Decision 0002 — Project name: exocomp

Project name exocomp, after the Control D collision ruled out the working name.

Status

Accepted · 2026-08-21

Context

The design work was carried out under the working name control, with a daemon named controld. A collision check before any name was published found:

  • Windscribe's Control D DNS service ships an open-source daemon literally named ctrld — one-liner router installs, a Docker image, aimed at the same homelab audience. A binary named controld would be a standing source of confusion in exactly the forums, issue trackers, and search results this project's users live in.
  • control.dev and controld.dev are both already registered.
  • In Star Trek, "Control" is the Section 31 rogue AI — the wrong omen for a daemon whose thesis is refusing destructive commands.

The short alias exo was also checked and collides with the exo-lang compiler.

Decision

The project is exocomp.

Surface Value
Canonical domain exocomp.dev (registered)
Daemon exocompd
CLI exocomp
Installer get.exocomp.dev

The CLI is never aliased to exo.

The name is chosen for fit, not flavour: the exocomps of The Quality of Life are small self-directed repair units that maintain station infrastructure autonomously — and famously refuse orders that would destroy them. Autonomous maintenance with built-in refusal of destructive commands is this design's thesis: queue-enforced guardrails, default-deny on destructive runbook kinds, approval gates.

Consequences

  • The namespace was verified clean in the infrastructure tooling space; exocomp.dev and exocomp.sh were both unregistered at check time, and the former is now held.
  • Every artifact name in the design carries over mechanically: exocomp.db, the exocomp doctor command, the exocomp container and volume units.
  • The pre-rename documents — the research notes, the three candidate designs, and the critique — keep the working name "control" and are not rewritten. They are records of a process, not living specs. They are archived in the exocomp design phase of the lab wiki, which is the only place the old name appears.