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Research Documentation

This directory contains research, analysis, and strategic insights generated during the development and improvement of Teams for Linux.

Research Context

These documents capture in-depth analysis and strategic insights that inform development decisions and provide context for major features.

Contents​

Ready for Implementation​

  • WebAuthn / FIDO2 Implementation Plan - Hardware security key support on Linux via fido2-tools interception of navigator.credentials. Shipped as opt-in beta behind auth.webauthn.enabled. See ADR-021.

  • System Performance Research - Renderer overhead, main process I/O, and metrics infrastructure

    • Identifies 10 performance-sensitive patterns (MutationObserver sprawl, polling, sequential I/O)
    • Proposes lightweight startup/memory instrumentation with zero dependencies
    • Status: Item 5 (shortcuts.js polling) shipped; items 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 remaining and being addressed opportunistically

First Iteration Shipped — Awaiting Feedback​

  • Join Meeting Window Takeover Research — "Join Meeting" replacing the whole window (#2322)
    • First iteration: same-origin deep-link navigation + Return to Teams menu item
    • Caveat: authenticated-org path not verifiable locally; some takeovers are Microsoft-enforced
    • Follow-ups: navigation-event auto-return, dedicated meeting window, keyboard accelerator

Awaiting User Feedback​

  • MQTT Extended Status Investigation - Extended MQTT status publishing

    • Phase 1 Shipped: Infrastructure, LWT, call state, screen-sharing topics
    • Phase 2 Microphone Shipped: PR #2497 merged; publishes speaking/silent/muted/off to {topicPrefix}/microphone
    • Phase 2 Camera Shipped: PR #2582 merged; renderer emits camera-state-changed via video track monitoring in speakingIndicator
    • Home Assistant Auto-Discovery Shipped: PR #2464 and PR #2571 merged; sensors, binary_sensors, and buttons auto-created in HA

  • Graph API Integration Research - Microsoft Graph API for enhanced features

    • Phase 1 Shipped (v2.7.4): Token acquisition plus 7 IPC channels (user profile, calendar events/view, calendar create, mail messages, People search, send chat). People search and send chat power Quick Chat (ADR-014, ADR-015)
    • Phases 2-3: Calendar widget, mail preview, presence, settings UI — not started

Idea Stage​

  • Documentation, Contributing, and Config UX — make app/config/index.js the single source of truth feeding generated docs, an in-app settings UI, and startup validation (#2597)

    • Found confirmed config drift (stale msTeamsProtocols default; undocumented mqtt.homeAssistant.* and auth.webauthn.debug); 76 options hand-mirrored in a 924-line reference with no codegen link
    • Phased: fix drift (P0) → generate config reference + config-schema.json (P1) → interactive config explorer (P2) → schema applyMode/nested metadata (P3a) → in-app settings window (P3b) → schema-driven validation (P4)

  • Custom Stickers — External Sources — follow-up to the v1 ship (#2476, PR #2550)

    • Three realistic paths ranked by simplicity: URL paste (shipped in v1), Telegram sticker pack import (next phase), AI generation via a user-configured backend such as a local Ollama image-gen session (more futuristic)
    • Telegram path: HTML scrape default, Bot API as opt-in fallback, static .webp only for v1
    • AI path: mirrors the customBackground pattern; wrapper has no opinion about which backend sits at the other end

Reference​

  • Project Management Tools Research - Evaluation of Beads, release-please, release-it, and other tooling for solo OSS maintainer workflows. Status: Research complete, no implementation decision.

Historical (Migrated)​

  • Configuration Organization Research - Configuration system improvements
    • Phase 1 Complete: Documentation reorganization
    • Phases 2-3: Nested structure migration happening incrementally

Shipped (Retained for Reference)​

  • Custom Notification System Research - Alternative notification modal system
    • MVP shipped in v2.6.16: toast notifications with auto-dismiss and click-to-focus
    • Phase 2 dropped: notifications worked on maintainer's machine but not for the requesting user
    • Retained because future requests for custom notifications should reference the lessons learned here

Implemented Features (Research Removed)​

Research documents are deleted once a feature is fully shipped and the document provides no ongoing reference value. The ADRs and git history preserve the decisions and context.

FeatureVersionReference
MQTT Microphone Statev2.10.0Speaking-indicator driven microphone state (speaking/silent/muted/off) published to MQTT. See PR #2497
Notification Sound Player (inline replacement for node-sound)v2.7.10Phase 1 of the notification-sound research shipped — paplay/pw-play/aplay/afplay detection in app/audio/player.js. See PR #2306
Cross-Distro CI Smoke Testv2.7.xWorkflow .github/workflows/cross-distro-smoke.yml ships the design proposed in the original research. Umbrella decision in ADR-016
Electron 41 Upgradev2.8.0Repo skipped Electron 40 entirely and jumped 39.8.2 → 41.x via dependabot PR #2347, with follow-up bumps to 41.5.0; the Electron 40 migration research is therefore obsolete
Issue-PR Release Linkingv2.7.11GraphQL closingIssuesReferences query; closes: metadata in changelog files. See PR #2317
Codebase Review (March 2026)v2.7.xCode quality, maintainability, performance, and DX review; findings addressed incrementally
Issue Triage Botv2.7.xAll four phases implemented; migrated to standalone Go service. See ADR-018 and github-issue-triage-bot
Dependency Cleanupv2.7.10Removed node-sound, lodash, electron-positioner; project now has 6 production deps
Speaking Indicatorv2.7.11WebRTC getStats() for three-state mute/speaking detection. See PR #2299
Electron-Updater Auto-Updatev2.7.6ADR-011; research covered electron-updater integration
External Changelog Generationv2.7.xADR-005; fork detection + release automation shipped
Screen Lock Media Privacy---Closed (#2106); no user interest; work preserved in branch
Tray Icon Logout Indicator---Archived (#1987); user not responding; work preserved in branch
External Browser Authentication---Not feasible; Teams manages OAuth internally (#2017)
GNOME Search Provider---Not recommended; latency too high for acceptable UX (#2075)
Code Quality Hardening (Phases 1-3)v2.7.5Logging hygiene, resilience, input handling, IPC hardening, CI/CD gates
Wayland/X11 Ozone Platformv2.7.4Force X11 by default due to Electron 38+ Wayland regressions
Quick Chat / Chat Modalv2.7.4ADR-014, ADR-015
PII Log Sanitizationv2.7.2ADR-013
DOM Access Restorationv2.5.2Hybrid API + DOM approach for React compatibility
Architecture Modernization---Rejected (DDD too complex) --- incremental refactoring adopted instead
MQTT Commandsv2.6.xBidirectional MQTT support for toggle-mute, toggle-video, etc.
Calendar Data Exportv2.6.xMQTT get-calendar command
useSystemPicker---Rejected --- ADR-008

Purpose​

These documents capture strategic insights, comprehensive analysis, research findings, and context that inform development decisions and provide rationale for major features.

Document Lifecycle​

Research documents follow this lifecycle:

  1. Active Research Phase: Document findings, analysis, and recommendations
  2. Decision Phase: Use research to inform final decisions (implemented or rejected)
  3. Archive Phase: Move content to appropriate location after decision:
    • Implemented features: Create ADR if significant, update feature docs, delete research
    • Rejected features: Create/update ADR with concise decision record, delete research
    • Superseded research: Close with reference to superseding document
  4. History: Git commit history preserves full investigation context

Contributing Research​

When adding new research documents:

  1. Follow naming convention: Use descriptive, kebab-case filenames
  2. Include context: Date, scope, and purpose of analysis
  3. Link related documents: Cross-reference relevant files
  4. Update this index: Add entries for new research documents
  5. Provide actionable outcomes: Include clear recommendations or decisions