sovereign_browser_rust/plans/rust-implementation-assessment.md

Rust Implementation Assessment: What's Implemented vs. Missing

Date: 2026-08-17 Scope: Current state of the Rust port (sovereign_browser_rust) compared to the original C sovereign_browser. Reference: plans/main-window-comparison.md

---

1. Status Legend

• ✅ Implemented & working
• ⚠️ Partially implemented (works but limited / placeholder)
• ❌ Not implemented

---

2. Login Dialog

Feature	Status	Notes
5 method tabs (Local, Seed, Read-only, NIP-46, n_signer)	✅	Full notebook UI
"No Login" button	✅
Status/error messages	✅
Monospace styling	✅
Version in title	✅
n_signer USB Serial / qrexec transports	⚠️	Show "not supported" message; only UNIX/TCP work (Rust signer crate limitation)

---

3. Main Window & Tabs

Feature	Status	Notes
Per-tab toolbar (URL, back/forward/refresh, bookmark, hamburger)	✅
Rich tab label (favicon + title + close)	⚠️	Favicon widget present but not populated (cairo→pixbuf API limitation)
Tab context menu (right-click)	✅	New/Close/Close Others/Close to Right/New Window/Duplicate/Reload
Middle-click close	✅
Drag-reorder	✅
New-tab button on tab strip	✅	Added via set_action_widget in main.rs and new windows
Load-progress bar	✅
Bookmark bar	⚠️	Bar widget present but not populated with bookmark buttons
URL search completion	❌	Plain entry, no history/bookmark/search suggestions
User avatar on tab strip	❌	Not implemented
Multi-window (Ctrl+N, context menu)	✅	tab_manager_new_window()
target="_blank" / window.open()	❌	No create-signal handler wired
Active-window tracking (focus-in)	⚠️	New windows set active notebook, but main window doesn't track focus
App stays alive when aux window closes	⚠️	Aux window destroy doesn't quit, but main-window close always quits

---

4. Menus & Chrome

Feature	Status	Notes
Hamburger menu	✅	Open File, Reload, Stop, Switch Identity, Logout, Inspector, Sidebar, Profile, Agent, Processes, Settings, About
Identity menu (switch/lock/logout)	⚠️	Switch + Logout wired; Lock Session defined but not in menu
Network toggles (Tor/FIPS)	❌	Not in menu
Security strip toggle	❌	Not in menu
Nostr signing status	❌	Not in menu
Sidebar (agent chat)	❌	Placeholder only (tab_manager_toggle_sidebar is a no-op)
App theme CSS	✅	Red accent, adapts to theme_dark

---

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Feature	Status	Notes
Ctrl+T new tab	✅
Ctrl+N new window	✅
Ctrl+W close tab	✅
Ctrl+L focus URL	✅
Ctrl+R reload	✅
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	✅
Zoom in/out/reset	✅
Ctrl+Shift+I inspector	✅
Ctrl+Shift+A sidebar	⚠️	Wired but sidebar is a no-op
Ctrl+Shift+M toolbars	✅
F11 fullscreen	⚠️	Toggles but no state tracking (gtk-rs has no is_fullscreen getter)
Configurable shortcuts (settings page)	❌	shortcuts.rs defines defaults but they're not wired to the settings UI

---

6. Session & Window Lifecycle

Feature	Status	Notes
Session save/restore	✅	Basic (restores URLs)
Session restore CLI precedence	❌	No --no-session-restore / --url precedence logic
Multi-window close semantics	⚠️	App quits when main window closes even if aux windows remain
Privacy mode (clear session/history on shutdown)	❌	Not implemented

---

7. Summary of Remaining Gaps (Priority Order)

1. target="_blank" / window.open() handling — no create-signal handler, so popups/new-window links don't work. This is the most impactful missing feature.
2. Agent sidebar — tab_manager_toggle_sidebar is a no-op; the original has a full per-window GtkPaned sidebar with an agent chat webview.
3. URL search completion — the original shows history + bookmarks + search suggestions in the URL bar; the Rust version has a plain entry.
4. User avatar on the tab strip — the original shows the Nostr profile picture; not implemented.
5. Bookmark bar population — the bar widget exists but isn't filled with bookmark buttons.
6. Favicon population — the favicon widget exists but isn't populated (cairo→pixbuf conversion not exposed in gdk-rs 0.18).
7. Hamburger menu completeness — missing Tor/FIPS toggles, security strip, Nostr signing status, and Lock Session.
8. Multi-window close semantics — app should stay alive when only auxiliary windows remain.
9. Session restore CLI precedence and privacy mode on shutdown.
10. Configurable keyboard shortcuts wired to the settings page.

---

8. Notes on Recent Fixes

• Removed the redundant shared top-level toolbar (the "weird entry box with Settings") — each tab now has its own toolbar.
• Fixed URL loading — added normalize_url() so bare domains like google.com get https:// prepended.
• Fixed the main notebook/window storage — the main notebook and window are now stored in glib::thread_guard::ThreadGuard globals, which fixes all features that depend on tab_manager_get_main_notebook() (keyboard shortcuts, menu identity actions, new-window, etc.). Previously these returned None and were silently broken.
• New-tab button — present via set_action_widget in both the main window and new windows; added an explicit show() to ensure visibility.