The Extensions list was a stack of tall cards — description, author,
capabilities and buttons on every one — so seven add-ons filled the
page before the user found the toggle. Rows are now one line each,
Firefox-style: icon, name, built-in badge, version, a short update
status, the on/off switch and a ⋯ menu, grouped Enabled / Disabled /
Failed to load. Clicking a row opens the detail view in place: back
arrow, description, update status, author, version, type, folder with
Show folder, and a Permissions block that explains each declared
capability in plain words. The ⋯ menu (and right-click) offers Turn
on/off, Details, Show folder and, for non-bundled extensions, Remove —
a new addons-remove IPC that deletes the folder under the extensions
directory, refuses bundled add-ons (they would only be reseeded), and
clears the dock prefs it left behind.
Anyone who owns a BCDN name can now publish a Theseus extension, and every
Theseus can install it with the publisher's signature verified locally.
Gateway (Argus/src/gateway/public-gateway.mjs):
PUT /api/ext/<name>/<id>/<version> takes the gzipped tar, checks two BCH
message signatures against the name's current NFT owner (one authorises
the upload, one is stored in the channel), inspects the package
(addon.json at the root, id/version/main match, 8 MB cap), enforces
first-publisher ownership of an id and monotonic versions, and writes the
tarball, the extension's updates.json and community/catalog.json to Sia.
GET /api/ext/catalog reads the catalog back with CORS.
Theseus:
lib/publisher-sig.mjs recovers the signer of a channel entry; main.js
compares it with the publisher name's owner from Theseus's own chain
index before installing or updating, so neither the relay nor a tampered
catalog can pass off code under a trusted name. addon-updater.js gains
installCommunity() and accepts publisher-signed entries in the regular
update check (operator Ed25519 entries unchanged). Settings › Extensions
shows the community catalog with Install / Update; Settings › Plug-ins
links to theseus.x/plug-ins.
theseus.x:
/plug-ins/ is a separate page for the first-party plug-ins (Aegis,
Ariadne's Thread) with live versions and hashes; /extensions/ lists the
bundled extensions, the community catalog, and how to build and publish;
/extensions/publish/ signs and uploads a package in the browser with the
wallet that holds the publisher's name (session helper + wallet bundle
copied alongside).
Two additions:
1) Aegis (bchwallet) update card lands in Settings > General beside
the Ariadne one. Same look, different substance: Aegis is a
bundled add-on, not a system service, so no Install/Uninstall
buttons — the checkboxes there are 'Check for updates' and (only
when an update is staged) 'Restart to apply update'. Reuses the
existing signed OTA endpoint (addons-check-updates IPC) and
addons-list-staged for the pending-update surface, so new wallet
versions ship without a Theseus release.
New app-restart IPC (app.relaunch + app.quit) does the promotion
handoff — addons-host promotes staged updates on next boot.
2) DevTools (F12 / Ctrl+Shift+I) opens docked to the right of the
tab view (mode: 'right') instead of popping a detached window. A
user debugging a page gets the tools alongside it, matching stock
Chrome; anyone who prefers detached can still drag it out via the
DevTools own toolbar.
The Updates card was placeholder-dashed until the user clicked Check
for updates. Show 'You're on v<current>' immediately on load using a
new app-version IPC (app.getVersion, no network) so the user can
answer 'which version am I on?' without a click.
Three tied-together fixes:
1) captureTab moves from WebContents.capturePage() to CDP
Page.captureScreenshot for every mode (visible / full / region).
Blank-screenshot symptom: after a toolbar-menu selection, the OS
popup teardown left the tab view marked occluded for a few frames
on some Windows setups, so capturePage() snapshotted a
stale/transparent frame at the correct dimensions — no 0x0, no
retry hit. CDP forces a fresh composite regardless of occlusion
state (same path the "Full page" mode was already using) and
returns a base64 PNG directly; PNG dimensions come out of the
IHDR chunk (bytes 16-24). Attach only when nothing else has, and
detach after only if WE attached, so an open DevTools stays
attached.
2) Editor gets a Discard button. Toolbar picks up an "×" glyph next
to Save/Copy that closes the editor tab and drops the working
screenshot. Top-level Escape now falls through the same path
after unwinding an in-flight text placement or crop rectangle. A
new "addon-tab-close" IPC lets an add-on's own tab close itself
(main matches the sender's webContents id against the tab list,
so a page can only close its own tab); window.silentmode.closeTab()
exposes it from addon-tab-preload.js.
3) Manual update controls in Settings > Extensions. New "Check for
updates" button at the top of the Extensions surface calls the
same signed-update polling the boot timer runs; the result is
surfaced inline ("All extensions are up to date" / "N updates
staged; restart Theseus to apply"). A "Pending updates" box
below lists what's in <userData>/addons-updates-staged/ so the
user knows what will be promoted on next restart.
Toolbar-menu popup settle bumped from 120 ms to 250 ms with an
explicit win.focus() in the popup close callback — the previous
window wasn't enough on slower Windows setups. CDP capture no longer
depends on this delay anyway, but the settle still helps any add-on
that does DOM work in its click handler before capture.
Screenshot add-on bumped 0.2.2 → 0.2.3 (Discard button; capture
fixes come from the host, not the add-on).
New "Updates" card under Startup: a single "Check for updates" button
that hits the release manifest immediately (rather than waiting for
the boot-time and 6h-interval auto-check). Reuses the existing
recheck-update IPC; extended it to un-dismiss any chip the user closed
this session AND to return the current app version so the button can
render either:
- "You're on the latest (v0.3.21)." when nothing newer exists
- "vX.Y.Z is available — the update chip in the toolbar will offer it."
Button disables + shows "Checking…" during the fetch. Silent failures
report their reason ("Check failed: …") so the user isn't left staring
at a dash.
Extends the Ariadne toggle card in Settings > Registries with the three
lifecycle actions the user asked for:
- Install: runs the bundled AriadneResolver-Setup-<ver>.exe silently
and elevated (/VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART). Single UAC
prompt, no wizard.
- Update: same installer, run over the top. Inno Setup detects the
matching AppId and upgrades in place. Only shown when the bundled
version is newer than what's installed.
- Uninstall: reads Inno's QuietUninstallString from
HKLM\...\Uninstall\{7E7A5F1C-...}_is1 and runs it elevated with
/VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART.
Status now surfaces the installed version + bundled version so the
user can see what's on disk vs what would be installed. Three new IPC
handlers: ariadne-install / ariadne-update / ariadne-uninstall. Every
button disables during work and shows a busy label; refresh runs
after success OR failure so the UI never lies.
Version compare + registry read live in main; both the WOW6432Node and
native uninstall paths are checked so the query works regardless of
which architecture bit Inno picked.
New card under Settings > Registries: shows whether the system-wide
resolver daemon is running, stopped, or not installed on this machine,
and lets the user turn it on/off without opening the installer.
Ariadne runs as two elevated Windows Scheduled Tasks ("BNS Resolver
Daemon" + "BNS Sia Bridge"). Toggling requires admin — main spawns an
elevated PowerShell (Start-Process -Verb RunAs) that UAC-prompts once
per action, then re-queries state. Query is unelevated
Get-ScheduledTask so status checks are silent.
Three surfaced states:
running - "every browser on this machine resolves BCDN names"
stopped - "only Theseus resolves BCDN names; other browsers won't"
not-installed - link to silentmode.st/tools to grab the standalone installer
Theseus's own resolver is unaffected either way — it lives in-process
and doesn't depend on Ariadne. This toggle only controls what non-
Theseus browsers on the same box can resolve.
New subsystem for extending Theseus with folders on disk. Each add-on
lives at <userData>/addons/<id>/ with an addon.json manifest and a
CommonJS entry that exports activate(api). Nothing about a private
add-on ships in the public installer - drop the folder, restart, it's
live. Bundled reference add-ons ride in the packaged app under
resources/bundled-addons/ and are seeded into <userData>/addons/ on
first boot; the framework treats seeded and drop-in add-ons the same.
Files:
- addons-host.js Loader + api.registerSidebarPanel() + per-
addon storage on <userData>/addons-data/.
Kept at the CommonJS-scoped top level (lib/
is ESM-scoped via its own package.json).
- sidebar-preload.js Runs in every sidebar panel. Exposes
window.silentmode.storage.{get,set,all} +
onVisibility. Main-side handlers derive the
add-on id from the sender file:// URL, so a
panel can only touch its own store.
- bundled-addons/notepad/ Reference add-on: addon.json, index.js,
note.html. Autosaving textarea with char /
word count.
main.js:
- Extension point: sidebar-panel. One right-anchored WebContentsView
(SIDEBAR_W=340) hosts the current panel; layout() shrinks the tab
views by the sidebar width when visible. First registered panel
wins for MVP; picker for multiple panels lands later.
- initAddons() at app.whenReady(): seedBundledAddons, then
AddonHost.discoverAndActivate.
- IPC surface: sidebar-toggle / sidebar-open / sidebar-close /
sidebar-state, addons-list / addons-set-enabled / addons-reveal /
addons-open-dir / addons-reload, and origin-gated
addon-storage-get/set/all.
- Settings gains `disabledAddons: []` — off-toggled ids persist and
the loader honours them without a restart (discoverAndActivate
runs again on toggle).
chrome.html: toolbar sidebar-toggle button, hidden until at least one
add-on has registered a sidebar panel.
settings.html: new "Add-ons" section under privacy. Lists installed
add-ons with icon / name / version / description / capabilities;
per-add-on enable/disable toggle + Show folder button; page-level
Reload and Open add-ons folder buttons; warning note about the trust
model.
package.json: build.files gains sidebar-preload.js + addons-host.js.
extraResources gains bundled-addons/ so the packaged app carries the
reference notepad for the first-boot seed.
Verified: `npm start` boots, addons-host discovers the notepad,
activates it, registers one sidebar panel. Log confirms
"1 installed, 1 enabled, 1 sidebar panels". Actual sidebar rendering
+ notepad UI need clicked-through validation on a real install.
Not shipped yet - deploy still blocked on the fail2ban VPS SSH ban.
Ships as 0.2.0 once SSH clears (this is a new subsystem, not a fix).
Three follow-up asks from the previous ship:
1. Shield "secure" colour bumped from #4fd1a5 (mint) to #3fb950 — the
GitHub-style saturated green, matches the +N/-N diff colour the user
pointed at as reference.
2. Engine-picker "Search settings…" now opens the Search section
directly instead of General. New IPC channel `focus-section` fires
from main after picker-open-settings, carried through
settings-preload as `onFocusSection`, and the settings.html sidebar
handler exposes showSection(sec) so any section can be focused
programmatically. Works for both a fresh settings tab (fires on
did-finish-load) and an already-open one (fires immediately).
3. Toggle no longer removes an engine from the list. Two-tier state:
INSTALLED (visible in the Settings list) and ENABLED (toggled on in
the toolbar dropdown). Toggling off keeps the row visible with an
.off class (dimmed 55%). Right-click any row → new context menu with
"Remove from list" is what actually removes an engine (built-ins go
back to the catalog, customs are dropped entirely).
Model changes:
- New settings.installedEngines persistent array (defaults to
DEFAULT_ENABLED). enabledEngines becomes a subset of installedEngines.
- isInstalled(id) helper; allEngines() carries `installed: bool` alongside
`enabled`.
- New IPC `remove-from-list` (right-click action); exposed as
removeFromList in settings-preload.
- set-engine-enabled now also INSTALLS when enabling (the catalog "+ Add"
flow), preserves installed state when disabling.
- add-engine (custom URL) auto-adds the new id to enabledEngines too.
- remove-engine (custom delete) prunes from enabledEngines as well.
- Never-empty invariant kept: enabledEngines falls back to ["duckduckgo"]
if everything gets removed.
Settings UI:
- Enabled list shows all INSTALLED engines (was: only enabled), rendered
with toggle reflecting enabled state; rows carry data-builtin so the
context menu picks the right remove IPC.
- Catalog panel and Discover-more pane filter on !installed instead of
!enabled — a toggled-off engine stays in the enabled list, not here.
- Ctxmenu is a floating .ctxmenu div; closes on outside click / Escape.
- .eng.off dims the row and mutes the name colour.
Preview harness stubs updated to include the `installed` field on every
engine + `removeFromList` and `onFocusSection` no-op stubs so
_settings-preview.html renders the new UI accurately.
Theseus soft-mode UX: 'Open with...' modal on collision, per-name/per-TLD
overrides, live per-tab switcher in the site-info popover, and a Naming section
in Settings for policy + reset. Backed by an on-chain root TLD certificate
(tlds.bch) that resolver-web.js discovers via fetchBcnrTlds()/isBcnrNativeTld().
Companion pieces:
- Argus/src/indexer/ELECTRUM-SOURCE-README.md — the featherweight VPS variant
(no BCHN node, no Fulcrum) now live as bns-indexer.service.
- Argus/DESIGN-root-tld-cert.md — clarified: NOT a governance workflow, just
ordinary key management (single wallet MVP -> 2-of-3 multisig). List gates
registration / surgical NRPT / soft-mode classifier — never resolution.
- ROADMAP-IDEAS.md — recorded SiaGit/GitHub.sia + user-friendly Sia UI ideas.
Full spec: Argus/DESIGN-collision-modes.md (already tracked).
- Search engines can be reordered (▲/▼ per row); order persists in
settings.engineOrder and drives the toolbar dropdown order.
- Manual anti-fingerprinting values are now dropdown-or-type (datalist):
timezone (common IANA zones), language (common locales), and a city picker
for location that fills exact lat/lon — each still accepts free typing.
- Custom engine dropdown as a floating overlay view (engine-picker.html) that
renders REAL favicons per engine — a native <select> can't show images.
- Larger catalog (DuckDuckGo/Google/Brave/Bing/Startpage/Yandex/Ecosia/Mojeek/
SearXNG/Wikipedia/Perplexity); Settings has a favicon checklist to choose
which appear in the dropdown (enabledEngines), plus manual add/remove.
- OpenSearch "scan": pages advertising a search engine surface an
"Add <site>'s search" entry in the dropdown.
- Toolbar search box now just a magnifier button that opens the dropdown
(no per-engine icon in the bar).
- Security popover redesigned to resemble Firefox's site-info panel:
lock/shield hero, "Connection secure" status, host, plain-language
subtitle, and a details grid; the overlay view auto-sizes to content.
- Search-engine picker returned to the toolbar with an "Add / edit engines…"
entry that opens Settings; added Ecosia, Mojeek, Presearch.
- Custom search engines: add (name + URL template with %s) / remove in
Settings > General; used by address-bar search.
- Address-bar placeholder: "Ask a search engine or enter web address".
- Performance: cache the chain index (was rebuilt on every navigation) and
warm it at startup — .bch pages open near-instantly after the first.
- Loading indicator: indeterminate bar under the toolbar, per-tab spinner,
and reload⇄stop button (driven by did-start/stop-loading + BNS resolve).
- Chrome cleanup: removed the bottom status bar and the redundant search
box; security padlock now always present at the front of the address bar;
minimal ICANN/BCNR pill at the end; favorites bar shows only on new-tab.
- Search: added Yandex; engine picker moved into Settings > General.
- Settings redesigned with a left sidebar (General / Performance / Privacy /
Anti-fingerprinting). Anti-fingerprinting now Show/Hide/Spoof/Manual for
timezone, language, AND location (geolocation coords overridden in-page).
