yoi/work-items/closed/20260529-183318-builtin-profile-remove-manifest-cascade/resolution.md

id	slug	title	status	kind	priority	labels	created_at	updated_at	assignee	legacy_ticket
20260529-183318-builtin-profile-remove-manifest-cascade	builtin-profile-remove-manifest-cascade	Add builtin Nix profile and remove manifest cascade mode	closed	feature	P1	profiles manifest nix config	2026-05-29T18:33:18Z	2026-05-29T19:38:49Z	null	null

Background

Manifest profiles are now the primary way to choose a Pod runtime configuration. The old ambient manifest cascade is no longer the desired model. A manifest is the resolved/low-level Pod runtime config, not an application profile selection mechanism, and it should not be implicitly assembled from user + project layers during normal startup.

The default dogfooding behavior currently expressed in this repository's .insomnia/manifest.toml should be converted to a bundled builtin Nix profile and registered as the default builtin profile. Users/projects can still override the selected default through profiles.toml, but the runtime config should come from the selected profile artifact.

The existing defaulting/required-field logic should remain shared: profile-produced artifacts and one-file manifests should both flow through PodManifestConfig::builtin_defaults() and PodManifest::try_from(...) so defaults and required-field validation are not duplicated.

Requirements

• Add a builtin Nix profile equivalent to the current repository .insomnia/manifest.toml dogfooding config.
  • Register it through builtin profile discovery.
  • It should be selectable as a builtin profile and usable as the fallback default when no user/project profile default is configured.
  • Preserve current behavior as closely as possible: model/provider, scope, worker language, compaction, memory settings, skills, web/tool settings, permissions, etc.
  • Be careful with relative paths such as . from the current manifest. A builtin profile must not accidentally scope writes to resources/nix/profiles; it should resolve workspace-root-sensitive paths correctly or introduce an explicit resolver input for the startup cwd/project root.
• Remove ambient manifest cascade from normal startup.
  • Do not implicitly merge user manifest + project manifest + overlay for normal Pod/TUI creation.
  • Normal new Pod creation should choose a profile, defaulting through profile discovery.
  • User/project profiles.toml remains a discovery/default registry only.
• Keep one-file manifest support as an explicit compatibility/debug path.
  • --manifest <PATH> should load exactly that file plus builtin defaults/validation.
  • It should not read user/project manifests.
  • It should remain mutually exclusive with --profile and restore/attach modes as appropriate.
• Preserve shared default/required validation.
  • PodManifestConfig::builtin_defaults() remains the common low-level default layer.
  • PodManifest::try_from(PodManifestConfig) remains the common required-field/type validation boundary.
  • Profile artifact resolution and one-file manifest loading must both use this common path.
• Update TUI/default behavior.
  • Fresh-spawn UI should default to the builtin profile when no user/project profile default exists.
  • manifest cascade wording should be removed or changed because cascade is no longer normal behavior.
  • If an explicit one-file manifest fallback remains selectable, label it accurately.
• Update docs/tests.
  • Documentation should describe builtin profile defaulting and explicit one-file manifest usage.
  • Remove references to ambient manifest cascade as normal startup config.
  • Tests should prove normal startup/profile discovery does not read user/project manifests as a cascade.
  • Tests should prove --manifest is single-file only and still shares default/required validation.

Acceptance criteria

• Builtin profile discovery lists the converted default profile.
• With no user/project profiles.toml, fresh Pod creation selects the builtin profile by default.
• The converted builtin profile produces a valid PodManifest through the same validation path as other profiles.
• Normal startup no longer reads/merges user/project manifest.toml files.
• --manifest <PATH> remains available as single-file explicit mode and does not cascade.
• Defaults and required-field errors are shared between profile and one-file manifest paths.
• TUI labels no longer describe the default opt-out as manifest cascade.
• Focused manifest/profile/pod/tui/client tests pass.
• cargo fmt --check
• Relevant checks pass.