docs(prd): inline #88 rationale into PRD 0025
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Add an "Alternatives considered" section enumerating the design
options from issue #88 (duplicate bottles / agent-side bottle_config
/ bottle-side extends) and why extends won, so the PRD stands without
the forge thread. Repoint the two phrases that depended on the #88
comment thread at the new section.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-05-28 21:51:21 -04:00
parent 8596877cd9
commit 598c96679a
+39 -4
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@@ -39,6 +39,41 @@ trust boundary*: only `$HOME` bottles can declare it, only `$HOME`
bottles can be its target. Cloned repos still cannot author
bottle-equivalent config.
## Alternatives considered
The question raised in issue #88 was *where composition should live*.
Three points in that design space, recorded here so the decision
stands on its own without the issue thread:
1. **Duplicate bottles (status quo).** Copy `dev.md` to `staging.md`
and edit. Zero new mechanism, but every shared field drifts: a
route added to `dev` is silently missing from `staging`. This is
the pain that prompted #88.
2. **Agent-side `bottle_config:` override (the original #88
proposal).** Let an agent file carry an inline block that merges
over its referenced bottle. Ergonomically attractive — one file,
no second bottle — but it **breaks the trust boundary**: agent
files can come from `$CWD/.bot-bottle/agents/` in a cloned repo, so
a clone could redeclare egress routes, env mappings, and git
remotes — i.e. grant itself bottle-equivalent authority over
credentials and network egress. The home-only-bottle invariant
exists precisely to stop this.
3. **Bottle-side `extends:` (chosen).** Move composition to the
bottle layer, where it inherits the home-only property for free:
only `$HOME` bottles can declare `extends:`, and only `$HOME`
bottles can be its target. Identical duplication relief to option
2, none of its trust erosion. The cost is that an override requires
a (home-owned) child bottle rather than an inline agent block —
which is the *point*: the override authority stays in `$HOME`.
`extends:` wins because it solves the duplication pain entirely on the
trusted side of the agent-vs-bottle boundary. (PRD 0027 later lifts a
deliberately narrow, non-credential field — `git.user` — to the agent
layer, on the separate reasoning that commit identity is not a
capability; egress, credentials, and remotes stay bottle-only.)
## Goals / Success Criteria
- Add `extends: <bottle-name>` to the bottle frontmatter schema.
@@ -58,9 +93,9 @@ bottle-equivalent config.
## Non-goals
- **No agent-side `bottle_config:`.** That's the design issue #88
considered and weighed against; this PRD is the alternative
picked in the issue's design discussion. Don't reintroduce it.
- **No agent-side `bottle_config:`.** Option 2 under "Alternatives
considered" — weighed and rejected on trust grounds. Don't
reintroduce it.
- **No additive list merges** (e.g., `routes: append` keyword).
The `extends:` design uses full-replace for list-valued fields
(see "Merge rules"); if a use case shows up that genuinely
@@ -167,7 +202,7 @@ Bottles continue to be loaded from `$HOME/.bot-bottle/bottles/`
only (`Manifest.from_md_dirs` is unchanged). The `extends:` field
references another file in that same directory. No cwd-readable
file gains the ability to declare or modify bottle config — the
attack surface from issue #88's comment thread stays closed.
attack surface from option 2 ("Alternatives considered") stays closed.
If a future change ever introduces cwd-loaded bottles, the
`extends:` resolver should be gated to forbid a `$CWD` bottle