canned-prompts/workplans/CANP-WP-0003-registry-naming-residual.md

---
id: CANP-WP-0003
type: workplan
title: "Default registry name reads as 'registry:'"
domain: agents
repo: canned-prompts
status: proposed
owner: codex
topic_slug: practice
created: "2026-09-06"
updated: "2026-09-06"
---

# Default registry name reads as `registry:`

Residual from `CANP-WP-0002` (`origin: residual`, `origin_ref: CANP-WP-0002`).

## Give the default registry a better name

```task
id: CANP-WP-0003-T01
status: todo
priority: low
```

`CANP-WP-0002-T02` made a registry's name come from its `registry.yaml`, and
otherwise from its directory basename (§ 20.1). The reference tool's default
registry lives at `~/.canned-prompts/registry`, so its basename-derived name is
`registry`, and every install from it reads:

```text
installed registry:practice/pqrst-estimate@0.1.0
```

That is honest — it is genuinely what the directory is called — but it reads
poorly, and `registry:` is a confusing qualifier for the one registry most
users will ever see.

Deliberately not fixed in `CANP-WP-0002`: special-casing the default path to
produce a prettier name would be exactly the kind of magic the § 20.1 rule was
written to avoid, and it was not worth an exception mid-task.

Options worth weighing:

1. Write a starter `registry.yaml` when the default registry is first created,
   naming it something like `default` or `local-registry`. Uses the documented
   mechanism rather than bypassing it; the cost is a tool writing a file into
   a store the user may consider theirs.
2. Rename the default directory itself, so the basename is already good.
   Changes an existing on-disk layout.
3. Accept it and document it. Zero code, and the escape hatch — add a
   `registry.yaml` — already exists and is documented.

Option 3 is the current state. Pick deliberately rather than by default.