Tool channel

Version 1, draft. A signed index of vendor tool releases a channel operator has vetted and mirrored with their evidence for mise. The included backend plugin consumes it; native mise integration is separate adoption work. Nothing in the format requires Omarchy. Start with the mise adoption guide for the integration boundary.

Layout

The tool channel shares the snapshot store:

<store>/tools/index.json, index.json.minisig
<store>/tools/<tool>/<version>/<artifact>
<store>/tools/<tool>/<version>/<artifact>.vendor.json       the vendor's packslip
<store>/tools/<tool>/<version>/<artifact>.provenance.json   the channel's provenance

Published files are immutable: a vendor deleting or re-uploading an asset cannot affect a channel user.

Vendor sidecars contain a packslip v1 bundle. The signed version entry records allow_unlogged (false by default) and list_sequence. The client checks the bundle's project, version, signature, log policy, digest, and size. Legacy document/signature sidecars must be republished in a fresh store. Tool channels require an explicit vendor public key.

Tool names, versions, URLs, and abbreviated keys in these examples illustrate the format; they do not claim those vendors publish packslips or are available in a deployed channel.

tools/index.json

{
  "version": 1,
  "sequence": 42,
  "generated_at": "2026-09-03T06:00:00Z",
  "tools": {
    "claude": {
      "project": "claude.ai/claude-code",
      "vendor_pubkey": "untrusted comment: ...\nRW...",
      "versions": {
        "2.4.1": {
          "published_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00Z",
          "vetted_at": "2026-09-02T12:00:00Z",
          "level": "l2",
          "key_id": "5A0A0B8B9C6D7E1F",
          "channels": ["edge", "rc"],
          "artifacts": {
            "linux-x64": {
              "name": "claude-2.4.1-linux-x64.tar.gz",
              "sha256": "...", "size": 12345678,
              "path": "tools/claude/2.4.1/claude-2.4.1-linux-x64.tar.gz",
              "sidecars": ["claude-2.4.1-linux-x64.tar.gz.vendor.json", "claude-2.4.1-linux-x64.tar.gz.provenance.json"]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• The index is signed with the channel key (the same minisign key as the package index) and carries a sequence for rollback protection.
• Versions are keyed by the vendor's version string. Ordering for latest is by published_at, never by parsing the string.
• channels lists which of edge, rc, stable carry the version; held with a reason pulls it from all of them.
• vendor_pubkey is the pinned vendor identity so a client can verify the packslip in the sidecar itself.

Publishing

tool.toml is a vendor.toml with a [tool] table and artifacts keyed by mise platform:

[tool]
name = "claude"

[upstream]
project = "claude.ai/claude-code"
releases = "https://claude.ai/.well-known/packslip/claude-code.json"
pubkey = "claude.pub"
min_release_age = "24h"
provenance_floor = "l2"

[artifacts]
linux-x64 = { os = "linux", arch = "x86_64" }
linux-arm64 = { os = "linux", arch = "aarch64" }

pacvamp-repo tool-channel publish --store S --key K --config tool.toml [--version V] resolves the release exactly as the vendor pipeline does (signed release list, packslip, floor, no-downgrade against what the index already carries), refuses a version any artifact of which has a block verdict in the store's verdict feed, downloads each artifact and checks its digest and size against the packslip, writes it with the vendor sidecar and a channel-signed provenance envelope, and appends the version to the index in edge.

promote --tool --version --channel rc|stable adds a channel; hold and unhold pull and restore a version; status lists everything.

Consuming

pacvamp tools is the client, and the mise plugin calls it:

• pacvamp tools index fetches and verifies the index with the keys under /etc/pacvamp/keys (or --pubkey), refusing a sequence below the last one seen.
• pacvamp tools list <tool> [--channel stable] prints vetted versions oldest first, held versions excluded.
• pacvamp tools fetch <tool> <version> --platform linux-x64 --dest DIR downloads the artifact, checks digest and size against the index, verifies the vendor packslip in the sidecar against the pinned vendor key and the file, and verifies the channel's provenance envelope names the digest. A held version is refused unless --force.

The channel base comes from [channel] tools_base in the manifest or --base.

See the publisher CLI, client tools CLI, and backend plugin.