docs: add an uplink-conventions skill

app/Skills/uplink-conventions/SKILL.mdadded+150-0

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	1	+---
	2	+name: uplink-conventions
	3	+description: Use when adding or changing any Uplink subsystem - config, engines, the daemon, the menubar app. Covers where config belongs and how it actually loads, when auto-imports work and when they silently do not, and the framework-free constraint the downloadable app imposes. Read before writing code under app/Uplink/, app/Desktop/ or config/.
	4	+license: MIT
	5	+compatibility: Bun >= 1.3.0, TypeScript, macOS 13+
	6	+allowed-tools: Read Edit Write Bash Grep Glob
	7	+---
	8	+
	9	+# Uplink Conventions
	10	+
	11	+Uplink grew its own parallel conventions: a bespoke `UPLINK_*` environment reader outside `config/`,
	12	+and an app that lives in `app/Uplink/` rather than the framework's directories. Use the framework's
	13	+way instead.
	14	+
	15	+Two of the obvious corrections fail **silently**. That is what this skill is for.
	16	+
	17	+## Key Paths
	18	+
	19	+- The daemon and the app: `app/Uplink/`
	20	+- The compiled menubar binary's entry: `app/Desktop/launcher.ts`
	21	+- Config directory: `config/`
	22	+- The framework's config override list: `node_modules/@stacksjs/config/dist/overrides.js`
	23	+ (source: `storage/framework/core/config/src/overrides.ts`)
	24	+- Auto-import injection: `node_modules/@stacksjs/server/dist/imports.js`
	25	+
	26	+## The constraint everything else follows from
	27	+
	28	+Uplink ships two ways, and only one of them has a framework.
	29	+
	30	+1. **From source**, `buddy uplink:watch`, a launchd service inside the Stacks app.
	31	+2. **The downloadable Uplink.app**, compiled with `bun build --compile` from
	32	+ `app/Desktop/launcher.ts`. No `.env`, no Stacks runtime, no database. It reads `settings.json`
	33	+ plus the Keychain and calls `loadConfig(settingsEnv(settings))`.
	34	+
	35	+```bash
	36	+grep -rn "@stacksjs" app/Uplink/*.ts app/Desktop/*.ts
	37	+```
	38	+
	39	+One hit, and it is a comment. Keep it that way. Anything that pulls `@stacksjs/*` into a module the
	40	+compiled app imports pulls the framework into the binary.
	41	+
	42	+## Config: `config/uplink.ts` is not loaded by `@stacksjs/config`
	43	+
	44	+Putting a file in `config/` is right. Expecting `config.uplink` to appear is wrong.
	45	+
	46	+`@stacksjs/config` does not scan the directory. It walks a hardcoded list of about 46
	47	+`[key, filename]` pairs, and `uplink` is not one of them, nor should it be: that list is the
	48	+framework's own surface.
	49	+
	50	+```bash
	51	+grep -c uplink node_modules/@stacksjs/config/dist/overrides.js # 0
	52	+```
	53	+
	54	+So `config.uplink` is `undefined`, and the usual `if (config.uplink?.pollMs)` reads as "not
	55	+configured" rather than failing. Nothing throws. Nothing logs.
	56	+
	57	+**Use bunfig**, which is how stx loads its own config:
	58	+
	59	+```typescript
	60	+import { loadConfig } from 'bunfig'
	61	+
	62	+const config = await loadConfig({
	63	+ name: 'uplink', // finds config/uplink.ts by name
	64	+ defaultConfig, // required; always returns at least this
	65	+ checkEnv: true, // derives UPLINK_* from the key names
	66	+})
	67	+```
	68	+
	69	+Its default config directory is `resolve(process.cwd(), 'config')`, so the name alone finds the
	70	+file, and it always returns at least the defaults.
	71	+
	72	+### `checkEnv` already matches every variable Uplink documents
	73	+
	74	+bunfig builds the variable name from the config key: the prefix is `name.toUpperCase()` with dashes
	75	+turned into underscores, and each key is split on capitals,
	76	+`k.replace(/([A-Z])/g, '_$1').toUpperCase()`.
	77	+
	78	+| Config key | Derived variable |
	79	+|---|---|
	80	+| `pollMs` | `UPLINK_POLL_MS` |
	81	+| `maxChars` | `UPLINK_MAX_CHARS` |
	82	+| `ackAfterMs` | `UPLINK_ACK_AFTER_MS` |
	83	+| `messagesDb` | `UPLINK_MESSAGES_DB` |
	84	+| `claudeBin` | `UPLINK_CLAUDE_BIN` |
	85	+| `codexPermission` | `UPLINK_CODEX_PERMISSION` |
	86	+
	87	+All seventeen of Uplink's current `UPLINK_*` names are exactly what `checkEnv` generates, so the
	88	+hand-rolled `int()` and `str()` readers in `app/Uplink/config.ts` can go without renaming anything
	89	+in `.env.example`.
	90	+
	91	+Two do not fit the pattern and stay hand-handled: `UPLINK_MODEL`, the legacy alias for
	92	+`UPLINK_CLAUDE_MODEL`, and `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN`, which is not an Uplink variable at all.
	93	+
	94	+### Two things that do not belong in a config file
	95	+
	96	+- **Values discovered at runtime.** `findClaude()` and `findCodex()` probe the filesystem for a
	97	+ binary. A static config file cannot hold that. The config file holds an optional override,
	98	+ `claudeBin`, and the probe stays in code, used when the override is empty.
	99	+- **Anything the compiled app cannot reach.** `bunfig` is a runtime import, and it arrives through
	100	+ `better-dx`, a devDependency. Promote it to a real dependency before importing it at runtime, per
	101	+ the AGENTS.md rule that a package importing something at runtime declares it as a real dependency.
	102	+
	103	+## Auto-imports: a declaration is not an injection
	104	+
	105	+`resources/functions/` is the right destination for genuinely shared code, and class exports such as
	106	+`CodexEngine` work there. But a name appearing in `server-auto-imports.d.ts` only means `tsc`
	107	+accepts it.
	108	+
	109	+The globals exist only after `injectGlobalAutoImports()` runs, and that happens at **server boot**,
	110	+in `buddy serve` and `production-server.ts`. Uplink's engine runs in a launchd service and in
	111	+`app/Commands/Uplink.ts`, which do not necessarily take that path. A bare `CodexEngine(...)` there
	112	+typechecks and then throws `ReferenceError` at runtime.
	113	+
	114	+This is not hypothetical. It is stacksjs/stacks#2585, and AGENTS.md documents the same class of
	115	+failure for the browser manifest.
	116	+
	117	+**So: keep explicit imports in service code.** That is not a compromise. The framework's own actions
	118	+and models import what they use.
	119	+
	120	+### Verification that actually proves it
	121	+
	122	+The first two steps pass even when it is broken, which is why all three are needed:
	123	+
	124	+```bash
	125	+buddy generate # 1. regenerate
	126	+grep CodexEngine storage/framework/types/server-auto-imports.d.ts # 2. declared
	127	+```
	128	+
	129	+```bash
	130	+# 3. the only one that proves injection, run inside the service process
	131	+bun -e 'console.log(typeof globalThis.CodexEngine)'
	132	+```
	133	+
	134	+Step 3 printing `undefined` while step 2 passes is exactly the failure this section exists to
	135	+prevent.
	136	+
	137	+### What not to move
	138	+
	139	+`messages-db.ts`, `typedstream.ts` and the sqlite plumbing stay where they are. They are internals
	140	+with one caller each. Making them global costs namespace and gains nothing.
	141	+
	142	+Weigh any move the same way: auto-import buys something for stx templates, routes and actions. For a
	143	+module that is only ever imported by other TypeScript, it buys nothing.
	144	+
	145	+## Before you finish
	146	+
	147	+- `./buddy lint` and `./buddy typecheck`.
	148	+- `./pantry/.bin/bun test tests/unit/uplink` using the pinned toolchain. The repo pins Bun 1.4.2 in
	149	+ `pantry.lock`; a different Bun can hang on the tests that spawn a subprocess and read its stdout.
	150	+- If you touched anything the compiled app imports, re-check the grep at the top of this file.