Didactopus/docs/dependency-resolution.md

Dependency Resolution Plan

Goals

Didactopus should support a pack ecosystem in which contributors can publish reusable foundations and specialized overlays.

Examples:

• a general statistics foundations pack
• a Bayesian statistics extension pack
• an electronics foundations pack
• a marine bioacoustics specialization pack

Manifest fields

Each pack.yaml should include:

• name
• version
• didactopus_min_version
• didactopus_max_version
• dependencies

Dependencies use a compact form:

dependencies:
  - name: statistics-foundations
    min_version: 1.0.0
    max_version: 2.0.0

Validation stages

Stage 1

• manifest fields exist
• content files exist
• required top-level keys exist

Stage 2

• internal references are valid
• duplicate IDs are rejected

Stage 3

• each dependency names an installed pack
• dependency versions satisfy declared ranges
• pack compatibility includes current core version

Future work

• full semantic version parsing
• cycle detection in dependency graphs
• topological load ordering
• trust and signature policies