fix(linux): stop shipping the broken snap so the release writes latest-linux.yml

[dantheuber]

Follow-up to #142. The Linux job in that release actually failed — the AppImage and deb you see on the v1.8.8 and v1.8.9 drafts were uploaded before the failure, and latest-linux.yml never got written. Without it, electron-updater has no update metadata for Linux, so in-app updates still don't work there.

The fix ended up being to stop building the snap, not to publish it elsewhere. The investigation took a few turns; the reasoning is below so the config comments make sense.

What happened

From the v1.8.8 run (job log):

• uploading   file=clipless_1.8.8_amd64.snap provider=snapStore
• building    target=deb arch=x64 file=dist/clipless_1.8.8_amd64.deb
⨯ snapcraft is not installed, please: sudo snap install snapcraft --classic
• uploading   file=clipless_1.8.8_amd64.deb provider=github
⨯ app-builder process failed ERR_ELECTRON_BUILDER_CANNOT_EXECUTE

SnapTarget.findSnapPublishConfig falls back to { provider: "snapStore" } for snap artifacts unless a snap-specific publish config names some other provider — linux.publish and the top-level publish are only consulted if they contain a snapStore entry. So the snap was routed to the Snap Store, which requires the snapcraft binary (and store credentials) on the runner. The build aborted there, before the publish finalization that emits latest-linux.yml.

Note the snap itself builds fine without snapcraft — electron-builder packs it from a template app with mksquashfs. Only the store upload needs the toolchain, which is why this never showed up in a local build:linux.

Why the snap is gone rather than redirected

Routing the snap to the GitHub draft release fixed CI, so the first version of this PR did exactly that. Installing the resulting snap showed it was broken at runtime:

$ snap run clipless
MESA-LOADER: failed to open radeonsi (search paths /snap/clipless/x3/gnome-platform/usr/...)

electron-builder's snap template pins base: core20 with the gnome-3-28-1804 platform, whose Mesa is 20.0.8 (2020). On current GPUs every DRI driver in it fails to load — including swrast — so the app segfaults during GPU init, and no runtime flag avoids it. Bumping electron-builder to 26.15.7 (kept in this PR) did not help.

Shipping a snap that cannot start is worse than shipping none, so snap comes off linux.target. Reviving it means base: core24 with gnome-46-2404 and the mesa-2404 content snap, built through the real snapcraft toolchain rather than the template — a separate piece of work.

The snap.publish block stays even though nothing builds a snap today. It's a guard: without it, re-adding the snap target would silently route to the Snap Store again and break Linux auto-update the same way. Both that block and the linux.target list carry comments explaining this.

Result

Linux now builds AppImage + deb, and a full --linux build emits dist/latest-linux.yml:

version: 1.8.10
files:
  - url: clipless-1.8.10.AppImage
    ...
  - url: clipless_1.8.10_amd64.deb
    ...
path: clipless-1.8.10.AppImage

Both artifacts are listed, which is what AppImageUpdater and DebUpdater each need. README's Linux install section is updated to match the formats actually shipped.

Also in this PR

Unrelated to the release pipeline, but found while verifying Linux builds by hand:

• fix(dev): dev builds get their own userData profile. Dev shared ~/.config/clipless with an installed Clipless, and therefore its single-instance lock. With an installed copy in the tray, npm run dev lost the lock, quit, and the installed app handled second-instance by focusing its own window — a window appeared, the freshly built code never ran, and nothing said so. Rebuilding and reinstalling could not break the loop, because the stale process was never restarted. The redirect is a side-effect module imported first in index.ts, not a call in its body: the storage singleton derives its path from userData in a constructor that runs at import time, and ES imports evaluate before the importing module's statements.
• chore(renderer): drop dead settings.css link. settings.html linked a file that doesn't exist; the real stylesheet comes from settings-main.tsx.
• okf bundle: gotcha documenting the dev/installed shadowing above.

Notes

• electron-builder 26 logs a deprecation notice suggesting snapcraft.<core> over snap. The snap key is kept deliberately — snapcraft selects a base and switches to the real snapcraft toolchain, which is the CI dependency this PR removes. Worth revisiting only if we publish to the Snap Store.
• publish.releaseType: draft still means a draft has to be published before any platform sees an update.
• Version bumped to 1.8.10 (required by PR validation).

[github-actions]

📊 Coverage Report

Metric	Coverage
Statements	100%
Branches	100%
Functions	100%
Lines	100%

[github-actions]

🧪 E2E Test Results

✅ 18 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped

Test Suite	Result
App Launch	✅
Clipboard	✅
Context Menu	✅
Image Clipboard	✅
Quick Clips	✅
Settings	✅
Theme	✅
Settings — Search Terms CRUD	✅
Settings — Quick Tools CRUD	✅
Settings — Templates CRUD	✅
Tools Launcher — Pattern Scanning	✅
Tools Launcher — Clip Templates	✅

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR aims to ensure Linux release builds complete successfully and produce the latest-linux.yml metadata needed for electron-updater, while also improving developer ergonomics by isolating dev userData from installed builds.

Changes:

• Adjust Linux packaging/publish configuration to prevent CI failure and allow updater metadata generation.
• Add a dev-only userData suffix to avoid single-instance lock collisions between npm run dev and an installed app.
• Bump version to 1.8.10 and update build tooling/docs accordingly.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/renderer/settings.html	Removes a direct stylesheet link; relies on the TS entrypoint for styling.
src/main/index.ts	Imports a side-effect module first to redirect userData in dev before other imports run.
src/main/dev-profile.ts	New dev-only app.setPath('userData', …-dev) to prevent dev/installed profile collisions.
README.md	Updates Linux install docs to reflect the currently shipped formats.
package.json	Bumps app version and updates electron-builder dependency.
package-lock.json	Lockfile updates corresponding to the version/dependency bump.
okf-bundle/log.md	Adds an update-log entry documenting the dev/installed single-instance lock gotcha.
okf-bundle/gotchas/index.md	Index entry for the new gotcha document.
okf-bundle/gotchas/dev-builds-defer-to-an-installed-instance.md	New gotcha documentation describing the failure mode and mitigations.
electron-builder.yml	Updates Linux targets/publish configuration and adds snap-related commentary/config scaffolding.

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