Issue #100: nikaia describe for a crate declared by version, and the rustdoc-JSON reader

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tools, note · opened 2026-09-30 · updated 2026-10-06 · 0 comments

Records: ADR-104 (steps 1-3 built, step 5 by hand), ADR-195 D4, ADR-196 D4. nikaia describe <crate> works today for a path dependency (a signature scraper, not a Rust parser).

Open:

• The rustdoc-JSON reader behind a toolchain check (it needs nightly; the same ADR-001 D1 wall as macro expansion).
• A way to read a version dependency’s sources, which are in Cargo’s registry cache and which ADR-002 D1 hands to Cargo. That is what would make the hash rule (NK2505) reach every crate rather than the ones with a path. It runs through cargo metadata, so it needs the directory walk in fs (the subprocess, process::run, is built: ADR-243).
• A suspicion, not a defect: a manifest declaring a crate whose word is one of std’s modules would have two answers for one name; std wins silently today. No manifest in the repository reaches it; the day one does it is a refusal to write.

One rule to keep (ADR-193): the describer proposes and never claims; it may propose true and must never propose false for threads/crosses.

The rewrite of the command itself in .nika is tracked under self-hosting.

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