commandkit/docs/roadmap/modules.md

Optional integration modules

Status: module boundary accepted in ADR 0010; implementation planning remains in progress and no module extraction has begun. The consumer API is finalized and its ADR/architecture-policy alignment is complete. The next minor ReleaseKit release will support individual module releases; CommandKit adoption is pending.

Purpose and authority

Make CommandKit useful to consumers that use both ConfigKit and PromptKit, ConfigKit alone, or neither library. Consumers using only CommandKit's core should acquire neither ConfigKit nor PromptKit through CommandKit's package or module dependencies. ConfigKit-only consumers should not acquire PromptKit.

This roadmap records the targeted end state, selected module layout, and migration work. The finalized registration API owns the selected declarations, installation semantics, and representative consumer examples. Neither document describes these changes as implemented. ADR 0010 owns the accepted module boundary and convenient registration principles; it partially supersedes ADR 0003, whose remaining principles still apply. ADR 0011 records the finalized registration and invocation-lifetime decisions. The architecture policy is aligned with those decisions. GoDoc, the CLI reference, and the consumer guide describe the prototype baseline; they do not make its incidental API shapes compatibility requirements for this sprint.

Organizing principle: design the final API

CommandKit is an unreleased prototype with no downstream consumers. Give the existing implementation zero deference when selecting the final API. The goal is the best, simplest, most coherent API for the accepted responsibilities and representative consumers, not the smallest diff or a mechanically relocated prototype. Accepted architectural decisions and explicitly selected behavior remain requirements; prototype declarations, helpers, bookkeeping, and tests do not independently establish contracts.

Complete the transition in one sprint. No backward-compatibility wrappers, deprecation period, or migration bridge is needed. Intermediate commits need not build or pass tests; do not add temporary machinery merely to make them do so. Validate the complete target state before release. Reuse existing code where it serves that design, and refactor, replace, or remove it where it does not.

Current baseline

At the start of this roadmap, CommandKit has one Go module and one supported public root package. It requires ConfigKit v0.5.0 and PromptKit v0.12.0 and declares Go 1.26.0. Its internal Cobra adapter implements routing and parsing.

The root combines core command infrastructure with configuration and PromptKit inspection. Coupling extends beyond constructors:

• NewConfigKitScope accepts ConfigKit results and maps their diagnostics.
• Core Diagnostic.Severity currently uses ConfigKit's public severity type; moving inspection handlers alone will not remove that dependency.
• SourceReader returns ConfigKit source records; ExplanationReader accepts ConfigKit paths and returns ConfigKit explanations.
• PromptKitSuite callbacks return PromptKit inspection types.
• NewPromptKitScope adapts engine configuration into the configuration suite.
• Standard handlers share root-private helpers and state. For example, configuration registration accesses the application's registry and records whether the suite has already been installed.

The internal overview describes the implemented inventory. The maintained examples and integration tests currently belong to the root module. ReleaseKit v0.3.0 is also selected there as a Go tool dependency; the release procedure assumes one module and one version tag.

Optional command registration currently controls behavior, not dependencies. Moving integration code into packages sharing the root go.mod would separate compiled imports but retain integration requirements in the module graph. Go's module graph rules explain that distinction.

Targeted end state

Provide three consumer modules in this repository with dependencies directed toward the core. Keep the core at gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/CommandKit and give each integration its own go.mod:

Directory	Module path	Package name
Repository root	gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/CommandKit	commandkit
integrations/ckconfig	gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/CommandKit/integrations/ckconfig	ckconfig
integrations/ckprompt	gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/CommandKit/integrations/ckprompt	ckprompt

The integrations/ grouping keeps optional modules together as their number grows; the anticipated three to ten integrations are planning context, not a limit or delivery commitment. Distinct package names avoid requiring local aliases when these integrations are imported alongside ConfigKit and PromptKit. Separate module files establish dependency isolation; directory naming alone does not. The shared repository requires explicit multi-module testing and publication orchestration.

Module	Responsibility	Integration dependencies
Core	Application construction, command/group registration, typed bindings, dispatch, help/version, common grammar, outcomes, and diagnostics	Neither ConfigKit nor PromptKit
ConfigKit integration	Standard configuration family, scope composition, reports, and ConfigKit adapters	Core and ConfigKit; no PromptKit
PromptKit integration	Named prompt/profile inspection and the PromptKit configuration-scope adapter	Core, PromptKit, and the ConfigKit integration

The core remains an opinionated command library with its existing internal Cobra boundary. The dependency goal is independence from ConfigKit and PromptKit, not a standard-library-only implementation.

Integrations remain maintained parts of CommandKit. They install commands into the same application through supported public core operations and follow its grammar, help, invocation, and outcome conventions. Applications retain domain commands, acquisition, runtime construction, streams, and process exit.

The selected configuration boundary moves the existing ConfigKit-shaped contracts with their handlers into the ConfigKit integration. Only ConfigKit support is needed for now; a generic configuration interface is outside this migration. The PromptKit integration may depend on the ConfigKit integration, consistent with PromptKit's own ConfigKit dependency. Document that relationship in consumer guidance: ckprompt depends on ckconfig.

This boundary preserves one configuration suite into which applications compose app, promptkit, and other supported scopes. PromptKit configuration inspection and named-definition inspection remain independently selectable. A module dependency does not automatically install a command family.

Core public signatures and implementation imports contain no ConfigKit or PromptKit types. Integration-specific types and helpers move to their owning modules. Do not retain root forwarding wrappers that restore those imports. Shared helpers stay private unless a concrete cross-module interaction needs a supported contract; extraction is not a reason to expose every existing helper.

Preserve explicitly selected operator behavior: command vocabulary, selection and scope semantics, native reports, diagnostics, error identity, outcomes, and help without provider acquisition. Identify and decide any changes to selected CLI behavior separately. Do not preserve accidental prototype behavior or Go API shapes merely because they already exist.

Selected API and release principles

• Use the finalized uniform registration API. Applications and integrations produce captured core command declarations and install them through core New or App.Register; construction errors are retained for installation-time validation. Integration factories provide complete families and focused conveniences. The API document owns exact signatures and the input/shared-state separation.
• Follow the selected namespace lifetime and reconciliation requirements. Built-in help/version remain reserved; optional integration roots are owned when their real family is installed. ADR 0011 and the architecture policy now record that lifetime; implementation remains pending.
• Core diagnostics use a small CommandKit-owned severity type. Upstream diagnostic conversion belongs in the integrations, preserving selected classification, delivery, and error semantics without copying ConfigKit's wider data model into the core.
• Version the modules independently according to their own changes and the release policy. Do not require integration version numbers to match either the core or upstream dependency versions. Record selected dependencies in go.mod and explain relevant upstream adoption in module release notes. Coordinate publication when changes span modules; independent versions do not imply an exhaustive compatibility matrix.

Selected multi-module release approach

Adopt the next minor ReleaseKit version with module-release support. This is a planned tooling upgrade from the current v0.3.0 baseline, not an implemented CommandKit capability. Use ReleaseKit's public contracts for checking and publishing one explicitly selected module per invocation; do not build a separate CommandKit publication engine or temporary compatibility path.

Use one shared launcher with small per-module profiles. Each profile selects its repository-relative module directory and product identity; each invocation supplies that module's independently selected semantic version. ReleaseKit owns module-tag derivation, selected-module validation, repository publication guards, and publication outcomes. Root releases use unprefixed tags. Nested releases use their Go module-subdirectory prefixes, and notes belong at <module-directory>/docs/releases/<version>.md. Source and licensing links use the complete Git tag, while note titles identify the product and semantic version.

Run the selected module's standard suite once with workspace mode disabled and prepared dependencies. Repository cleanliness, branch, candidate commit, and endpoint guards remain repository-wide. A root-module release does not implicitly validate independently released nested modules; composition checks are selected deliberately where needed. Keep successful source-tag publication as completion, without CI, hosted delivery, proxy-availability, or installation gates.

CommandKit's preferred shared file inputs are repository-root COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, and docs/oss/attribution.md, when present, rather than the entire root docs/ tree. Use the forthcoming configurable list or its defaults as documented by ReleaseKit. Shared inputs affect enabled file checks, not Go suite scope; resolving references does not add surrounding directories to the inputs.

Keep module selection and profile lookup repository-relative, module-owned validation settings and product-command execution module-relative, and diagnostic paths repository-relative. Use the provided repository context for shared scripts. Confirm exact profile fields, command syntax, context exposure, and shared-file selection semantics against the released public documentation during adoption. These are integration tasks, not remaining choices between publication engines. Nested-module artifact builds, hosted delivery, and batch publication are not needed for CommandKit's source-only releases.

Work sequence

1. Prepare the selected API for implementation

Completed: ADR 0010 is accepted and ADR 0003 is marked partially superseded, with its decision text preserved. The consumer API is finalized, ADR 0011 records its registration and input-lifetime choices, ADR 0001 remains accepted with refinements recorded in ADR 0011, and ADR 0010's consumer-migration consequence is superseded for the unreleased prototype transition. The architecture policy reflects the selected core/integration facades and installed-family ownership. Earlier accepted decision text remains intact.

• Use the finalized registration API and selected module layout as the implementation target before moving public symbols.
• Inventory root exports, imports, private helper use, and family registration behavior. Use the inventory as evidence of responsibilities and coupling, not as a list of APIs to preserve. Implement final exports and ownership from the selected API and consumer needs; no compatibility mapping for the unpublished prototype is required.
• Use the API document's three representative consumers: core only, ConfigKit only, and both libraries. They define the target wiring, including combined configuration scopes and independent definition inspection; port them into maintained examples as implementation lands.
• Prepare a staged implementation plan from this roadmap and the finalized API, preserving the unreleased-prototype organizing principle above.

Completion: the dependency direction, final API, and registration approach are concrete enough to implement without inventing a general plugin framework.

2. Extract the integrations and isolate the core

• Establish the selected module layout, preserving the existing root import path for the core.
• Move configuration declarations, registration, handlers, reports, and ConfigKit adapters together. Move PromptKit declarations, handlers, reports, and its configuration-scope adapter into the PromptKit integration.
• Replace access to root-private registry state and helpers with the smallest supported interactions needed by those integrations. Preserve duplicate registration handling and standard-family ownership; audit these boundaries rather than assuming package relocation preserves them automatically.
• Implement core outcomes, diagnostics, bindings, and command declarations using the finalized API. Replace ConfigKit severity in core diagnostics with the selected CommandKit-owned type. Place report encoding and upstream diagnostic conversion with their owners. Remove redundant prototype state and helpers; avoid copying ConfigKit's data model merely to remove imports.
• Remove integration dependencies from the core module, including dependencies reintroduced by its tests, examples, tools, or remaining public declarations. Review tool dependencies for that specific objective; broad removal of all maintainer dependencies is not a prerequisite.
• Use released inter-module requirements for consumer builds. Local workspace composition may support development, but published modules must not depend on sibling checkouts or consumer-applied replace directives.

Completion: core-only and ConfigKit-only consumers have the intended dependency boundaries, while the composed consumer retains the existing standard commands.

3. Move examples and validate the consumer boundaries

• Keep a genuine core-only example with no configuration-library imports. Place ConfigKit and composed examples, fixtures, and integration tests in modules that can legitimately depend on those integrations. Choose their exact home with the module layout; examples in the root module must not defeat isolation.
• Move or rewrite existing tests for their final owners and selected contracts. Remove assertions that merely freeze incidental prototype design. Retain coverage for typed presence, repeated invocations, registration collisions, provider errors, report delivery, and selected CLI behavior without duplicating every suite.
• Add focused consumer checks for the three adoption paths. Verify both package dependencies and the selected module graph, including transitive requirements. Core-only checks exclude both libraries; ConfigKit-only checks exclude PromptKit. Merely observing a smaller executable is insufficient.
• Exercise combined app and promptkit configuration scopes and independent installation of named PromptKit inspection through public APIs.
• Run each module's relevant suite. Verify ordinary module consumption with workspace mode disabled so local workspace resolution cannot hide missing requirements. Root go test ./... alone will not cover nested modules.

Completion: representative public consumers demonstrate isolation and retained composition. These checks protect the selected boundary without requiring an exhaustive matrix of historical dependency versions.

4. Prepare final API documentation and initial module releases

• Update GoDoc, the consumer guide, maintained examples, README, internal inventory, and contributor reading guide as the implementation lands. Keep the CLI reference unchanged except where actual behavior or relevant ownership changes require an update. Link this roadmap from contributor navigation when integrating it into the implementation workflow.
• Document final imports, constructors, and optional module selection directly. Rewrite prototype guidance where necessary rather than publishing a downstream migration guide. Prepare initial module versions and notes under the release policy; unpublished prototype API changes do not require a compatibility release or a version bump solely for relocation.
• Upgrade the module-selected ReleaseKit tool to the next minor release providing module-release support. Adopt its released public API and CLI/profile contracts through the shared launcher and per-module profiles described above. Update launcher checks, validation context, version/tag reporting, and recovery guidance for selected-module publication; do not duplicate ReleaseKit-owned guards.
• Align the release policy and procedure with module-local notes, independent versions, full-tag identity, and selected-module validation. Confirm the documented shared-file defaults or configure the selected files explicitly.
• For nested modules, use Go's module-subdirectory tag prefixes and make release-note paths and immutable links unambiguous. Review licensing and attribution visibility in each distributed module under the OSS policy.
• Establish publication order from module dependencies and record compatible requirements explicitly. Published consumers must resolve actual released versions. A local workspace is not a substitute for that release sequence. Preserve the existing successful-source-publication completion model.

Completion: every consumer module can be released and consumed independently of local workspace state, with documentation of the final public API and optional integration choices.

Scope and follow-up

This work changes packaging and integration boundaries. It does not select a new backend, concurrent-dispatch contract, dynamic plugin system, or replacement configuration engine. It does not lower the existing Go minimum.

Keep the PromptKit v0.13.0 and ConfigKit v0.6.0 adoption identifiable as a separate change after extraction unless an implementation dependency justifies combining them. Catalogs and requirement discovery are subsequent integration features. Semantic comparison retains the upstream-contract dependency recorded in deferred work. None is needed to demonstrate module isolation.