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#+TITLE: Org module ownership and load boundaries
#+AUTHOR: Craig Jennings
#+DATE: 2026-07-10
* Why this note exists
The Org workflow is spread across sixteen modules with overlapping
responsibilities. The code works. What's missing is a map: which module owns which
behavior, what each one adds to a shared variable, and in what order they load.
Future load-order work needs that map. Four modules add capture templates, four
touch =org-agenda-files=, and five register org-protocol handlers. None of that is
wrong, but none of it is written down either, so the only way to answer "who sets
this?" is to grep.
This is a description of what is, not a proposal. Where the map turned up something
that looks like a defect, it's flagged at the bottom rather than fixed here.
* The modules
Every Org module declares =Layer=, =Category=, and =Load shape= in its commentary
header. The layer numbers below come from those headers, not from this note.
| Module | Layer | Owns |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-faces-config.el= | 2 | Agenda keyword and priority faces, plus their -dim |
| | | variants for unfocused windows |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-config.el= | 3 | Base org-mode settings, the org keymap, tag alignment |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-agenda-config.el= | 3 | Agenda views, task tracking, notifications; loads |
| | | =org-agenda-config-debug= on demand |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-capture-config.el= | 3 | The base capture templates and their dispatch keys |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-refile-config.el= | 3 | Refile targets and the cached target list |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-roam-config.el= | 3 | Roam database, capture, and its agenda-file additions |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-contacts-config.el= | 3 | Contacts storage and its capture template |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-babel-config.el= | 3 | Source-block languages and tempo templates |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-export-config.el= | 3 | Export backends and their defaults |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-spec-links.el= | 3 | Resolves =[[id:]]= links into project spec docs |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =hugo-config.el= | 3 | ox-hugo blog publishing (=C-; h=) |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-drill-config.el= | 4 | Spaced repetition, its own refile targets |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-noter-config.el= | 4 | PDF and EPUB annotation |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-reveal-config.el= | 4 | reveal.js presentations (=C-; p=) |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =org-webclipper.el= | 4 | org-protocol web clipping into roam |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
| =quick-video-capture.el= | 4 | Video download via an org-protocol bookmark |
|------------------------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------|
* Shared variables and who writes to them
This is the part grep answers slowly and a table answers fast. Each of these
variables is appended to by more than one module.
** =org-capture-templates= — four writers
=org-capture-config.el= establishes the base set. =org-contacts-config.el=,
=org-webclipper.el=, and =quick-video-capture.el= each append their own. Dispatch
keys must not collide across all four, which is why
=tests/test-org-capture-templates-integrity.el= exists: it loads the cleanly
loadable capture modules, applies their additions, and asserts no two templates
share a key.
That test is the enforcement mechanism for a boundary no single module can see.
** =org-agenda-files= — four writers
=org-agenda-config.el= sets the base list. =org-roam-config.el= adds roam files.
=config-utilities.el= manipulates it, and =org-agenda-config-debug.el= reads it for
diagnostics.
** org-protocol handlers — five registrars
=org-config.el=, =org-capture-config.el=, =org-drill-config.el=,
=org-webclipper.el=, and =quick-video-capture.el= all touch org-protocol. The
handlers are keyed by protocol name, so collisions are possible in principle and
nothing checks for them today.
** =org-refile-targets= — two writers
=org-refile-config.el= owns the general targets. =org-drill-config.el= adds its
own, because drill files are refile destinations but not agenda files.
* Load order
=init.el= loads the Org stack at lines 130 through 145, in this order: base config,
faces, agenda, babel, capture, contacts, drill, export, hugo, reveal, refile, roam,
spec-links, webclipper, noter.
The order is deliberate in two places. =org-config= precedes everything because it
establishes the keymap the rest bind into. =org-faces-config= precedes
=org-agenda-config= because the agenda renders with those faces.
One module sits outside that block. =quick-video-capture.el= loads at line 106,
twenty-four lines before =org-config=, because it is grouped with the media modules
rather than the Org modules. It nonetheless appends to =org-capture-templates=. It
works because the append is a plain =add-to-list= against a variable org-mode has
not yet claimed, but the grouping means a reader looking for "who adds capture
templates" in the Org block will not find it.
* Load shape
Every Org module declares =Load shape: eager=. Nothing in the Org stack defers.
This is the single largest fact about the Org workflow's startup cost, and it is
worth stating plainly rather than leaving implicit across sixteen headers. Layer-4
modules (drill, noter, reveal, webclipper, video capture) are optional features by
their own classification, and all five load eagerly on every launch.
Whether that matters is a measurement question, not an argument, and this note does
not make it. It records the fact so the question can be asked.
* Observations for follow-up
These turned up while mapping. None is fixed here.
1. =modules/org-config.el.faces.bak= is tracked in git (25KB). It appears to be a
leftover from the 2026-06-14 face-stripping work. A =.bak= file in =modules/=
is not loaded, but it is on the load-path's directory and will confuse the next
reader.
2. =org-agenda-config-debug.el= carries no =Layer= / =Category= / =Load shape=
header, unlike every other module. It loads conditionally from
=org-agenda-config.el:42= when =cj/debug-modules= names it, so its absence from
=init.el= is by design, not an orphan.
3. Nothing checks org-protocol handler collisions the way the capture-template test
checks key collisions. Five modules register handlers.
4. Every Layer-4 Org module loads eagerly despite being classified optional.
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