QuadletLens

QuadletLens is a Rust library for parsing, modeling, validating, and rendering Podman Quadlet files across supported Podman versions.

It combines a source-aware Quadlet document model with a data-driven capability catalogue so callers can answer not only “is this valid Quadlet?” but also “for which Podman and systemd environments is this valid?”

Goals

• Parse all supported Quadlet unit types and their shared systemd sections.
• Preserve comments, ordering, repeated keys, continuations, specifiers, and unknown fields where practical.
• Expose a typed native Quadlet model without losing the source document.
• Render preservation-oriented and deterministic canonical output.
• Validate against explicit Podman version ranges and relevant systemd capabilities.
• Describe native support, deprecation, removal, known bugs, and available Podman-argument fallbacks.
• Model relationships between multiple Quadlet files.
• Attach evidence and tests to every compatibility claim.

Non-goals

• Running or installing Quadlet files
• Reimplementing Podman or systemd
• Parsing arbitrary generated systemd service files as Quadlet
• Converting Compose or Kubernetes directly to Quadlet
• Defining BoxFerry's cross-format conversion policy

Cross-format conversion belongs to BoxFerry. Compose handling belongs to ComposeLens.

Planned processing levels

source text
  → loss-aware unit document
  → typed Quadlet document set
  → dependency graph
  → target-version validation
  → rendered Quadlet files

Documentation

• Documentation index
• Software architecture
• Native typed model
• Native coverage
• Programmatic generation
• Target project structure
• Capability model
• Podman generator matrix
• Testing strategy
• Real-world Quadlet corpus
• Development environment
• API stability policy
• 0.1.9 release notes
• Release policy
• Changelog
• Cross-repository implementation plan
• Roadmap
• Architecture decisions

Repository-specific guidance for coding agents is in AGENTS.md.

Origin

QuadletLens is implemented from scratch. It is not a fork of Podlet and does not copy or mechanically translate Podlet source code.

Stewardship

QuadletLens is created and maintained by Martin “Becks” Beckert through Strukturpiloten OHG. The project is part of Strukturpiloten's work on open, maintainable, and portable container infrastructure.

License

QuadletLens is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.