Bootstrapper and Managed Toolchains

Launcher vs Real CLI

The user-facing command is kira.

Its job is to:

• find the active managed Kira toolchain
• forward the command into the real CLI binary (kirac)
• keep the path-facing launcher stable while the managed toolchain layout evolves

Managed Install Layout

The install flow writes:

~/.kira/toolchains/current.toml
~/.kira/toolchains/<channel>/<version>/
  bin/
    kirac[.exe]
  templates/
  llvm-metadata.toml

current.toml records:

• channel
• version
• primary executable

That is how the launcher knows which real toolchain to launch.

Developer Targets

The repo keeps the most common build targets explicit:

zig build kirac
zig build kira-bootstrapper
zig build install-kirac
zig build install

Those let you validate the managed toolchain flow without guessing how it is packaged.

Resource Discovery

When the CLI needs runtime resources, it looks in this order:

1. the managed toolchain root if the current executable is already running from it
2. the repo root when running directly from the checkout
3. the managed toolchain root selected by channel/version

That resource root is what gives the CLI access to:

• llvm-metadata.toml
• templates/

Template Apps

kira new copies from the managed template tree, not from a remote service.

Current template output:

• kira.toml
• app/main.kira

The template is intentionally small. It reflects the current executable subset instead of pretending the repo already ships a full batteries-included application framework.