# Repository Agent Guide

This file provides guidance to AI coding agents when working with code in this repository. It keeps the `CLAUDE.md` filename for compatibility with existing tooling, and `AGENTS.md` symlinks to it for other agents.

## Registry Submissions: READ THIS FIRST

**Most registry PRs from agents get rejected.** Before adding anything to `registry/`, understand the rules:

- **mise does not host self-written, personal, niche, or low-popularity tools.** The registry is curated for tools that are *already* widely used. "It works" or "it has tests" is not the bar.
- **Tools that aren't VERY popular will be rejected without explanation.** Per [contributing.md](docs/contributing.md): "@jdx won't explain why a given tool wasn't accepted." There is no appeal, no checklist, no second chance — the PR is closed and that's it.
- **Wasted PRs are the default outcome** for tools the agent or user has not vetted against this bar. Do not submit one speculatively.

### Required pre-submission check

Before touching `registry/`, ALWAYS do the following:

1. **Ask the user:** "Is this tool already widely used outside your own projects?" — if it's the user's own tool, a fork, an internal/company tool, or something with a small audience, **stop and tell them the PR will be rejected.** Do not submit.
2. **Actively check popularity for every registry PR — no exceptions.** Look up real numbers; do not guess. Useful sources:
   - GitHub stars and fork count (`gh repo view owner/repo --json stargazerCount,forkCount`)
   - Recent release activity / last commit date (`gh repo view owner/repo --json pushedAt,latestRelease`)
   - Download counts on relevant package registries (npm `npmjs.com/package/x`, crates.io, PyPI, Homebrew analytics, etc.)
   - Whether the project shows up in third-party docs, awesome-lists, or other tools
3. **Apply the bar.** Rough signals — very low numbers are disqualifying:
   - GitHub stars in the thousands, not hundreds
   - Active maintenance (recent releases, not abandoned)
   - Real third-party usage (referenced in docs, blog posts, other tools, package registries)
   - Recognizable in its ecosystem
4. **Include the popularity data in the PR description.** Every registry PR body MUST contain a short section like:

   ```
   ## Popularity
   - GitHub: 12.3k stars, 480 forks, last release 2026-04-12
   - crates.io: 1.2M downloads
   - Used by: <project A>, <project B>
   ```

   This is non-negotiable — it lets the maintainer evaluate the submission without re-doing the research. PRs without it look speculative and are more likely to be rejected.
5. **If the tool is borderline or numbers are low, warn the user clearly** that the PR is likely to be rejected without reason, and ask if they still want to proceed. Do not soften this — users have repeatedly been surprised when their PR was closed, and the agent should have warned them up front.
6. **Suggest the alternative:** users can install any tool themselves via explicit backend syntax (`mise use aqua:owner/repo`, `mise use github:owner/repo`, `mise use cargo:name`, `mise use npm:name`, etc.) or by writing a [tool plugin](https://mise.jdx.dev/tool-plugin-development.html). The registry is *only* for shorthand convenience for popular tools — not for enabling installation.

### Backend choice: aqua (preferred) or github

For registry entries the backend tiers are:

- **Version listing is mandatory.** Before adding a registry entry, run `mise ls-remote <backend>` and confirm it returns installable versions. A backend that can install only an explicitly pinned version is not sufficient, even if the package exists in an upstream registry. If the preferred backend cannot list versions, use another accepted backend (for example, a custom `http:` backend with a reliable `version_list_url`) or stop.
- **Tier 1 — preferred:** `aqua:`, `github:`, and `gitlab:`. These are the routinely accepted backends.
  - **Prefer `aqua:`** when the tool is in the [aqua registry](https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-registry). Better UX, SLSA verification, and per-version logic.
  - **Use `github:`** when the tool isn't in aqua but ships GitHub releases.
  - **Use `gitlab:`** for tools released through GitLab.
- **Tier 2 — high bar, but lower than tier 3:** `conda:`. Potentially acceptable when the tool can't be supported via aqua/github. The bar is lower than tier 3 because **the conda backend in mise does not require a separately-installed package manager** — mise downloads and extracts packages directly from anaconda.org via rattler, so users don't need conda/mamba on PATH. Still requires a popular, well-maintained tool.
- **Tier 3 — extremely high bar, almost never accepted:** `npm:`, `pipx:`, `gem:`, `cargo:`, `go:`, `dotnet:`. These all rely on a separately-installed runtime/toolchain being present on PATH (`node`, `python`, `ruby`, `cargo`, `go`, `dotnet`), which is fragile — the wrong version, a missing install, or PATH ordering quirks all break them. `npm:`/`pipx:`/`gem:` are particularly painful because tools installed via them silently bind to whichever `node`/`python`/`ruby` was on PATH at install time. Don't reach for these for a registry PR unless the user has explicitly confirmed @jdx wants it that way for this specific tool.
- **Not accepted at all:**
  - **New `asdf:` plugins** — supply-chain security. Use aqua/github instead.
  - **New `vfox:` plugins** — same reason. Use aqua/github instead.
  - **`ubi:`** is deprecated and will not be accepted under any circumstances.

Users can still install via any backend themselves with explicit syntax (`mise use vfox:...`, `mise use cargo:...`, etc.) — they just don't get a registry shorthand for it.

## Development Commands

### Building and Testing
- `mise run build` or `mise run b` - Build the project with cargo
- `target/debug/mise` - Run the built binary directly
- `mise run test` or `mise run t` - Run all tests (unit + e2e)
- `mise run test:unit` - Run unit tests only
- `mise run test:e2e` - Run end-to-end tests only
- `mise run snapshots` - Update test snapshots with `cargo insta`

### Debugging
- Use `MISE_DEBUG=1` or `MISE_TRACE=1` environment variables to enable debug output (not `RUST_LOG`)

### Code Quality and Testing
- `mise run lint` - Run all linting tasks
- `mise run lint-fix` - Run linting and automatically fix issues
- `mise run format` - Format code (part of CI task)
- `mise run ci` - Run format, build, and test
- `mise run test:e2e [test_filename]...` - Run specific e2e tests (use this instead of executing test files directly)
- `mise --cd crates/vfox run test` - Run tests for the vfox crate
- `mise --cd crates/vfox run lint` - Run linting for the vfox crate
- `mise --cd crates/vfox run lint-fix` - Run linting and fix issues for the vfox crate
- `mise task ls` - List all available tasks

### Clippy Exclusions

- Do not add `#[allow(clippy::...)]`, `#[expect(clippy::...)]`, Cargo lint levels set to `allow`, or `-A clippy::...` command-line flags.
- Refactor the code so `cargo clippy --workspace --all-features --all-targets -- -D warnings` passes without exclusions.
- If a feature or fix needs a preparatory refactor to satisfy Clippy cleanly, put that refactor in a prerequisite PR and stack the behavior change on top of it.

### Documentation and Generation
- `mise run render` - Generate all documentation and completions
- `mise run render:usage` - Generate CLI usage documentation
- `mise run render:completions` - Generate shell completions
- `mise run docs` - Start documentation dev server
- `mise run docs:build` - Build documentation

### Development
- `mise run install-dev` - Install development version locally
- `mise run clean` - Clean cargo build artifacts

## Code Architecture

### High-Level Structure
Mise is a Rust CLI tool that manages development environments, tools, tasks, and environment variables. The codebase follows a modular architecture:

**Core Components:**
- `src/main.rs` - Entry point and CLI initialization
- `src/cli/` - Command-line interface implementation with subcommands
- `src/config/` - Configuration file parsing and management
- `src/backend/` - Tool backend implementations (asdf, vfox, cargo, npm, etc.)
- `src/toolset/` - Tool version management and installation logic
- `src/task/` - Task execution system
- `src/plugins/` - Plugin system for extending tool support

**Key Backend Systems:**
- `src/backend/asdf.rs` - ASDF plugin compatibility
- `src/backend/vfox.rs` - VersionFox plugin system
- `src/backend/cargo.rs` - Rust Cargo tool backend
- `src/backend/npm.rs` - Node.js/npm tool backend
- `src/backend/github.rs` - GitHub releases backend
- `src/backend/aqua.rs` - Aqua tool registry integration

**Core Tools (Built-in):**
- `src/plugins/core/` - Built-in tool implementations (Node, Python, Go, Ruby, etc.)

**Configuration System:**
- `mise.toml` files for project configuration
- `.tool-versions` files for ASDF compatibility
- Environment variable management and templating
- Task definition and execution

### Key Design Patterns
1. **Backend Architecture**: Tools are implemented through a unified backend interface, allowing multiple sources (ASDF plugins, vfox plugins, cargo, npm, etc.)
2. **Toolset Management**: The `Toolset` manages collections of tool versions and their installation state
3. **Configuration Layering**: Config files are loaded hierarchically from system → global → local with environment-specific overrides
4. **Task System**: Tasks can be defined in TOML files with dependencies, environment variables, and multiple execution modes

### Configuration Files
- `mise.toml` - Main configuration file format
- `settings.toml` - Global settings definitions (generates code/docs)
- `registry/` - Tool registry mappings
- `tasks.toml` - Project task definitions

### Test Structure
- Unit tests within source files
- E2E tests in `e2e/` directory organized by feature area (e.g., `e2e/cli/`, `e2e/backend/`)
- E2E tests are bash scripts using assertion helpers from `e2e/assert.sh` (e.g., `assert`, `assert_contains`, `assert_fail`)
- E2E tests do not need cleanup steps (rm, etc.) — the test harness handles that
- Snapshot tests using `insta` crate for CLI output verification
- Windows-specific tests in `e2e-win/`

### Build System
- Rust project using Cargo with workspace for `crates/vfox`
- Custom build script in `build.rs` for generating metadata
- Multiple build profiles including `release` and `serious` (with LTO)
- Cross-compilation support via `Cross.toml`

## Development Guidelines

### Conventional Commits (REQUIRED)
All commit messages and PR titles MUST follow conventional commit format:

**Format:** `<type>(<scope>): <description>`

**Types:**
- `feat:` - New features
- `fix:` - Bug fixes that affect the CLI behavior (not CI, docs, or infrastructure)
- `refactor:` - Code refactoring
- `docs:` - Documentation changes
- `style:` - Code style/formatting (no logic changes)
- `perf:` - Performance improvements
- `test:` - Testing changes
- `chore:` - Maintenance tasks, releases, dependency updates, CI/infrastructure changes
- `security:` - Security-related changes
- `registry:` - Any changes to `registry/` (no scope needed, use for both new tools and fixes)

**Scopes:**
- For command-specific changes, use the command name: `install`, `activate`, `use`, `exec`, etc.
- For subsystem changes: `config`, `backend`, `env`, `task`, `vfox`, `python`, `github`, `release`, `completions`, `http`, `schema`, `doctor`, `shim`, `core`, `deps`, `ci`
- Use `task` (not `run`) for task-related changes, even if the code lives in `src/cli/run.rs` or `src/cmd.rs`

**Description Style:**
- Use lowercase after the colon
- Use imperative mood ("add feature" not "added feature")
- Keep it concise but descriptive

**Examples:**
- `fix(install): resolve version mismatch for previously installed tools`
- `feat(activate): add fish shell support`
- `feat(vfox): add semver Lua module for version sorting`
- `feat(env): add environment caching with module cacheability support`
- `docs(contributing): update hk usages`
- `chore: release 2026.1.6`
- `chore(ci): add FORGEJO_TOKEN for API authentication`
- `registry: add miller`

### Pre-commit Process
1. Run `hk install --mise` once to set up pre-commit hooks (runs `hk fix` automatically on commit)
2. Run `mise run lint-fix` and `git add` any lint fixes before committing
3. Use `mise run test:e2e [test_filename]...` for running specific e2e tests
4. Never run e2e tests by executing them directly - always use the mise task

## Deprecation Policy

When deprecating a feature or backend:

1. **Immediately**: Mark as deprecated in docs (add warning banner)
2. **6 months later** (`warn_at`): Display deprecation warning in CLI using `deprecated_at!` macro from `src/output.rs`
3. **12 months after warn** (`remove_at`): `debug_assert!` in `deprecated_at!` fires, signaling the code should be removed

Use mise version format for dates (e.g., `deprecated_at!("2026.10.0", "2027.10.0", "id", "message")`).

If the replacement has been available for a long time, the CLI warning can start immediately (set `warn_at` to the current version).

## Important Implementation Notes

### Backend System
When implementing new tool backends, follow the pattern in `src/backend/mod.rs`. Each backend must implement the `Backend` trait with methods for listing versions, installing tools, and managing tool metadata.

### DO NOT ASSUME SEMVER
**Do not assume tool versions follow semver or any other orderable scheme.** mise manages hundreds of tools with wildly different versioning conventions:

- Date-based: `2024.01.15`, `20241015`
- Pre-release / ref / tag versions: `tip`, `HEAD`, `nightly`, `edge`, `canary`, `ref:main`, `tag:v1`, `sub-X.Y:...`
- Non-numeric tags: Python `3.12.0a1`, Ruby `3.2.0-preview1`, Go `1.22rc1`, Node `lts/hydrogen`, `lts-iron`
- Tool-specific meanings of `latest` (e.g. some exclude pre-releases, some don't)

**Rules:**
1. Do not call `versions::Versioning::new(...)` (or any other semver comparator) at a new call site to pick the "newest" version, "resolve latest", or sort a version list. That crate silently returns `None` / arbitrary ordering for non-semver strings, which means wrong versions get chosen for many tools.
2. To resolve a version request (`latest`, a prefix, a channel name), delegate to the backend via `Backend::latest_version`, `Backend::latest_installed_version`, `Backend::list_versions_matching`, or `ToolRequest::resolve` — the backend knows what "latest" means for its tool.
3. To list installed versions in a meaningful order, use `Backend::list_installed_versions_matching` or the toolset's resolved versions. Do not reorder them yourself.
4. Lockfile version strings must be treated as opaque — compare with `==`, never with a version ordering. Never write a non-concrete string (`latest`, `lts/*`, a prefix) into the lockfile; resolve first.

A few existing call sites (e.g. runtime symlinks) do use `Versioning` ordering today, but that's legacy behavior and arguably also wrong — do not point at them to justify new semver assumptions.

If you think you need to pick "the newest installed version" at a new call site, stop and ask — that call almost always belongs on the backend, not inline.

### Plugin Development
- Core tools are implemented in `src/plugins/core/`
- External plugins use ASDF or vfox compatibility layers
- Plugin metadata is defined in `mise.plugin.toml` files

### Configuration Parsing
The configuration system supports multiple file formats and environment-specific configs. Changes to settings require updating `settings.toml` and running `mise run render:schema`.

### Testing Strategy
- E2E tests are organized by feature area (cli/, config/, backend/, etc.)
- Use snapshot testing for CLI output verification
- Backend-specific tests verify tool installation and version management
- Slow tests (marked with `_slow` suffix) test actual tool compilation/installation

### Cross-Platform Considerations
- Windows-specific implementations in files ending with `_windows.rs`
- Platform-specific tool installation logic in core plugins
- Shim system varies by platform (especially Windows)
- we don't chmod mise e2e tests to be executable

## GitHub Interactions

Never open pull requests against the `release` branch. Default PRs to `main` unless the user explicitly names a different non-`release` base branch. If a change appears to belong on `release`, stop and ask for the intended branch strategy instead of opening a PR against `release`.

When AI contributes GitHub content—including a pull request description, review, pull request
comment, or discussion post—append this disclosure:

`*AI-assisted — Tool: <tool>; model: <provider>/<model>; version: <version-or-unavailable>.*`

Use the exact model and version identifiers exposed by the runtime. Never infer or guess them; use
`unavailable` when either value is not exposed.

## Documentation

### URL Structure
When referencing mise documentation URLs, use the correct path structure based on the `docs/` directory layout:

- **Dev tools & backends**: `mise.jdx.dev/dev-tools/backends/<backend>.html` (e.g., `mise.jdx.dev/dev-tools/backends/s3.html`)
- **Configuration**: `mise.jdx.dev/configuration/...`
- **Tasks**: `mise.jdx.dev/tasks/...`
- **Environments**: `mise.jdx.dev/environments/...`
- **CLI reference**: `mise.jdx.dev/cli/...`

Do NOT use shortened paths like `mise.jdx.dev/backends/...` - always include the full path matching the `docs/` directory structure.
