# Documentation

Two audiences, two folders. Most people want the first table and never the
second.

## Using DarkRoom

| | |
|---|---|
| [The manual](manual/README.md) | Every feature, pictured from the application itself — opening a library, rating, labelling and filing, duplicate originals, developing, local masks, repair, film, presets, panoramas, export and albums. The application carries it and opens it from Help and from Settings |
| [How it is driven](gestures.md) | Every gesture and shortcut, by screen. Generated from the code, so it cannot describe one the application does not have. The same list is the in-app help sheet: `Help` or `F1` in the grid, `?` or `F1` in develop |

The [top-level README](../README.md) says what DarkRoom is, how to get it on
each platform, and what is still missing.

## Changing DarkRoom

Everything under [`dev/`](dev/) is for someone working on the code. Start with
[CONTRIBUTING.md](../CONTRIBUTING.md), which says how to land a first change
without reading the rest.

**The register and the record.** What must be built, how it is built, and how
far along it is.

| | |
|---|---|
| [requirements.md](dev/requirements.md) | What the software must do — the numbered register, the decisions (D-numbers) and the spikes (S-numbers) |
| [architecture.md](dev/architecture.md) | How it is built — crates, the GPU pipeline, the data model, sync |
| [traceability.md](dev/traceability.md) | Generated: which requirement is claimed by which file. Never edited by hand |
| [outstanding.md](dev/outstanding.md) | What is specified and not built, and whether that is a decision or a gap |
| [technical-debt.md](dev/technical-debt.md) | Compromises taken deliberately, each with the condition that retires it |
| [code-health.md](dev/code-health.md) | What a contribution costs, per seam, measured |

**Designs, one per subsystem.** Each is the specification the code was built
to, kept current as the code moved.

| | |
|---|---|
| [catalog.md](dev/catalog.md) | The index, the library view, incremental scan, the job queue |
| [storage.md](dev/storage.md) | Storage backends: the seam a folder, a sync client and a Nextcloud account share |
| [faces.md](dev/faces.md) | Face detection, identity, clustering and the eye-state models |
| [segmentation.md](dev/segmentation.md) | How the application finds the regions a local mask snaps to |
| [mask-editing.md](dev/mask-editing.md) | Painting, erasing and combining masks |
| [spot-removal.md](dev/spot-removal.md) | Clone and heal as parameters in the edit graph |
| [panorama.md](dev/panorama.md) | Alignment, projection, the chunked composite and the border fill |
| [inference.md](dev/inference.md) | The neural runtime and model chosen per device, with the measurements |
| [display-and-extension.md](dev/display-and-extension.md) | The display contract, and why the fused pipeline is already most of a plugin format |
| [view-composition.md](dev/view-composition.md) | A controller for the display layer |
| [ui-navigation.md](dev/ui-navigation.md) | Finding things in the interface once there are many |

**Measurements.** Numbers committed so a regression is a diff rather than a
recollection.

| | |
|---|---|
| [benchmarks.md](dev/benchmarks.md) | The per-commit suite: what it covers, what it does not, how to read a failure |
| [bench-baseline.json](dev/bench-baseline.json) | The committed numbers the suite checks against |
| [frame-budget.md](dev/frame-budget.md) | What a frame costs on each device, and the decision those figures settled |

**Platforms and distribution.**

| | |
|---|---|
| [distribution.md](dev/distribution.md) | Which channels v1 targets and what each one constrains |
| [windows.md](dev/windows.md) | The Windows installer, cross-built from the Linux CI |
| [android-signing.md](dev/android-signing.md) | Which key signs the APK, and keeping it |

**Archive.** Kept as the record of what was asked for, not as plans.

| | |
|---|---|
| [milestone-v0.1.md](dev/archive/milestone-v0.1.md) | The first milestone, delivered 2026-08-30 and superseded |
| [ui-refinement.md](dev/archive/ui-refinement.md) | How the interface should look; succeeded by [ui-navigation.md](dev/ui-navigation.md) |

## Conventions

Three files here are generated and must not be edited by hand:
`gestures.md`, `dev/traceability.md` and `manual/index.html`, the page the
packages install, rendered from `manual/README.md`. All three come from
`cargo run -p traceability`, the pre-commit hook keeps them in step with the
tree, and CI fails when one is not what the tree generates. The manual's
pictures are recorded by [`tools/manual`](../tools/manual/README.md) and live
in LFS.

A design document links to the requirements it satisfies and to the code
that satisfies them. When the code moves, the link moves with it; a document
that has stopped being true goes to `dev/archive/` with a note saying what
replaced it, rather than being deleted.