midiviz: /dirt/play is the wire truth; the wordmark measures its own ink

The HL feed's root cause, captured off the wire: Tidal 1.9 addresses its
superdirtShape packets /dirt/play, not /play — a decoder that accepted only
the documented address dropped every real packet while every synthetic test
passed. Also: the first-trigger log could die on a non-trigger datagram
(UnboundLocalError) and take the whole feed thread silently; the feed now
survives anything. The wordmark bakes generously, scans its own ink and
crops — font metrics ignored the letter spacing and cut the tail to
PARVAGU; pixels do not lie. Single instance by flock (exit 78, no restart
storm); the tray launches midiviz via systemctl --user start, per PLN; the
2x column experiment is retired to a uniform grid — 'a C1 move overlapping
C2 is bad taste'.

tools/bridge/launchers.py

@@ -660,6 +660,25 @@ def launch(key):
 
     if key == "ardour":
         _sweep_stale_pending(spec)
+    # PLN, 2026-09-24: "ensure parvagues tray item launches via systemctl
+    # --user start midiviz indeed, not via raw launch, for this is how i
+    # launch". A unit-owned process gets the journal, the restart policy and
+    # the converger's idea of the truth; a raw Popen gets none of them — and
+    # then LOOKS dead to everything that asks the unit, which is how a lens
+    # ran unsupervised for nine hours while midiviz.service read inactive.
+    # Only specs that OPT IN with a "unit" key route here.
+    unit = spec.get("unit")
+    if unit:
+        _clear_latch(spec)
+        r = subprocess.run(["systemctl", "--user", "start", f"{unit}.service"],
+                           capture_output=True, text=True)
+        if r.returncode == 0:
+            _log(f"{key}: started via systemctl --user start {unit}")
+            return {"ok": True, "status": "launched",
+                    "msg": f"started {spec['name']} (unit {unit})"}
+        _log(f"{key}: systemctl start {unit} failed: {r.stderr.strip()}")
+        return {"ok": False, "status": "error",
+                "msg": r.stderr.strip() or f"systemctl --user start {unit} failed"}
     argv = _argv(spec)
     if not argv:
         return {"ok": False, "status": "no-terminal", "msg": "no terminal emulator found"}

tools/bridge/oscfeed.py

@@ -114,8 +114,13 @@ def decode_osc(data: bytes) -> list[dict]:
 
 
 def play_orbit(msg: dict) -> int | None:
-    """A decoded message → its 1-based orbit number, or None if not a trigger."""
-    if msg["addr"] != "/play":
+    """A decoded message → its 1-based orbit number, or None if not a trigger.
+
+    Tidal 1.9's superdirtShape addresses its messages `/dirt/play`, not
+    `/play` — captured off the wire on this rig — and a decoder that only
+    accepted the documentation's address silently dropped every real packet
+    while every synthetic test passed. Accept both spellings."""
+    if msg["addr"] not in ("/play", "/dirt/play"):
         return None
     o = msg["args"].get("orbit")
     if isinstance(o, float) and o == int(o):
@@ -175,6 +180,7 @@ class HLFeed:
                 msgs = decode_osc(data)
             except (ValueError, struct.error, IndexError):
                 continue
+            first = False
             for msg in msgs:
                 o = play_orbit(msg)
                 if o is None: