About

The in-app colophon and brand story.

The About page at /about is Halite’s in-app colophon. It tells the story behind the name, showcases the brand marks, documents the color palette, lists capabilities, and credits the open-source projects that Halite builds on.

Why “halite”?

Halite (/ˈheɪlaɪt/) is the mineralogical name for rock salt — sodium chloride in its natural crystalline form. The mineral grows in perfect isometric cubes, with sodium and chloride ions locked in a regular three-dimensional lattice.

That structure mirrors the topology of a SaltStack deployment: a master node at the center, orchestrating minions arranged across the network. The same diagram you would draw for a NaCl unit cell is the diagram you would draw for a Salt master surrounded by its minions. The dual meaning — Salt → halite, lattice → master/minions — is carried through every part of the brand.

The mineral fact card on the About page documents the connection:

Property	Value
Mineral	Halite
Formula	NaCl
Crystal system	Isometric · cubic
Cleavage	Perfect, three directions
Mohs hardness	2–2.5
Color	Colorless to white; amber when impure

Brand marks

The brand ships three mark families, each representing the same mineral from a different angle:

The Lattice

The primary mark — a 3×3 grid of nodes that diagrams both halite’s atomic lattice and the Salt master+minion topology. Used as the app icon and favicon.

The Salt Cube

A single isometric cube — the literal cubic crystal habit of halite (NaCl). Tri-tone faces in amber (#f5b938 top, #e5a00d right, #a77100 left). Used in marketing and hero visuals.

The Triple Stack

Three crystals stacked into a small aggregate. A compact sculpture for section dividers and secondary moments in the UI.

All three marks are available as SVG files in logos/brand/{lattice,cube,stack}/ with horizontal and stacked lockup variants. PNG exports at 16/32/48/192/512/1024/2048 px are included for favicons and app icons.

Color palette

Halite’s color system is built on a single signature amber — #e5a00d (HSL 41° 89% 47%) — sitting on a stack of deep neutral surfaces. The palette is intentionally dark-first, inspired by media-console aesthetics.

Token	Hex	Role
amber	#e5a00d	Primary brand color — accent, interactive elements
amber-light	#f5b938	Cube top face, hover highlights
amber-dark	#a77100	Cube shadow face, pressed states
black	#0e0e0e	Deepest background
graphite	#141414	Body background
onyx	#1f1f1f	Card surface
slate	#2a2a2a	Borders, elevated surfaces
fog	#999999	Muted / secondary text
bone	#ebebeb	Primary text on dark surfaces

CSS custom properties and W3C Design Tokens JSON are available in logos/brand/tokens/.

Built with

The About page also lists the open-source projects Halite depends on:

Project	Role
SaltStack	Underlying execution layer — Halite is a console on top of it
Inter	Wordmark and UI typeface
React + TanStack Router	Frontend application layer
FastAPI + Pydantic	Backend HTTP layer
shadcn/ui + Tailwind	Component primitives and tokenized styling
Lucide	Icon set
Recharts	Charting layer for Overview metrics

Permissions

The /about page is accessible to any authenticated Halite user. There are no require_perm checks on the route — any valid session can view it.