---
id: CANP-WP-0003
type: workplan
title: "Default registry name reads as 'registry:'"
domain: agents
repo: canned-prompts
status: finished
owner: codex
topic_slug: practice
created: "2026-09-06"
updated: "2026-09-06"
state_hub_workstream_id: "d7865fc8-a618-5033-a8de-947c59715cf6"
---

# 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: done
priority: low
state_hub_task_id: "ead2d409-2b80-5f50-9f0f-a397822ba2ae"
```

`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.

## Outcome

**Decision (operator, 2026-09-06): option 2** — rename the default directory to
`~/.canned-prompts/default`, so the § 20.1 basename rule produces a good name
with no special case, no file written into the user's store, and no second
naming mechanism.

**The cost of deferring had been understated.** The workplan recorded this as
reading poorly in one output line. It is not only display: the name reaches
qualified references, the on-disk catalog layout (`catalog/registry/...`) and
`index.yaml` rows (`registry: registry`). Once packages are installed and
inclusions recorded, changing it is a migration rather than an edit — which is
an argument for deciding early, not late.

Delivered:

- `default_registry()` returns `~/.canned-prompts/default`.
- `check_legacy_registry` refuses to silently create a fresh empty store beside
  a populated `~/.canned-prompts/registry`. It names the exact `mv`, and the
  `--registry` flag for keeping the old one. Silently starting empty would have
  been worse than the wart being fixed.
- The check fires only for the default path; an explicitly passed `--registry`
  is never second-guessed.
- Docs updated in both READMEs. Tests 95 → 99.