audita/docs/roadmap/commandkit.md

# CommandKit Adoption Outline

**Updated:** 2026-11-07

**Status:** Initial outline. Adoption is part of the agreed target, not an optional
future evaluation. The [master roadmap](library-adoption.md) owns shared direction
and sequencing; ConfigKit and PromptKit integration contracts are developed in
[their](configkit.md) [outlines](promptkit.md).

## Baseline and Target

Audita currently uses application-owned CLI parsing, inspection commands, and
reporting, described in the [CLI contract](../cli.md). Adopt CommandKit core,
ckconfig, and ckprompt v0.5.0 as the standard operator interface. Use supported
command declarations, typed inputs, supplied-value tracking, help/version,
reporting, and formatting. Audita handlers retain transcript processing and
artifact responsibilities.

The upstream [core release](https://forge.maximumdirect.net/base-layer/commandkit/src/commit/49f2d09ccde3d91d8c412a44ab934f223bef8fe6/docs/releases/v0.5.0.md),
[ckconfig release](https://forge.maximumdirect.net/base-layer/commandkit/src/commit/5c960532552037d38119941389e558f78bf73aad/integrations/ckconfig/docs/releases/v0.5.0.md),
[ckprompt release](https://forge.maximumdirect.net/base-layer/commandkit/src/commit/88ac6e76e4b164571f4172c01d7679c043b94a02/integrations/ckprompt/docs/releases/v0.5.0.md),
and [consumer guide](https://forge.maximumdirect.net/base-layer/commandkit/src/commit/88ac6e76e4b164571f4172c01d7679c043b94a02/docs/consumers/guide.md)
define the reviewed set. Core uses Cobra/pflag; the matched integrations require
Go 1.27. The former missing diagnostic adapter has been published. There is no
known publication blocker to adoption.

## Agreed Operator Experience

- Install the full ckprompt inspection surface: prompt/profile/backend views,
  resource and namespace/collection inventories, contextual requirement
  inspection, and captured engine configuration through its config scope.
  Native reports and namespace selection must remain available; a curated Audita
  subset is not a substitute. Inspection success is not execution readiness.
- Adopt standard ckconfig viewing, validation, sources, path discovery,
  explanation, and comparison. Use native evidence and common text/YAML/JSON
  rendering. Do not recreate removed provider-specific explanation writers.
- Use standard command names and reporting flags. Adapt Audita's existing
  `--debug` artifact-capture spelling to avoid colliding with CommandKit's reserved
  reporter flag; the final capture spelling is decided below.
- Keep domain transcript serialization and ordinary report files under Audita's
  output contracts. Generic report formatting need not transform transcript JSON.
  Preserve meaningful partial success: a work-unit model error is not automatically
  a failed CLI invocation or a reporter warning.
- Preserve safe library redaction without restricting standard inspection to
  today's curated fields. Loading for help/version must not trigger credentials,
  provider calls, or domain processing.

## Work Outline

1. Inventory Audita commands, arguments, flags, supplied empty/false/zero values,
   streams, and exit behavior against standard declarations. Record intentional
   migrations rather than recreating the old parser around CommandKit.
2. Establish shared loaders and scopes using the native ConfigKit and PromptKit
   integrations. Keep configuration/resource inspection distinct from preparing
   an actual domain request. Standard scope validation need not reproduce the
   current combined settings-and-two-roles command; process setup must still
   establish what execution needs. Review generic override forwarding explicitly.
3. Install standard inspection and configuration commands, native formats,
   help/version, and suite-consistent aliases/completion through supported APIs.
   Supply the application's version identity from its selected ReleaseKit
   integration. Do not use a broad private CLI framework around CommandKit.
4. Adapt domain process handlers to reporting/outcome boundaries, preserving
   transcript/artifact integrity, cancellation, and partial success. Specify quiet
   mode, completion summaries, and write failures before implementation. Standard
   command statuses, including comparison status 3, should not be forced into the
   old Audita-only status table without a domain reason.
5. Develop concrete request adapters for preview, validation, and any selected
   smoke commands. They need correct variables, schema contracts, and credential
   handling, not just an engine loader. Keep generic resource inspection independent
   of those domain inputs and distinguish generic from Audita-prepared requests.
6. Update [CLI](../cli.md), [configuration](../config.md), [operations](../operations.md),
   [subprocess integration](../integrations/subprocess.md), examples, help,
   completion guidance, and migration documentation with implementation. Adopt
   the dependencies and exact attribution together.

## Acceptance and Upstream Requests

Check the complete standard inspection/configuration inventory and native
formats through the assembled CLI, including failed-load evidence, redaction,
source selection, and missing/partial resources. Check help/version without
configuration and supplied-value handling through domain settings. Exercise
stdout transcript isolation, file output, quiet/verbose/debug behavior, completion
summary placement, cancellation, partial success, and output failures.

Tagged core and integration suites passed during review, but do not establish
these Audita behaviors. Use offline tests and controlled providers; explicitly
invoked smoke operations may contact providers and incur costs, but are not an
automatic startup or release check.

CommandKit and integrations are early-stage. Freely propose upstream improvements
where reporting, declaration, or integration APIs are problematic or incomplete.
No request has yet been submitted. First candidates for investigation are support
for result payloads versus diagnostic verbosity and preserving a domain completion
summary alongside stdout data. Use shared upstream improvements where appropriate
instead of bypassing the reporter with a permanent local output layer.

## Open Decisions

### Artifact Capture Flag

**Recommendation:** use `--debug-artifacts` for retained Audita artifacts and keep
`--debug` exclusively for standard reporting verbosity. The meanings are distinct,
and separation follows CommandKit's supported reserved-flag contract.

**Alternative:** deliberately couple debug verbosity with artifact capture through
supported application hooks. This reduces operator flags but can retain sensitive
request/response artifacts when an operator only wanted verbosity. It would need
clear suite-wide semantics; duplicate declaration of `--debug` is unsupported.

### Quiet Mode and the Completion Summary

**Recommendation:** start with CommandKit's normal visibility rules, including
quiet suppression of command output, and document their effect on stdout
transcripts. File artifacts remain domain outputs. Determine whether the existing
always-visible completion summary serves a domain need or can become standard
verbose information. Do not silently hide it merely by changing its implementation
to `Reporter.Info`; make the operator behavior change explicit.

**Alternative:** preserve transcript payloads under quiet mode or preserve an
ordinary-mode diagnostic summary through a shared upstream reporting capability.
This can serve pipelines and operators who distinguish payloads from messages,
but diverges from current core semantics and needs a concrete use case. Prefer an
upstream change over bypassing standard reporting or inventing local quiet rules.

### Request Preview, Validation, and Smoke Commands

**Recommendation:** include standard offline request preview and validation,
and expose smoke diagnostics as explicit operator-invoked commands once the
request adapter is correct. This best supports the suite happy path. Generic
inspection remains available without a runnable request, and smoke results must
retain unknown/unsupported facts rather than imply provider readiness.

**Alternative:** deliver the agreed full inspection/configuration surface first,
then add request operations in a named follow-up stage if their adapter needs
upstream work. This limits premature request semantics but leaves a temporarily
incomplete suite experience. It is not permission to defer the full inspection
set or to silently omit commands because they were absent from old Audita.