Presets

Reference for the preset file that a plugin ships to give default answers to /cadre:setup.

A preset is a default. It is never a lock. The human can change every answer. A preset never overrides an answer that the charter holds. It never lowers a branch policy or a guard, and it never sets a secret.

File

Fact	Value
Name	cadre-presets.json
Place	The root of the plugin (installPath)
Who can ship one	Any plugin
Read by	preset-discover
Encoding	JSON. A byte order mark is accepted.

{
  "preset_schema": 1,
  "answers": { "tracker": "<value>" },
  "defaults": { "skill_pack": "<value>" },
  "notes": { "tracker": "<one line>" }
}

Field	Required	Type	Meaning
preset_schema	Yes	The integer 1	Any other value is an error.
answers	No	Object	Answers that setup shows. The human confirms or changes each one.
defaults	No	Object	The default of a question that setup still asks.
notes	No	Object	One line for a key, shown with that key.

A missing object counts as {}. A value in answers or defaults can be any JSON value except null. A value in notes must be a string. A null value in any of the three objects is an error.

Question keys

Key	Question
tracker	Which tracker, host, and owner? (found in the account check)
skill_pack	Which skill pack? Setup writes it to the front matter of the charter.
owners	Which paths does each orchestrator own?
merge_deploy	Who may merge and deploy, and how?
documentation	Which documentation follows a change?
only_human	Which actions does only the human do?
secrets	Which secrets exist, and where do they live?
traps	Which traps does the repo or the machine have?
live_clones	Which clones does a live tool run from?

Setup ignores a key that is not in this table. It tells the human the key and the plugin.

Discovery

The command is node preset-discover.mjs [repo-root]. The source is claude plugin list --json, a JSON array of plugin entries. Each entry has the fields id, enabled, installPath, and optionally projectPath.

Rule	Detail
An entry counts only when	enabled is true, and installPath is a non-empty string.
Scope	An entry with a projectPath counts only when it equals the repo root. An entry with no projectPath (user scope) counts everywhere.
Path compare	Both paths go through the real path. On Windows the compare ignores case.
No file	An entry whose installPath has no cadre-presets.json (or is not a folder) has no preset.
One plugin, two scopes	The plugin counts once, by id, from the first entry that applies here.
A file and no id	An error.
Any other read failure	An error.
A bad file	An error. It is never skipped, so that setup never ignores a preset that the admin meant to apply.
A failure	Never count 0.

A file is bad when it is not JSON, is not an object, has a preset_schema other than 1, has an object field that is not an object, holds a null value, or has a note that is not a string.

Output

One line and an exit code.

Output	Exit
{"count":N,"presets":[{"plugin","answers","defaults","notes"}]}	0
unknown: <reason> or unknown: <plugin>: <reason>	2

plugin is the id of the entry. count is 0 when no enabled plugin ships a file.