Manifest

.alc/manifest.yaml is the root of the Operator Layer. Three fields are required; everything else has a default that matches the behaviour you get without declaring it.

version: 1
default_engine: claude-code
 
compute_tiers:
  standard:
    mock: "mock-small"
    claude-code: "claude-sonnet-4-6"
    gemini: "gemini-2.5-flash"
  deep:
    mock: "mock-large"
    claude-code: "claude-opus-4-8"
    gemini: "gemini-2.5-pro"
 
engines:
  mock:
    type: mock
  claude-code:
    type: claude-code
  gemini:
    type: gemini

Required#

Engine entries#

The engine name is yours; type is what resolves to an adapter. That is what lets you declare two entries of the same type with different settings.

alc init writes a binary: key on the claude-code and gemini entries. Nothing currently reads it — the adapters call their tool by its conventional name. Treat it as documentation of intent rather than a working override.

Check sets#

Reusable named check sets a Blueprint may opt into with check_set: <name>.

check_sets:
  project:
    - name: test
      command: ["make", "test"]
  security:
    - name: secrets
      command: ["gitleaks", "detect", "--no-banner"]

alc init pre-fills one set per detected stack, plus security. alc onboard adds a project set harvested from what you already declare. See Make the checks real and the Blueprint reference for the shape of a check entry.

Behavioural knobs#

Queue and retries#

Commits and worktrees#

worktree_provision entries#

Exactly one of link, copy or clone per entry; its value is a path relative to the project root. Absolute paths and .. are rejected.

worktree_provision:
  - link: node_modules
    refresh: ["npm", "install"]
    when_changed: ["package.json", "package-lock.json"]
  - clone: .env

refresh and when_changed are only meaningful together, and either one without the other is rejected at load time rather than silently ignored.

With worktree_ports > 0, the queue drain injects ALC_PORT, PORT, ALC_PORT_2 upward, and ALC_PORTS (comma-separated) into the engine's environment.

Runtime service#

The app ALC starts for runtime validation. Unset means ALC never owns a service.

service:
  start: "npm run dev"
  health: "/health"
  ready_timeout_s: 30

Only Blueprints declaring needs_service: true use it. ALC starts the app on its allocated port, exposes $ALC_BASE_URL, and tears it down after the run.

Delivery#

How alc land hands an already-landed branch to the remote. The local cherry-pick is the actual landing; this is the last mile on top of it.

delivery:
  mode: local          # local | push | pr
  remote: origin
  base: main

alc land --push and --pr override mode for one invocation. A push failure or a missing gh never fails the land.

Notifications#

Each hook is either a command — an argv list, run with the JSON payload on stdin — or a webhook URL, which is POSTed the payload. Delivery never raises.

notify:
  on_task_failed: ["scripts/notify.sh"]
  on_loop_stopped: ["scripts/notify.sh"]
  on_budget_exceeded: ["scripts/notify.sh"]
  on_merge_conflict: "https://hooks.example.com/alc"

Stage#

Advisory throughout. The stage never changes how a mandate executes; its authority stops at warnings, reports and scaffolds.

stage: growth
stage_mix:
  core: [builder, sweeper, grower]
  secondary: [maintainer]

With no stage declared, no mix rule fires anywhere.

Directories#

Every path is relative to the project root. The defaults are what alc init writes.

Next#

• Blueprint reference — the other half of the Operator Layer.
• The Policy Gate — what alc lint checks in here.