The soak window

One rule: a release must be at least SOAK_DAYS old before this repo adopts it. The delay gives the ecosystem time to catch a malicious or yanked release before we ever install it. The window is defined exactly once — read the current value from scripts/soak/constants.mts and never hardcode it elsewhere. Every surface derives from or is parity-checked against it:

Commands (package.json scripts — the code lives in scripts/soak/)

• pnpm run soak — parity-check every surface (CI-gated in docs-links)
• pnpm run soak:fix — rewrite drifted windows, prune expired exclusions
• pnpm run deps:update — bump npm (taze) + cargo deps through the window
• pnpm run tools:check / tools:install — validate / install the SRI-pinned external tools (external-tools.json)
• pnpm run test:scripts — the scripts' own unit tests

A soak change is done when pnpm run soak and pnpm run test:scripts both exit 0 — the same gates CI runs. Re-run them after every fix.

Change the window (one place)

1. Edit SOAK_DAYS in scripts/soak/constants.mts.
2. pnpm run soak:fix (rewrites cargo/npmrc/yaml; taze follows by import).
3. pnpm run soak + pnpm run test:scripts — existing exclusion annotations encode the old window and will be flagged; re-date or remove them, then re-run until both pass.

Opt out entirely: set SOAK_DAYS = 0 and run the same two steps — cargo, pnpm/nub (minimumReleaseAge: 0), npm, and taze all treat zero as disabled. There is deliberately no env-var bypass: opting out is a committed, reviewable change, never a silent one.

Skip the soak for ONE package (dated, temporary)

Add to minimumReleaseAgeExclude in tools/pnpm-workspace.yaml with the annotation on the line above (block list only — flow [..] is rejected because a comment line can't attach to an inline entry):

# published: 2026-07-08 | removable: 2026-07-15
- 'name@1.2.3'

removable = published + SOAK_DAYS (this example assumes a 7-day window). published must be the real registry publish date. Once removable passes, pnpm run soak fails until the pin is pruned (soak:fix does it). Bare names / @scope/* globs are standing trust and need no annotation. External tools use the same shape via a soakBypass object in external-tools.json.

The cargo soak needs nightly — the repo still must not pin one

min-publish-age is an [unstable] cargo feature: a stable cargo ignores it silently. The repo deliberately ships no rust-toolchain.toml, because a repo-root toolchain file outranks rustup default and would silently redirect the version-pinned CI jobs (the MSRV Check legs) and build released binaries on nightly.

The nightly is instead requested per-invocation, at the only step that picks versions: scripts/soak/update-deps.mts runs cargo +nightly update. Everything else — every CI job, every shipped binary — builds on stable. If you need the cargo soak somewhere new, call cargo +nightly there; do not add a toolchain file.

Maintaining this skill

scripts/soak/ is the law; this file only documents it — when they disagree, fix this file. When editing, follow Anthropic's guidance:

• Prompting best practices
• Prompting Claude Fable 5
• Skill authoring best practices
• Write an effective CLAUDE.md

Keep it concise (goal + constraints, not step enumeration), keep the description in third person with explicit "use when" triggers, and keep the window value in constants.mts rather than restating it here.