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cc-libs/docs/adrs/adr-0004-trapos-branding-and-manifest.md

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ADR 0004: TrapOS Branding And Manifest-Driven Installs

Status

Accepted

Date

2026-06-07

Context

The project started as a loose collection of ComputerCraft / CC:Tweaked APIs and programs. As the surface area grew (eventloop, net, router, ping, events, upgrade) and the install/upgrade flow gained a beta channel, three pain points emerged:

  • install.lua carries a hardcoded LIST_FILES table that has to be edited every time a file is added or removed. Adding a single shipped file means editing the file itself, the installer, and sometimes startup/servers.lua.
  • The --beta flag is not persisted. The user has to remember to pass it on every upgrade, which makes the beta channel awkward to live on.
  • The system has no visible identity at boot. There is no name, no version line, nothing that confirms which branch is installed.

At the same time, the codebase has outgrown the "Trap's ComputerCraft APIs" framing. It is closer to a small in-game operating system than a library, and treating it as one unlocks a clearer story (a name, a version, a manifest, a boot banner).

Decision

Adopt the name TrapOS and a manifest-driven install architecture.

  • A single manifest.json at the repo root is the source of truth for the project: name, version, branch, list of shipped files, and the list of servers to autostart at boot. Parsed with textutils.unserializeJSON / textutils.serializeJSON (built-in to CC:Tweaked).
  • A local copy of that manifest is written to /trapos/manifest.json at the end of every install. This local file is the authoritative system state on the computer:
    • branch is the persisted beta opt-in. Once a user installs with --beta (and confirms a one-time (y/N) prompt), subsequent upgrade calls auto-target the next branch with no flag needed.
    • version is what the boot MOTD displays.
    • files and autostart drive the next install and the boot sequence.
  • A new startup/motd.lua prints a colored TrapOS v<version> line at boot — lime for stable, orange with a [BETA] tag for beta. Guarded on term.isColor() so monochrome terminals still get the text.
  • startup/servers.lua reads autostart from the local manifest instead of carrying its own hardcoded list.
  • The shipped install URL stays at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guillaumearm/cc-libs/... for now. Renaming the GitHub repository is a follow-up, tracked in the "Future Work" section below.

Consequences

  • Adding a new file or autostart server is now a one-line edit to manifest.json. Both install.lua and startup/servers.lua pick it up automatically.
  • The beta channel becomes a real opt-in: a single confirmed upgrade --beta is enough to live on next. A new --stable flag exists for the symmetric opt-out.
  • The boot banner gives users an immediate sanity check ("am I on the right branch, the right version?").
  • The system gains an explicit local state directory (/trapos/) and a clear contract for what lives there.
  • The installer takes a hard dependency on textutils.serializeJSON / unserializeJSON, which require CC:Tweaked ≥ 1.79. This is well within any reasonable target version for Minecraft 1.21.
  • Existing computers running the old installer still upgrade cleanly: the old upgrade fetches the new install.lua, which then creates /trapos/manifest.json from the manifest it just downloaded.

Future Work

  • Repository rename. Once the install flow has stabilized on TrapOS, the GitHub repository will be renamed from cc-libs to a name that matches (likely trapos). The install URL inside install.lua and programs/upgrade.lua will be updated in the same PR, and a redirect at the old URL is sufficient for in-the-wild installs.
  • Package manager. The longer-term direction floated during planning was a small package manager where each directory in the repo is a package. The current manifest is a deliberate step toward that — same shape (name, version, files), single-package case — and can grow into multi-manifest discovery without changing the install/upgrade contract.
  • Per-version migration system. Today the installer carries a static list of legacy files to delete. A future change can replace this with a per-version migration block driven by the manifest.