0006. Title bar: word menus on the left, the app's output actions on the right

Date: 2026-10-11

Status

Accepted: the user set this rule for every Patina app.

Patina's frame gives every app a header bar, with a slot on each side of the centred title (ADR-0003). How apps fill them had varied:

Photograph had a Render button on the left and the GPU status on the right.
Notebook first copied the GTK version's GNOME-style buttons, then moved to word menus at the user's request.
Calendar put Today and the view switch on the right.

The user stated the rule they want all of them to follow.

Left: a standard window menu bar, in words: File, Edit, View, the app's own menus, Skins. Not a hamburger. TitleBar::menu_bar(true) lays it out.
Right, next to the window buttons: the actions that serve the app's goal, the main output the app exists to produce:
- Photograph: Render, and Edit for the selected photo.
- Notebook: the Markdown source switch and formatting.
- Calendar: what we're doing today, so Today and the Day/Week/Month views.
Consumption apps with no output to make, such as UnAmp, leave the right side empty. The rule is about productivity apps.
Everything else goes elsewhere: settings, status and secondary information go in the menus, a sidebar or a status bar. Photograph's GPU status moved to a status bar at the bottom to free the right side for Render.

Every Patina app's header reads the same way: what you can do on the left, what you're making on the right.
When an app's right side gets crowded, that suggests something there isn't output and belongs in a menu or status bar.
The skill for building Patina apps, and its template, follow this rule.