Google Capsem Just discipline
The Justfile is a product interface, not a script drawer. Its public surface is
exactly the allowlist in config/public-surface.toml; the contract test derives
the live recipe list and fails on additions, removals, renames, or count drift.
A new public recipe requires explicit user/product approval and an intentional
allowlist update in the same change.
Approved public commands
| Command | Contract |
|---|---|
just dev [ui|frontend|tui] |
Select one development surface. No passthrough arguments: just joins a variadic before interpolating it, so no spelling preserves argument boundaries. Use uv run --project build_system --frozen capsem-gate dev tui … when you need them. |
just build [debug|release] |
Build the desktop app with its embedded frontend. |
just build-all [debug|release] |
Build all host binaries, desktop app, docs, and site. |
just build-docs |
Build documentation and marketing sites. |
just shell |
Start the service and enter a temporary VM. |
just exec "<command>" |
Run one command in a fresh temporary VM. |
just run-service |
Materialize assets/config and start the local daemon idempotently. |
just logs [sandbox-id|failure] |
Tail service logs, show a sandbox log, or list the latest preserved failure evidence. |
just doctor [fix] |
Validate host tools, Docker/Colima, Tart cache/boot/SSH, signing, and assets. |
just fast-test |
Explicitly incomplete source feedback; it prints the targeted and release rails. |
just focus-test <group> [reuse|clean] |
Rerun one existing owner: assets, binaries, benchmark, functional, install, release-system, or affected rust. release-system is source-only; rust derives changed crates and reverse dependents from Cargo manifests. |
just install |
Optional hands-on local package testing; never a release prerequisite and never release authority. |
just test [source-commit] [normal|force] [reason] |
Reusable complete local verification; low-impact repeats route to focused owners, while exceptional force requires a reason. Optional before release. |
just release-binaries <channel> <source-commit> |
Dispatch qualification and publication of packages against pulled profiles. |
just release-profile <channel> <profile> <source-commit> |
Dispatch qualification and publication of one profile against the pulled package. |
just --summary must print exactly the names in [just].approved and nothing
else. The count is not repeated here on purpose: this line used to say "those
13 names", which was wrong the moment the surface legitimately grew, and a
number restated away from its source is a number that goes stale silently.
config/public-surface.toml is the authority; the contract test compares the
live recipe list against it.
The Python system replaced shell orchestration
Treat the Justfile as a stable user interface, not as the implementation of a
command. For focus-test, release-binaries, and release-profile, one recipe
line crosses one exact argv boundary into capsem-gate; install prints its
hands-on-only warning before crossing the same boundary. From there:
| Concern | Owner |
|---|---|
| Public command name, defaults, and exact argv dispatch | justfile plus config/public-surface.toml |
| Command shape and plan graph | src/capsem/gate/<domain>.py |
| Shared work | a composable fragment(...), deduplicated with plan.shared(...) when necessary |
| Ordering | explicit graph edges passed through after= |
| Subprocess or filesystem work | actions.py, fileactions.py, and their typed domain actions |
| Always-run setup, teardown, and failure preservation | Resource implementations held by the command |
| Paths, filenames, environment names, channels, architecture values | config/gate.toml |
| Release mode and manifest-selected artifact paths | one Qualification value parsed by the command |
| Evidence and timing | the gate run log written by the execution funnel |
The old system expressed orchestration through shell bodies, Just dependencies, textual order, nested recipes, ambient environment reads, and ad hoc cleanup. Do not use remaining private recipes as templates for new logic. Move each decision into the Python graph, where dry-run, graph inspection, run logging, locking, teardown, and contract tests see it.
A plan action must never invoke just or another capsem-gate command. Compose
the other command's fragment instead. The machine lock is not reentrant, so a
nested gate waits for the lock held by its own parent. Likewise, do not split a
release with an operator-authored receipt. The complete local test owns one
process, lock, workspace, plan, and runner journal. Release commands do not
consume it; each hosted lane performs its own release qualification.
Read /dev-gate before changing Python orchestration and /release-process
before changing either release plan.
What a recipe may contain
A recipe is a dispatch or a single command. Nothing else, and this is checked rather than advised:
- no shell body (no
#!/bin/bash) --build_system/tests/gate/test_gate_boundary.py - at most five executable lines
- no
if,for,while,case,untilortrap
The old justfile carried roughly 2070 lines of inline bash across thirty-five
recipes, none of it reachable by a test, so every defect in it was found by
running the forty-minute gate. The ratchet is what matters: do not add shell
orchestration back. Logic lives in src/capsem/gate/; see /dev-gate for how
to add or change a command.
The one exception is a single command with no branching -- cargo build,
cd web/app && pnpm run dev -- where routing through Python would add a uv
startup and, for an interactive dev server, break TTY and signal handling, in
exchange for no decision made.
What does not belong in Just
fast-testis exactly the incompletetest-fastmodule. It may not bundle compiled, VM, install, or release work.focus-testaliases an existing owning gate command; it must not copy or compose a second test graph.focus-test release-systemaliases the source-only release-contract owner; package rehearsal and installed-product proof belong to qualification. Neither feedback command is release authority.- No generic or combined release recipe. Each of the two approved release commands is sufficient by itself and dispatches its self-qualifying hosted lane; the two workflows share the per-channel lock.
- No dependency-update, fixture-update, audit-only, coverage-only, cleanup, session-SQL, or extra package-install convenience recipes. Call the owning script/tool directly.
- No separate UI aliases. Use
just dev <surface>orjust build. - No public build primitives for kernel, rootfs, Docker images, architectures, or package rails.
- No public continuation recipe. Exact-commit
just testderives a partial frontier only from its archived event graph and retained full-SHA prefix; working-tree diagnostic continuation is not qualification. Both release commands refuse continuation flags.
Private underscore recipes may exist only as dependencies of the approved commands or as narrow CI primitives. Specialized skills and workflows may name those internals, but general developer guidance must not present them as public commands. Prefer a tested script when orchestration has state, branching, reporting, cleanup, or resource ownership.
Canonical testing
just test owns the complete graph:
- fail-fast bootstrap and clean install-harness proof;
- audits, lint, frontend, Rust and Python coverage;
- both profile/architecture VM asset lanes and real VM boot;
- four-VM parallel integration;
- Linux parity and both
.debarchitectures; - host package SBOM;
- Linux systemd install plus channel glow-up;
- on macOS, an unsigned local
.pkginstall in Tart, ad-hoc signature checks on the installed executable payload, and physical Apple VZ boot from that exact package.
Release CI calls the checked-in _test-fast, _test-static,
_test-artifacts, _test-functional, _test-glowup, and
_test-release-contracts modules. _test-fast is also the first phase of
just test and just fast-test; it owns YAML/source syntax, source contracts,
Clippy, Python and JavaScript checks, and every locked-ecosystem vulnerability
audit. Callers must reuse it whole rather than duplicating a subset.
Binary CI builds packages and pulls profiles; profile CI builds one profile and
pulls packages. Both retain complete functional and glow-up proof before
activation. Do not fork or approximate this graph in another public recipe.
All checked-in automation enters through the same two public release recipes;
it must not call their scripts or workflows directly.
Local verification must not import, unlock, or use Apple Developer
certificates. Developer ID package signing, notarization, and stapling belong
only to the tagged publication workflow.
Public-surface gate
Run:
uv run --project build_system --frozen python build_system/scripts/audit/check_public_surface.py
uv run --project build_system --frozen python -m pytest -c build_system/pyproject.toml --rootdir . tests/test_public_surface_contract.py
The gate also locks the Capsem CLI command tree and service HTTP method/path
table. Review config/public-surface.toml as an API approval ledger, never as a
snapshot to refresh automatically.