Worktree Patch Authoring

prikk commit authors the current worktree into a node-addressed patch and appends it to the active WAL. The patch carries a real role-bound Ed25519 AUTHOR signature.

# Key material is supplied via the environment (a minimal key-input mechanism, not a trust store):
export PRIKK_AUTHOR_KEY_ID="dev-author"
export PRIKK_AUTHOR_SEED_FILE="<path to a 0600 seed file>"   # or leave unset to use ~/.config/prikk/author.seed

prikk commit -m "record changes"
# --text-edits is accepted for compatibility; text nodes author EditText either way:
prikk commit --text-edits -m "record text changes"
# Explicit unborn local branch genesis:
prikk commit --ref heads/topic -m "start topic"

--from-worktree is still accepted for backward compatibility but is now the only behavior, so it can be omitted.

Baseline

Authoring compares the worktree against a baseline node lifecycle state:

• Published ref: the baseline is reconstructed from authoritative node-addressed replay of the heads/main (or --ref) lineage — never from a snapshot manifest.
• Genesis (fresh local branch): when a valid heads/* target ref has never been published, the first commit authors against an empty baseline, so every worktree file becomes a CreateFile. The following seal --ref heads/<branch> publishes the first block as a Root block.

commit --ref heads/topic on an unborn ref creates an independent Root history from the current worktree. It does not copy/fork heads/main, switch the checkout branch, or create a merge base.

The active WAL queues commits until seal, up to the queue limit described in the FAQ. The active WAL records the one ref it belongs to, and a commit for a different ref is refused while the queue is non-empty, so seal --ref heads/main cannot publish a patch authored for heads/topic (crates/prikk-store/src/commit_boundary/active.rs:301-314).

Operation mapping

Existing-node kind is authoritative:

• new file → CreateFile (fresh CSPRNG-minted node_id, normalized mode)
• removed tracked file → DeleteNode
• modified text file → deterministic arbitrary-span EditText
• modified binary file → ReplaceBinary
• permission-only change → ChangePerm

Path handling is strict: non-UTF-8 worktree paths fail closed, and traversal/reserved-name/collision rules apply as elsewhere. For the exact repository path and worktree scanner boundary, see path and worktree safety. A path matched by a .prikkignore rule at the repository root is skipped by this scan entirely — never authored, never reported — see Ignoring Worktree Paths.

Out of scope (this stage)

• symlink authoring (fails closed on all symlinks)
• text↔binary kind transitions (fail closed)
• rename detection (a move is a DeleteNode + CreateFile)
• branch switching or branch copy/fork from an existing tip
• multi-commit queued active sessions or per-ref active WALs
• multi-operation text diff minimization, commutation, conflict witnesses

Signature scope: worktree commits are role-bound Ed25519 AUTHOR-signed. This does not imply trust-store enforcement, key management, MAINTAINER/publication signing, rollback authorization, or publication-grade repository trust.