yoi/.yoi/tickets/closed/20260531-110818-remove-resource-dir/item.md

id	slug	title	status	kind	priority	labels	created_at	updated_at	assignee
20260531-110818-remove-resource-dir	remove-resource-dir	Manifest: remove filesystem resource_dir dependency	closed	task	P2	manifest profile nix env cleanup	2026-05-31T11:08:18Z	2026-05-31T11:58:28Z	null

Background

manifest::paths::resource_dir() and INSOMNIA_RESOURCE_DIR currently keep a filesystem resource lookup boundary for bundled assets. That boundary appears increasingly historical:

• prompts are already embedded through include_dir! in the Pod prompt loader;
• provider/model builtin catalogs are already embedded in the provider catalog path;
• the remaining important uses are builtin Lua profile discovery and a manifest-profile model-context lookup that still reads resources/models/builtin.toml through resource_dir().

The desired direction is to remove the filesystem resource_dir dependency rather than preserve INSOMNIA_RESOURCE_DIR as a public/user-facing configuration surface.

Requirements

• Investigate and then remove the need for manifest::paths::resource_dir() if feasible.
• Remove INSOMNIA_RESOURCE_DIR as an active supported environment variable once no production code needs it.
• Preserve current builtin behavior:
  • builtin/default profiles remain available through normal profile selection;
  • builtin provider/model metadata remains available;
  • prompts and profile assets still resolve correctly in dev and installed/Nix builds.
• Prefer embedding builtin assets in Rust over runtime filesystem discovery where this does not create a worse design.
• If builtin Lua profiles need synthetic source labels or special handling for diagnostics/local requires, design that explicitly rather than keeping resource_dir by inertia.
• Update Nix packaging only after confirming resources no longer need to be installed at share/insomnia/resources for runtime behavior.
• Update docs/environment.md to remove resource_dir / INSOMNIA_RESOURCE_DIR from supported path keys if implementation removes it.

Non-goals

• Changing user/project config_dir override semantics.
• Removing user profile files or project profile support.
• Changing profile selector semantics except where needed to replace builtin profile filesystem discovery.
• Reworking credential env handling.
• Reintroducing ambient manifest discovery.

Acceptance criteria

• No production code depends on manifest::paths::resource_dir() for bundled asset lookup, or any remaining dependency is explicitly justified and documented in the ticket thread.
• INSOMNIA_RESOURCE_DIR is removed from active code/docs if resource_dir() is removed.
• Builtin default profile/profile registry tests pass without filesystem resource discovery.
• Builtin model/provider lookup behavior remains available and tested.
• Nix build/install checks still pass; installed package does not need runtime filesystem resources unless explicitly justified.
• cargo fmt --check, focused manifest/provider/pod/tui tests as relevant, cargo check for affected crates, ./tickets.sh doctor, and git diff --check pass.