@ours.network/install 0.17.0 → 0.18.0-nightly.2

package/lib/components.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,361 @@
+// ours-install v3 — component selection and attachment.
+//
+// Spec: installer-spec-v3 §5 (and the repoint half of §7, which cannot be
+// separated from attaching the connector without making a silent move possible).
+// Pure, like target.mjs and plan.mjs: the caller injects the current file
+// contents and the installed versions, and every function returns a plan.
+//
+// The three components are the MCP server, the Telegram connector and cowork.
+// None of them IS the daemon; all three attach to one. A normal install carries
+// the complete stack, while the messenger remains deliberately out of scope.
+
+import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
+import { pkgSpec, resolveChannel } from './logic.mjs';
+
+// `pkg` is the package's IDENTITY — bare, no dist-tag — because that is what
+// `npm ls -g --json <pkg>` needs to read an installed version back, and what a
+// component is keyed by in every summary. `specKey` is the same package's name
+// in lib/logic.mjs's channel map, and `componentSpec` below is the only thing
+// that turns the two into an `npm i -g` argument.
+//
+// THE TWO MUST STAY SEPARATE. Putting the tag in `pkg` would make
+// effects.installedVersion('@ours.network/mcp@nightly') return null forever,
+// which fails the cowork version floor CLOSED and blanks the version column —
+// a silent regression that looks like "cowork is too old".
+// `required` is not a stronger default — it is the absence of a choice. The
+// daemon is the ours-sdk CLI and this package is the MCP server every harness
+// speaks to it through, so an operator who declined it would have a daemon no
+// harness can reach — which is not a decision anyone means to make. Declining
+// has to be impossible rather than discouraged.
+export const COMPONENTS = [
+  { key: 'mcp', label: 'MCP server for your harness', pkg: '@ours.network/mcp', specKey: 'mcp', default: true, required: true },
+  { key: 'tg', label: 'Telegram connector', pkg: '@ours.network/tg-connector', specKey: 'tg-connector', default: true },
+  { key: 'cowork', label: 'cowork', pkg: '@ours.network/cowork', specKey: 'cowork', default: true },
+];
+
+/**
+ * The `npm i -g` argument for one component on one channel.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS EXISTS AT ALL. `args.channel` was resolved in the orchestrator and
+ * then reached only lib/extras.mjs's two planners, while these three packages
+ * were installed by their bare names. So `CHANNEL=nightly` installed the NIGHTLY
+ * Codex/Hermes plugins and NIGHTLY ours-fleet beside a STABLE MCP server — the
+ * split-brain deployment the channel exists to prevent, and the same class of
+ * bug the extras.mjs channel-map correction fixed for ours-fleet one package
+ * over. Every install path for these three now goes through here.
+ *
+ * All three publish a real `nightly` dist-tag (verified against the registry,
+ * so none of these pins can 404. `pkgSpec` falls back to `latest`
+ * for anything unmapped rather than inventing a tag, so an unknown component
+ * degrades to today's behaviour instead of failing.
+ *
+ * ON THE STABLE CHANNEL THIS RETURNS THE BARE NAME, byte for byte what shipped
+ * before. `npm i -g pkg` and `npm i -g pkg@latest` are the same install, so
+ * appending the tag would have bought nothing and changed every stable screen
+ * line and assertion. The nightly channel is the case that was broken; it is the
+ * only case that changes.
+ */
+export const componentByKey = (key) => COMPONENTS.find((c) => c.key === key);
+
+export function componentSpec(component, channel = 'latest') {
+  const key = typeof component === 'string' ? component : component?.specKey ?? component?.key;
+  const name = typeof component === 'string' ? null : component?.pkg ?? null;
+  if (resolveChannel(channel) === 'latest') return name ?? `@ours.network/${String(key).replace(/^@ours\.network\//, '')}`;
+  return pkgSpec(key, channel);
+}
+
+// cowork must be at least this build to understand an external-daemon block.
+export const COWORK_DAEMON_FLOOR = '0.4.1-nightly.20260816.4aaf940';
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// THE REGISTRY THAT IS NOT OURS TO TOUCH
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * The Telegram connector keeps its OWN registry of routes, and the installer must
+ * never write into it.
+ *
+ *   ~/.ours-telegram/bots.json        the bot registry
+ *   ~/.ours-telegram/<route>/         one directory per route, each holding
+ *                                     identity.key, state_data.bin, connection.json
+ *
+ * (tg-connector `src/connector.ts:35-42,170-173`, `src/config.ts:39`.)
+ *
+ * WHY THIS IS STATED AS A CONSTANT AND ASSERTED BY A TEST. The connector
+ * distinguishes its identities by walking its own state directory, NOT by asking
+ * the daemon: a daemon's identity list is FLAT and carries no attribution to the
+ * app that created it. So there is no way to reconstruct this registry from the
+ * daemon side, and anything the installer clears here is gone. The installer's
+ * entire business with the connector is three keys in one config file.
+ *
+ * It also keeps a future route migration possible — moving each route's packet
+ * into the shared daemon has to read this registry to know which daemon identity
+ * corresponds to which route, and an installer that trampled it would have
+ * destroyed the mapping.
+ */
+export const TG_STATE_DIR_NAME = '.ours-telegram';
+export const TG_REGISTRY_FILES = ['bots.json'];
+export const TG_ROUTE_FILES = ['identity.key', 'state_data.bin', 'connection.json'];
+
+export const tgConfigPath = (home, env = {}) => env.OURS_TG_CONFIG ?? join(home, TG_STATE_DIR_NAME, 'config.json');
+export const coworkConfigPath = (home, env = {}) => env.OURS_COWORK_CONFIG ?? join(home, '.ours-cowork', 'config.json');
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// §5 — selection
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * Which components this run installs. The default is the complete stack: MCP,
+ * Telegram and cowork all attach to the same daemon. Explicit programmatic
+ * answers are retained for compatibility, but the public installer no longer
+ * asks the user to assemble the product one package at a time.
+ *
+ * `installed` marks a component already present so the question reads "keep it?"
+ * — and DECLINING AN ALREADY-INSTALLED COMPONENT NEVER UNINSTALLS IT. Removal is
+ * `ours-uninstall`. A "no" here means "do not add", never "take it away".
+ */
+export function planComponentSelection({ answers = {}, installed = {}, assumeYes = false } = {}) {
+  return COMPONENTS.map((component) => {
+    const already = installed[component.key] === true;
+    const answer = assumeYes ? component.default : answers[component.key];
+    // A required component ignores the answer entirely, including an explicit no.
+    // The daemon phase has already installed and started it by the time this runs;
+    // "skip" here would only produce a screen that contradicts the machine.
+    const wanted = component.required
+      ? true
+      : (answer === undefined ? (already || component.default) : answer === true);
+    return {
+      ...component,
+      already,
+      action: already ? (wanted ? 'keep' : 'leave-alone') : (wanted ? 'install' : 'skip'),
+    };
+  });
+}
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// §5 — the MCP server
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * The MCP server runs per session, not as a daemon: the harness spawns
+ * `ours-mcp proxy` over stdio. No systemd unit is installed for it, and the only
+ * thing written to disk is the harness's MCP registration.
+ *
+ * For a non-default state directory the registration carries
+ * `OURS_CONFIG=<state-dir>/config.json`, so the endpoint and the state directory
+ * travel together — which is what keeps "endpoint given, state directory
+ * defaulted" unreachable. Several harnesses can each point at a different daemon
+ * precisely because the pair lives in each registration.
+ */
+export function planMcpAttachment({ stateDir, isDefaultStateDir, channel = 'latest' }) {
+  const dir = resolve(stateDir);
+  return {
+    key: 'mcp',
+    install: ['npm', 'i', '-g', componentSpec(componentByKey('mcp'), channel)],
+    service: null, // deliberate: per-session stdio proxy, never a unit
+    harnessEnv: isDefaultStateDir ? {} : { OURS_CONFIG: join(dir, 'config.json') },
+    writes: ['the harness MCP registration'],
+  };
+}
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// §5 / §7 — the Telegram connector
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * Attach the connector to this daemon by setting exactly three keys in its config
+ * file, preserving every other key in it — the file also holds the operator's bot
+ * token and STT settings. If all three already match, the file is not touched.
+ *
+ * Both daemon keys are ALWAYS written together. A half-formed pair is what makes
+ * "endpoint selected, state directory defaulted" reachable downstream, and the
+ * SDK refuses that before it opens a socket.
+ *
+ * Returns `action: 'confirm-repoint'` when the connector is currently attached to
+ * a DIFFERENT daemon. There is exactly one `daemonUrl`/`daemonStateDir` pair and
+ * one unit, so pointing it elsewhere MOVES the connector; it does not add a
+ * second one. That is not something to do silently, and unlike the legacy-unit
+ * case it is not recoverable by re-running: the operator's routes would be
+ * talking to a daemon they did not choose.
+ */
+export function planTgAttachment({ existing, endpoint, stateDir, brokerUrl, assumeYes = false, channel = 'latest' }) {
+  const dir = resolve(stateDir);
+  const base = existing && typeof existing === 'object' && !Array.isArray(existing) ? existing : {};
+  const desired = { daemonUrl: endpoint, daemonStateDir: dir, brokerUrl };
+
+  const current = typeof base.daemonUrl === 'string' || typeof base.daemonStateDir === 'string'
+    ? { daemonUrl: base.daemonUrl ?? null, daemonStateDir: base.daemonStateDir ?? null }
+    : null;
+  const pointsElsewhere = current !== null
+    && (current.daemonStateDir === null || resolve(current.daemonStateDir) !== dir);
+
+  const merged = { ...base };
+  const changes = [];
+  for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(desired)) {
+    if (value === undefined || value === null) continue;
+    if (merged[key] === value) continue;
+    changes.push(key);
+    merged[key] = value;
+  }
+  const plan = {
+    key: 'tg',
+    install: ['npm', 'i', '-g', componentSpec(componentByKey('tg'), channel)],
+    changed: changes.length > 0,
+    changes,
+    config: merged,
+    // Telegram is intentionally staged but stopped. Its CLI currently couples
+    // service installation with `enable --now`, so calling it here would violate
+    // the installer's promise not to launch Telegram before a bot is configured.
+    // The end screen gives this exact command as the explicit opt-in start step.
+    service: null,
+    untouched: [...TG_REGISTRY_FILES, ...TG_ROUTE_FILES],
+  };
+  if (!pointsElsewhere) return { ...plan, action: plan.changed ? 'attach' : 'unchanged' };
+  const repoint = {
+    ...plan,
+    action: 'confirm-repoint',
+    from: current,
+    to: { daemonUrl: endpoint, daemonStateDir: dir },
+    prompt: `The Telegram connector currently uses ${current.daemonUrl ?? 'an unrecorded daemon'} (${current.daemonStateDir ?? 'unrecorded state directory'}).\nPoint it at ${endpoint} (${dir}) instead? This MOVES the connector; it does not add a second one.`,
+  };
+  // Never repointed without a human, in any mode (spec §9).
+  return assumeYes ? { ...repoint, action: 'skip-repoint', reason: 'never repointed non-interactively' } : repoint;
+}
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// §5 — cowork
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * Compare an installed version against a floor. Prerelease-aware and CONSERVATIVE
+ * by design: anything unparseable is "too old", because the failure it guards is
+ * handing a daemon block to a build whose config is strict and whose boot is
+ * fail-closed. Being wrong in the cautious direction leaves cowork embedded;
+ * being wrong the other way stops it starting.
+ */
+export function atLeastVersion(actual, floor) {
+  const parse = (v) => {
+    const m = /^(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(?:-(.+))?$/.exec(String(v ?? '').trim());
+    return m ? { nums: [Number(m[1]), Number(m[2]), Number(m[3])], pre: m[4] ?? null } : null;
+  };
+  const a = parse(actual);
+  const b = parse(floor);
+  if (!a || !b) return false;
+  for (let i = 0; i < 3; i += 1) {
+    if (a.nums[i] !== b.nums[i]) return a.nums[i] > b.nums[i];
+  }
+  if (a.pre === b.pre) return true;
+  if (a.pre === null) return true; // a release outranks any prerelease of the same version
+  if (b.pre === null) return false;
+  return a.pre >= b.pre;
+}
+
+/**
+ * cowork's external-daemon block. Both halves are required: a half-formed block
+ * is REFUSED rather than written, because cowork's boot is fail-closed.
+ *
+ * The top-level `stateDir` in that file is cowork's OWN private state and is left
+ * alone; only `daemon.stateDir` is the ours daemon's. Confusing the two fails
+ * closed at boot, which is why they are never touched in the same write.
+ */
+/**
+ * cowork's own defaults, seeded ONLY into a config that does not have them.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS IS NOT "CONFIGURING SOMEBODY ELSE'S TOOL". On a first install cowork's
+ * config file does not exist, so v3 wrote it with a `daemon` block and nothing
+ * else — no version, no broker, no REST port. The nightly installer seeds all
+ * three (`planCoworkConfig`, lib/logic.mjs), and the broker in particular is a
+ * value the INSTALLER knows and cowork cannot guess: it is the one the operator
+ * chose in this run, and a cowork pointed at a different broker cannot reach the
+ * agents it was installed to talk to.
+ *
+ * SEEDED ONLY INTO A FILE THAT DOES NOT EXIST YET. An existing cowork config is
+ * copied through untouched — every key, including ones we would have defaulted.
+ * That line is deliberate and narrower than "write any key that is absent": a
+ * config the operator already has is theirs, and adding keys to it on a re-run
+ * would rewrite a file for no reason the operator asked for. A file this run is
+ * CREATING is a different thing, and it is the only case seeded here.
+ *
+ * NOT VERIFIED, and stated rather than assumed: whether cowork boots happily on a
+ * daemon block alone. Its own defaults may well cover all three. Seeding what the
+ * installer already knows is the safe direction either way, and it is what the
+ * flow being replaced does.
+ */
+export const COWORK_DEFAULT_REST_PORT = 3052;
+
+export function seedCoworkDefaults(base, { brokerUrl, home }) {
+  const seeded = { ...base };
+  const added = [];
+  if (seeded.version === undefined) { seeded.version = 1; added.push('version'); }
+  if (typeof seeded.brokerUrl !== 'string' && brokerUrl) { seeded.brokerUrl = brokerUrl; added.push('brokerUrl'); }
+  // cowork's OWN state directory, never the daemon's. Confusing the two fails
+  // closed at boot, which is why they are never written in the same expression.
+  if (typeof seeded.stateDir !== 'string' && home) { seeded.stateDir = join(home, '.ours-cowork'); added.push('stateDir'); }
+  const rest = seeded.rest && typeof seeded.rest === 'object' && !Array.isArray(seeded.rest) ? seeded.rest : null;
+  if (!rest || !Number.isInteger(rest.port)) {
+    seeded.rest = { enabled: rest?.enabled ?? true, ...(rest ?? {}), port: rest?.port ?? COWORK_DEFAULT_REST_PORT };
+    added.push('rest.port');
+  }
+  return { config: seeded, added };
+}
+
+export function planCoworkAttachment({ existing, endpoint, stateDir, installedVersion, channel = 'latest', brokerUrl, home }) {
+  const dir = resolve(stateDir);
+  if (!endpoint || !stateDir) {
+    return { key: 'cowork', action: 'refuse', reason: 'half-formed-block', message: 'a cowork daemon block needs both an endpoint and a state directory; refusing to write half of one' };
+  }
+  if (!atLeastVersion(installedVersion, COWORK_DAEMON_FLOOR)) {
+    return {
+      key: 'cowork',
+      action: 'leave-embedded',
+      reason: 'version-floor',
+      installedVersion: installedVersion ?? null,
+      message: `the installed cowork (${installedVersion ?? 'version unreadable'}) predates ${COWORK_DAEMON_FLOOR}, which is the first build that understands an external-daemon block; leaving cowork embedded`,
+    };
+  }
+  const base = existing && typeof existing === 'object' && !Array.isArray(existing) ? existing : {};
+  const daemon = { mode: 'external', endpoint, stateDir: dir };
+  const daemonUnchanged = base.daemon
+    && base.daemon.mode === 'external'
+    && base.daemon.endpoint === endpoint
+    && typeof base.daemon.stateDir === 'string'
+    && resolve(base.daemon.stateDir) === dir;
+  // Seeded only where the key is ABSENT, so an existing config is still copied
+  // through untouched — which was already the right behaviour and is not changed.
+  const creating = existing === null || existing === undefined;
+  const { config: seeded, added } = creating
+    ? seedCoworkDefaults(base, { brokerUrl, home })
+    : { config: base, added: [] };
+  const unchanged = daemonUnchanged && added.length === 0;
+  return {
+    key: 'cowork',
+    action: unchanged ? 'unchanged' : 'attach',
+    install: ['npm', 'i', '-g', componentSpec(componentByKey('cowork'), channel)],
+    changed: !unchanged,
+    seeded: added,
+    // The top-level stateDir is cowork's own; an existing one is copied through
+    // untouched and only an ABSENT one is seeded. Confusing it with the daemon's
+    // fails closed at boot, which is why they are never written together.
+    config: { ...seeded, daemon },
+    service: ['ours-cowork', 'install-service'],
+  };
+}
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// §5 — one component failing does not stop the others
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * A component that fails is reported with its reason and the exact manual
+ * command, and the run continues to the next. The daemon and the
+ * already-installed components stay as they are — a failed component is never a
+ * reason to undo a successful one.
+ */
+export function summarizeComponentRun(results) {
+  return {
+    installed: results.filter((r) => r.state === 'installed').map((r) => r.key),
+    failed: results.filter((r) => r.state === 'failed').map((r) => ({ key: r.key, reason: r.reason, retry: r.retry ?? null })),
+    skipped: results.filter((r) => r.state === 'skipped').map((r) => r.key),
+    continued: true,
+  };
+}

package/lib/detect.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+// ours-install v3 — which daemons are already on this machine, and which one this
+// run is for.
+//
+// Never ask for a state directory or a port to be TYPED (spec §2). When several
+// daemons are DETECTED, show them and let one be picked: selecting from what was
+// found is not prompting for a path.
+//
+// Pure, like target.mjs and plan.mjs: the caller injects the directory listing and
+// the file reads, so the whole decision is testable without a filesystem.
+//
+// DETECTION, NOT A REGISTRY. This is built from what is on disk rather than from a
+// persisted list: a stored list is a second source of truth that goes stale against
+// the daemons that really exist, which is how an installer ends up confidently
+// offering a daemon that is gone.
+
+import { basename, join, resolve } from 'node:path';
+
+// Artefacts ONLY a daemon writes. A directory carrying any of these is a daemon's
+// state directory, whatever else is in it.
+export const DAEMON_ARTEFACTS = ['daemon-token', 'ours-cli-daemon.json', 'root.json'];
+
+/**
+ * CONFIG.JSON IS THE ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT IS AMBIGUOUS, SO IT CANNOT BE THE
+ * TEST. This is the trap this function exists to avoid, and it is worth stating
+ * plainly because the obvious implementation walks straight into it:
+ *
+ * `~/.ours-telegram/config.json` and `~/.ours-cowork/config.json` both exist on a
+ * normal machine, both match a `~/.ours*` scan, and NEITHER is a daemon — they are
+ * the connectors' own configs. A selection screen built on "has a config.json"
+ * shows three daemons on a machine with one, and choosing the Telegram connector's
+ * directory would have the installer create a daemon inside it.
+ *
+ * So a config.json counts only when its SHAPE is a daemon's: it records a `port`
+ * or a `stateDir`, and it carries none of the keys that identify it as somebody
+ * else's. `daemonUrl`/`daemonStateDir` are the Telegram connector's; a `daemon`
+ * block is cowork's; `botToken` is the connector's too.
+ */
+export function looksLikeDaemonConfig(config) {
+  if (!config || typeof config !== 'object' || Array.isArray(config)) return false;
+  if (typeof config.daemonUrl === 'string' || typeof config.daemonStateDir === 'string') return false;
+  if (config.daemon !== undefined) return false;
+  if (typeof config.botToken === 'string') return false;
+  return typeof config.port === 'number' || typeof config.stateDir === 'string';
+}
+
+/**
+ * Is this directory a daemon's state directory? Returns the evidence, so a screen
+ * or a test can say WHY rather than just yes.
+ */
+export function classifyStateDir(dir, { exists, readJson }) {
+  const target = resolve(dir);
+  const artefact = DAEMON_ARTEFACTS.find((name) => exists(join(target, name)));
+  if (artefact) return { isDaemon: true, evidence: artefact, config: readJson(join(target, 'config.json')) };
+  const config = readJson(join(target, 'config.json'));
+  if (looksLikeDaemonConfig(config)) return { isDaemon: true, evidence: 'config.json', config };
+  return { isDaemon: false, evidence: null, config: null };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Every daemon state directory this machine can be seen to have.
+ *
+ * KNOWN LIMIT, inherited from effects.knownStateDirs and stated rather than
+ * implied: only `~/.ours` and its `~/.ours*` siblings are looked at. A state
+ * directory somewhere else entirely is not found, and the failure is that it is not
+ * offered — never that the wrong one is chosen, because `--state-dir` still names
+ * anything and overrides all of this.
+ */
+export function detectDaemons({ candidates = [], exists, readJson }) {
+  const found = [];
+  for (const dir of candidates) {
+    const target = resolve(dir);
+    if (found.some((d) => d.stateDir === target)) continue;
+    const verdict = classifyStateDir(target, { exists, readJson });
+    if (!verdict.isDaemon) continue;
+    found.push({
+      stateDir: target,
+      port: typeof verdict.config?.port === 'number' ? verdict.config.port : null,
+      evidence: verdict.evidence,
+      label: basename(target),
+    });
+  }
+  // Deterministic, and the default daemon first when it is one of them — it is the
+  // one an operator means by "my daemon".
+  return found.sort((a, b) => {
+    if (basename(a.stateDir) === '.ours') return -1;
+    if (basename(b.stateDir) === '.ours') return 1;
+    return a.stateDir.localeCompare(b.stateDir);
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * A state directory for a daemon this run would CREATE, derived and never typed.
+ *
+ * Spec §2 forbids asking for a path, so "create a new one" has to derive somewhere
+ * to put it: `~/.ours` when free, else the first free `~/.ours-2`, `~/.ours-3`…
+ * An operator who wants a specific path still has `--state-dir`, which bypasses
+ * this screen entirely.
+ */
+export function deriveNewStateDir(home, taken = [], { limit = 64 } = {}) {
+  const used = new Set(taken.map((d) => resolve(d)));
+  const first = resolve(join(home, '.ours'));
+  if (!used.has(first)) return first;
+  for (let n = 2; n < limit; n += 1) {
+    const candidate = resolve(join(home, `.ours-${n}`));
+    if (!used.has(candidate)) return candidate;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+export const SELECT_CREATE = '__create__';
+
+/**
+ * What this run should do about choosing a daemon (C1's five rules, in one place
+ * so they can be read together and tested without a terminal):
+ *
+ *   flags given          → no screen at all. `--state-dir` or `--port` is an
+ *                          explicit target and outranks anything detected.
+ *   non-interactive      → no screen. Flags only, and every existing refusal still
+ *                          applies — OURS_ASSUME_YES suppresses questions, never a
+ *                          refusal.
+ *   none detected        → create, exactly as before.
+ *   exactly one detected → no prompt, use it, and SAY which one. A question with
+ *                          one answer is not a choice, it is a keystroke tax.
+ *   several detected     → show them and pick, with "create a new one" as the last
+ *                          option.
+ */
+export function planDaemonSelection({
+  candidates = [],
+  stateDirExplicit = false,
+  portExplicit = false,
+  assumeYes = false,
+  home,
+} = {}) {
+  if (stateDirExplicit || portExplicit) {
+    return { action: 'flags', reason: stateDirExplicit ? '--state-dir names the target' : '--port names the target' };
+  }
+  if (assumeYes) return { action: 'flags', reason: 'non-interactive: flags only, no screen' };
+  if (candidates.length === 0) return { action: 'create', stateDir: deriveNewStateDir(home, []) };
+  if (candidates.length === 1) {
+    return { action: 'use', stateDir: candidates[0].stateDir, only: candidates[0], announce: true };
+  }
+  return {
+    action: 'choose',
+    candidates,
+    createOption: { id: SELECT_CREATE, stateDir: deriveNewStateDir(home, candidates.map((c) => c.stateDir)) },
+  };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Resolve a typed answer against the offered list.
+ *
+ * Deliberately strict: an answer that is not a number in range, or the create
+ * option, is NOT a state directory to be interpreted. Accepting free text here
+ * would be exactly the "type a path" prompt spec §2 forbids, arriving through the
+ * back door.
+ */
+export function resolveSelection(answer, { candidates = [], createOption = null } = {}) {
+  const value = String(answer ?? '').trim().toLowerCase();
+  if (!value) return { action: 'invalid', reason: 'no answer' };
+  if (value === 'n' || value === 'new' || value === String(candidates.length + 1)) {
+    return createOption?.stateDir
+      ? { action: 'create', stateDir: createOption.stateDir }
+      : { action: 'invalid', reason: 'no free state directory could be derived' };
+  }
+  if (!/^\d+$/.test(value)) return { action: 'invalid', reason: 'that is not one of the numbers offered' };
+  const index = Number(value) - 1;
+  if (!Number.isInteger(index) || !candidates[index]) return { action: 'invalid', reason: 'that is not one of the numbers offered' };
+  return { action: 'use', stateDir: candidates[index].stateDir };
+}