the language
nika
The file's NAME · kebab-case · and the mark that says « this is a nika file ». One word, one meaning across both document types: `nika.yaml` carries the PROJECT name, a `*.nika.yaml` carries the WORKFLOW name. The document TYPE is read from `tasks:` — present means workflow, absent means project — so it survives a blob, a paste or an HTTP body where the filename does not travel. This key held the literal `v1` until the envelope nuke; it carried zero bits as a version (there is no `nika: v2` — ever) and now carries the file's most necessary field instead. One of 59 words the served contract declares, projected from workflow.schema.json, the same file your editor validates against.
- 1surfaceenvelope
- 1required inenvelope
- stringtypethe declared shape
- 10skeletonscarry this key
the contract
1 declarationDescriptions are the schema's own; the deeper invariants (value languages and regexes) ride the same projection. A miss is a nika check finding before anything runs.
- envelope*
stringThe file's NAME · kebab-case · and the mark that says « this is a nika file ». One word, one meaning across both document types: `nika.yaml` carries the PROJECT name, a `*.nika.yaml` carries the WORKFLOW name. The document TYPE is read from `tasks:` — present means workflow, absent means project — so it survives a blob, a paste or an HTTP body where the filename does not travel. This key held the literal `v1` until the envelope nuke; it carried zero bits as a version (there is no `nika: v2` — ever) and now carries the file's most necessary field instead.the file itself^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$
in a real file
from the chain skeletonnika: chain-template # SLOT: kebab-case workflow ida verbatim slice, real line numbers from chain.nika.yaml, conformance-gated upstream on every spec push. open the full skeleton →
cross-references
skeletons that carry it
the check gates that name it
defined by
The whole grammar in one place: the four verbs · the standard library · the spec. Try it in the playground. Read the reference →