Marlin/roadmap.md

Here’s the updated roadmap with each new feature slotted in where its dependencies are best met:

Phase	Focus	Why now?	Key deliverables
1. 2025-Q2 – “Bedrock”	Migrations + CI baseline + core schema	We’ve stabilized migrations; now add foundational tables for links, groups, views	• CI: cargo test + cargo sqlx migrate run --dry-run • New migrations:

• links(src_file,dst_file,link_type)
• collections(name) + collection_files
• views(name,query)
  • CLI stubs for marlin link / unlink / list-links / backlinks, marlin coll and marlin view | | 2. 2025-Q2 | Leaner FTS maintenance | Per-row triggers don’t scale past ~100 k files | • Replace per-row triggers with a “dirty” flag + periodic rebuild
  • Benchmark end-to-end on 100 k files | | 2.1 2025-Q2 | Dirty-row FTS + CI | Prep for both scale and live-watcher—avoid full rebuilds on every change | • scan --dirty reindexes only changed files
  • CI coverage for dirty-scan edge cases | | 2.2 2025-Q2 | Live file watching | Offer true “working-dir” mode—auto-scan on FS events | • marlin watch [dir] via notify crate
  • Incremental scan on create/modify/delete/rename | | 2.3 2025-Q2 | Self-pruning backups | Instant protection and bounded storage—no manual snapshot cleanup | • marlin backup --prune <N> flag
  • Post-scan hook to prune to latest 10
  • Daily prune automation (cron or CI) | | 3. 2025-Q3 | FTS5 content indexing & annotations | Full-text search over file bodies + per-file notes/highlights | • Add files.content column + migration
  • Extend files_fts to include content
  • New annotations table + FTS triggers
  • CLI: marlin annotate add|list | | 4. 2025-Q3 | Content hashing, dedup & versioning | Detect duplicates, track history, enable diffs | • Populate files.hash with SHA-256
  • scan --rehash option
  • CLI: marlin version diff <file> | | 5. 2025-Q3 | Tag aliases/canonicals & semantic/AI enhancements | Control tag sprawl and lay groundwork for AI-driven suggestions | • Enforce canonical_id on tags + tag alias add|ls|rm CLI
  • Create embeddings table
  • scan --embed to generate vectors
  • CLI: marlin tag suggest, marlin summary <file>, marlin similarity scan | | 6. 2025-Q4 | Search DSL v2 & Smart Views | More powerful query grammar + reusable “virtual folders” | • Replace ad-hoc parser with a nom-based grammar
  • CLI: marlin view save|list|exec | | 7. 2025-Q4 | Attribute templates, states, tasks & timeline | Structured metadata unlocks workflows, reminders & temporal context | • templates + template_fields tables + validation
  • CLI:
• marlin state set|transitions add|state log
• marlin task scan|task list
• marlin remind set <file> <ts> "<msg>"
• marlin event add <file> <date> "<desc>", marlin timeline | | 8. 2026-Q1 | Dolphin read-only plugin | Surface metadata, links, annotations in native file manager | • Qt sidebar showing tags, attributes, links, annotations | | 9. 2026-Q1 | Full edit UI | After proving read-only stable, add in-place editing | • Tag editor, collection & view managers, state/task/event dialogs | | 10. 2026-Q2 | Multi-device sync | Final frontier: optional sync/replication layer | • Choose sync backend (rqlite / Litestream / bespoke)
  • Support read-only mounts for remote indexes |

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Current sprint (ends 2025-06-01)

1. FTS rebuild prototype (dirty-rows) – measure on 50 k files
2. backup --prune implementation + auto-prune hook
3. Integration tests for tag/attr workflows on Windows via GitHub Actions
4. New: basic links, collections, views migrations + CLI stubs

Development principles remain:

• Local-first, offline-capable
• Ship code = ship migrations
• Instrumentation first (trace spans & timings on all new commands)