Extend advanced grammer to all keys of snapcraft
Metadata
Current evaluation
Advanced grammar remains limited to selected keys, limiting clean architecture-specific apps, part omission, and plugin parameters. The feature is untriaged; plugin-parameter support is tracked in craft-application #985.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The report provides concrete YAML for architecture-specific apps, skipping parts, and cmake-parameters, but Snapcraft's current processor enumerates only six part keys and apply_yaml does not process top-level apps. The issue has no labels or maintainer assessment, and its sole comment only cross-references the still-open canonical/craft-application#985 for plugin parameters.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
55
Quick Win:
12
Complexity:
68
Confidence:
93
Actionability:
70
Issue body
I believe the advanced grammar should be usable throughout the complete snapcraft.yaml. Projects targeting multiple architectures currently requires maintaining multiple manifests for multiple architectures. An example pain point is, consider, there are 3 services, only 1 needs to run in both amd64 and arm64, the other 2 are exclusive to only one architecture, how can one handle that?
```yaml
app1:
command: app1
daemon: simple
restart-condition: always
restart-delay: 5s
app2:
command: app2
daemon: simple
restart-condition: always
restart-delay: 5s
after:
- on amd64:
- app1
app3:
command: app3
daemon: simple
restart-condition: always
restart-delay: 5s
after:
- on arm64:
- app1
```
I believe this should be fairly simple. Also, another scenario, where I just don't want to build a particular part in one architecture, currently I'll have to do this
```yaml
part:
override-build: |
if [ "${CRAFT_ARCH_BUILD_FOR}" == "arm64" ]; then
echo "skipping..."
else
craftctl default
fi
```
But I think this not really a very clean solution. Also, I believe using the advanced grammar on keys like cmake-parameters is also essential and is fairly simple. The current solution is very hacky
```yaml
part:
cmake-parameters:
- -DPI=${PI}
- -DX86=${X86}
build-environment:
- on arm64:
- PI: "ON"
- X86: "OFF"
- on amd64:
- X86: "ON"
- PI_SNAP: "OFF"
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
55
Quick Win:
12
Complexity:
68
Confidence:
93
Actionability:
70
|
needs triage | Advanced grammar remains limited to selected keys, limiting clean architecture-specific apps, part omission, and plugin parameters. The feature is untriaged; plugin-parameter support is tracked in craft-application #985. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
50
Quick Win:
21
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
75
Actionability:
70
|
needs triage | Feature request to extend advanced grammar (on/to/try) to all snapcraft.yaml keys including plugin parameters like cmake-parameters. Untriaged, open for 208 days. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
16
Staleness:
55
Complexity:
65
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
15
|
needs triage | Request to extend advanced grammar (on/to/else) to all snapcraft.yaml keys (apps, plugin params like cmake-parameters, per-arch part skipping). Grammar currently limited to 6 part keys. Unlabeled; cross-referenced to craft-application#985. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
55
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to extend conditional advanced grammar syntax to all snapcraft.yaml keys to avoid multiple manifests or shell workarounds. Open for 148 days with no maintainer response or labels. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
55
Complexity:
65
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to extend conditional advanced grammar syntax across all snapcraft.yaml keys for multi-arch builds. Currently unlabelled and awaiting maintainer assessment. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
canonical/craft-application#985
(confidence 98%)
The sole issue comment explicitly links it as the location for advanced grammar support in plugin parameters; that issue is open and triaged in craft-application.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #985 Support Snapcraft advanced grammar in plugin parameters? | craft-application | open | Enhancement to apply advanced grammar to dynamically named plugin parameters; acknowledged as valid, clearly reproduced, and still awaiting implementation and tests. | |
| #5995 Documentation doesn't describe which keys can use advanced grammar | snapcraft | open | Documentation gap: snapcraft's advanced grammar reference page doesn't list which keys support it. A volunteer (@caglarkc) has been assigned by a maintainer (@mr-cal) to document the supported keys. | |
| #1684 Vendor grammar logic into snapcraft | snapcraft | closed | Advanced grammar was extracted to craft-grammar and adopted by Snapcraft in #3642 (merge 943d130c2), superseding the planned in-tree refactor. | |
| #5255 With the advanced grammar, only the last `- to` clause is respected | snapcraft | open | Open, triaged Snapcraft bug: multiple advanced-grammar `to` clauses do not behave correctly, causing architecture-inappropriate packages and armhf build failures. Upstream craft-grammar#89 remains open. |