Skip to content

Quarshell product and release contract

Quarshell is the product name. The GitHub owner remains cautem; the supported product repositories and Go modules use the quarshell-* names. OpenShell is an upstream compatibility target, not a Quarshell product alias.

Compatibility policy

Quarshell makes no backward-compatibility promise for earlier Cautem or Quarshell releases during this pre-beta cutover. The beta will have one current CLI, API/schema, package set, configuration layout, environment-variable namespace and runtime resource identity. Old module paths, binary aliases, configuration names, API routes, database formats, labels and resource adoption are not supported. We will not ship dual readers, fallback paths, compatibility adapters or a Cautem-to-Quarshell migration tool. Existing installations require a clean install; users must back up any data they need outside Quarshell before replacing an older build. The new release must not silently delete unrelated old host resources.

Breaking changes are allowed until the first production beta. After that beta, only the explicitly documented Quarshell beta contract is supported; no compatibility is implied for earlier pre-beta builds.

OpenShell compatibility target

The compatibility target is the latest stable OpenShell release, pinned by tag and full commit SHA. As of 2026-10-19, the upstream Releases page marks v0.1.4 as the latest stable release; the moving main/dev build is not the target. The active baseline is OpenShell v0.1.4, commit 5a7728c304b5528e954e9ae900cf21f84e1a12b1.

“Full compatibility” means behavioral parity for every supported OpenShell surface, including public RPCs and stream semantics, CLI commands/options, configuration/defaults/errors, provider and credential lifecycle, policy and filesystem/network/process boundaries, Docker/Podman/MicroVM behavior, SDK semantics, TUI flows, and installable artifacts. Matching protobuf descriptors or command names alone is insufficient. Every upstream capability must have a Quarshell implementation and a passing black-box/conformance test. A missing or partially implemented required capability blocks the beta; it must not be hidden behind a compatibility adapter or reported as supported.

When OpenShell publishes a newer stable release, its pin and full inventory must be updated and qualified as a deliberate release change. Do not track an unpinned branch or silently combine contracts from multiple upstream versions.

Canonical names and cutover

  • Go imports and module dependencies use only github.com/KLORQ/quarshell-*.
  • Product commands, package metadata, config paths, environment variables, labels, images and newly created runtime resources use Quarshell names only.
  • OpenShell wire names remain unchanged where exact upstream protocol compatibility requires them.
  • Remove old Cautem aliases, old-path imports, dual-name environment handling, legacy config/database readers and old-resource adoption from the supported product path. Do not rename upstream-owned protocol identifiers.
  • The release candidate is built from one immutable 15-repository source lock. No local replace, sibling checkout, dirty worktree or baseline-only lock is allowed in the published consumer graph.

Release status

The current source lock is still baseline-only, and the compatibility matrix contains open behavior and host-security gates. This contract does not claim that full parity has been achieved. Beta publication remains blocked until the full conformance inventory, backend/security acceptance, clean published consumer build, signed artifacts and installable-release tests all pass.