Prism

Refract complexity into clarity

Configuration inheritance system for managing multi-level development environments

What is Prism?

Prism is a configuration inheritance system that manages complex, multi-level development environments through composable YAML configurations. Like a prism refracts white light into distinct colors, Prism takes organizational complexity and refracts it into clear, manageable configuration layers.

The Problem

Large organizations face configuration chaos:

Complex hierarchies — Fortune 500 companies with 5+ organizational levels
Conflicting requirements — Different teams need different tools, configs, and access
Configuration drift — No single source of truth across thousands of employees
Onboarding friction — New hires waste days configuring their environment

The Solution

Centralized tool registry — Tools defined once in tool-registry.yaml with per-platform install/uninstall commands; child configs reference tools by name only
Configuration inheritance — Define once at company level, override per team
Multi-level hierarchies — Support structures from flat (startups) to 5+ levels (enterprise)
Web UI — Tool selection with categories, inline validation, hover tooltips, platform-aware filtering, and real-time progress
CLI tools — prism install, prism rollback, prism history — scriptable and CI/CD friendly
NPM distribution — Packages published to npm, no custom infrastructure needed
Validation — Config engine validates tool registry (install + uninstall), tool references, and email patterns from YAML
Smart merging — Deep-merge with configurable strategies (union, override, append)
Installation rollback — .prism_rollback.json manifest persisted on install; prism rollback <workspace> reverses all actions
Privilege separation — Two-phase install with sudo session management
No generic fallbacks — Tools without explicit platform install commands are skipped; no guessing

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/andersonwilliam85/prism.git
cd prism
make install-dev
make run
# Opens at http://localhost:5555

Built-in Prisms

Prism	Use Case	Hierarchy	Scale
`prism`	Default (ships as core)	Flat	Any
`startup`	Seed/Series A startups	1 level	10–50
`acme-corp`	Template for companies	2 levels	100–1K
`consulting-firm`	Multi-client work	By client	Variable
`fortune500`	Enterprise	5 levels	50K+
`university`	Academic institutions	Dept to Lab	Variable
`opensource`	Community projects	Flat	Community
`cli-test-prism`	CLI testing fixture	Flat	Testing

Each prism includes custom themes, cascading user fields, a centralized tool registry, and rollback configuration.

Architecture

Prism follows a VBD-inspired (Volatility-Based Decomposition) layered architecture:

Managers — Orchestration — the “what”
Engines — Business logic — the “how” (includes config_engine, installation_engine, rollback_engine)
Accessors — External boundaries — the “where”
Utilities — Cross-cutting services
Models — Plain dataclasses

All wiring via dependency injection in container.py. See Architecture.

Key Features

Tool Registry — Centralized tool definitions with categories
Themes & Customization — 5 built-in + custom themes
Cascading Dropdowns — Dynamic field dependencies
Rollback System — .prism_rollback.json manifest + CLI/UI rollback
Privilege Separation — Sudo session management
Config Inheritance — Multi-level merge strategies
Local Docs Server — Post-install workspace browser

Supported Platforms

macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon)
Windows 10/11
Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian, Fedora, RHEL)
WSL2

License

Prism — Refract complexity into clarity
Made by William Anderson