# autostart

What Hyprland launches at login: hypr-theme's `sections/autostart.lua`, which
this page owns. It lives in the settings window, not the drawer, because it is
set once and left alone.

Adding is guided, because a wrong entry only shows at the next login. Pick
an installed app (the launcher's `.desktop` entries, Exec line minus its
`%U`-style field codes; terminal apps are left out and go through Command), or
type a command. Either way the program is looked up on PATH as it changes, past
`VAR=value`, `env`, `exec` and into `sh -c '...'`, and Add stays disabled until
it resolves. A workspace (the scratchpad, 1 to 8, or any name in use) and
silent become a `[workspace <name> silent]` rule. Try starts the composed line
through `hyprctl dispatch hl.dsp.exec_cmd(...)`, so the rule applies as at
login. Existing rows show their rule and a red mark when their program is no
longer found. They have no Try: they already ran at login, and a second start
stacks a second instance. Arguments are not checked, only the program.

The file is walked line by line. A line that is exactly `hl.exec_cmd("...")`
is an entry, the same line behind `-- ` is a disabled entry, and every other
line passes through untouched. The switch comments a line in and out, Remove
asks once and deletes it, and the field at the bottom adds an enabled line
before the hook's closing `end)`. The file therefore carries no comments,
since deleting an entry would orphan the one above it; the reason behind each
line lives in the launched project's own docs.

Every edit is made on the text as last read and refused if its line is no
longer what was parsed, so an edit in an editor meanwhile is never
overwritten blind: the page reloads and asks to try again. Writes are atomic,
because Hyprland reloads its config on every change and must never see a
half-written file.

`hyprland.start` fires once per session, so a change applies at next login.

Not handled: a command spread over several lines or written as a `[[...]]`
long string is not an entry and is left alone, and only the `\"` and `\\`
escapes are decoded.

Check: `node desktop/modules/autostart/test_autostart.js`.