Phase 1 Retrospective

Status: Engineering closeout complete; external validation still pending.

Phase 1 proved the smallest useful Krate loop: build one WASM component once, run the exact same bytes through the Krate runtime on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and package release artifacts that a real user can download and verify.

What Shipped

  • crates/runtime embeds Wasmtime with Component Model support.
  • crates/cli ships the first krate binary with run, version, and doctor commands.
  • A temporary krate:phase1/host WIT interface supports print and exit for the hello-world proof.
  • scripts/test-phase1.sh validates runtime behavior locally and in CI.
  • CI builds one shared hello .wasm fixture, records its SHA-256 hash, and runs that same artifact on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
  • v0.1.0-rc1 published five platform archives plus SHA256SUMS.
  • Quickstart, architecture notes, benchmark baseline, Threat Model v0.1, ADR-0002, and ADR-0003 are published.

What Worked

The shared-fixture CI design was the right proof. Earlier runs compared host-built .wasm hashes and failed for a reason that was true but not useful: different hosts can produce different component bytes. The real Krate promise is that one app artifact runs everywhere, so CI now tests that directly.

Keeping Phase 1 narrow also helped. The runtime only has the temporary host interface it needs, and UAPI design is left for Phase 2 where it can be reviewed as a platform contract instead of a quick demo surface.

What Took Longer Than Expected

The GitHub Actions path uncovered real launch details early: Pages needed manual configuration, the dependency audit action lagged behind CVSS 4.0 advisories, and artifact upload paths had to be made explicit for hidden .wasm files.

Release packaging also forced the project to prove naming, archive layout, and checksum publishing sooner than planned. That was useful pressure; it made the runtime feel less like a local experiment and more like a product foundation.

What Changed In The Plan

Krate remains the product name, while layer6x6 remains the development repo name for now. The 6x6 framing is still the strategic map; Krate is the name of the platform that grows out of solving that matrix.

The Phase 1 release gate now explicitly accepts RC tags such as v0.1.0-rc1. That keeps early platform proof honest without pretending the API is stable.

Open Risks

  • One external user still needs to complete the quickstart in 10 minutes or less.
  • Phase 0 external gates remain open: Discord, public announcement, domain, and external contributor PR.
  • GitHub branch protection exists as a ruleset, but direct owner bypass should be treated as temporary while the project is founder-only.
  • GitHub Actions is warning that several actions still run on Node.js 20; this is not failing today, but it should be cleaned up before the forced Node.js 24 transition.

Phase 2 Readiness

The engineering foundation is ready for Phase 2 design work. The next durable choices are WIT versioning, UCap enforcement shape, host adapter boundaries, and the first real UAPI modules: io, fs, net, time, and locale.

Do not freeze Phase 2 WIT quickly. The first app examples should pressure-test the interfaces before the project treats them as stable v0.1 contracts.