commandkit/docs/roadmap/deferred.md

# Deferred work

Status: retained future work and unselected proposals; no implementation schedule.

## Purpose and authority

Completed initial delivery, performance, ReleaseKit upgrade, and remediation
records have been retired. This document preserves remaining deferred
capabilities and unselected ideas under the
[release policy](../policy/release.md#release-documentation-and-preparation).
The original records remain available in
[Git history](https://gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/CommandKit/src/commit/6bc37e7ba64ca0920b4d0cc77039a18d4006b24e/docs/roadmap).

Accepted [ADRs](../adr/) and the [architecture policy](../policy/architecture.md)
govern any future implementation. The [CLI reference](../cli.md), public GoDoc,
and [consumer guide](../consumers/guide.md) own implemented behavior. Retaining
an idea here does not select its syntax, API, priority, or delivery date.

## Deferred capability targets

### Comparison extensions

Independent per-side domain selectors and an optional assertion mode remain
unselected extensions to the delivered ConfigKit comparison. Consider them only
for a concrete consumer need and a deliberate API/behavior decision under the
relevant ADRs.

### Configuration inspection extensions

The [ConfigKit v1.1.0 adoption review](configkit-v1.1.0.md#selected-scope-decisions)
recommends the following work after dependency and source-report adoption.
Metadata inspection is the recommended next functional sprint; the other
features have no selected sequence or delivery date. These proposals do not
establish command grammar, report schemas, or new provider requirements.
ConfigKit's public APIs own the evidence and its semantics.

- **Optional field metadata, path discovery, and history (OD-3).** Expose native
  `Metadata.Lookup`, `IsExplicit`, `HistoricalPaths`, and `History` through an
  optional provider capability. Design field and history reports together,
  keeping existing providers usable. Distinguish effective paths from removed
  historical paths: a failed `Lookup` must not suppress available `History`.
  Validate that distinction and faithful projection of returned field/change
  records without recreating upstream provenance logic. Historical enumeration
  is not an exhaustive inventory of possible schema fields. This gives the
  earlier field-origin inventory proposal a concrete, upstream-backed scope;
  command names, selectors, and report shapes remain to be designed.
- **Failed-load source inventory (OD-4).** Present acquired source evidence from
  `LoadError.Sources()` while retaining the failed outcome and diagnostics.
  Design how an adapter returns its source facet on error and how result output
  precedes terminal failure presentation. Cover acquisition and report-delivery
  failures together; current diagnostic context remains available meanwhile.
- **Detailed comparison (OD-5).** Consider an additional form projecting native
  `Difference` paths, both snapshots, presence/redaction fields, and
  `HiddenChanged`. The adoption sprint retains the reduced
  additions/changes/deletions report. Decide later whether a detailed form
  complements it or replaces it through a deliberate compatibility change.
- **Structured diagnostics (OD-6).** Consider machine-readable native codes,
  paths, severities, and locations alongside CommandKit's shared reporting
  design. Define result/diagnostic channels, warning and terminal-failure
  interaction, and delivery outcomes. A ckconfig-specific report remains an
  alternative, with its cross-family alignment considered explicitly.
- **Source-ID filtering.** Consider selecting a record already available in the
  source inventory. Native `Source(id)` lookup is a convenience; this proposal
  need not introduce another command or require a lookup method from every
  custom source provider.

Discovery, import defaults, collection identities, and field-level resolution
recording remain available through application loaders. Standard inspection of
resource contexts or secrets-directory bootstrap has no immediate proposal;
those capabilities primarily serve application loading and startup.

### Alias completion and discovery

The delivered [shell completion feature](../cli.md#shell-completion) provides
canonical suggestions and alias-aware interpretation. Potential future work
includes suggesting command and flag alias spellings and valid continuations of
alias-only prefixes. For example, completion could suggest `inspect` after
`app legacy ` when `legacy inspect` is an installed alias.

Alias discovery is outside the initial scope. This deferral does not establish a
permanent canonical-only completion contract or prohibit future alias discovery.
A later design should determine how alias suggestions are presented alongside
canonical suggestions while ensuring inserted continuations form valid next
steps. No delivery date or final API is selected here.

## Other deferred proposals

These capabilities remain outside the delivered scope and require a concrete
operator or consumer need and an appropriate ownership/behavior decision:

- JSON reports and output-file management or reloadable export.
- Shell completion extensions, including alias discovery described above and
  dynamic discovery of configured or remote values.
- Configuration mutation and generic value assignment. Field metadata and
  provenance inspection are scoped under
  [configuration inspection extensions](#configuration-inspection-extensions).
- Credential diagnostics beyond PromptKit's native smoke checks and additional
  live provider probes.
- Additional component identity registration and domain artifact catalogs.
- Additional library families, including possible FeedKit integration; families
  can define suitable verbs without requiring comparison or configuration scopes.
- Backend selection or replacement, a plugin framework, general dependency
  injection, and concurrent-dispatch guarantees.

Execution, rendering, serving, and session operations remain application-owned.
Shared vocabulary is guidance under [ADR 0006](../adr/0006-command-grammar.md).
Backend replacement remains possible behind the accepted facade, subject to the
published API/CLI contracts and deliberate compatibility decisions.

## Possible further efficiency work

Selected-scope memoization and selector-membership indexes were deferred pending
measurements that justify their bookkeeping. Mutable backend reuse across
invocations, segmented aggregate YAML delivery, provider caching, consumer-loader
redesign, and a replacement backend were outside the completed performance
target. Reconsider them only with concrete motivation and review of ownership,
invocation state, native reports, and the affected contracts. Retained measurement
records are historical evidence, not performance guarantees or release gates.

## Consumer adoption

Consumer migrations remain separate from library delivery. Applications can
replace duplicated standard handlers and routing, then update their CLI docs
and subprocess consumers for intentional changes while retaining domain commands.
No migration order or claim about individual applications' adoption is recorded
here; the [consumer guide](../consumers/guide.md) and maintained examples provide
integration guidance.