Disown AppKit window restoration — launches present welcome again instead of a windowless shell

macOS keeps Saved Application State per app, and on macOS 26 its mere
existence — even describing zero windows, which repeated dev kills
guarantee — counts as "a restored session": SwiftUI then treats every
scene's defaultLaunchBehavior as moot and presents nothing. The app
launched as a windowless shell with no way back, since windowOpener is
captured by the first scene that appears — so Open Recent, the
re-grant Grant click, and Dock reopen all silently buffered or
no-opped. Proven by -ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES presenting
correctly on the same state; with the fix, welcome presented 3/3
consecutive plain launches.

Three changes:
- App.init registers ApplePersistenceIgnoreState — restoration is the
  registry's job (02 § Launch and window lifecycle), every scene
  already declares restorationBehavior(.disabled), and AppKit's layer
  was pure liability. Registered before NSApplicationMain runs, which
  is what makes a registration-domain default early enough.
- The restore bootstrap presents at every launch as the app's one
  reliable presenter; welcome is never system-presented (.suppressed)
  — the pass opens it when nothing else lands on screen.
  LaunchPlan.presentsBootstrap retired.
- captureWindowActions returns the replayed Finder-open count so the
  pass counts those as opens — a cold document launch doesn't get
  welcome stacked beside its board.

Both suites green, verify-editions 30/30.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SR4XGjmBE16ZUYWpfFHXwY

Kanban/App/AppModel.swift

@@ -310,16 +310,22 @@ public final class AppModel {
 
     /// What `CaptureOpenWindow` calls. A method rather than two assignments so the launch flow, which
     /// needs the actions before any `onAppear` has run, has one thing to call.
-    func captureWindowActions(open: OpenWindowAction, dismiss: DismissWindowAction) {
+    ///
+    /// Returns how many buffered Finder-open URLs it replayed — the restore bootstrap's input: a
+    /// launch that already opened a document's board must not put welcome up beside it, and only this
+    /// method knows the buffer wasn't empty.
+    @discardableResult
+    func captureWindowActions(open: OpenWindowAction, dismiss: DismissWindowAction) -> Int {
         windowOpener = open
         windowDismisser = dismiss
 
-        guard !pendingOpenURLs.isEmpty else { return }
+        guard !pendingOpenURLs.isEmpty else { return 0 }
         let urls = pendingOpenURLs
         pendingOpenURLs.removeAll()
         for url in urls {
             openBoard(at: url)
         }
+        return urls.count
     }
 
     // MARK: Recents

Kanban/App/RestoreBootstrapView.swift

@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ import os
 /// Window menu — whose only job is to run the pass and then dismiss itself. It exists for a few
 /// hundred milliseconds and never draws.
 ///
-/// It is presented **only** when there is something to open (`KanbanApp` decides, via
-/// `LaunchPlan.presentsBootstrap`), so the ordinary launch-to-welcome path never creates it.
+/// It is presented at **every** launch — it is the app's one reliable presenter (see `KanbanApp`'s
+/// bootstrap scene for the macOS 26 behavior that forced this), so even the plain launch-to-welcome
+/// path runs through it: the pass finds nothing flagged and opens welcome itself.
 ///
 /// ### What the pass does
 ///
@@ -63,24 +64,27 @@ struct RestoreBootstrapView: View {
 
     private func restore() async {
         // Captured directly rather than waiting for `CaptureOpenWindow`'s `onAppear`: this task is
-        // the app's first act, and `openBoard` needs the action now.
-        appModel.captureWindowActions(open: openWindow, dismiss: dismissWindow)
+        // the app's first act, and `openBoard` needs the action now. The count is a cold Finder-open
+        // that arrived before this window did — a board already on its way to the screen, which the
+        // pass below must count as an open or it would put welcome up beside the user's document.
+        let replayedOpens = appModel.captureWindowActions(open: openWindow, dismiss: dismissWindow)
 
         switch plan {
         case .uiTestFixture:
             openFixtureBoard()
         case .restoreBoards, .welcome:
-            // `.welcome` never presents this window, so it cannot arrive here — and if a future
-            // launch path let it, the restoration pass is the harmless answer: it finds nothing
-            // flagged and shows welcome, which is what `.welcome` asked for anyway.
-            restoreFlaggedBoards()
+            // `.welcome` arrives here by design — this window presents at every launch, because it is
+            // the app's one reliable presenter (see `KanbanApp`'s bootstrap scene) — and the pass is
+            // its answer: nothing is flagged for this edition, so it shows welcome, which is what
+            // `.welcome` asked for.
+            restoreFlaggedBoards(openedAlready: replayedOpens)
         }
 
         dismissWindow(id: WindowID.restoreBootstrap)
     }
 
-    private func restoreFlaggedBoards() {
-        var attempted = 0
+    private func restoreFlaggedBoards(openedAlready: Int) {
+        var attempted = openedAlready
         for board in appModel.boardRegistry.restorables() {
             switch board {
             case let .available(_, url):

Kanban/App/UITestLaunch.swift

@@ -42,12 +42,6 @@ enum LaunchPlan: Equatable, Sendable {
         ) ? .restoreBoards : .welcome
     }
 
-    /// Whether the throwaway bootstrap window is presented at launch — everything except the plain
-    /// welcome case, since both other plans have to open windows and only a view can do that
-    /// (`RestoreBootstrapView`'s own reason for wearing a window).
-    var presentsBootstrap: Bool {
-        self != .welcome
-    }
 }
 
 // MARK: - UITestLaunch

Kanban/KanbanApp.swift

@@ -41,6 +41,17 @@ struct KanbanApp: App {
     private let launchPlan: LaunchPlan
 
     init() {
+        // **AppKit window restoration is fully disowned** — restore-at-launch is the registry's job
+        // (02-architecture.md § Launch and window lifecycle), every scene below declares
+        // `.restorationBehavior(.disabled)`, and left alive the machinery is actively harmful: AppKit
+        // counts its saved state (even a windowless one) as "a restored session", and SwiftUI then
+        // treats every `defaultLaunchBehavior` as moot — the app launches with no windows at all and
+        // no way to get one, since `windowOpener` is captured by the first scene that appears
+        // (observed on macOS 26, 2026-07-29; `-ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES` on the command line
+        // proved the mechanism). Registered here because `App.init` runs before `NSApplicationMain`,
+        // which is what makes a registration-domain default early enough for AppKit's read.
+        UserDefaults.standard.register(defaults: ["ApplePersistenceIgnoreState": true])
+
         // Read first, because it decides *which app-side state the model is built over* — a fixture
         // launch keeps its recents and its clipboard snapshots in the scratch directory rather than in
         // the shared App Group container.
@@ -73,7 +84,12 @@ struct KanbanApp: App {
                 .environment(appModel)
                 .captureWindowActions(into: appModel)
         }
-        .defaultLaunchBehavior(launchPlan == .welcome ? .automatic : .suppressed)
+        // **Never presented by the system** — the restore bootstrap below opens welcome through
+        // `AppModel.showWelcome()` when the launch pass ends with nothing else on screen. `.automatic`
+        // was tried here (conditioned on the plan) and macOS 26 answered it by presenting *no scene at
+        // all*: not welcome, not even a `.presented` bootstrap — a windowless launch with no way back,
+        // since `windowOpener` is captured by the first scene that appears. One presenter, one rule.
+        .defaultLaunchBehavior(.suppressed)
         .restorationBehavior(.disabled)
         // "Welcome: resizable, no title bar (background drag)" (03-board-ui.md § Welcome screen &
         // templates). `.contentMinSize` rather than `.contentSize`, because the view states a
@@ -104,7 +120,15 @@ struct KanbanApp: App {
                 .environment(appModel)
                 .captureWindowActions(into: appModel)
         }
-        .defaultLaunchBehavior(launchPlan.presentsBootstrap ? .presented : .suppressed)
+        // **Presented at every launch, whatever the plan** — the bootstrap is the app's one reliable
+        // way to put a window on screen. Welcome's `.automatic` above is a request the system is free
+        // to decline, and on macOS 26 it does: a launch with nothing to restore presented *no* scene
+        // at all, which left `windowOpener` uncaptured and the app a windowless shell no menu action
+        // could revive (observed 2026-07-29; the per-edition open-now flags exposed it, because before
+        // them a flagged board almost always routed launches through this window). The pass itself
+        // still dispatches on the plan — a `.welcome` launch restores nothing and shows welcome —
+        // and this window stays invisible and dismisses itself either way.
+        .defaultLaunchBehavior(.presented)
         .restorationBehavior(.disabled)
         .windowStyle(.plain)
         .defaultSize(width: 1, height: 1)

KanbanTests/UITestLaunchTests.swift

@@ -48,14 +48,6 @@ struct LaunchPlanTests {
         )
     }
 
-    /// Which plans need the throwaway bootstrap window: both the ones that open something, neither
-    /// more. Welcome is a scene the app presents directly and needs no view to run a pass for it.
-    @Test("Only the two opening plans present the bootstrap window")
-    func bootstrapPresentation() {
-        #expect(LaunchPlan.welcome.presentsBootstrap == false)
-        #expect(LaunchPlan.restoreBoards.presentsBootstrap)
-        #expect(LaunchPlan.uiTestFixture.presentsBootstrap)
-    }
 }
 
 // MARK: - The flag