Formats and endpoint aliases

Three tables. The narrative version is in one document per operating system.

Document extensions

The allowlist of extensions rescriptum will pick up from a store. Anything else is ignored — txt is deliberately not on the list, so a stray notes file next to your answers never becomes a candidate.

Extension	Family	Layering	Content-Type
toml	TOML	structural merge	text/plain; charset=utf-8
yaml, yml	YAML	structural merge	text/yaml; charset=utf-8
json, ign	JSON	structural merge	application/json
xml, autoyast, unattend	XML	structural merge, by element	application/xml; charset=utf-8
ks, cfg, preseed, seed, ipxe	text	concatenation in layer order	text/plain; charset=utf-8

The family is what the log line’s format= field reports, so ks and preseed both appear as format=text. The extension is what an endpoint filters on, and what check needs in order to pick the right validator.

Endpoint aliases

A path segment naming one of these restricts the answer to documents with the listed extensions. Any segment of the path may name it, so /rhel/ks, /ks and /provision/rhel/node.cfg all restrict to kickstart.

Segment	Serves	Typical use
proxmox, pve, toml	.toml	Proxmox VE
debian, preseed	.preseed, .seed	Debian preseed
rhel, centos, fedora, alma, rocky, kickstart, ks	.ks	kickstart
ubuntu, autoinstall, cloudinit, nocloud, yaml, yml	.yaml, .yml	Ubuntu autoinstall, cloud-init
flatcar, coreos, ignition, ign	.ign, .json	Ignition
suse, opensuse, autoyast	.autoyast, .xml	AutoYaST
windows, unattend	.unattend, .xml	Windows unattend.xml
json	.json, .ign
xml	.xml
cfg	.cfg
ipxe	.ipxe

A segment naming none of these constrains nothing, which is why /answer keeps working exactly as it always has.

Two traps in this table

• Filtering is on the extension, not the family. .ks and .preseed are both text documents; filtering by family would let a preseed answer /rhel/ks.
• seed is deliberately not an alias. s=http://server/seed/ is an ordinary NoCloud seed URL, and it serves YAML. An alias has to be specific enough that nobody reaches it by accident. (The .seed extension still exists, and /debian/ serves it.)

Control keys, per format

Stripped before the answer is sent.

Format	Spelling
TOML	top-level extends = "base", members = […], [match] table
YAML	top-level extends:, members:, match:
JSON	top-level "extends", "members", "match"
XML	<answer-meta extends="base"><member>…</member><match k="v" /></answer-meta>
Text	# answer: extends <name> · # answer: member a, b · # answer: match k=v k2=v2

Text directives also accept // as the comment marker. match takes space-separated key=pattern pairs; member a comma-separated list. Ordinary comments in a text document are served — only # answer: lines are removed.

Merge semantics

	Structural formats	Text formats
Maps / objects / elements	merge recursively	—
Scalars	higher layer replaces	—
Arrays / lists	replace, never append	—
Whole document	—	concatenated in layer order

XML pairs siblings by element name plus a discriminating attribute — name, id, key, alias, pass — and honours config:type="list". Declarations, doctypes, namespaces and attributes survive a merge; original indentation and comment placement do not.

Validators check can call

Format	Tool	Invoked as
toml	proxmox-auto-install-assistant	validate-answer <file>
xml, autoyast, unattend	xmllint	--noout <file>
ks	ksvalidator	<file>
everything else	—	none exists

A tool that is not on PATH is reported once as a note, never as a failure.