# Workspace, Registry, and Asset Identity Specification

Status: Draft
Scope: Managed asset roots, registry authority, and stable identity
Purpose: Define how the packer recognizes, tracks, and preserves asset identity.

## Authority and Precedence

This specification consolidates the initial packer agenda and decision wave into normative form.

## Normative Inputs

- `assets/`
- `assets/.prometeu/index.json`
- per-asset `asset.json`

## Core Rules

1. One managed asset equals one asset root directory.
2. One asset root contains exactly one anchor `asset.json`.
3. `assets/.prometeu/index.json` is the authoritative registry of managed assets.
4. `asset.json` is the authoritative asset-local declaration.
5. An asset root absent from the registry is not part of the managed build set.

## Identity Model

Each managed asset has:

- `asset_id`: stable project-local identity
- `asset_uuid`: stable long-lived identity for migration/tooling scenarios

The following are not primary identity:

- `asset_name`
- filesystem path
- internal input file names

`asset_name` may still be used by authoring and runtime-facing APIs as a logical reference label.

## Relocation and Rename

Moving or renaming an asset root does not change identity.

Rules:

- `asset_id` remains unchanged;
- `asset_uuid` remains unchanged;
- registry location is updated;
- relocation is not recreation.

Renaming `asset_name` is an API-visible change, but not an identity change.

## Orphan Anchors

An `asset.json` without a corresponding registry entry is an orphan declaration.

Rules:

- it does not enter the build automatically;
- it is diagnosable;
- it is adoptable only through explicit flow.

## Asset ID Allocation

`asset_id` allocation is registry-owned and strictly monotonic within a project.

Rules:

- allocation occurs at registration time;
- issued IDs are not silently recycled;
- allocator state is persisted in the registry;
- rollback is not baseline behavior.

## Structural Conflicts

Identity-bearing conflicts are structural errors.

Examples:

- duplicate or ambiguous anchors under managed expectations;
- manual copy that creates identity collision;
- registered root missing anchor.

## Non-Goals

- full `asset.json` schema
- asset format-specific metadata
- UI/editor workflow detail

## Exit Criteria

This specification is complete enough when:

- managed asset boundaries are unambiguous;
- registry authority is explicit;
- identity survives relocation without ambiguity.