Coral Roadmap

Target: Coral v0.4.x
Date: 2026-03-08
Tracks: Unwired features, cleanup, and new functionality

Phase 1: Cleanup

• 1. Remove redundant opts.no_color field
  • Removed GlobalOptions.no_color from types.reef and main.reef; color module reads flag directly
• 2. Remove legacy SourceInfo.urls / SourceInfo.checksums fields
  • Removed unused backward-compat fields from types.reef and dead writes from port.reef
• 3. Clean up resolver exports
  • Removed resolve_alternative(), is_alternative_dep(), parse_alternatives() from export block

Phase 2: High Priority — Features users expect to work

• 4. Implement --dry-run / -n flag
  • Added dry-run support to install, remove, build, and upgrade commands
• 5. Wire up fallback_to_source config option
  • Install falls back to coral build -y when no binary package found and fallback_to_source = true
• 6. Implement package conflict detection
  • Install checks conflicts field against installed packages; --force overrides
• 7. Implement signature verification on install
  • When require_signed_packages = true, install verifies .sig file before proceeding
• 8. Implement compress_man build step
  • After build, gzips uncompressed man pages in staging dir when compress_man = true

Phase 3: Medium Priority — Partially wired features

• 9. Wire up keep_packages / keep_sources config
  • clean command respects keep_packages/keep_sources; --force overrides protection
• 10. Wire up use_proxy config
  • HTTP module accepts proxy config; curl disables proxy by default, enables when use_proxy = true
• 11. Wire up auto_refresh config
  • Install and upgrade rebuild port index before execution when auto_refresh = true
• 12. Fix coral diff documentation
  • Updated GUIDE.md to reference coral outdated instead of coral diff
• 13. Use specific exit codes throughout codebase
  • Replaced generic EXIT_ERROR() with specific codes across all commands

Completed

• Package Format v2 (mtree manifest, fs.ops installer, config protection) — v0.3.0
• Script model rewrite (zsh, upgrade hooks, version args) — v0.3.0
• Verify command — v0.3.0
• CI update to Reef 0.5.0 — v0.3.0
• Auto-install build dependencies — v0.3.1
• Export $PREFIX, $SYSCONFDIR, $PKG_ROOT to build scripts — v0.3.2
• Recursive build-from-source dependency resolver — v0.3.3
• All 13 unwired features (cleanup, high-priority, medium-priority) — v0.3.5