bundlewrap/docs/agents/conventions.md

Conventions

Repo-specific idioms an agent has to know before editing this BundleWrap config. For bundlewrap-the-language reference (item types, dep keywords, metadata-reactor semantics, after-change runbook), see the fork's AGENTS.md.

Secrets

Secrets live in .secrets.cfg and are referenced from node files by "demagify" magic strings. The loader (nodes.py) walks node dicts and resolves any leaf string of the form !<verb>:<arg>.

Magic string	Resolves to
!password_for:<id>	repo.vault.password_for(id)
!decrypt:<ciphertext>	repo.vault.decrypt(ciphertext)
!decrypt_file:<path>	repo.vault.decrypt_file(path)
!32_random_bytes_as_base64_for:<id>	repo.vault.random_bytes_as_base64_for(id, length=32)

Magic strings are only resolved inside node files (everything under nodes/). They are not resolved in group files, bundle metadata defaults, or item attributes — call repo.vault.<verb>(...) directly there.

Never echo decrypted values. Don't print, log, or paste them, even in bw debug exploration. If you need a sanity check, hash or fingerprint instead. This applies to AI agents and humans equally.

Bundlewrap version

The venv runs editable from the maintainer's fork:

-e git+https://github.com/CroneKorkN/bundlewrap.git@main#egg=bundlewrap

Pinned in requirements.txt. The fork's main tracks upstream bundlewrap/bundlewrap master; the fork's AGENTS.md is the canonical agent-oriented bundlewrap-language reference.

To pull upstream changes into the venv:

(cd .venv/src/bundlewrap && git pull)

Eval-loaded node and group files

nodes/*.py and groups/*.py are loaded by eval() in nodes.py / groups.py (top of the repo). Each file must be a single Python expression — typically a dict literal.

Consequences:

• No top-level imports. No from foo import bar, no import os. Helpers go in libs/ and are reached via repo.libs.<x> from bundle code, not from node files.
• No statements. No if/for/def at the top level. Use expressions (ternaries, comprehensions) instead.
• Silent drop on parse error. Vanilla bundlewrap silently omits a node/group whose file fails to eval. The maintainer patched groups.py (commit dc40295) to print the error instead — but it still skips the file. Symptom: bw nodes lists fewer nodes than you expect. Cure: re-read the file and check for accidental imports or syntax errors.

Group inheritance order

Metadata merges along this chain (from the fork's docs):

all → location → os → machine → applications → node

groups/all.py is the universal base; groups/{locations,os,machine,applications}/ hold the per-axis groups; the node's own metadata wins last.

Naming conventions

Where	Convention	Example
nodes/*.py	<location>.<role>.py	home.server.py, htz.mails.py
groups/*.py	one file per group; subdir = purpose	groups/applications/nextcloud.py, groups/os/debian-13.py
bundles/<name>	lowercase, hyphen-separated	backup-server, bind-acme, routeros-monitoring
Custom items	items/<type>.py	items/download.py

Underscores in bundle names appear only in _old-suffixed leftovers (see below); don't introduce new ones.

Suspension and soft-delete idioms

These conventions look like dead code; they aren't. Don't clean them up.

• *.py_ parked node. A node file whose name ends in .py_ is silently excluded from bw nodes (the loader only matches *.py). Used to keep decommissioned-but-not-deleted node configs in tree. Example: nodes/htz.l4d2.py_.
• "for now / disable / dummy / offline" markers. Commits or comments containing these phrases mark deliberate suspensions, not bugs. Check git log -- <file> before re-enabling — the maintainer reverses these manually when the underlying condition resolves.
• _old / _old2 directories. Recovery buffers during big refactors. Don't delete them without asking, even if they look orphaned.

Files agents must not modify

Path	Why
.secrets.cfg*	vault key material
.venv/	local Python environment
.cache/	bw runtime cache
.bw_debug_history	shell history for bw debug
.envrc	direnv local-environment config
/.cocoindex_code/	local code index, not in git
README.md (root)	maintainer's personal TODO scratchpad — not project docs

Treat hooks/ and items/ (custom item types) with extra care: they affect bw's behavior for the whole repo, not a single bundle.

Working style

• Iterative commits are normal. The maintainer commits in small checkpoints (+, fix, whitespace, terse one-liners). Don't rebase WIP branches without asking. As an agent, prefer complete-feeling commits over mimicking the iterative style.
• Burst-state awareness. Before writing into a subsystem, run git log --since='1 month ago' bundles/<x> (or nodes/<x>.py). ≥10 recent commits means the subsystem is in flux; read the most recent diffs first — your assumptions about its metadata shape may already be stale.
• Branch names. PRs go through self-hosted Gitea/Forgejo. Branch names are lowercase snake_case, descriptive (debian-13, htz.mails_debian_13_squash, l4d2_the_next).

Bundlewrap-version migration recipe

When the next bw major lands:

1. Read the upstream migration guide.
2. git grep for affected reactor / item patterns.
3. Rewrite each (one commit per pattern is fine — see Working style).
4. Bump requirements.txt last.

Pattern from commit 186d503 (bw 4 → 5).