yoi/.yoi/tickets/closed/20260531-045034-spawn-through-insomnia-pod-subcommand/item.md

id	slug	title	status	kind	priority	labels	created_at	updated_at	assignee
20260531-045034-spawn-through-insomnia-pod-subcommand	spawn-through-insomnia-pod-subcommand	CLI: spawn Pods through insomnia pod runtime	closed	task	P2	cli pod client nix	2026-05-31T04:50:34Z	2026-05-31T05:27:04Z	null

Background

Parent/umbrella ticket: single-binary-insomnia-cli.

insomnia-pod-subcommand-runtime added insomnia pod ... as a Pod runtime entrypoint while keeping the old insomnia-pod binary as a temporary thin wrapper. Internal Pod spawning and restore paths still default to invoking insomnia-pod as an executable-only command.

The next single-binary migration step is to make internal callers able to spawn Pod runtime processes via program + prefix_args, and then switch the default runtime command to the current insomnia executable with pod as the prefix argument.

Requirements

• Introduce a typed Pod runtime command representation instead of shell-string parsing.
  • Example shape: { program: PathBuf, prefix_args: Vec<OsString> }.
  • The default command from the insomnia binary should be current_exe() + pod prefix args.
  • Preserve an explicit override mechanism for development/debugging, but do not parse arbitrary shell command strings.
• Switch internal spawn/restore paths that currently call insomnia-pod to use the typed runtime command:
  • TUI/create/restore paths in client/tui if applicable;
  • SpawnPod child creation;
  • RestorePod / discovery restore flows.
• Preserve detached process behavior and the INSOMNIA-READY stderr handshake.
• Preserve devshell/Nix behavior enough that local development still works.
  • If insomnia-pod is still needed for devshell wrapping in this step, document exactly why and leave removal to the next ticket.
• Keep insomnia-pod installed output/package removal out of this ticket unless the migration is already complete and validation is straightforward.
• Do not rename the tui package/crate.
• Do not merge Pod controller into the TUI process.

Non-goals

• Removing insomnia-pod from Nix/package outputs as the primary goal. That is the next cleanup once runtime spawning no longer depends on it.
• Changing Pod runtime flags or profile/manifest semantics.
• Changing Pod protocol.
• Large CLI UX redesign.

Acceptance criteria

• Internal default Pod runtime spawn/restore commands use insomnia pod ... through a typed program + prefix_args representation.
• INSOMNIA_POD_COMMAND or any equivalent override remains safe and documented, or is replaced by a typed override with clear behavior.
• Existing Pod spawning/restore tests pass, with focused tests proving prefix args are included in the spawned command.
• insomnia pod --help and existing insomnia-pod --help continue to work while the temporary wrapper remains.
• SpawnPod and RestorePod behavior is unchanged from the user/tool perspective.
• Follow-up for removing insomnia-pod packaging is recorded if not completed here.
• cargo fmt --check, focused client/pod/tui tests, cargo check -p client -p pod -p tui, ./tickets.sh doctor, and git diff --check pass.