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fix(desktop): add generic name to desktop entry - #408

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omartelo merged 2 commits into
omartelo:mainfrom
bayleaf1nl-afk:fix/desktop-generic-name
Aug 31, 2026
Merged

fix(desktop): add generic name to desktop entry#408
omartelo merged 2 commits into
omartelo:mainfrom
bayleaf1nl-afk:fix/desktop-generic-name

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@bayleaf1nl-afk

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Adds a generic name to the desktop entry so Linux application launchers don't display lich as both the application name and description.
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@omartelo

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Thanks for this — nice catch. A launcher printing lich — lich is exactly the kind of small papercut that's easy to live with and easy to fix, and the screenshots made it trivial to review.

I'm pushing a maintainer follow-up commit to your branch with the finishing touches so this can merge. I'll write up what it changes and why in a second comment.

…elog

GenericName is the kind of application, not a tagline: "Coding Agent
Harness" is what a menu can print beside the name without truncating it.

Launchers disagree on which key carries that second line — KDE's menu
reads GenericName, GNOME Software and Whisker read Comment — so the
entry now carries both, or the fix reaches only half the desktops.

The launcher row a packaged install shows is something a released
version's user sees, so it takes a CHANGELOG entry.
@omartelo

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Follow-up pushed as 462a16d — here's what it changes and why, since two of the three are house rules rather than anything wrong with your patch.

GenericName shortened to Coding Agent Harness. The freedesktop spec treats GenericName as the kind of application rather than a description of it — "Web Browser" for Firefox, not a tagline. Yours was already right about the important part (it didn't just repeat "lich"); the shorter category form just survives a menu row that truncates.

Added Comment=. This is the one that makes the fix land everywhere: launchers disagree about which key carries that second line. KDE's Kickoff reads GenericName, while GNOME Software and XFCE's Whisker menu read Comment. With only one of the two set, the desktops on the other side of that split still show nothing — so the entry now carries both.

Added a CHANGELOG.md [Unreleased] entry. Worth knowing for next time: the repo gate in CLAUDE.md asks for a changelog bullet whenever a change is something a user of a published version experiences, and the application-menu row a packaged install shows counts. Release notes are read straight out of that section, so an entry written later is an entry that missed its release.

desktop-file-validate is clean on the result. Thanks again — good fix, and the screenshots were the right way to report it.

@omartelo
omartelo merged commit c4149da into omartelo:main Aug 31, 2026
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2 participants