Command namespace and context requests

A conforming shell MUST resolve the first word of a command through a hierarchical command namespace, not by searching folders. Nodes are slash-separated paths of lowercase words grouped by task, for example install, install/npm, vcs/status.

A tool MUST enter the namespace by a registration manifest that names every node it claims, its package, version and publisher. The shell host MUST record each registration (who, what, when). Manifests are written in JSON5 and validated by JSON Schema after parsing (see command-namespace).

Two manifests claiming the same node MUST be reported as a conflict. The shell MUST NOT let the most recent installer win silently.

An unknown first word MUST be a usage error with did-you-mean across the namespace, as CLI Dispatch CD-1 requires of a single tool.

Running a file by path MUST stay possible, but only explicitly (a path-shaped token or a run command). A shell MAY import PATH as a read-only legacy subtree during migration and MUST mark commands resolved that way.

A node MUST declare its CLI style (strict by default, per CLI Styles CS-1 and CS-2). A resolver-style front door such as install is a node whose children are providers registered by each package manager. The command is literally install, to keep the interface seamless; on Unix the existing install(1) file copier is registered at legacy/install, and install(1)-style arguments are handed through to it so build scripts keep working (passthrough PROVISIONAL).

A tool SHOULD publish its own token table (subcommands, contextual flags, free flags) in its manifest and SHOULD use the same table in its own parser. This lets inspection tools list commands, flags, conflicts and installed packages across every manager without running any command or its help. Free flags use the + sigil: you add them together, and their order doesn’t matter (+yes +verbose). The inspection tool is name (name which, name conflicts).

When a version manager controls a node, the manifest for each version SHOULD mark which commands and flags were added, removed or changed since the previous release. This is a visual cue and learning aid, not a full diff.

A command node SHOULD publish an input signature declaring which ambient context it will request: current folder (none, read, write, and under which flags), named environment variables, identity, network and stdin.

A shell MUST give a command the current folder only when its signature requests it (native protocol), and SHOULD show, before the command runs, whether the folder will be used. A command with no signature MUST be shown as "may use current folder".

The current folder SHOULD be displayed as an input at the end of the command line, truncated to at most half the screen width, with a setting to keep the leaf folder at the right or left edge of its slot.

The command composition area SHOULD keep a fixed height of two to three lines (context, input, transient status) so that status shown while typing does not move the input line. This extends the two-line layout in Prompt spatial layout and the multi-line paste preview in Shell display layers.

Anything that changes the namespace or the process’s view of the system for a while SHOULD be described by three properties: level (overlay, fence, partition, guest), lifetime (run, session, kept), and scope (process, session, folder, user, machine). Definitions: Isolation levels (Dev-Centr glossary).

An overlay (venv activation, a version switch, a project pin) SHOULD be implemented as a layer on top of the command namespace, with precedence machine < user < folder < session, and MUST be shown in the composition area with its full term, for example "kept overlay: .venv, attached to this session".