Ecosystem Management

Per-ecosystem management modules are DevCentr’s deep surface for a language or tooling stack: versions/pins, detected tools, health summary, bootstrap actions, and documentation links. They sit beside Install (orchestration funnel) and Toolchain Advisor (host/target decisions).

Purpose

  • Give each ecosystem a dedicated management UI (pattern after WSL Manager).

  • Prefer an official Toolchain Control Plane when the ecosystem ships one (Toolchain Management Pattern).

  • When it does not, show a short advisory at the top of the module and offer community version managers as a bridge.

  • Educate maintainers and users via a link to the philosophy doc—do not block setup.

Toolchain Management Protocol

The Toolchain Management Protocol is the set of standard, repeatable behaviors (not a network protocol) expected of an official toolchain entrypoint. Philosophy: Toolchain Management Pattern.

Behavior Expectation

Bootstrap

Install via OS package managers when possible; refresh PATH; gate on a post-install health check.

Pin and resolve

Per-project pin wins over user default over system; resolution is part of the official entrypoint.

Health

Machine-readable component status (ok, warn, broken, missing) with evidence.

Repair

Failures map to ordered, idempotent repair actions that can run non-interactively.

Upgrade and rollback

Upgrades are transactional; failed mid-state can return to last known-good.

Surface parity

CLI, GUI, and ideally IDE/agent APIs expose the same verbs and health model.

These are behavioral expectations for maintainers and tools. Wire formats and schemas arrive with the Toolchain Framework (TCF).

Toolchain Management advisory

Philosophy: Toolchain Management Pattern. Control plane metaphor: Toolchain Control Plane (TCP / TCoP). Maintainer toolkit (planned): Toolchain Framework (TCF).

Metadata lives on each language definition (app/src/modules/languages/<ecosystem>.sdl) in the unifiedControlPlane block. See Definition Files.

Condition UI behavior

status = official and advisory false

No gap advisory. Optional positive note that an official toolchain control plane was detected.

status = community or missing, or advisory true

AdvisoryBanner under the page title: short explanation + Learn more → docs URL.

Advisory copy (canonical):

This ecosystem has no official Toolchain Control Plane yet (Toolchain Management Pattern). Version pinning and environment repair should live in the main entrypoint—not only in community tools. Community version managers are a stopgap.

Learn more links to the Toolchain Management Pattern explanation.

Architecture (module first)

Choice Decision

Shared banner

modules.ui.advisory_banner.AdvisoryBanner — reusable muted/warn strip with Learn more.

Shared loader / panel

modules.ecosystems — load language SDL, decide advisory, render community tools list.

Per-ecosystem page

Thin page shell in main.sdl (e.g. pageFlutter) that mounts EcosystemManagerPanel for that id.

Entry points (Flutter — first instance)

  • Home hub: Card “Flutter” → Manage Flutter.

  • Sidebar: Nav item “Flutter”.

  • Page id: pageFlutter (index 9 in the page switcher array in app.d).

Layout

pageFlutter
├── title row
├── AdvisoryBanner (when unifiedControlPlane requires it)
├── muted help line
└── ecosystemManagerHost
    └── EcosystemManagerPanel
        ├── status summary (control-plane status)
        ├── community tools list (bridge)
        └── actions: Learn more (philosophy) | Setup how-to (when available)

Data

Related