Launch Profiles

Launch profiles define composable environment bundles that attach to application launches. Each profile specifies environment variables, secret references, an optional Nix devshell, and an optional working directory. Profiles are scoped to trust profiles and composed at launch time via tags.

Profile Structure

A launch profile is defined by the LaunchProfile struct in core-config/src/schema_wm.rs:

[profiles.work.launch_profiles.dev-rust]
env = { RUST_LOG = "debug", CARGO_HOME = "/workspace/.cargo" }
secrets = ["github-token", "crates-io-token"]
devshell = "/workspace/myproject#rust"
cwd = "/workspace/usrbinkat/github.com/org/repo"

Each field is optional and defaults to empty:

Field	Type	Description
`env`	`BTreeMap<String, String>`	Static environment variables injected into the child process.
`secrets`	`Vec<String>`	Secret names fetched from the vault and converted to env vars.
`devshell`	`Option<String>`	Nix flake devshell reference. Wraps the command in `nix develop`.
`cwd`	`Option<String>`	Absolute path used as the working directory for the spawned process.

Tag System

Key bindings in the window manager configuration reference launch profiles through the tags field on WmKeyBinding:

[profiles.default.wm.key_bindings.g]
apps = ["ghostty", "com.mitchellh.ghostty"]
launch = "ghostty"
tags = ["dev-rust", "ai-tools"]
launch_args = ["--working-directory=/workspace/user/github.com/org/repo"]

When a key binding triggers a launch, daemon-launcher resolves each tag against the configuration to compose the final environment. Tags are processed in order; the composition rules are described below.

Cross-Profile Tag References

Tags support qualified cross-profile references using the profile:name syntax. An unqualified tag resolves against the default (or explicitly specified) trust profile. A qualified tag resolves against a different trust profile.

Tag	Resolution
`dev-rust`	Resolves `dev-rust` in the current trust profile.
`work:corp`	Resolves `corp` in the `work` trust profile.

The parsing logic in daemon-launcher/src/launch.rs (parse_tag) splits on the first colon. If no colon is present, the tag is unqualified and uses the default profile.

Cross-profile references allow a single key binding to compose environments from multiple trust boundaries. For example, a terminal binding might combine a personal development environment with corporate secrets:

tags = ["dev-rust", "work:corp-secrets"]

Tag Composition Rules

When multiple tags are specified, they are processed sequentially. The composition semantics are:

Environment variables: merged into a single BTreeMap. When the same key appears in multiple tags, the later tag wins.
Secrets: accumulated. Duplicate secret names (same name, same trust profile) are deduplicated; secrets from different trust profiles are kept independently.
Devshell: last tag with a non-None devshell wins.
Working directory: last tag with a non-None cwd wins.

This is implemented in daemon-launcher/src/launch.rs in the launch_entry function. The composed environment is applied to the child process after secret fetching completes.

Configuration Schema

Launch profiles live under each trust profile’s configuration section:

[profiles.personal]
# ... other profile settings ...

[profiles.personal.launch_profiles.dev-rust]
env = { RUST_LOG = "debug" }
secrets = ["github-token"]
devshell = "/workspace/project#rust"
cwd = "/workspace/usrbinkat/github.com/org/repo"

[profiles.personal.launch_profiles.ai-tools]
env = { ANTHROPIC_MODEL = "claude-sonnet-4-20250514" }
secrets = ["anthropic-api-key"]

The full path in the config tree is profiles.<trust_profile_name>.launch_profiles.<launch_profile_name>. Daemon-launcher reads these from the hot-reloaded configuration state (ConfigWatcher) at launch time, so changes take effect without daemon restart.

Denial Handling

If a tag references a trust profile or launch profile that does not exist, daemon-launcher returns a structured LaunchDenial to the window manager:

LaunchDenial::ProfileNotFound – the trust profile name in a qualified tag does not exist.
LaunchDenial::LaunchProfileNotFound – the launch profile name does not exist within the resolved trust profile.

The window manager can use these denials to display user-facing error messages.

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