tolaria/docs/adr/0106-shared-app-command-manifest.md

type, id, title, status, date

type	id	title	status	date
ADR	0106	Shared app command manifest	active	2026-05-02

Context

Tolaria command metadata was split across several runtime surfaces: TypeScript owned shortcut lookup and command-palette shortcut display, Rust owned native menu IDs, labels, accelerators, aliases, and enablement groups, and the Linux titlebar fallback menu duplicated another command list. Adding or changing a command required carefully editing multiple files that could drift while still compiling.

The existing renderer-first shortcut model and native-menu dedupe remain correct, but they need a single source for metadata that must be identical across those surfaces.

Decision

Tolaria stores cross-runtime app command metadata in src/shared/appCommandManifest.json, and both the renderer and Tauri native menu derive their command/menu IDs, accelerators, menu labels, menu aliases, enablement groups, and deterministic QA metadata from it. Context-sensitive command-palette builders still own availability and execution callbacks, and OS-native menu entries remain local to the native menu implementation.

Options considered

• Shared JSON manifest included by TypeScript and Rust (chosen): works in both runtimes without code generation, keeps menu metadata reviewable, and lets tests validate drift directly.
• Generate TypeScript and Rust constants from a schema: gives stronger compile-time types but adds a build step and a generated-file maintenance burden for a small manifest.
• Keep duplicated constants with more tests: reduces immediate refactor scope, but still forces every command change through parallel manual edits.

Consequences

• New app commands that appear in native menus or shortcut QA must be added to src/shared/appCommandManifest.json.
• appCommandCatalog.ts is responsible for turning the manifest into typed renderer helpers such as APP_COMMAND_IDS, shortcut lookup maps, Linux menu sections, and deterministic QA definitions.
• src-tauri/src/menu.rs includes the same manifest JSON, builds custom menu items from it, maps overridden menu item IDs such as file-quick-open-alias back to their primary command IDs, and resolves state-dependent enablement groups from manifest entries.
• Platform-native menu items such as Undo, Redo, Copy, Paste, Select All, Services, Quit, and Window controls stay in Rust because they are OS affordances, not Tolaria app commands.
• Command-palette builders continue to own dynamic labels, filtering, enabled state, and callbacks where those depend on current app state.