> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://prism.ntecdev.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Retro: Phase 3.5 — Personal install + cross-platform parity

> Phase 3.5 — Personal install + cross-platform parity

<Info>**Phase:** Phase 3.5 — Personal install + cross-platform parity · **Status:** `closed` · Filed 2026-04-16</Info>

## What Worked

* Multi-stage build with model bake — 88MB MiniLM in runtime layer, zero remote fetch on first request
* name: prism-personal in compose — isolated namespace, dev compose unaffected
* Idempotent bootstrap — second boot is no-op, same Prism idiom as other services
* Conditional router mount for personal mode — don't mount OAuth/invites, 404 is default
* Credentials extraction via docker exec — no path translation, works identically cross-platform
* Cross-platform script parity from same session as .ps1 audit
* Build cache discipline — second rebuild under 1s, only COPY . layer re-executed

## What Didn't

* CRED FILE OVERWRITE INCIDENT — first version wrote bootstrap key into credentials.json, clobbered dev OAuth key
* require() in an ESM file — ReferenceError at runtime, caught only at end-to-end test
* Git Bash MSYS path translation — docker exec paths translated, needed MSYS\_NO\_PATHCONV=1
* First compose run silently recreated dev container — same project name collision
* Dev API key bypass refused with ENVIRONMENT=personal — expected but momentarily confusing
* Reminder injection didn't change behavior — noisy system-reminders ignored per instruction

## Lessons

* **\[project]** L12 — Always set explicit name: on a non-default compose file. Two compose files in same dir share default project name
* **\[project]** L13 — Credential files are personal data. Path-clash = footgun. Give each mode a distinct filename
* **\[project]** L14 — In ESM modules, never require(). Always top-level imports
* **\[project]** L15 — Don't ship a .sh you haven't run
* **\[global]** G7 — Pre-bake heavy ML model artifacts into container images. Eliminates first-request latency and runtime model registry dependency
* **\[global]** G8 — Two-file credential split for multi-mode local tools. Each mode gets its own file