Catalog Structure

A catalog is a tree of named entries under the manifest's catalog: key. Each entry is one of three kinds, determined by which field it carries — the kinds are mutually exclusive:

Kind	Field	Behavior
Leaf	source	Renders an archetype (or delegates to another catalog repo)
Group	catalog	A submenu of nested entries
Remote	server	A federated subtree served by a remote Archetect server

catalog:
  services:                    # group
    description: "Backend Services"
    catalog:
      grpc:                    # leaf
        description: "gRPC Service"
        source: "git@github.com:acme/rust-grpc-archetype.git"
  partner:                     # remote (federated)
    description: "Partner Platform"
    server:
      endpoint: "https://archetect.partner.example:8443"

Entry names become path segments: the grpc leaf above is services/grpc, dispatched as archetect acme/services/grpc (prefixed by the catalog's name in the user's configuration).

Entry properties

Property	Type	Default	Purpose
description	string	entry name	Menu and search text
source	string	—	Archetype source: git URL or local path (leaf)
catalog	map	—	Nested entries (group)
server	map	—	endpoint + optional tls (federated remote)
answers	map	—	Pre-configured answers passed to the archetype
switches	list	—	Pre-enabled switches, overlaid onto the inherited set (name=false disables one)
use_defaults	list	—	Prompt keys that silently accept their defaults
use_defaults_all	bool	—	Accept defaults for all unanswered prompts
library	bool	false	Stage this entry's lib/ and includes/ at load time (see Libraries)
show	bool	true	Visibility in interactive menus

Pre-configuring entries

answers, switches, and use_defaults* let one archetype serve many menu items:

catalog:
  grpc-service:
    description: "gRPC Service"
    source: "git@github.com:acme/rust-grpc-archetype.git"
  grpc-service-lite:
    description: "gRPC Service (minimal, no extras)"
    source: "git@github.com:acme/rust-grpc-archetype.git"
    answers:
      features: []
    use_defaults_all: true

Entry answers are authoritative — they override even -a flags — so a pre-configured entry always means what its curator intended.

Hidden entries

show: false removes an entry from menus while keeping it script-addressable — the standard marking for components and libraries that other archetypes compose but humans shouldn't render directly:

catalog:
  org-prompts:
    description: "Organization prompt component"
    source: "git@github.com:acme/org-prompts-component.git"
    show: false

Hidden entries still appear in archetect ls -a / search -a (that's what the flag is for).

Descriptions and metadata matter

Catalog manifests carry the same metadata as any archetype — description, summary, languages, frameworks, tags — and archetect search indexes all of it, along with each entry's description. Well-described entries are the difference between a searchable catalog and a junk drawer.

Full schema: Catalog Manifest reference.