') } catch { /* private mode */ }
-  viewMode.value = saved === '2d' || saved === '3d' ? saved : (height > width ? '2d' : '3d')
+  viewMode.value =
+    saved === '2d' || saved === '3d' ? saved : (kioskLowPower || height > width ? '2d' : '3d')
   applyMode(viewMode.value, false)
 
   if (staticMode) {

neode-ui/src/composables/useModalHistory.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+// Back/forward integration for modals (kiosk, remote browsers, mobile).
+//
+// Without this, the browser's Back control (mouse side-button on kiosk,
+// gesture on mobile, toolbar button in a remote browser) navigates the
+// ROUTER while a modal is open — at best closing the whole screen under a
+// dialog, at worst leaving the app. The native-app expectation, and what
+// the companion webview already provides, is: Back closes the topmost
+// dialog first.
+//
+// Mechanics: opening a modal pushes one history entry (same URL, a depth
+// marker in state — router keys are preserved by spreading the existing
+// state). A popstate that lands BELOW our depth means the user pressed
+// Back over an open modal: close the topmost one. A UI-side close (X,
+// backdrop, Esc) consumes its own entry with history.back() so Back never
+// needs pressing twice — guarded by the depth marker so it can never eat
+// a router entry. One module-level stack serves every BaseModal instance,
+// so stacked modals close one per Back, top first.
+import { watch, type Ref } from 'vue'
+
+type Entry = { close: () => void }
+
+const stack: Entry[] = []
+// Set when a popstate initiated the close: the history entry is already
+// gone, so the close-side cleanup must not call history.back() again.
+let poppedClose = false
+let listening = false
+
+function modalDepth(state: unknown): number {
+  return (state as { __archyModal?: number } | null)?.__archyModal ?? 0
+}
+
+function ensureListener() {
+  if (listening || typeof window === 'undefined') return
+  listening = true
+  window.addEventListener('popstate', (e) => {
+    // Landed at a depth below the open-modal count → this Back was aimed
+    // at the topmost modal. One entry per Back press: close exactly one.
+    // (A popstate at or above our depth is someone else's navigation —
+    // e.g. our own cleanup back, or a forward — leave it alone.)
+    if (modalDepth(e.state) < stack.length) {
+      const top = stack[stack.length - 1]
+      if (top) {
+        poppedClose = true
+        top.close()
+      }
+    }
+  })
+}
+
+/** Call from a modal component with its visibility and close trigger. */
+export function useModalHistory(show: Ref<boolean>, close: () => void) {
+  ensureListener()
+  const entry: Entry = { close }
+  watch(show, (open, was) => {
+    if (open === was) return
+    if (open) {
+      stack.push(entry)
+      try {
+        // Preserve vue-router's own keys in state — clobbering them breaks
+        // its scroll restoration and position tracking.
+        window.history.pushState(
+          { ...(window.history.state ?? {}), __archyModal: stack.length },
+          '',
+        )
+      } catch { /* history can throw in exotic embeds — modal still works */ }
+    } else {
+      const wasTop = stack[stack.length - 1] === entry
+      const i = stack.indexOf(entry)
+      if (i >= 0) stack.splice(i, 1)
+      if (poppedClose) {
+        poppedClose = false
+        return
+      }
+      // UI-side close of the top modal: consume the entry we pushed, but
+      // only if it is still the current one (a route change after opening
+      // moves history past it — backing out then would eat a real entry).
+      if (wasTop && modalDepth(window.history.state) > stack.length) {
+        try { window.history.back() } catch { /* same guard as above */ }
+      }
+    }
+  })
+}

neode-ui/src/style.css

@@ -1128,6 +1128,16 @@ html.controller-nav [data-controller-container]:focus {
     z-index: 0;
   }
 
+  /* KAMMERGUT GLOSS TEST (2026-08-12) — black gloss paint on the badge's
+     inner circle, lifted from plan-b's Kammergut wordmark (.paint-3d
+     gradient + #paintGloss filter, defs injected in App.vue). Revert:
+     delete this block + the svg defs block in App.vue (one commit). */
+  .logo-gradient-border::after {
+    background: linear-gradient(180deg, #2a2a26 0%, #1a1a18 45%, #060604 100%);
+    filter: url(#paintGloss);
+    -webkit-filter: url(#paintGloss);
+  }
+
   .logo-gradient-border img,
   .logo-gradient-border svg {
     border-radius: 9999px;

neode-ui/src/views/SystemUpdate.vue

@@ -1087,7 +1087,18 @@ async function applyUpdate() {
       }
       return
     }
-    showStatus(t('systemUpdate.applyFailed'), true)
+    // Surface the backend's actual, actionable message when it gave one
+    // ("Update download was incomplete — download again", etc.) instead of a
+    // generic dead end. The staged files are preserved across a failed apply,
+    // so re-download stays available and a retry is always possible.
+    const detail = errorMessage(e)
+    const actionable = /^Update\b/.test(detail)
+    showStatus(actionable ? detail : t('systemUpdate.applyFailed'), true)
+    // A staging inconsistency means the download is the thing to redo — drop
+    // the downloaded flag so the button offers Download again, not Apply.
+    if (/incomplete|not staged|re-download|inconsistent/i.test(detail)) {
+      downloaded.value = false
+    }
     if (import.meta.env.DEV) console.warn('Apply failed', e)
     applying.value = false
   }

neode-ui/src/views/settings/AccountInfoSection.vue

@@ -362,6 +362,34 @@ init()
               </button>
             </div>
             <div class="overflow-y-auto flex-1 min-h-0 space-y-6 pr-1">
+              <!-- v1.8.1-alpha -->
+              <div>
+                <div class="flex items-center gap-2 mb-3">
+                  <span class="text-xs font-mono px-2 py-0.5 rounded bg-orange-500/20 text-orange-300">v1.8.1-alpha</span>
+                  <span class="text-xs text-white/40">August 13, 2026</span>
+                </div>
+                <div class="space-y-3 text-sm text-white/80 pl-3 border-l border-white/10">
+                  <p>**Apps that refused to open inside the dashboard now embed like everything else.** Some apps ship browser headers that forbid being shown inside another page — correct hardening on the open web, but inside Archipelago it produced a dead grey pane when you opened them from My Apps (Alby Hub was the first to hit it). The app gate, which already checks your login on every request to an app, now removes just those framing headers on the way through; each app's own content-security rules pass through untouched. No more per-app proxy workarounds.</p>
+                  <p>**The network map no longer freezes kiosk TVs.** The animated federation map at 4K was too much for the deliberately conservative graphics settings the on-screen display used on every machine — settings chosen years back to stop audio crackle on much older hardware. Two fixes: on kiosk screens the map now opens in its flat 2D view (the 3D globe is one tap away, and remembered) and animates at half rate — invisible from the couch, half the work. And the display itself now recognizes what machine it runs on: older kiosk boxes keep the proven careful settings, modern ones finally get real GPU rendering.</p>
+                  <p>**New Settings → Display → Graphics choice for the on-screen display.** Auto (recommended) picks the right rendering mode for the machine by itself; Compatibility forces the most conservative mode if a screen ever stutters, tears, or crackles; Quality forces full GPU rendering on hardware the automatic detection doesn't recognize. Changing it restarts the on-screen display, like the size presets.</p>
+                </div>
+              </div>
+              <!-- v1.8.0-alpha -->
+              <div>
+                <div class="flex items-center gap-2 mb-3">
+                  <span class="text-xs font-mono px-2 py-0.5 rounded bg-orange-500/20 text-orange-300">v1.8.0-alpha</span>
+                  <span class="text-xs text-white/40">August 12, 2026</span>
+                </div>
+                <div class="space-y-3 text-sm text-white/80 pl-3 border-l border-white/10">
+                  <p>**Archipelago is now open source.** The full source code of the node you are running — the orchestrator, the dashboard, the app platform, the mesh, the release tooling — is published for anyone to read, build and audit at source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy. A node that holds your money, your files and your communications should not ask to be taken on faith: from this release onward you, or anyone you trust, can see exactly what it does and follow every change we make in the open.</p>
+                  <p>**Installing an update is reliable again, and tells you what happened when it isn't.** Some nodes could download an update but never apply it — the button stayed on "Install", and no amount of retrying worked. The cause: applying the update consumed the downloaded files as it went, so if any one step hit a snag partway through, the leftover files were incomplete and every later attempt failed the safety re-check forever, needing a technician to recover. Applying no longer consumes the download — a failed apply can always be retried from the same files — and the pieces are now applied in a fixed order with the program itself last, so a hiccup can't leave a half-swapped node. When an apply does fail, the screen now shows the real reason and what to do ("download the update again"), and offers Download again instead of a dead "Install" button, rather than a generic "it failed".</p>
+                  <p>**Video on the kiosk stops tearing.** The kiosk's display had no vertical sync at all, so fast motion — IndeedHub films especially — showed horizontal tearing lines. The display driver now syncs every frame to the panel (no extra hardware needed, existing kiosks pick it up with this update), and on machines with a GPU, video decoding moves off the CPU onto the video hardware — smoother playback that also leaves more headroom for audio, not less.</p>
+                  <p>**The Back button finally does what you expect.** Pressing Back — the mouse's side button on a kiosk, a swipe on a phone, the toolbar button in any browser — used to navigate the screen underneath an open window, or leave the dashboard entirely. Back now closes the topmost open window first, one per press, exactly like a native app; closing a window yourself never leaves a phantom entry that makes you press Back twice.</p>
+                  <p>**No more bare IP addresses in your update or app-registry settings.** The update mirrors and the app registry each listed the same server twice — once by its proper name, once as a raw http://146… address left over from before the domain existed. The raw-address entries are retired: new nodes never see them, and existing nodes clean them out of their saved lists automatically on the next read. Everything now goes through the named, TLS-protected origin — which was always the same machine.</p>
+                  <p>**The phone companion app downloads over the proper domain.** The download QR pointed at a raw address over plain HTTP; it now points at the same file on the https domain. Scanning it gets you an encrypted download from a named server.</p>
+                  <p>**The Receive window now tells you when the money is on its way.** Previously it showed a QR code and left you to check elsewhere whether anything happened. Now, the moment the sender's transaction is broadcast, the QR gives way to a clock: the amount, the transaction ID (tap to copy), and a note that the funds arrive on their own — with a single Done button. If you keep the window open, the clock becomes a green check at the first confirmation. Verified live on a real node: payment detected within seconds of broadcast.</p>
+                </div>
+              </div>
               <!-- v1.7.129-alpha -->
               <div>
                 <div class="flex items-center gap-2 mb-3">

neode-ui/src/views/settings/KioskDisplaySection.vue

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { rpcClient } from '@/api/rpc-client'
 // have a kiosk display (has_kiosk from the backend).
 const hasKiosk = ref(false)
 const preset = ref('auto')
+const graphics = ref('auto')
 const applying = ref(false)
 const error = ref('')
 
@@ -32,11 +33,35 @@ const presets = [
   },
 ]
 
+// Graphics tier: which browser rendering flags the on-screen display runs
+// with. Auto classifies the hardware (older kiosk boxes keep the proven
+// conservative flags; modern chips get GPU rendering); the two overrides
+// exist for troubleshooting and unclassified hardware.
+const graphicsModes = [
+  {
+    id: 'auto',
+    label: 'Auto (recommended)',
+    description: 'Detect this machine’s graphics hardware and pick the right rendering mode for it.',
+  },
+  {
+    id: 'performance',
+    label: 'Compatibility',
+    description: 'Most conservative rendering — use if the screen stutters, tears, or the audio crackles.',
+  },
+  {
+    id: 'quality',
+    label: 'Quality',
+    description: 'Full GPU rendering — smoothest animations on capable hardware. If unsure, use Auto.',
+  },
+]
+
 onMounted(async () => {
   try {
-    const res = await rpcClient.call<{ has_kiosk: boolean; preset: string }>({ method: 'system.kiosk-display.get' })
+    const res = await rpcClient.call<{ has_kiosk: boolean; preset: string; graphics?: string }>({ method: 'system.kiosk-display.get' })
     hasKiosk.value = res.has_kiosk
     preset.value = res.preset
+    // Older backend without the graphics field: hide nothing, default Auto.
+    graphics.value = res.graphics ?? 'auto'
   } catch { /* backend without the RPC — leave the section hidden */ }
 })
 
@@ -55,6 +80,22 @@ async function apply(id: string) {
     applying.value = false
   }
 }
+
+async function applyGraphics(id: string) {
+  if (applying.value || id === graphics.value) return
+  applying.value = true
+  error.value = ''
+  const prev = graphics.value
+  graphics.value = id
+  try {
+    await rpcClient.call({ method: 'system.kiosk-display.set', params: { graphics: id }, timeout: 20000 })
+  } catch (e: unknown) {
+    graphics.value = prev
+    error.value = e instanceof Error ? e.message : 'Failed to apply graphics setting'
+  } finally {
+    applying.value = false
+  }
+}
 </script>
 
 <template>
@@ -77,6 +118,25 @@ async function apply(id: string) {
         <p class="text-sm text-white/60">{{ p.description }}</p>
       </button>
     </div>
+
+    <h3 class="text-lg font-semibold text-white/96 mt-8 mb-2">Graphics</h3>
+    <p class="text-sm text-white/60 mb-6">
+      How the on-screen display uses this machine&rsquo;s graphics hardware. Changing this restarts the on-screen display.
+    </p>
+    <div data-controller-container tabindex="0" class="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-3 gap-4">
+      <button
+        v-for="g in graphicsModes"
+        :key="g.id"
+        :disabled="applying"
+        @click="applyGraphics(g.id)"
+        class="path-option-card text-left p-5 disabled:opacity-60"
+        :class="{ 'path-option-card--selected': graphics === g.id }"
+      >
+        <div class="font-medium text-white/90 mb-1">{{ g.label }}</div>
+        <p class="text-sm text-white/60">{{ g.description }}</p>
+      </button>
+    </div>
+
     <div v-if="error" class="mt-4 alert-error text-sm">{{ error }}</div>
   </div>
 </template>

release-manifest.json

@@ -1,32 +1,33 @@
 {
   "changelog": [
-    "**Every app is now supervised the same way — the last stragglers moved under systemd.** Five apps (Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Home Assistant, Uptime Kuma, Vaultwarden) still ran outside the node's per-app service management for a technical reason: their networking style died with whatever process started it, so they were kept alive by a separate workaround. That workaround is retired: these apps now migrate themselves onto the same managed units as everything else — own service, restart-on-anything, a ten-second breather between restarts so their networking can release its ports cleanly. The migration happens automatically on the node's next housekeeping pass, touches no app data, and was watched live on a real node: both test apps moved over on the first pass and came back healthy.",
+    "**Archipelago is now open source.** The full source code of the node you are running — the orchestrator, the dashboard, the app platform, the mesh, the release tooling — is published for anyone to read, build and audit at source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy. A node that holds your money, your files and your communications should not ask to be taken on faith: from this release onward you, or anyone you trust, can see exactly what it does and follow every change we make in the open.",
-    "**Leftover companion screens are cleaned up again — driven by real records this time.** When an app is uninstalled, its helper screen (the UI tile that fronts it) should go too. That cleanup was switched off in an earlier release after it wrongly removed the Bitcoin screen from a node whose Bitcoin was installed — it had been guessing \"installed\" from what happened to be running, and a separate bug made a running app look absent. The node now keeps a durable record of what you have installed, written at install time and cleared only by a real uninstall, and the cleanup consults only that record. If the record can't be read, the cleanup does nothing at all — \"I couldn't check\" is never treated as \"nothing is installed\" — and a helper must be orphaned for a sustained period before it is touched.",
+    "**Installing an update is reliable again, and tells you what happened when it isn't.** Some nodes could download an update but never apply it — the button stayed on \"Install\", and no amount of retrying worked. The cause: applying the update consumed the downloaded files as it went, so if any one step hit a snag partway through, the leftover files were incomplete and every later attempt failed the safety re-check forever, needing a technician to recover. Applying no longer consumes the download — a failed apply can always be retried from the same files — and the pieces are now applied in a fixed order with the program itself last, so a hiccup can't leave a half-swapped node. When an apply does fail, the screen now shows the real reason and what to do (\"download the update again\"), and offers Download again instead of a dead \"Install\" button, rather than a generic \"it failed\".",
-    "**A warning that fired every minute on every node is gone.** The app catalog and the node disagreed about where Grafana's software comes from, so the node ignored the catalog's answer and logged a complaint roughly every 75 seconds, forever. The catalog was right — Grafana is served from the fleet's own registry, like Bitcoin Knots — and the node's records now agree with it.",
+    "**Video on the kiosk stops tearing.** The kiosk's display had no vertical sync at all, so fast motion — IndeedHub films especially — showed horizontal tearing lines. The display driver now syncs every frame to the panel (no extra hardware needed, existing kiosks pick it up with this update), and on machines with a GPU, video decoding moves off the CPU onto the video hardware — smoother playback that also leaves more headroom for audio, not less.",
-    "**The federation map became a real map.** The network view is now a 3D orbital scene of your federation — nodes as a point-cloud globe with calm motion, auto-fit centring, and a 2D top-down toggle that portrait and mobile screens use by default, with the scene filling the viewport instead of sitting in a letterbox. Inbound peer requests appear live on the map as blinking nodes you can accept or reject in place, and revisiting the view no longer replays the whole intro — the scene updates in place.",
+    "**The Back button finally does what you expect.** Pressing Back — the mouse's side button on a kiosk, a swipe on a phone, the toolbar button in any browser — used to navigate the screen underneath an open window, or leave the dashboard entirely. Back now closes the topmost open window first, one per press, exactly like a native app; closing a window yourself never leaves a phantom entry that makes you press Back twice.",
-    "**An app that's mid-restart shows a page that says so — and comes back by itself.** When an app's screen was briefly unreachable behind the gate, the browser got a bare error; it now gets a named page for that app that retries on its own until the app answers.",
+    "**No more bare IP addresses in your update or app-registry settings.** The update mirrors and the app registry each listed the same server twice — once by its proper name, once as a raw `http://146…` address left over from before the domain existed. The raw-address entries are retired: new nodes never see them, and existing nodes clean them out of their saved lists automatically on the next read. Everything now goes through the named, TLS-protected origin — which was always the same machine.",
-    "Known gaps, disclosed rather than buried: three voice-assistant ports remain open without authentication. Non-browser clients — phone apps for Vaultwarden, Home Assistant or Jellyfin, and git over the web — meet the login page and need an access token. The 5x real-node lifecycle gate was not run for this release; the supervision migration and the cleanup re-enable were verified live on one node (both apps migrated and healthy, cleanup correctly idle)."
+    "**The phone companion app downloads over the proper domain.** The download QR pointed at a raw address over plain HTTP; it now points at the same file on the https domain. Scanning it gets you an encrypted download from a named server.",
+    "**The Receive window now tells you when the money is on its way.** Previously it showed a QR code and left you to check elsewhere whether anything happened. Now, the moment the sender's transaction is broadcast, the QR gives way to a clock: the amount, the transaction ID (tap to copy), and a note that the funds arrive on their own — with a single Done button. If you keep the window open, the clock becomes a green check at the first confirmation. Verified live on a real node: payment detected within seconds of broadcast."
   ],
   "components": [
     {
-      "current_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "current_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.7.129-alpha/archipelago",
+      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.8.0-alpha/archipelago",
       "name": "archipelago",
-      "new_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "new_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "sha256": "675e7dafc855d59b38c5a12d8b9405894677ed8701580227beca95ec2912e3f2",
+      "sha256": "fd99219ea11ffebc92b83154e1058911ebe72c357c80085310c78aba9714a6b5",
-      "size_bytes": 59531400
+      "size_bytes": 59369392
     },
     {
-      "current_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "current_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.7.129-alpha/archipelago-frontend-1.7.129-alpha.tar.gz",
+      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.8.0-alpha/archipelago-frontend-1.8.0-alpha.tar.gz",
-      "name": "archipelago-frontend-1.7.129-alpha.tar.gz",
+      "name": "archipelago-frontend-1.8.0-alpha.tar.gz",
-      "new_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "new_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "sha256": "53af2743308f4ae6a627255aaa288706d331d567c99e1cb615684dc3abba534d",
+      "sha256": "f6bbf7b3f78a00dd7051abef805c943cfa9a58f624e09e94b6bee6c9b2f22902",
-      "size_bytes": 95452033
+      "size_bytes": 97608790
     }
   ],
-  "release_date": "2026-08-10",
+  "release_date": "2026-08-12",
-  "signature": "902778710674486d5919e4abb1bf5540521c9ef55b50a44a9d64b750812738d51cc193f6675a9969b1c45ae86c2e9e44ab3d8daf8aa1d439799d7f7846e27d04",
+  "signature": "be3e3c6f8ed6b8d573a6329bf546ec1aa739214cd391272ce3b2f0a0ef6b10a4a4c4f9dfa4b9b32dad88326c9feff908fbdb3d1b86d055e5cf876f67f195c60b",
   "signed_by": "did:key:z6Mkfu5LT8d4DjETtrkATvHh9Dvcbnr7zBCUwfau8Sw7DLWT",
-  "version": "1.7.129-alpha"
+  "version": "1.8.0-alpha"
 }

releases/manifest.json

@@ -1,32 +1,33 @@
 {
   "changelog": [
-    "**Every app is now supervised the same way — the last stragglers moved under systemd.** Five apps (Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Home Assistant, Uptime Kuma, Vaultwarden) still ran outside the node's per-app service management for a technical reason: their networking style died with whatever process started it, so they were kept alive by a separate workaround. That workaround is retired: these apps now migrate themselves onto the same managed units as everything else — own service, restart-on-anything, a ten-second breather between restarts so their networking can release its ports cleanly. The migration happens automatically on the node's next housekeeping pass, touches no app data, and was watched live on a real node: both test apps moved over on the first pass and came back healthy.",
+    "**Archipelago is now open source.** The full source code of the node you are running — the orchestrator, the dashboard, the app platform, the mesh, the release tooling — is published for anyone to read, build and audit at source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy. A node that holds your money, your files and your communications should not ask to be taken on faith: from this release onward you, or anyone you trust, can see exactly what it does and follow every change we make in the open.",
-    "**Leftover companion screens are cleaned up again — driven by real records this time.** When an app is uninstalled, its helper screen (the UI tile that fronts it) should go too. That cleanup was switched off in an earlier release after it wrongly removed the Bitcoin screen from a node whose Bitcoin was installed — it had been guessing \"installed\" from what happened to be running, and a separate bug made a running app look absent. The node now keeps a durable record of what you have installed, written at install time and cleared only by a real uninstall, and the cleanup consults only that record. If the record can't be read, the cleanup does nothing at all — \"I couldn't check\" is never treated as \"nothing is installed\" — and a helper must be orphaned for a sustained period before it is touched.",
+    "**Installing an update is reliable again, and tells you what happened when it isn't.** Some nodes could download an update but never apply it — the button stayed on \"Install\", and no amount of retrying worked. The cause: applying the update consumed the downloaded files as it went, so if any one step hit a snag partway through, the leftover files were incomplete and every later attempt failed the safety re-check forever, needing a technician to recover. Applying no longer consumes the download — a failed apply can always be retried from the same files — and the pieces are now applied in a fixed order with the program itself last, so a hiccup can't leave a half-swapped node. When an apply does fail, the screen now shows the real reason and what to do (\"download the update again\"), and offers Download again instead of a dead \"Install\" button, rather than a generic \"it failed\".",
-    "**A warning that fired every minute on every node is gone.** The app catalog and the node disagreed about where Grafana's software comes from, so the node ignored the catalog's answer and logged a complaint roughly every 75 seconds, forever. The catalog was right — Grafana is served from the fleet's own registry, like Bitcoin Knots — and the node's records now agree with it.",
+    "**Video on the kiosk stops tearing.** The kiosk's display had no vertical sync at all, so fast motion — IndeedHub films especially — showed horizontal tearing lines. The display driver now syncs every frame to the panel (no extra hardware needed, existing kiosks pick it up with this update), and on machines with a GPU, video decoding moves off the CPU onto the video hardware — smoother playback that also leaves more headroom for audio, not less.",
-    "**The federation map became a real map.** The network view is now a 3D orbital scene of your federation — nodes as a point-cloud globe with calm motion, auto-fit centring, and a 2D top-down toggle that portrait and mobile screens use by default, with the scene filling the viewport instead of sitting in a letterbox. Inbound peer requests appear live on the map as blinking nodes you can accept or reject in place, and revisiting the view no longer replays the whole intro — the scene updates in place.",
+    "**The Back button finally does what you expect.** Pressing Back — the mouse's side button on a kiosk, a swipe on a phone, the toolbar button in any browser — used to navigate the screen underneath an open window, or leave the dashboard entirely. Back now closes the topmost open window first, one per press, exactly like a native app; closing a window yourself never leaves a phantom entry that makes you press Back twice.",
-    "**An app that's mid-restart shows a page that says so — and comes back by itself.** When an app's screen was briefly unreachable behind the gate, the browser got a bare error; it now gets a named page for that app that retries on its own until the app answers.",
+    "**No more bare IP addresses in your update or app-registry settings.** The update mirrors and the app registry each listed the same server twice — once by its proper name, once as a raw `http://146…` address left over from before the domain existed. The raw-address entries are retired: new nodes never see them, and existing nodes clean them out of their saved lists automatically on the next read. Everything now goes through the named, TLS-protected origin — which was always the same machine.",
-    "Known gaps, disclosed rather than buried: three voice-assistant ports remain open without authentication. Non-browser clients — phone apps for Vaultwarden, Home Assistant or Jellyfin, and git over the web — meet the login page and need an access token. The 5x real-node lifecycle gate was not run for this release; the supervision migration and the cleanup re-enable were verified live on one node (both apps migrated and healthy, cleanup correctly idle)."
+    "**The phone companion app downloads over the proper domain.** The download QR pointed at a raw address over plain HTTP; it now points at the same file on the https domain. Scanning it gets you an encrypted download from a named server.",
+    "**The Receive window now tells you when the money is on its way.** Previously it showed a QR code and left you to check elsewhere whether anything happened. Now, the moment the sender's transaction is broadcast, the QR gives way to a clock: the amount, the transaction ID (tap to copy), and a note that the funds arrive on their own — with a single Done button. If you keep the window open, the clock becomes a green check at the first confirmation. Verified live on a real node: payment detected within seconds of broadcast."
   ],
   "components": [
     {
-      "current_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "current_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.7.129-alpha/archipelago",
+      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.8.0-alpha/archipelago",
       "name": "archipelago",
-      "new_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "new_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "sha256": "675e7dafc855d59b38c5a12d8b9405894677ed8701580227beca95ec2912e3f2",
+      "sha256": "fd99219ea11ffebc92b83154e1058911ebe72c357c80085310c78aba9714a6b5",
-      "size_bytes": 59531400
+      "size_bytes": 59369392
     },
     {
-      "current_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "current_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.7.129-alpha/archipelago-frontend-1.7.129-alpha.tar.gz",
+      "download_url": "https://source.archipelago-foundation.org/lfg2025/archy/releases/download/v1.8.0-alpha/archipelago-frontend-1.8.0-alpha.tar.gz",
-      "name": "archipelago-frontend-1.7.129-alpha.tar.gz",
+      "name": "archipelago-frontend-1.8.0-alpha.tar.gz",
-      "new_version": "1.7.129-alpha",
+      "new_version": "1.8.0-alpha",
-      "sha256": "53af2743308f4ae6a627255aaa288706d331d567c99e1cb615684dc3abba534d",
+      "sha256": "f6bbf7b3f78a00dd7051abef805c943cfa9a58f624e09e94b6bee6c9b2f22902",
-      "size_bytes": 95452033
+      "size_bytes": 97608790
     }
   ],
-  "release_date": "2026-08-10",
+  "release_date": "2026-08-12",
-  "signature": "902778710674486d5919e4abb1bf5540521c9ef55b50a44a9d64b750812738d51cc193f6675a9969b1c45ae86c2e9e44ab3d8daf8aa1d439799d7f7846e27d04",
+  "signature": "be3e3c6f8ed6b8d573a6329bf546ec1aa739214cd391272ce3b2f0a0ef6b10a4a4c4f9dfa4b9b32dad88326c9feff908fbdb3d1b86d055e5cf876f67f195c60b",
   "signed_by": "did:key:z6Mkfu5LT8d4DjETtrkATvHh9Dvcbnr7zBCUwfau8Sw7DLWT",
-  "version": "1.7.129-alpha"
+  "version": "1.8.0-alpha"
 }

scripts/publish-companion-apk.sh

@@ -85,6 +85,20 @@ echo "publish-companion-apk: verified v1 + v2 + v3 signatures." >&2
 mkdir -p "$(dirname "$DEST")"
 cp "$SIGNED" "$DEST"
 
+# Version metadata beside the APK: the dashboard's companion overlay reads
+# this to show which version the Download button installs. Extracted from
+# the gradle config that just built the APK, so it can never drift from it.
+META="${DEST%.apk}.json"
+V_NAME="$(sed -n 's/^[[:space:]]*versionName = "\(.*\)"/\1/p' Android/app/build.gradle.kts | head -1)"
+V_CODE="$(sed -n 's/^[[:space:]]*versionCode = \([0-9]*\).*/\1/p' Android/app/build.gradle.kts | head -1)"
+if [ -n "$V_NAME" ] && [ -n "$V_CODE" ]; then
+  printf '{\n  "versionName": "%s",\n  "versionCode": %s\n}\n' "$V_NAME" "$V_CODE" > "$META"
+  git add "$META"
+  echo "publish-companion-apk: staged $META (v$V_NAME, build $V_CODE)" >&2
+else
+  echo "publish-companion-apk: WARNING could not extract version from build.gradle.kts — $META not updated" >&2
+fi
+
 # Drop the legacy zipped artifact so the served download is the raw APK only.
 if [ -f "$OLD_ZIP" ]; then
   git rm -q --ignore-unmatch "$OLD_ZIP" 2>/dev/null || rm -f "$OLD_ZIP"