From 026a232e0c2185c5a2e41b9128b320f84ef4c139 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: vikingowl <christian@nachtigall.dev>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:04:55 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] docs: add ROADMAP.md with feature ideas
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- High value/low effort: hot-reload, frecency pruning, :recent, clipboard images
- Medium effort: universal actions, plugin settings UI, result capture
- Bigger bets: window switcher, cross-device sync, natural language, plugin marketplace
- Technical debt: meval→evalexpr, API compat, per-plugin config

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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+# Owlry Roadmap
+
+Feature ideas and future development plans for Owlry.
+
+## High Value, Low Effort
+
+### Plugin hot-reload
+Detect `.so` file changes in `/usr/lib/owlry/plugins/` and reload without restarting the launcher. The loader infrastructure already exists.
+
+### Frecency pruning
+Add `max_entries` and `max_age_days` config options. Prune old entries on startup to prevent `frecency.json` from growing unbounded.
+
+### `:recent` prefix
+Show last N launched items. Data already exists in frecency.json — just needs a provider to surface it.
+
+### Clipboard images
+`cliphist` supports images. Extend the clipboard plugin to show image thumbnails in results.
+
+---
+
+## Medium Effort, High Value
+
+### Actions on any result
+Generalize the submenu system beyond systemd. Every result type gets contextual actions:
+
+| Provider | Actions |
+|----------|---------|
+| Applications | Open, Open in terminal, Show .desktop location |
+| Files | Open, Open folder, Copy path, Delete |
+| SSH | Connect, Copy hostname, Edit config |
+| Bookmarks | Open, Copy URL, Open incognito |
+| Clipboard | Paste, Delete from history |
+
+This is the difference between a launcher and a command palette.
+
+### Plugin settings UI
+A `:settings` provider that lists installed plugins and their configurable options. Edit values inline, writes to `config.toml`.
+
+### Result action capture
+Calculator shows `= 5+3 → 8`. Allow pressing Tab or Ctrl+C to copy the result to clipboard instead of "launching" it. Useful for calculator, file paths, URLs.
+
+---
+
+## Bigger Bets
+
+### Window switcher with live thumbnails
+A `windows` plugin using Wayland screencopy to show live thumbnails of open windows. Hyprland and Sway expose window lists via IPC. Could replace Alt+Tab.
+
+### Cross-device bookmark sync
+Firefox and Chrome sync bookmarks across devices. Parse sync metadata to show "recently added on other devices" or "bookmarks from phone".
+
+### Natural language commands
+Parse simple natural language into system commands:
+
+```
+"shutdown in 30 minutes" → systemd-run --user --on-active=30m systemctl poweroff
+"remind me in 1 hour"    → notify-send scheduled via at/systemd timer
+"volume 50%"             → wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.5
+```
+
+Local pattern matching, no AI/cloud required.
+
+### Plugin marketplace
+A curated registry of third-party Lua/Rune plugins with one-command install:
+
+```bash
+owlry plugin install github-notifications
+owlry plugin install todoist
+owlry plugin install spotify-controls
+```
+
+The script runtimes make this viable without recompiling.
+
+---
+
+## Technical Debt
+
+### Replace meval with evalexpr
+`meval` depends on `nom v1.2.4` which will be rejected by future Rust versions. Migrate calculator plugin and Lua runtime to `evalexpr` v13+.
+
+### Plugin API backwards compatibility
+When `API_VERSION` increments, provide a compatibility shim so v3 plugins work with v4 core. Prevents ecosystem fragmentation.
+
+### Per-plugin configuration
+Current flat `[providers]` config doesn't scale. Design a `[plugins.weather]`, `[plugins.pomodoro]` structure that plugins can declare and the core validates.
+
+---
+
+## Priority
+
+If we had to pick one: **Actions on any result**. It transforms every provider from "search and launch" to "search and do anything". The ROI is massive.