From 208ad95883e3590d340104b74263c2c4c696425b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rootiest <chris@rootiest.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2026 15:36:40 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(config-settings): refuse to open on an empty state dump

An empty dump does not fail loudly: the TUI renders every row as
DEFAULT, which is indistinguishable from a config where nothing is set.
That is a wrong answer rather than a missing one -- the user would be
looking at ON rows reported as DEFAULT -- so the launcher now checks the
dump is non-empty and bails with a message instead. The taxonomy alone
guarantees output on any working checkout. Also guard a failed mktemp,
which would otherwise send the dump to /state and hand an empty path to
rm -rf.

README: mention that / searches sub-categories across every category.
---
 README.md                      |  6 ++++--
 functions/config-settings.fish | 14 ++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7327b84..e9e29fe 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -331,8 +331,10 @@ Each category further sub-divides into two to six sub-categories with
 their own `__fish_config_op_<category>_<subcategory>` toggles (e.g.
 `__fish_config_op_aliases_filesystem`), following the exact same
 truthy/falsy/unset cascade one level deeper. Run `config-settings` and
-press Enter on a category row to browse and toggle its sub-categories, or
-see the [Components Reference](https://fish.rootiest.fyi/08-components-reference/)
+press Enter on a category row to browse and toggle its sub-categories —
+or press `/` and type, which searches sub-categories across every
+category at once and lists the hits as `Category › Sub`. Or see the
+[Components Reference](https://fish.rootiest.fyi/08-components-reference/)
 for the full sub-category list per category.
 
 ---
diff --git a/functions/config-settings.fish b/functions/config-settings.fish
index b150c94..e873f09 100644
--- a/functions/config-settings.fish
+++ b/functions/config-settings.fish
@@ -146,7 +146,21 @@ function config-settings --description 'Interactive TUI for managing fish config
     # page's `set -g` land in the caller's shell instead of in a child that is
     # about to exit. `command` throughout: this repo's own aliases shadow rm.
     set -l work (command mktemp -d)
+    if test -z "$work" -o ! -d "$work"
+        echo "$c_err""config-settings: could not create a temporary directory.$c_reset" >&2
+        return 1
+    end
+
+    # An empty dump would not fail loudly -- the TUI would simply render every
+    # row as DEFAULT, which is indistinguishable from a config where nothing is
+    # set. That is a wrong answer, not a missing one, so refuse instead. The
+    # taxonomy alone guarantees a non-empty dump on any working checkout.
     __config_settings_state >$work/state
+    if not test -s $work/state
+        echo "$c_err""config-settings: __config_settings_state produced no output.$c_reset" >&2
+        command rm -rf $work
+        return 1
+    end
 
     python3 $tui --state $work/state --emit $work/edits
     set -l rc $status