canned-prompts/reference/README.md
tegwick e1889b41a1 CANP-WP-0003: name the default registry default
Section 20.1 takes a registry's name from its directory basename, so the
reference tool's default store at ~/.canned-prompts/registry was named
`registry` — giving `registry:practice/thing` as a qualified reference.

The workplan had recorded this as reading poorly in one output line. It was
understated: 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 becomes a migration rather
than an edit.

Renaming the directory to ~/.canned-prompts/default fixes it with no special
case in code, nothing written into the user's store, and no second naming
mechanism competing with section 20.1's manifest.

check_legacy_registry refuses to silently create a fresh empty store beside a
populated ~/.canned-prompts/registry — that failure would have been worse than
the wart being fixed. It names the exact mv, and the --registry flag for
keeping the old store. The check fires only for the default path; an explicit
--registry is never second-guessed.

Tests 95 -> 99.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Bjefh8NUiEiahN4JLwoSKM

Assistant: claude-code
Assistant-Model: opus
Assistant-Process: 388925@bnt-lap001
Assistant-Session: 3507023f-e0fd-4a1e-9d90-a0d4217d1502
2026-09-06 19:32:30 +02:00

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4.7 KiB
Markdown

# canned-prompts reference CLI
This is intentionally a **small reference implementation**, not the intended final architecture.
It demonstrates nine verbs:
```text
add PATH
search QUERY
show ID
resolve ID --set key=value
render ID --set key=value
eval ID
index [ID]
install ID [--version VERSION]
publish PATH
```
The implementation uses a local catalog plus a filesystem registry and performs no model calls.
`resolve` and `render` are separate because the specification separates them
(§ 5.1): resolution decides each value and may be non-deterministic, rendering
substitutes and always is. `resolve` prints where every value came from —
supplied, default, or fallback — before any prompt is produced.
## Stores
Default locations:
```text
~/.canned-prompts/catalog
~/.canned-prompts/default
```
A **registry** stores packages flat, because an id is unambiguous within one
registry:
```text
<registry>/<id path>/<version>/...
```
A **catalog** is namespaced by registry, because identity is registry-scoped
(§ 3.2) and the same id may be installed from more than one place:
```text
<catalog>/<registry name>/<id path>/<version>/...
```
For example:
```text
~/.canned-prompts/catalog/default/practice/pqrst-estimate/1.0.0/
~/.canned-prompts/catalog/local/practice/pqrst-estimate/1.0.0/
```
A registry's name comes from its optional `registry.yaml`, and otherwise from
its directory basename — which is why the default registry directory is called
`default` and not `registry`: the basename reaches qualified references,
catalog paths and index rows, and `registry:practice/thing` reads poorly. A
store left at the old `~/.canned-prompts/registry` is reported with the command
to move it, rather than a fresh empty one being created beside it. `add` takes a package from a path rather than a
registry, so it files it under `local` (override with `--as`).
Commands that take an ID accept a bare id or a qualified `<registry>:<id>`.
A bare id installed from more than one registry is reported as ambiguous
rather than resolved by guessing.
## Design choices
- YAML manifest via PyYAML.
- `{{ name }}` template substitution only.
- No arbitrary expression/code execution.
- Published versions are immutable by default.
- `add`, `publish` and `install` copy only reserved paths and manifest-
referenced files. A working directory's `.git`, virtualenv or scratch files
never ship; whatever is left out is named on stderr.
- Version precedence follows SemVer: a prerelease ranks below its release, and
`any`, `newest` and `>=` skip prereleases entirely. Only an exact pin
selects one.
- `install` copies from registry to catalog.
- `add` copies a package directly to catalog.
- `search`, `show`, `resolve`, and `render` operate on catalog packages, and
print qualified `<registry>:<id>` references.
- `include` defaults are satisfied (inclusion is deterministic); `derive`
defaults are reported, not run. Inclusion cycles are detected and named.
- `resolve`, `render` and `eval` warn when an included value will render more
than once — two inputs including the same thing, or an included package
inheriting an outer input of the same name. Nothing is deduplicated; the fix
is a better factoring.
- `eval` runs the deterministic render checks of any eval declaring the
`canned-prompts/eval-rubric/v0.1` schema, and reports output criteria as
declared but not run. Unrecognized schemas are skipped, not rejected. A
failed render check exits non-zero.
- `resolve` lists required capabilities and context dependencies, which this
tool cannot verify, rather than implying it checked them.
- `add` and `install` name declared prompt dependencies the catalog cannot
satisfy. They do not fetch them — resolution is the consumer's job (§ 10) —
but a package that looks installed and cannot render should say so.
- `add`, `install` and `publish` record an entry in the store's `index.yaml`:
source, method, first-inclusion date, and the package's declared author,
source and licence. `index` lists it. Re-adding keeps the original
`included_at` and updates `last_seen_at`.
- An optional `registry.yaml` names a registry and records namespace claims.
`publish` warns when a namespace is declared `closed` — it cannot
authenticate a publisher, and says so rather than implying it checked.
- Static input defaults are applied; **derived** defaults (§ 6.1) are not. This
tool never calls a model, so a derived default is satisfied only by its
static fallback `value`. Without one, `resolve` reports the input as
unresolved and `render` refuses rather than substituting empty text.
Use this implementation to challenge the format. Replace it once real usage reveals the right architecture.