Domain and Artifact Boundary Specification

Status: Draft Scope: Packer domain core boundary Purpose: Define what the packer owns, what it emits, and where its responsibility stops.

Authority and Precedence

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

Runtime-side reading semantics for assets.pa are defined upstream in ../runtime/docs/runtime/specs/13-cartridge.md and ../runtime/docs/runtime/specs/15-asset-management.md.

Normative Inputs

project workspace with assets/
packer registry and control data under assets/.prometeu/
registered asset roots anchored by asset.json

Core Rules

The packer owns asset workspace management and artifact production.
The packer emits the runtime-facing asset artifact assets.pa.
The packer may emit companion build artifacts for Studio and tooling.
The packer does not own cartridge shipping/publication.
A future shipper is a consumer of packer artifacts, not a co-author of the asset contract.
Runtime reading semantics are not redefined by the packer.
The packer must stop at artifact publication, not cartridge assembly.

Packer-Owned Artifacts

The packer owns production of at least:

assets.pa
build/asset_table.json
build/preload.json
build/asset_table_metadata.json
asset.json
assets/.prometeu/index.json

Runtime-Facing Boundary

assets.pa is the authoritative runtime-facing artifact.

Rules:

the internal header of assets.pa is the runtime-facing source of truth for asset table and preload data;
companion JSON outputs must not replace the internal header as the runtime contract;
offsets and preload semantics must remain aligned with runtime specs.

Future Shipper Boundary

The future shipper may consume packer artifacts to assemble cartridges.

Rules:

the packer must not depend on a concrete shipper implementation now;
shipper-specific workflow detail is deferred;
published artifact names and meanings must remain documented and stable enough for later consumption.

Non-Goals

cartridge assembly flow
package distribution format design
runtime asset loading implementation detail

Exit Criteria

This specification is complete enough when:

packer ownership is unambiguous;
runtime-facing artifact authority is explicit;
future shipper integration is bounded without overdesign.

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