Volume 4 — Cross-Platform System Management
52 Cross-OS Contracts and 5 Reference Implementations
About this volume
Volume 4 is the "do it this way" book of the series. The
sysman tier is the most disciplined product line in the
portfolio: 52 cross-OS contracts in
codecraftai-sysman-common/specs/contracts/ plus five reference
implementations (RHEL, Ubuntu, macOS, Windows, UEFI), each
tested green to thousands of testbase tests.
Where Volume 5 covered how to talk to remote systems (protocols, the wire), Volume 4 covers what to ask remote systems to do — install a package, start a service, configure the firewall, manage boot order. The tier sits above the wire and above the landscape, in the "actuator" position: it's the layer test code reaches for when it needs to change the system under test.
Who it is for
Platform / SRE engineers who need cross-OS automation that actually works. System-management-tier maintainers who want to extend the contract or add a new OS implementation. Anyone whose project's automation must reach across RHEL, Ubuntu, macOS, Windows, or UEFI consistently.
Source material
codecraftai-sysman-common— the 52 contracts, thefeaturebasesubstrate, and the two feature bases (the abstract VPN base and the concrete python-environment base).codecraftai-sysman-linux-redhat— RHEL implementation.codecraftai-sysman-linux-ubuntu— Ubuntu / Debian implementation.codecraftai-sysman-macos— macOS implementation.codecraftai-sysman-windows— Windows implementation.codecraftai-sysman-uefi— UEFI firmware implementation.
Contents
| Part | Chapters | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| I — The Contract Layer | 1, 2, 3 | Why contracts; the 52 contracts; featurebase substrate |
| II — Five Reference Implementations | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 | RHEL, Ubuntu, macOS, Windows, UEFI |
| III — The Discipline | 9, 10 | 11 Implementation Conventions; cross-OS test parity |
- Chapter 1 — Why a Contract Layer
- Chapter 2 — The 52 Cross-OS Contracts
- Chapter 3 —
featurebaseand the Per-OS Implementation Pattern - Chapter 4 — RHEL Implementation
- Chapter 5 — Ubuntu / Debian Implementation
- Chapter 6 — macOS Implementation
- Chapter 7 — Windows Implementation
- Chapter 8 — UEFI Firmware Implementation
- Chapter 9 — Spec-Driven Development for System Administration
- Chapter 10 — Building Cross-OS Test Parity
How it connects to the other volumes
- Volume 0 — error vocabulary, configuration loading, application identity (the foundation tier).
- Volume 1 / 2 — testbase / tandem testing as the framework that runs sysman feature tests.
- Volume 3 — orchestration that invokes sysman feature execution; ch.25's bridge tasks.
- Volume 5 — protocols (SSH, REST) that sysman features use to reach remote systems.
- Volume 6 — landscape (which devices to reach) and topology (the configured state).
Part of The Code Craft AI Books.