fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split#5666
fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split#5666singlerider merged 19 commits intozeroclaw-labs:masterfrom
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…erences (zeroclaw-labs#5651) Ground-up rewrite of install.sh (1,570 → 310 lines): - All features, version, MSRV read from Cargo.toml — zero hardcoded lists - --minimal flag for kernel-only builds (~6.6MB) - --features with validation against Cargo.toml (typos fail fast) - --list-features prints categorized feature taxonomy - --uninstall with service cleanup and config prompt - Deprecated alias warnings (fantoccini, landlock, metrics) - MSRV validation against Cargo.toml rust-version - 32-bit ARM auto-detection (--minimal + agent-runtime) - Reinstall detection with downgrade warning Also: - Remove skill-creation from release-stable-manual.yml ARM builds - Fix windows-setup.md feature table (was completely wrong) Cut: Docker bootstrap, prebuilt binary flow, Alpine/Arch/Debian package detection, WSL detection, RAM/disk heuristics, desktop app detection — all separate concerns that don't belong in a source installer.
…guidance --prefix PATH: install everything under a custom root (Rust, cargo, source, binary, config). Enables isolated test installs. --dry-run: show paths, feature flags, and cargo command without building or installing anything. Reviewers can verify behavior without waiting for a build. PATH detection: after install, check if CARGO_HOME/bin is in PATH. If not, print the exact export line for the user's shell (bash, zsh, fish) and which profile file to add it to.
…install The uninstall path was calling system-PATH zeroclaw instead of the prefix-scoped binary, which could stop the real systemd service during a scratch-space test. Now calls the binary at CARGO_HOME/bin explicitly, and runs service stop/uninstall before deleting it.
…ty feature edge case Multiple --features flags now concatenate. Spaces, trailing commas, and duplicates are stripped. Empty features (e.g. ",,,") produce no --features flag instead of passing empty string to cargo.
Always shows the exact export line and shell profile path. Custom --prefix always shows it. Default prefix checks if the profile already has cargo/bin in PATH.
…ng slashes from prefix
singlerider
requested review from
JordanTheJet and
theonlyhennygod
as code owners
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bot
added
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- README: remove --api-key flag, add build profiles, point to releases for prebuilt binaries - one-click-bootstrap.md: rewrite to match new flags (--minimal, --features, --prefix, --dry-run, --uninstall, --list-features). Remove Docker bootstrap, prebuilt flow, --install-system-deps sections. - macos-update-uninstall.md: remove --prefer-prebuilt reference NOTE: i18n translations (docs/i18n/*) not updated — those files reference old install.sh flags and should be removed from the repo per separate i18n architecture decision.
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Note: This should be a gate that's required to pass/get merged before a new release. |
…e-clone If install.sh is run from inside a zeroclaw git checkout, build from there instead of cloning a separate copy. Only clones when run from outside the repo (e.g. curl | bash).
Check the user's original PATH (before the script modifies it) for existing zeroclaw binaries. If found at a different location than where we're installing, warn before build AND after install with the exact paths and versions. Prevents the case where a user installs v0.6.9 to ~/.cargo/bin but ~/.local/bin/zeroclaw (v0.5.4) shadows it silently.
…, uninstall shadow 1. read -rp breaks curl|bash — now checks -t 0 (is TTY) before prompting 2. onboard used command -v which found shadowing binary — now uses $BIN 3. sort -V dropped — portable manual version comparison handles all cases 4. --uninstall warns if another zeroclaw remains in PATH after removal 5. --version flag prints zeroclaw version from Cargo.toml 6. version_gte handles mismatched component counts (1.87 vs 1.87.0)
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Agent Review — PR #5666
Comprehension Summary
What: Ground-up rewrite of install.sh (1,570 → 491 lines). All features/version/MSRV now read from Cargo.toml at runtime instead of hardcoded lists. New flags (--minimal, --prefix, --dry-run, --list-features, --uninstall). Also fixes ARM build features in release-stable-manual.yml (removes non-existent skill-creation, adds agent-runtime) and updates 4 docs files.
Why: Old installer had hardcoded feature lists including skill-creation (doesn't exist), no workspace awareness, no kernel-only build path. ARM source builds fail. Blocks next release.
Blast radius: Breaking change for users with scripts referencing old flags (--docker, --prefer-prebuilt, --install-system-deps, --api-key, --cargo-features). Docker/prebuilt install paths removed entirely.
Findings
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[blocking]parse_cargo_toml()uses GNU sed syntax — fails on macOS — Thesedcommands on lines 27–35 use/start/,/end/{cmd}grouping syntax, which is GNU sed-only. BSD sed (macOS) rejects this withbad flag in substitute command: '}'. Tested locally on macOS — the script dies immediately after printing the header. Since macOS is a primary target platform, this is a hard blocker. Fix: replace withawkfor range selection piped to simplesedsubstitutions (both portable), e.g.:VERSION=$(awk 'p && /^\[/{exit} /^\[workspace\.package\]/{p=1} p' "$toml" \ | sed -n 's/^version *= *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
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[suggestion]Color output in non-terminal contexts —bold(),green(),yellow(),red()always emit ANSI escape codes. The old script checkedif [[ -t 1 ]]to disable colors when piped/redirected. This will produce garbled output in CI logs or when redirected to a file. -
[suggestion]--featureswith no argument crashes ungracefully — If a user runs./install.sh --features(no value after the flag),shiftin the case branch consumes the last arg, and the bottom-of-loopshiftfails underset -ewith a confusing error instead of a clear "missing value for --features" message. -
[suggestion]detect_shell_profile()uses PREFIX instead of HOME — When using--prefix /tmp/zc-test, the shell profile guidance says to edit/tmp/zc-test/.zshrc. Shell profiles should always reference$HOME, not the install prefix. The PATH export guidance becomes misleading for custom prefix installs. -
[question]curl | bashonboard without TTY check — The old script checked-t 0/-t 1before launching the TUI onboard wizard. The new script runs"$BIN" onboardunconditionally (unless--skip-onboard). In acurl | bashflow, stdin is the pipe (at EOF after the script is consumed). Doeszeroclaw onboardhandle non-TTY stdin gracefully, or could this hang/crash? -
[suggestion]git pullfailure silently uses stale code — In the "existing clone at$INSTALL_DIR" path, ifgit pull --ff-onlyfails, the fallback isgit fetch origin master --quiet— but this doesn't checkout or reset. The script then silently builds from whatever's in the working tree, which could be stale or have local modifications.
What looks good
- The workflow fix is correct and important —
skill-creationdoesn't exist as a feature - Feature validation against
Cargo.toml(zero hardcoded lists) is a major improvement - The 48-test manual validation matrix is impressively thorough
--prefixisolation for safe testing is well-designed- PATH shadow detection (pre- and post-install) is a nice UX touch
version_gte()handles mismatched component counts correctly- PR template is thoroughly completed with clear scope boundaries
Security / Performance Assessment
- Security: No new permissions, no new network calls, no secrets handling changes.
--prefixconstrains filesystem scope. No security concerns identified. - Performance: Script is ~75% smaller (1,570 → 491 lines). No binary size or runtime impact.
Verdict: Needs author action
This PR has one blocking finding (macOS portability — the script fails immediately on BSD sed) and five suggestions/questions. The workflow change to release-stable-manual.yml also requires human maintainer sign-off (high-risk path per AGENTS.md).
Must fix before re-review:
- Replace GNU sed section-parsing with portable awk+sed (finding #1)
Should address:
- Terminal check for color output (finding #2)
- Argument validation for
--features(finding #3) - Shell profile path should use
$HOMEnot$PREFIX(finding #4) - Clarify
curl | bash+ onboard TTY behavior (finding #5) - Handle stale git pull fallback (finding #6)
@JordanTheJet — also flagging for maintainer review due to .github/workflows/** change.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| PR | #5666 — fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split |
| Author | @singlerider |
| Summary | Ground-up rewrite of install.sh (1,570→491 lines), all features read from Cargo.toml, new flags (--minimal, --prefix, --dry-run, --list-features, --uninstall), ARM workflow fix, docs updates |
| Action | Needs-author-action |
| Reason | 1 blocking (macOS portability), 4 suggestions, 1 question |
| Security/performance | No security concerns. Script 75% smaller. No binary impact. |
| Changes requested | Fix GNU sed to portable awk+sed; 5 additional suggestions |
| Architectural notes | Removes Docker bootstrap, prebuilt binary flow, system dep detection — scoped to separate tooling. Breaking change for old flag users. |
| Tests | 48 manual test cases documented by author. bash -n passes. CI all green. Tested locally on macOS — confirmed the sed failure. |
| Notes | Workflow change is a 2-line fix removing non-existent skill-creation feature and adding agent-runtime for ARM builds — looks correct. |
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Review — PR #5666: fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split
Comprehension Summary
Ground-up rewrite of install.sh (1,570 → 491 lines). All features, version, MSRV, and edition are now read from Cargo.toml at runtime — zero hardcoded lists. New flags: --minimal, --prefix, --dry-run, --list-features, --uninstall. Also removes skill-creation from .github/workflows/release-stable-manual.yml and corrects windows-setup.md.
Verified against Cargo.toml: skill-creation has never been a Cargo feature. A codebase search confirms it is a config key prefix on SkillCreationConfig in zeroclaw-config. The old installer and workflow were silently passing a nonexistent feature name to cargo. The defaults — agent-runtime, observability-prometheus, schema-export — are now correctly documented throughout. The central claim of this PR is accurate.
RFC Engagement
RFC #5574 — Microkernel Architecture: The --minimal flag is a direct functional enabler of the microkernel architecture. The workspace split was designed to allow kernel-only builds; until this fix, a user couldn't reach that binary on ARM because the build command included a feature that doesn't exist. This PR unblocks that path. Positive and intentional alignment.
RFC #5579 — CI/CD Pipeline: The workflow fix removes skill-creation (nonexistent) and adds agent-runtime for the ARM skip_prometheus path. This is correct. The RFC also establishes that release-stable-manual.yml is slated for retirement as a Phase 3 deliverable — the fix is correct for the interim state, and both author and reviewers should understand the scope is intentionally bounded. The action pinning policy in RFC §5.4 is not affected by this PR's changes, which only modify a run: step.
RFC #5615 — Contribution Culture: Taxonomy applied throughout. Commendations explain the principle. Each conditional carries a tracked-issue requirement. Team decisions require a recorded answer in this thread.
RFC #5653 — Zero Compromise in Practice: The portability failure and error-handling regressions are exactly the category this RFC addresses — code that fails in the environments where it matters most, and failure modes that are opaque rather than diagnosable. Named where applicable below.
✅ Commendation — Reading from Cargo.toml eliminates an entire class of drift bugs by design
The old script maintained a hardcoded feature list in parallel with Cargo.toml. The skill-creation bug is the direct consequence of that pattern: a config key was added somewhere, the installer list was never updated, and the divergence was invisible until ARM builds broke in production. The new approach makes this class of bug structurally impossible — if a feature appears in the installer, it exists in Cargo.toml, because that is the only place the installer reads from. This is the same principle as generated code and derived schemas: remove the human-maintained copy rather than just correcting it. That principle applies every time two representations of the same fact must stay in sync.
✅ Commendation — --prefix makes the safe testing path the easy path
Installer scripts that write to $HOME by default make it hard to validate the installer itself without a throwaway machine. The --prefix flag threads CARGO_HOME, RUSTUP_HOME, INSTALL_DIR, and config paths through a single root, so the full install flow can be verified in /tmp and cleaned up with rm -rf. The design principle here is important: safety mechanisms that require special invocation tend not to get used. Giving reviewers and testers an easy way to run without side effects makes thorough validation the default, not the exception.
✅ Commendation — PATH shadow detection addresses a failure mode that is genuinely hard to diagnose
Checking the original PATH (before the script modifies it) for existing zeroclaw binaries, and warning both before and after install, prevents the specific case where an install appears to succeed but nothing changes because an older binary at a different path is shadowing the new one. This class of bug is particularly frustrating because the symptom — the installed version appears not to change — has no obvious connection to the cause. Pre- and post-install checks with exact version and path output give users everything they need to diagnose it themselves.
🔴 Blocking — parse_cargo_toml() uses inline brace syntax that fails on BSD sed (macOS)
JordanTheJet confirmed this failure locally on macOS. The script exits immediately after printing the header.
The issue is in how sed is being asked to apply compound commands across an address range. BSD sed — which ships with macOS — requires the opening { of a compound block to be on its own line. When the expression is passed as a single quoted argument, BSD sed misparses the block entirely and reports bad flag in substitute command: '}'. The nested address pattern used in ALL_FEATURES is the most direct failure, but the same problem affects the other range-block patterns as well.
This matters because macOS is a primary developer and operator platform. A script that builds and runs correctly on Linux CI and fails immediately on macOS is the exact failure mode RFC #5653 calls out — code whose portability assumptions are wrong in ways that only surface in environments that matter.
awk handles range selection and field extraction portably across all targets the installer needs to support:
VERSION=$(awk 'p&&/^\[/{exit} /^\[workspace\.package\]/{p=1} p&&/^version *=/{match($0,/"([^"]+)"/,a);print a[1];exit}' "$toml")
MSRV=$(awk 'p&&/^\[/{exit} /^\[workspace\.package\]/{p=1} p&&/^rust-version *=/{match($0,/"([^"]+)"/,a);print a[1];exit}' "$toml")
EDITION=$(awk 'p&&/^\[/{exit} /^\[workspace\.package\]/{p=1} p&&/^edition *=/{match($0,/"([^"]+)"/,a);print a[1];exit}' "$toml")
ALL_FEATURES=$(awk 'p&&/^\[/{exit} /^\[features\]/{p=1} p&&/^[a-z][a-z0-9_-]+ *=/{sub(/ *=.*/,"");print}' "$toml")All four variables need the fix — not just ALL_FEATURES.
🔴 Blocking — #!/usr/bin/env bash without a bash-install preamble silently breaks the curl | bash contract on Alpine and minimal containers
The old script opened with a POSIX sh preamble that detected a missing bash and auto-installed it before re-execing. The new script opens directly with #!/usr/bin/env bash. On Alpine Linux — which ships no bash by default and is the most common Docker base image — the curl | bash one-liner in the README will fail immediately with /usr/bin/env: bash: No such file or directory, before printing anything.
The principle here is contract stability, which RFC #5579 §3.1 describes as a core pipeline property and RFC #5653 addresses directly: when a change alters the prerequisites for a public-facing command, that change must be communicated explicitly. The old contract was "runs on POSIX sh; ensures bash if missing." The new contract is "requires bash." That is a real change for a documented user path, and it is currently invisible.
The minimum resolution is a documented prerequisite in the relevant setup guides and a note alongside the one-liner. The fuller resolution is restoring a bash-detection preamble for the curl | bash path. The tradeoff between them — simplicity vs. Alpine compatibility — is one the team should make deliberately, and that decision should appear in this thread before merge.
🟡 Conditional — ARM channel-nostr is present in the release workflow but absent from the installer ARM path
The new install.sh ARM path builds --no-default-features --features "agent-runtime". The new workflow ARM path builds --no-default-features --features "agent-runtime,${FEATURES},channel-nostr". These produce different binaries. The old installer included channel-nostr on ARM (alongside the nonexistent skill-creation), suggesting it was intentional. If channel-nostr belongs in the ARM build, the installer should include it. If it does not, the workflow should drop it. The current state is inconsistent and neither option is documented.
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee to align the ARM feature set between installer and workflow, and reference it here. Alternatively, resolve the discrepancy in this PR with an explanation.
🟡 Conditional — Color output always emits ANSI codes regardless of terminal state
The old script checked [[ -t 1 ]] before assigning color variables and produced clean output when piped or redirected. The new helpers bold(), green(), yellow(), red() emit escape sequences unconditionally. Redirected output, CI logs, and tee pipelines will contain raw escape codes. This is a regression from correct behavior, not a new design choice. RFC #5653's error discipline principle applies: output that looks right in one context and broken in another is a failure mode, even when it does not affect the build.
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee, or fix in this PR. Reference here.
🟡 Conditional — --features with no argument exits with an opaque error
./install.sh --features (no value after the flag) causes the inner shift to succeed with $# = 0, then the bottom-of-loop shift hits zero arguments and exits with shift: shift count out of range under set -euo pipefail. The user gets a shell internals error with no indication of what went wrong or how to fix it. RFC #5653 is direct on this: error messages should tell the user what happened and what to do next. The correct message here is "missing value for --features; expected a comma-separated feature list."
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee, or fix in this PR. Reference here.
🟡 Conditional — detect_shell_profile() produces wrong guidance for custom-prefix installs
With --prefix /tmp/zc-test, the function returns /tmp/zc-test/.zshrc. Shell profiles live in $HOME regardless of where the binary is installed. The PATH export guidance produced for a custom-prefix install points the user to a file that does not exist and is not their shell profile. This is a bug — the output is wrong, not merely suboptimal.
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee, or fix in this PR. Reference here.
🟡 Conditional — git pull --ff-only failure falls back to a stale working tree
git -C "$INSTALL_DIR" pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null || \
git -C "$INSTALL_DIR" fetch origin master --quiet
cd "$INSTALL_DIR"git fetch downloads objects but does not update the working tree. If pull --ff-only fails — diverged history, local modifications, detached HEAD — cargo builds whatever is currently checked out with no indication this happened. A user who hits this path could install a stale version and have no way to know. RFC #5653 names this class of problem explicitly: silent failure modes are worse than loud ones because they produce incorrect outcomes that look like correct ones. The fallback should either git reset --hard origin/master after the fetch, or die with a message asking the user to resolve the repository state manually.
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee, or fix in this PR. Reference here.
🟡 Conditional — i18n translations reference old flags with no committed follow-up
The PR documents the deferral in a commit message, which is partial compliance. But it does not provide a tracking issue reference or a named owner. Under the Culture RFC's conditional taxonomy, a deferral without an assignee is not a deferral — it is a wish. The six supported locales (en, zh-CN, ja, ru, fr, vi) each have translated setup docs that now reference flags that no longer exist. Users reading those docs will follow instructions that produce "Unknown option" errors. That is a real user impact and it needs a named owner.
Required before merge: Open a tracked issue with a named assignee covering the i18n flag-reference cleanup, and reference it here.
🟡 Conditional — One merge commit present; rebase required before merge
Commit 12 of 14 is Merge upstream/master into fix/install-sh-rewrite. Project policy requires clean rebases. This is a project requirement, not a preference.
Required before merge: Rebase the branch to remove the merge commit.
🔵 Team Decision — ARM builds now produce a substantially different binary; the team should confirm this on the record
Old install.sh ARM output: --no-default-features --features "channel-nostr" — a very small binary.
New install.sh ARM output: --no-default-features --features "agent-runtime" — the full agent runtime (gateway, TUI, 22+ channels, tools, security sandbox), minus only prometheus.
This is a significant change in what ships to SBC and 32-bit ARM users. It may be exactly right — a fully functional binary serves ARM users better than a stripped-down one that never worked correctly. But it changes the footprint meaningfully and it happened without a stated rationale.
This decision needs a recorded answer in this thread from the maintainers who own the ARM release targets before merge. A decision made in a side conversation does not exist for anyone reading the history later.
🔵 Team Decision — Workflow change requires explicit maintainer sign-off
Per RFC #5579 §8, workflow files carry elevated risk — they run with elevated permissions on CI infrastructure and affect supply chain security. The two-line change to release-stable-manual.yml is correct in substance: removing a nonexistent feature, adding agent-runtime for the ARM skip_prometheus path. But the ARM binary size change noted above makes this more than a trivial fix. RFC #5579 also notes this file is slated for retirement in Phase 3 D4, which provides useful context: the fix is intentionally scoped to the interim state.
A maintainer with ownership of the release pipeline needs to confirm this change on the record in this thread before merge.
Verdict: Needs author action. Two blockers must be resolved before re-review. Six conditionals each require a tracked issue with a named assignee referenced here, or resolution in this PR. Two team decisions require recorded maintainer answers in this thread. The branch needs a clean rebase. The core work is sound — the diagnostic is correct, the design is substantially better than what it replaces, and the 48-test manual matrix demonstrates genuine care. The blockers and conditionals are all resolvable.
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Agent Review — PR #5666Triage Result: Skipped — Already Under Active Review + High-Risk PathComprehension Summary: Ground-up rewrite of Why skipped:
Current status: The PR has 2 blocking findings that both reviewers agree on (GNU sed/BSD sed portability on macOS, bash preamble for Alpine No additional agent review is needed at this time — the existing reviews are thorough and actionable.
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Agent Triage Note — PR #5666Skipped — high-risk path. This PR modifies Current status: @JordanTheJet and @WareWolf-MoonWall have both reviewed. WareWolf-MoonWall requested changes with multiple blocking findings (macOS sed portability, unquoted variable expansions, partial-failure recovery, thinning debt, PATH management, etc.). The PR needs significant rework before re-review. No further agent action taken. |
Agent Review — Needs Author ActionComprehension summary: This PR is a ground-up rewrite of Thank you, @singlerider. This is a significant quality improvement to the installer — reading features from Issues to address:
What was reviewed and verified:
Security/performance assessment:
Needs deeper maintainer review: The
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singlerider
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the
risk: high
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Addressing all review findings. Summary of changes in latest commit: Blockers resolved:
Conditionals resolved:
Tracked issues referenced:
Supersede attribution added to PR body:
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On the merge commit (item 9): This PR will be squash-merged per project convention. All commits — including the merge commit from pulling upstream — become a single commit on master. Requiring a rebase to remove a merge commit that disappears on squash-merge is unnecessary churn. The merge was needed to resolve conflicts from #5640 landing on master while this branch was in review. The collaboration RFC establishes squash-merge as the preferred merge strategy precisely because it makes branch history irrelevant to the final result. The branch is a workspace; master is the record. |
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On the ARM binary (item 10): The old installer's ARM path was broken — The new approach doesn't give ARM special treatment. It detects the architecture, explains that Users who want the full agent on ARM run: Users who want just the kernel: Their choice. Not ours. |
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On the workflow change (item 11): The 2-line change to
This aligns the release workflow's ARM path with the same philosophy as the installer: no special treatment beyond the actual constraint (no prometheus on 32-bit). The workflow is also slated for retirement per RFC #5579 Phase 3 D4. @JordanTheJet @WareWolf-MoonWall — requesting explicit ack on this workflow change before merge. |
- Rewrite from bash to POSIX sh — works on Alpine, Debian, macOS without bash dependency. curl | sh just works everywhere. - Replace GNU sed with portable awk for Cargo.toml parsing (macOS fix) - Terminal-aware color output (no ANSI codes when piped/redirected) - --features with no argument gives clear error instead of shift crash - Shell profile guidance uses $HOME not $PREFIX - Git pull fallback resets working tree instead of silently using stale code - ARM: warn about prometheus constraint and exit with example command instead of silently modifying features. No special treatment. - Onboard wizard only runs when stdin is a TTY (curl | sh safe) - Release workflow ARM path: remove hardcoded channel-nostr, use same features as non-ARM minus prometheus. No special channel treatment.
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Review — PR #5666: fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split
Orientation
This review reads the complete thread — JordanTheJet's findings, WareWolf-MoonWall's review, the author's detailed response, and the current state of the diff. Where prior findings are addressed in the current code I say so. Where I have something genuinely new I say so explicitly. I am not repeating what is already adequately covered.
What the author's response resolved
The author's "fix(install): rewrite to POSIX sh, address all review findings" commit addresses most of the findings from both prior reviews. The current diff confirms:
- Both blockers resolved:
parse_cargo_toml()usesawkthroughout; the shebang is#!/bin/shwith genuine POSIX portability. - Color output correctly conditioned on
[ -t 1 ]. --featureswith no argument callsdiewith a clear message beforeshift.git pull --ff-onlyfallback now doesreset --hard origin/master.detect_shell_profile()uses$HOME, not$PREFIX.- The
curl | bashTTY question (JordanTheJet finding #5) is answered in the code: the onboard wizard is gated on[ -t 0 ]and gracefully skips in non-interactive mode. - ARM
channel-nostrinconsistency resolved: no ARM-specific feature injection; the 32-bit ARM path exits with a helpful message and example command, leaving the choice to the user. - i18n: #5679 filed and assigned.
That is a substantial and specific body of responsive work.
✅ Commendation — POSIX sh migration eliminates an entire category of bootstrap failure
The old script used #!/usr/bin/env sh as a façade before re-execing under bash, requiring a runtime bash-install preamble to function on Alpine and minimal containers. The new script uses #!/bin/sh with genuinely portable constructs throughout — case, printf, awk, no bashisms except local, which the author correctly notes is supported by ash, dash, and busybox. On Alpine, the most common Docker base image, /bin/sh exists where bash does not. The switch eliminates the category of failure where the installer's own prerequisite logic could fail before printing anything. Making the portable path the default rather than the fallback is the right direction — and the author's note that this was discussed and tested is exactly the kind of verification this class of change needs.
🟡 Conditional — Dead code in list_features() per RFC #5653
list_features() opens with a while IFS= read -r feat loop that categorizes features into channels, observability, platform, and other variables. This loop runs inside a pipe (echo "$ALL_FEATURES" | while ...), which creates a subshell. All variable assignments made inside the subshell are discarded when it exits. The code acknowledges this directly with the comment:
# Print at end of input (subshell, so we print inline)
followed immediately by:
# Re-do grouping outside subshell (while loop in sh creates subshell)
The function then redoes the identical categorization in a for feat in $ALL_FEATURES loop that works. The for loop is the real implementation. The while loop produces no observable output and modifies nothing in the parent shell. It is dead code.
RFC #5653 §4.7 is direct on this: code that is understood to be inert but left in place creates confusion about which path is authoritative. Self-aware dead code — where the comment explains why it does not work — is a stronger signal, not a weaker one, that the cleanup was deferred rather than completed. The while loop should be removed. The for loop is correct and stands alone.
Required before merge: Remove the while IFS= read -r feat loop and its variable initializations. The for feat in $ALL_FEATURES loop that follows it is the correct implementation.
On the merge commit question
This came up in a side conversation, and it sounds like singlerider's instinct — squash the branch to a single commit on master, preserving the full commit log in the message body — is actually well-aligned with the spirit of the RFC stack. RFC #5577's model maps one PR to one artifact. RFC #5579 makes git log --oneline a usable changelog. RFC #5653 makes rollback a single git revert. The workflow singlerider described is the natural expression of all of that already in practice.
If that's the direction, it's worth putting a sentence in this thread to close the loop on the record — not as a gate, but so anyone reading the history later understands what happened and why. Side conversations are where good ideas get worked out; the thread is where they land for the people who come after.
Still pending: maintainer acknowledgments
WareWolf-MoonWall's two team decisions remain open. The author explicitly requested ack in the thread and has not received it:
- Workflow change sign-off: The two-line
release-stable-manual.ymlfix removes a nonexistent feature and aligns the ARM path with the installer's philosophy. The author's rationale is on the record. A maintainer with pipeline ownership still needs to confirm it here. - ARM binary scope: The shift from a broken near-empty binary to a user-directed install is explained and reasonable. A maintainer with ownership of the ARM release targets still needs to confirm it on the record.
These are not obstacles to the work — the work is sound. They are the record the team will need when someone reads this history in six months and wonders why the ARM build changed.
Informational — DEFAULT_FEATURES is the one non-awk outlier in parse_cargo_toml()
VERSION, MSRV, EDITION, and ALL_FEATURES are all extracted with awk. DEFAULT_FEATURES pipes through grep '"' | sed 's/.*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/' | paste -sd, -. The greedy .* in the sed expression captures only the last quoted value per line. Today's Cargo.toml uses multi-line format for default, so one feature per line is correct. If the array were ever reformatted to single-line, --list-features would silently display only the last default feature. Not blocking; noted because an awk-consistent extraction would close the one remaining gap in the PR's central claim of zero-drift feature reading.
Verdict: Needs author action. One conditional (dead code in list_features()) requires resolution before re-review. The merge convention question is close to settled — worth a sentence on the thread to close it. Two maintainer acknowledgments are outstanding and needed before merge. The core of this PR is correct and the author has been genuinely responsive throughout. The path to merge is clear.
Remove the while-read loop in list_features() that ran inside a subshell (pipe), discarding all variable assignments. The for loop below it was already the real implementation. Also replace the grep+sed pipeline for DEFAULT_FEATURES with awk, consistent with all other Cargo.toml extractions.
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@WareWolf-MoonWall Addressed: Conditional (dead code): Removed the Informational (DEFAULT_FEATURES): Replaced Merge commit: This PR will be squash-merged per project convention. The full commit history is preserved in the squash body. Rebasing to remove the merge commit would be churn for the same result. Pending maintainer acks: Workflow change sign-off and ARM scope confirmation still needed from pipeline/release owners. Rationale is on the record in the thread. |
singlerider
dismissed stale reviews from WareWolf-MoonWall and WareWolf-MoonWall
All code findings addressed. Pending maintainer acks for workflow/ARM scope.
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Review: fix(install): rewrite install.sh from scratch for workspace split
Verdict: approve
Orientation
This is my third pass. I am not repeating what is settled. The purpose of this
review is to close the loop on the author-actionable items from the second
pass, give the two maintainer acknowledgments the author explicitly requested,
and note one new observation introduced by the DEFAULT_FEATURES informational
fix.
✅ Author-actionable items: fully resolved
Dead code in list_features() — the while IFS= read -r feat subshell
loop is gone. The for feat in $ALL_FEATURES loop is the only implementation.
Clean.
DEFAULT_FEATURES extraction — replaced with awk, consistent with
VERSION, MSRV, EDITION, and ALL_FEATURES. The zero-drift claim now holds for
all five variables.
Merge commit — squash-merge to master produces the same single-commit
result as a rebase. The project convention covers this. Accepted.
That completes all author-actionable items across both prior reviews.
✅ Commendation — POSIX sh migration and the responsive revision cycle
The commendations from the prior reviews stand. Adding one here for the
revision process itself: two reviews raised two blockers, six conditionals,
two team decisions, and two informational notes. The author addressed every
author-actionable item specifically, with commit references and rationale. That
is what RFC #5615 describes when it talks about closing the loop — not "fixed"
but "fixed, here is why, here is where to verify." It makes subsequent review
passes fast and unambiguous.
📝 New observation — DEFAULT_FEATURES uses gawk's 3-argument match()
The replacement awk for DEFAULT_FEATURES:
awk '/^default *= *\[/,/\]/{if(match($0,/"([^"]+)"/,a))print a[1]}' "$toml"The 3-argument form match(str, regex, arr) is a gawk extension. BSD awk —
which ships with macOS — only supports the 2-argument form and would silently
produce an empty variable here. In practice the impact is narrow: DEFAULT_FEATURES
is only used in the --list-features display path, not the install path, so
the build itself is unaffected. --list-features on macOS with BSD awk would
show no default features in the output.
The old grep+sed pipeline it replaced was actually more portable for this
specific case. A POSIX-safe replacement would be:
DEFAULT_FEATURES=$(awk '/^default *= *\[/{p=1} p && /"([^"]+)"/{sub(/.*"/,""); sub(/".*$/,""); print} /\]/{p=0}' "$toml" | paste -sd, -)Not blocking — the install path is unaffected, and the author confirmed macOS
testing (likely with gawk available). Worth a follow-up issue or a fix in the
next pass.
🔵 Maintainer acknowledgment — workflow change (release-stable-manual.yml)
The two-line change removes skill-creation (which has never been a Cargo
feature — confirmed by codebase search) and replaces the broken ARM
skip_prometheus feature string with agent-runtime,schema-export,${FEATURES}.
This is correct. The old command was silently passing a nonexistent feature to
cargo and producing an incorrect binary. The fix aligns the workflow with the
actual feature taxonomy.
Workflow change: acknowledged and confirmed. ✅
Per RFC #5579, this file is slated for retirement in Phase 3 D4. The fix is
intentionally bounded to the interim state.
🔵 Maintainer acknowledgment — ARM binary scope
Old installer ARM output: --no-default-features --features "channel-nostr" —
a binary that never built correctly because channel-nostr is not the ARM
default and skill-creation doesn't exist.
New installer ARM path: the 32-bit ARM detection exits with a clear message
and a suggested command, leaving the feature choice to the user. The rationale
in the thread ("Users who want just the kernel: ./install.sh --minimal —
their choice, not ours") is correct and consistent with RFC #5574's microkernel
architecture. The --minimal flag is the designed path for constrained
hardware.
ARM scope change: acknowledged and confirmed. ✅
Summary
All author-actionable items are resolved. Both maintainer acknowledgments are
on the record. One new observation (DEFAULT_FEATURES awk portability) is noted
for follow-up but does not affect the install path. The core work — removing
hardcoded feature lists, enabling kernel-only builds, fixing the ARM workflow,
and making curl | bash genuinely portable — is sound and ships something
meaningfully better than what it replaces.
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Re-review — PR #5666 (after 4 new commits)
Previous findings status
| # | Finding | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | macOS portability (sed) | Partially fixed — see below |
| 2 | Color terminal check | ✅ Fixed (line 13: if [ -t 1 ]) |
| 3 | --features no arg |
✅ Fixed (line 229: explicit check) |
| 4 | Shell profile uses PREFIX | ✅ Fixed (line 112: uses $HOME) |
| 5 | curl|bash TTY check | ✅ Fixed (line 494: if [ -t 0 ]) |
| 6 | git pull fallback | ✅ Fixed (line 294-298: reset --hard origin/master) |
Also good: rewrite from #!/usr/bin/env bash to #!/bin/sh (POSIX sh) — stronger portability commitment.
Remaining blocker
[blocking] DEFAULT_FEATURES parsing still fails on macOS (line 34) — The three-argument form of match() (match($0, /"([^"]+)"/, a)) is a GNU awk extension. BSD awk on macOS does not support it. Tested locally:
$ ./install.sh --list-features
awk: syntax error at source line 1
context is
/^default *= >>> *\[/,/\]/{if(match($0,/"([^"]+)"/, <<<
awk: illegal statement at source line 1
The script continues but DEFAULT_FEATURES is empty, so --list-features shows a blank "Default" section.
Fix — use the same split() approach that works for VERSION/MSRV/EDITION, or pipe through sed:
DEFAULT_FEATURES=$(awk '/^default *= *\[/,/\]/' "$toml" \
| sed -n 's/.*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' | paste -sd, -)This was the one line the original sed→awk rewrite missed. Everything else looks clean.
Verdict: Needs author action
One remaining fix on line 34 — same class of issue as the original blocking finding (GNU-only syntax on a POSIX installer). All other findings are resolved.
The 3-argument match(string, regex, array) is a gawk extension that fails on mawk (Debian/Ubuntu), busybox awk (Alpine), and BWK awk (macOS). Replace with 2-argument match() + substr() using the POSIX-guaranteed RSTART/RLENGTH variables. Tested against all four awk implementations in containers.
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Fix pushed: The 3-argument
Tested the fix against all four implementations in Docker containers:
All other awk calls in |
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Summary
masterinstall.sh(1,570 lines) has hardcoded feature lists (skill-creationdoesn't exist), brittle version detection, no awareness of the 16-crate workspace, and no way to build the kernel-only binary that feat(workspace): microkernel workspace decomposition — 16 crates, feature-gated subsystems #5559 was designed to enableCargo.tomlat runtime — zero hardcoded lists. New flags:--minimal,--prefix,--dry-run,--list-features,--uninstall. Also fixedrelease-stable-manual.ymlARM features andwindows-setup.mdfeature table.curl | bashone-liner flow still works.--skip-onboard,--featuresstill work. Source build + cargo install is still the core mechanism.What was cut (separate concerns)
docker-compose.yml/Dockerfilescripts/install-prebuilt.shorgh release downloaddocs/setup-guides/prerequisites.mdzeroclaw service installalready existsLabel Snapshot (required)
risk: highsize: Mci,docs,scriptsChange Metadata
refactorciLinked Issue
Validation Evidence (required)
Full end-to-end build tested:
Manual test matrix (48 tests)
Feature validation:
--features "channel-discord, channel-slack"channel-discord,channel-slack--features ""--featuresflag--features ",,,"--featuresflag--features "channel-discord,"channel-discord--features channel-discord --features channel-slackchannel-discord,channel-slack--features channel-discord,channel-discordchannel-discord--features channel-myspace--features channel-discord,nonexistent,channel-slack--features fantoccini--features fantoccini,landlock,metrics--features "channel-discord channel-slack"(spaces)--featureswith tabs--featureswith newlines--features channel-feishu--features whatsapp-web--features ci-all--features default--features "channel-discord , channel-discord , channel-slack,,"channel-discord,channel-slackBuild profiles:
cargo install --path . --locked --force--minimal--no-default-features--minimal --features agent-runtime--minimal --features default--features --minimal(reversed)agent-runtime,channel-discord,observability-otel,hardware,browser-native,gatewayPrefix / isolation:
--prefix /tmp/zc-test--prefix /tmp/zc-test/--prefix /tmp/zc-test///--prefix ~/custom-zc--prefix /tmp/zc-testwith no RustReinstall / overwrite:
Uninstall:
--uninstall --prefix /tmp/zc-test--uninstallon empty prefixDry run:
--dry-run--dry-run --minimal--no-default-features--dry-run --prefix /tmp/x --features agent-runtime--dry-runshows shell profile guidanceError handling:
--turbo--help--list-featuresShell profile guidance:
--prefix /tmp/x~/.cargo/bin.zshrcset -gx PATH ...Reviewer testing guide
Quick tests (no build, < 10 seconds):
Full end-to-end (builds in isolated scratch space, ~2 min):
Security Impact (required)
git clone+cargo installas before)--prefixconstrains scope furtherPrivacy and Data Hygiene (required)
passCompatibility / Migration
--cargo-featuresrenamed to--features.--api-key,--provider,--modelflags removed (usezeroclaw onboardafter install).ZEROCLAW_CARGO_FEATURESstill works (via--features).ZEROCLAW_INSTALL_DIRstill works.Human Verification (required)
curl | bashpipe flowSide Effects / Blast Radius (required)
install.sh,.github/workflows/release-stable-manual.yml(ARM features),docs/setup-guides/windows-setup.md(feature table)--docker,--prefer-prebuilt,--install-system-deps) will get "Unknown option" instead of silent success--dry-runand--prefixenable safe testing.--list-featuresreads live from Cargo.toml.Agent Collaboration Notes (recommended)
AGENTS.md+CONTRIBUTING.md)Rollback Plan (required)
git revert— oldinstall.shis fully recoverable from git historyinstall.shexits non-zero with a clear error messageRisks and Mitigations
Risk: Users with existing scripts referencing removed flags (
--docker,--prefer-prebuilt,--install-system-deps) will break--helppointer. Old script recoverable from git history. Docker/prebuilt flows should be documented as separate tooling.Risk: Prebuilt binary install path removed — some users relied on it
gh release downloadas the replacement. Considerscripts/install-prebuilt.shas a follow-up.Note on i18n translations
docs/i18n/*/README.mdand other translated docs reference old install.sh flags (--prefer-prebuilt,--docker,--install-system-deps,--api-key). These are not updated in this PR. The i18n files should be moved out of the repo as a separate architectural decision — maintaining 30+ translated copies of install instructions that change with every script update is unsustainable.PATH shadow detection (discovered during testing)
When an older zeroclaw binary exists at a different PATH location (e.g.
~/.local/bin/zeroclawv0.5.4) and the installer puts the new binary at~/.cargo/bin/zeroclaw(v0.6.9), the old one silently shadows the new one. The script now detects this before and after install:This uses the user's original PATH (before the script modifies it) to detect the real resolution order.
Supersede Attribution
fix(installer): handle empty CARGO_FEATURE_ARGS under set -uby @TeoConnexioh) — the entire old script is replaced, eliminating theCARGO_FEATURE_ARGSvariable entirely. The bug they diagnosed (fragileset -uhandling of empty arrays) validated that the old script was structurally unsound. No code carried forward.Co-authored-bytrailers: No — inspiration-only, no direct code/design carry-over.feat(ci): add musl/Alpine Linux buildsby @gregnazario) — if this lands first, feat(ci): add musl/Alpine Linux builds to release workflows #5660 will need to rebase against the new installer.Removed flags (breaking changes)
The following flags from the old
install.shno longer exist:--dockerdocker-compose.ymlat repo root--prefer-prebuiltgh release downloador GitHub Releases page--prebuilt-only--force-source-build--install-system-deps--install-rust--api-keyzeroclaw onboardafter install--provider--model--cargo-features--features.ZEROCLAW_CARGO_FEATURESenv var still works.--skip-build--skip-install--build-firsti18n follow-up
Tracked in #5679. Translated docs in
docs/i18n/reference removed flags. Assigned to @singlerider.