promptkit/docs/roadmap/namespaces.md

Namespaces And Scoped Resource Lookup

Status: feature roadmap; not implemented. The reserved-slash naming convention and reference-resolution rules are accepted target behavior. The public scope API, discovery surface, and migration details remain open as identified below.

Purpose

Let consumers select a namespace once and use convenient local names within that namespace across PromptKit operations. An assembled engine may contain multiple application prompt libraries and provider profile catalogs with overlapping local names. Resolution must remain unambiguous.

The motivating cases are:

• WeatherReporter and another application both define summarize.alerts. Each consumer selects its application namespace and uses the local name.
• OpenRouter and RakestrawHome both provide the model identified in the discussion as google/gemma-4-31b-it. Consumers distinguish the execution profiles by provider namespace while retaining convenient local naming.

Model names here illustrate identity and resolution, not provider availability or a promise of maintained catalog entries.

The primary need is organization and convenient lookup within assembled libraries. Ansible collections are a conceptual reference for qualified names; package distribution and relocatable collection imports are not required for this feature.

Existing Foundation

The format reference defines prompt, profile, and backend keys as exact literal IDs. Punctuation is already allowed, and references are not trimmed or re-keyed. Merely adopting prefixed IDs therefore does not provide the requested scoped lookup behavior.

Existing prompt and profile listings expose assembled identities. The consumer guide describes current operations; their Go declarations and GoDoc remain authoritative until this feature lands.

ADR 0001 assigns source loading, composition, and inheritance to ConfigKit. This proposal adds interpretation of consumer-supplied resource names against the final effective configuration, without a second source-composition pass.

Accepted Identity Convention

Reserve / exclusively as the namespace separator in PromptKit prompt, profile, and backend identifiers and references. A qualified identifier has exactly two nonempty components: namespace/local-name. Neither component can contain /. Dots remain available within local names. An unqualified identifier has no slash and remains valid under the existing nonblank-ID rule.

Reject resource identifiers or supplied references with multiple slashes or an empty qualified component, such as a/b/c, /name, and namespace/. These rules do not apply to provider model values, endpoints, resource paths, or prompt versions. Preserve exact spelling; do not silently trim or rewrite IDs.

Resource	Namespace	Local name	Qualified ID
Prompt	weatherreporter	summarize.alerts	weatherreporter/summarize.alerts
Prompt	homewatch	summarize.alerts	homewatch/summarize.alerts
Profile	openrouter	google.gemma-4-31b-it	openrouter/google.gemma-4-31b-it
Profile	rakestrawhome	google.gemma-4-31b-it	rakestrawhome/google.gemma-4-31b-it

Prompt, profile, and backend identities remain separate resource types. The same namespace can contain all three, and resources in it may come from multiple configuration sources. A namespace does not imply a directory, package, provider model identifier, or security boundary.

A profile ID identifies execution settings. Its configured model value is still the identifier passed to the provider; qualifying the profile ID does not modify that value. Both example profiles may retain the configured model google/gemma-4-31b-it. Different profiles may select the same model with different settings. Prompt versions also remain separate from namespaces and continue to use the existing selection rules.

Retain unqualified and dotted IDs. Existing slash-containing IDs need review: those with one slash and nonempty components become qualified identities, while those outside the new grammar require migration. This intentional format break is accepted in favor of unambiguous resolution; the migration work is described below.

Proposed Consumer Scope

Prefer a lightweight, immutable view over an existing engine. The following sketch illustrates the consumer experience only; it does not settle a method name, return type, error behavior, or final signature:

weather, err := engine.WithNamespaces(Namespaces{
    Prompt:  "weatherreporter",
    Profile: "openrouter",
})
// Handle err, then use local prompt and profile names through weather.

This sketch follows the recommendation in open decision 1; these declarations do not exist yet.

The view would share the engine's captured configuration, clients, and execution machinery. Selecting a namespace would not rebuild the engine or duplicate its backend capacity accounting. Consumers could use different views concurrently without changing a shared current-namespace setting.

The accepted resolution rules, independent of the final scope API, are:

1. A supplied name without a slash is qualified using the selected scope for its resource type, then looked up exactly. Without that scope, it is looked up as an exact unqualified ID.
2. A missing scoped resource does not trigger a search in other namespaces or among unqualified IDs. Loading another collection cannot redirect lookup.
3. A valid supplied name containing one slash is fully qualified and is looked up exactly, regardless of scope. Malformed resource references are rejected.
4. Scope applies to caller-supplied resource names. Stored references, including prompt default profiles, profile backends, inheritance references, and backend smoke-test default profiles, retain their existing exact meaning. They are not rebound to the invoking consumer's namespace.
5. Omitted optional IDs retain their existing selection/default behavior; an omission is not converted into a namespace prefix or a lookup for an empty local name.
6. Where outputs, inspection, errors, or diagnostic reports identify a selected resource, preserve its resolved full identity. Any exposed local name should be distinguishable from that identity.

Keep qualification consistent across execution, preparation, request validation, prompt/profile inspection, and applicable smoke-test selections. Namespace selection must not change request override precedence, prompt version selection, or provider model strings.

Local And Qualified References In One Operation

Syntax alone distinguishes local and qualified references. Do not decide whether to qualify a name by checking which candidates exist; that would make resolution depend on loaded content.

Within a weatherreporter prompt scope, summarize.alerts resolves only to weatherreporter/summarize.alerts, while homewatch/summarize.alerts explicitly selects that other library's prompt. A qualified profile override similarly bypasses the profile scope. Scoped operations accept both forms without a separate reference type or requiring a return to the original engine for cross-namespace access.

The original engine remains the way to select an exact unqualified ID without applying a scope. No escape syntax for unqualified IDs is introduced here.

Separate Resource Scopes

A consumer may want prompt shorthand under weatherreporter and profile shorthand under openrouter in the same request. Evaluate independently selectable prompt, profile, and backend scopes instead of assuming one namespace must apply to every field. A prompt's configured default profile needs no caller profile scope because the stored reference is already exact.

Independent scopes are recommended where the consumer needs shorthand, but the scope options and the meaning of a convenience InNamespace operation are still open. Define which scopes apply to unqualified names in each request field; qualified references always bypass them. Include any directly supplied backend selection in this decision.

Discovery And Collection Organization

Namespace-aware discovery is supporting work: consumers should be able to identify available namespaces and list their resources without each application inventing parsing and filtering rules. Keep this proportionate to the primary scoped-lookup feature.

Decide whether scoped listing returns full identities, local names alongside full identities, or another explicit shape. A caller must be able to tell how to pass a listed name back to a scoped operation without double qualification. Retain the existing unscoped listing contracts.

Derive namespace membership from the qualified identifier's namespace component: weather must not include weatherreporter/.... Nested slash-separated namespaces are outside the accepted grammar.

The initial proposal does not require a collection manifest. Titles, descriptions, and other collection metadata can be considered if consumers need more than identity and grouping.

Composition And Compatibility

Qualified identities reduce accidental collisions between independently authored libraries. Definitions with the same exact qualified identity still follow the existing ConfigKit overlay and inheritance rules; namespaces do not create a separate collision policy.

Leave source composition and configuration inspection with ConfigKit. Do not introduce implicit qualification of definition keys, mounting under caller-chosen prefixes, or rewriting of stored references as part of consumer scope. Those would be separate configuration-design work.

Existing unscoped exact lookup remains available for IDs valid under the new grammar. Compatibility with arbitrary slash-containing resource IDs is intentionally broken. The migration must:

• Audit maintained catalogs and representative consumer definitions for invalid IDs and for valid one-slash IDs whose namespace meaning needs review.
• Choose explicit old-to-new mappings and check for collisions. Do not automatically replace slashes with dots: distinct existing IDs could collapse to the same new identity.
• Update renamed keys and their references together, including inheritance, prompt default profiles, profile backend references, backend smoke-test defaults, and affected examples and consumer request IDs.
• Keep provider model strings unchanged. Renaming a profile does not rename the upstream model.
• Document consumer action and coordinate the PromptKit format change with catalog adoption under the release policy. Its catalog profile-data exception does not cover this general format/API behavior change; account for its explicitly retained built-in profile names when selecting migrations.

Renaming a backend changes its identity; duplicating it under another ID can separate capacity accounting. Do not use blanket aliases or duplicate catalog entries as an automatic compatibility mechanism. Exact release versions and catalog mappings remain implementation-planning work.

The architecture policy continues to assign CLI syntax, flags, and application policy to consumers such as Scriptorium. PromptKit would supply reusable scope and resolution semantics.

Work Not Included In The Initial Proposal

• Package installation, collection registries, and dependency resolution.
• Caller-selected collection mount points or import alias rewriting.
• Implicit namespace search paths or fallback to whichever resource exists.
• Namespace-based access control or filesystem isolation.
• Changes to model names, inference behavior, or configuration precedence.

These boundaries limit the initial proposal; they do not prohibit future work if a concrete consumer need emerges.

Delivery Outline

1. Settle the open API decisions below and audit existing identifier usage against the accepted grammar. Record explicit mappings and coordinated migration work.
2. Implement the smallest public scope surface with shared name qualification and existing engine collaborators. Cover supported operations consistently.
3. Add the selected discovery behavior and representative consumer examples.
4. Verify compatibility and scoped resolution through focused offline tests, following the testing policy. Update GoDoc, the format reference, consumer guide, and relevant internal documentation as behavior lands; retire this roadmap when its work is complete.

Acceptance cases for the settled rules, with scope/discovery details subject to the selected API contract:

• Two prompt scopes resolve the same local name to their respective prompts; a missing name never resolves from the other scope or an unqualified entry.
• Two provider profile scopes resolve the same local name, such as google.gemma-4-31b-it, to different profiles without changing the configured provider model value google/gemma-4-31b-it.
• A qualified reference bypasses the selected scope without double qualification; adding another collection does not change local or qualified resolution.
• Multiple slashes and empty qualified components are rejected in resource IDs and references, while provider model values retain their existing syntax.
• Prompt shorthand and a profile override use their intended scopes, while stored default references and omitted selections retain their meaning.
• Scoped views coexist concurrently and share backend capacity with ordinary calls on the underlying engine.
• Existing exact-ID calls using valid IDs, intentional overlays, and prompt versions retain their behavior. Migrated catalog references resolve to their intended resources without collisions.
• Listings and reported identities support the chosen local/full-ID round trip.
• Representative validation, inspection, execution, and smoke-test paths use the same qualification rules without duplicating every test at every layer.

Open Decisions And Recommendations

Each recommendation below is a proposal for the next decision, not an accepted contract. Alternatives preserve the settled naming and resolution rules.

1. Public Scope Shape

Recommended: an immutable view with independent resource scopes. Provide one engine operation that accepts a small value with prompt, profile, and backend namespace fields and returns a scoped view or an error. The illustrative WithNamespaces and Namespaces names above are provisional. Empty fields mean no scope for that resource type. The view captures the value and delegates to the same engine; it does not expose a mutable namespace setting. Apply the prompt field to caller-supplied prompt IDs, the profile field to profile IDs, and the backend field to backend IDs wherever those selections are supported. Qualified references bypass the corresponding field.

This directly serves the select-once workflow and the common mixed case of an application prompt namespace with a provider profile namespace. It also keeps scope out of stored configuration and makes concurrent use independent of call order. The cost is an additional facade surface whose supported operations must remain consistent with the engine. Keep qualification shared rather than duplicating selection logic in each wrapper.

Initially omit an ambiguous one-string InNamespace shorthand. Repeating the same namespace in several fields happens once when creating a view and states exactly which resource types it affects. A convenience operation can follow if that repetition is a demonstrated burden.

Alternative: one namespace per immutable view, applied to all resource types. A one-string operation would scope every unqualified prompt, profile, and backend selection; callers would use qualified references for resources in other namespaces. This is smaller and reads naturally for self-contained application collections. It is less convenient when prompts and profiles habitually come from different namespaces, because profile overrides would repeatedly need qualification. Prefer it if consumers primarily use prompts' configured defaults and rarely select profiles themselves.

Alternative: explicit scope values supplied per operation. Add scope to request values and appropriate inspection/listing options instead of returning a view. This makes every invocation self-contained and suits applications that choose a different scope for every request. It spreads scope through more call sites and API shapes, and consumers would need their own reusable wrapper to achieve the requested select-once experience. The immutable view is therefore the better default for the use case discussed so far.

2. Scope Validation

Recommended: validate syntax when creating the view; resolve existence when an operation selects a resource. In the recommended scope value, the empty string means no scope. Reject a nonempty namespace containing / or consisting only of whitespace. Otherwise preserve its exact spelling, with no trimming, case folding, or additional character whitelist. This distinguishes omission from an unusable namespace without inventing normalization rules. Report invalid scope construction through PromptKit's existing public error conventions.

Allow a well-formed namespace even when it has no current members. Its scoped listing would be empty, and selection of a missing local resource would produce the ordinary lookup error. Qualified selections would remain usable regardless of the view's default scope. An empty optional request ID continues to mean omission under that operation's existing contract; it is never qualified.

This keeps scope as a naming context and supports uniform application setup across installations with different library contents. It also avoids treating successful scope construction as validation of a prompt or execution profile. The tradeoff is that a misspelled but syntactically valid namespace is detected only when listed or used, rather than during view construction.

Alternative: require each selected namespace to have resources of its corresponding type when creating the view. For an immutable assembled engine, this can catch spelling mistakes immediately and gives startup checks useful feedback without attempting execution. However, it rejects empty optional collections and a view intended to use qualified references outside its default namespace. A namespace having one member also does not establish that the particular required prompt/profile exists. Prefer this approach only if eager inventory validation is itself an intended consumer contract; it should not be an accidental consequence of implementing scope creation.

3. Discovery

Recommended: namespace enumeration and resource listings that retain full IDs. Enumerate the distinct named namespaces present in final effective prompts, profiles, and backends. Allow filtering that enumeration by resource type so a prompt picker need not show profile-only namespaces. Provide scoped listings for the supported resource types, adding a backend inventory surface as part of this work if needed. Keep the existing unscoped listing signatures and their all-resource behavior.

A scoped listing filters by the selected scope for that resource type and returns full IDs, retaining prompt versions as separate identity fields. Without a scope, it lists all resources of that type. Unqualified resources remain in unscoped listings; provide an explicit unqualified-only listing filter so callers can distinguish that group from all namespaces. Do not invent a named namespace such as default for those IDs. Namespace enumeration excludes that unnamed group. Use deterministic ordering consistent with existing listing contracts.

Full IDs can be passed unchanged to either scoped or unscoped operations, which avoids double qualification and preserves identity in logs and user interfaces. A small public name-splitting helper can supply namespace/local components for display without requiring applications to duplicate parsing rules. This keeps existing identity shapes useful and avoids introducing collection metadata just to support filtering. The tradeoff is that consumers wanting separate display fields perform that explicit decomposition.

Alternative: add a richer inventory API returning full ID, namespace, local name, resource type, and prompt version where applicable. Preserve existing list methods and expose the structured form separately. This is attractive for Scriptorium-style library browsers: grouping and display require no parsing, and one inventory operation can cover all resource kinds. It creates another public representation and overlaps existing listing APIs, so its value should justify that maintenance. Prefer it if downstream clients routinely need a combined catalog view rather than a resource picker or namespace filter. In either approach, the full ID remains the authoritative selection value.

4. Catalog Migration

Recommended: coordinate the grammar change with adoption of provider namespaces for ordinary maintained catalog profiles. Use provider namespaces such as openrouter and rakestrawhome, with descriptive slash-free local profile names. Use google.gemma-4-31b-it for the illustrative model-based profile name; profiles with distinct execution settings need distinct local names even when they select the same model. Assign every renamed profile an explicit old-to-new mapping after auditing the catalog, including valid old IDs that currently encode a provider prefix differently. Do not infer mappings by blind punctuation replacement.

Retain the two unqualified built-in profile names explicitly guaranteed by the release policy. Keep existing valid backend IDs unless there is a concrete collision or organizational reason to rename them; provider-qualified profiles can reference those exact backend IDs without duplicating backend identity or capacity accounting. Application-owned prompt libraries choose their own namespace and migration mappings rather than being silently rewritten by PromptKit.

Prepare catalog data, affected references, consumer migration instructions, and the PromptKit grammar change as coordinated work. Select compatible catalog revisions for the PromptKit release and follow each repository's release rules. Choose a PromptKit version permitted to break the format contract: a minor release before v1, or a major release at/after v1, under the current release policy. Exact versions and actual old-to-new mappings require the catalog audit; this recommendation does not claim those mappings have already been established.

This makes the initial feature useful with maintained provider catalogs and concentrates consumer migration into one planned transition. Retaining the explicitly supported unqualified profile names preserves their selected contract. The cost is a broader coordinated change than grammar enforcement alone, including renames of otherwise valid ordinary profile IDs.

Alternative: migrate only IDs that violate the new grammar, and defer broader catalog naming changes. Keep all other exact IDs, including valid one-slash IDs whose first component would now be their namespace. Ship scope support and let new libraries adopt provider/application namespaces incrementally. This reduces immediate consumer changes and makes the format update easier to review and release independently. It leaves existing catalogs with inconsistent grouping, may expose model-vendor rather than provider namespaces, and can require another migration to realize the intended provider shorthand. Prefer it if the audit reveals that broad catalog renaming would impose substantial downstream disruption relative to current demand.

The delimiter, two-component qualified grammar, syntax-based resolution, and acceptance of the required breaking migration are settled. Resolve the remaining API and delivery choices around that foundation: consumers select a scope once and use local or explicitly qualified names predictably within an assembled library.