Pointer & meta

.opf.toml

The committed store pointer, at the product repository root. The one file whose content legitimately differs between store topologies.

About

The pointer carries a [store] table whose target names where the store repository lives: dir:. by default (the store rides this repository at .working/), or any location a target can name after relocation. An uncommitted, machine-local override, .opf.local.toml, may override or complete the pointer on one system, for targets that only make sense there; it is resolved first and never committed.

Why

The store's location is configuration, not architecture. Because the committed pointer must be safe to publish, anything machine-local or private-only belongs in the override; and because a stale pointer aimed at the wrong store would be worse than no pointer, resolution is validated every time and fails closed: a pointer that does not resolve stops the tool and never falls back silently to the default location.

Description

[store]
target = "dir:."      the default written by opf init

Target syntax:
  dir:<path> or a bare path      a directory that is, or will be, its own git repository
  git:<url> or a bare git URL    any git remote on any host
  github:<owner/repo>            creation convenience; resolves to an ordinary git URL
  gitlab:<owner/repo>            same, for GitLab

Relative dir: paths resolve against the product repository root, the named fixed root for this file; any other path in a pointer must be absolute.

How it works

Resolution order: the local override first, then the committed pointer, then (where neither exists) the default location, where a valid manifest resolves as the store. No pointer and no default store is the not-adopted state, and opf init is the remedy. Store relocation re-points the committed pointer and the manifest's recorded sync target in the same change, so the pointer, the manifest, and the actual remote never disagree across a landed state; the integrity layer checks that agreement.

Generated view

None. The pointer is lowercase machine source on the same casing contract as the store's own files: never a deliverable, never hand-authored truth a human is meant to read first.

Value

A store that can live anywhere, resolved the same way by every tool, with private topologies possible without weakening tracking. Fail-closed resolution helps prevent a tool from operating on a different store than the one intended.

Usage

Created by: opf init, with target = "dir:."; init refuses to run where any pointer already exists.
Updated by: opf migrate (when it ships), as part of the single recorded relocation change.
Read by: every verb, at every store resolution; opf doctor, for pointer and sync-target agreement.