`list` 0.1.0

The entries beneath a directory, sorted bytewise, depth-bounded and capped, as NDJSON records; links listed and never followed, and no verb but reading.

list [--root DIR] [--depth N] [--max-entries N] [--skip N] [--long] [--format ndjson|text] [DIR...]

output: NDJSON stream ending in an end record
schema: list.v1
reversibility: reversible-cheap
guarantees: deterministic, idempotent
concurrency: read-only: it never writes, so any number may run at once
confinement: beneath: with --root, paths are checked lexically against it and then opened beneath it one component at a time, following no symbolic link (path.symlink), so nothing outside the root is reachable through one; without it, a reader opens the path as given, links and all, and a writer still follows no link in the file's own name
reads the environment: no
reads the clock: no
compiler: de4e52fd8180
for an agent: SKILL.md (list skill)

Authority

Derived by cancho authority from the source, embedded in the binary, and checked against tools.toml's ceiling in CI. Every label is bounded.

args
dir_read
err_write
fs_read("")
heap
io_write

What the row cannot say:

path extent: a path from the command line is checked at run time, so the row says fs_read("")
what a symlink reaches
what standard output carries
resource use beyond the tool's own caps (memory, wall time)
per-invocation behaviour such as --dry-run, which the row cannot see

Operands

Operand	Role	How many	Meaning
`DIR...`	`path-read`	0 or more	the directories to list, in order (none: the root, or else the working directory)

Flags

Flag	Kind	Role	Default	Meaning
`--root`	`path`	`root`		resolve every DIR relative to this directory and refuse paths outside it
`--depth` `-d`	`nat`	`none`	`1`	how many levels to descend: 1 is the directory's own entries (ceiling 64)
`--max-entries` `-n`	`nat`	`none`	`10000`	stop after this many entries in total, and report truncated with a next cursor (ceiling 1000000)
`--skip`	`nat`	`none`	`0`	skip this many entries before reporting any (the next cursor of a truncated run)
`--long` `-l`	`bool`	`none`		add each entry's size in bytes and modification time in seconds
`--format`	`choice:ndjson/text`	`none`	`ndjson`	ndjson for a program, text (one path a line, a directory ending in /) for a person

Limits

Limit	Default	Ceiling
`depth`	1	64
`max-entries`	10,000	1,000,000

Exit codes

Code	Name	Meaning
0	`SUCCESS`	what was asked was done; zero matches is success
2	`INVALID_ARGS`	the invocation is malformed or names something of the wrong kind; nothing was read
3	`NOT_FOUND`	a named input does not exist
4	`PERMISSION_DENIED`	the operating system refused, or the tool's own confinement did

Rules (14)

Match on rule, not on the message. A retry repair is an argv that can be run as it stands, and never widens what the tool may touch.

Rule	Exit	Repair	When
`args.unknown-flag`	2	sometimes	a flag that is not in the tool's table
`args.missing-value`	2	never	a flag that takes a value was given none
`args.bad-value`	2	never	a flag's value is not of the flag's kind
`args.unexpected-value`	2	never	a flag that takes no value was given one
`args.duplicate-flag`	2	never	the same flag was given twice
`path.empty`	2	never	an empty path
`path.dotdot`	2	sometimes	a path with a `..` component
`path.absolute`	2	always	an absolute path where one relative to --root is wanted
`path.outside-root`	4	never	an absolute path that is not under --root
`path.too-long`	2	never	a path longer than 4096 bytes
`path.symlink`	4	never	a path that runs through a symbolic link, which the tool does not follow
`io.not-found`	3	never	a named input does not exist
`io.not-a-directory`	3	never	a path runs through something that is not a directory
`io.permission-denied`	4	never	the operating system refused access

Evidence

each gate is a test in cancho-tools/tests/conformance, run by CI on the commit this binary was built from:

M1 schema conformance
M2 determinism
M3 rule coverage and hint soundness
M4 fault injection
M5 differential against GNU
M6 authority
M7 mutation behaviour
M8 confinement
M9 memory flatness

Agent in the loop: not run: no claim that this tool is more agent-friendly than the incumbents is made (cancho docs/agent-toolbox.md section 7.2).

list 0.1.0