Package Format Overview

The Package as a Contract

The InstallHub package format is a stable, versioned contract. Every package produced by the export system and consumed by the import system follows this format exactly. Tools that build packages programmatically must adhere to it to be accepted by the import pipeline.

Package Structure at a Glance

{packageName}-{version}.zip
├── manifest.json              ← REQUIRED: package metadata, artifact index, checksum
├── README.md                  ← REQUIRED: human-readable description
└── artifacts/
    ├── workflows/
    │   ├── {processId}.json   ← ProcessDefinition or ThreadDefinition
    │   └── ...
    ├── forms/
    │   └── {formId}.json      ← AtlasForm
    ├── rules/
    │   └── {ruleId}.json      ← RuleSet
    ├── entities/
    │   └── {entityId}.json    ← EntitySchema
    └── apps/
        └── {appId}.json       ← AppDefinition

Three Invariants

Every valid InstallHub package satisfies these invariants:

Format Version

The manifest includes a manifestVersion field. The current format version is "1.0". Future versions that make breaking changes to the schema will increment this. The import engine checks manifestVersion and rejects packages with an unsupported version.

Why ZIP?

ZIP was chosen for the following reasons:

• Universal support — every platform, language, and CI/CD tool can read and write ZIP
• Streaming-friendly — individual files can be read without decompressing the entire archive
• Text compression — JSON artifact files compress very well (typically 70–85% size reduction)
• Widely auditable — security reviewers can inspect package contents without special tools

Guide Contents