msd-core/docs/how-to/list-your-reviewer-lane.md

How to list your reviewer lane in the registry

Goal: Get a reviewer lane you have built into the Reviewer Lane Registry, so other people can find it, install it, and give you feedback.

Prerequisites: A working lane in a public repository, with a tagged release. If you have not built one yet, start with Ship a reviewer lane in your capability. MSD 1.9.1 or later.

Listing is a documentation PR against msd-core. There is no separate account, package publish, or approval queue — you append one JSON object, regenerate a catalog, and open a PR.

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Check you are aiming at the right catalog

MSD has three discoverability catalogs, and picking the wrong one costs you a review round-trip. Pick by what your capability is, not by what it does:

Your capability	Catalog	Source file
A lane and nothing else — role: "reviewer", MSD never installs into it	Reviewer Lane Registry	docs/registries/reviewers.json
A runtime MSD installs into, that also carries a reviewer body	Whichever matches its primary install shape — usually the Capability or EoS registry	capabilities.json / eos.json
A feature capability attaching at Loop Extension Points	Community Capability Registry	docs/registries/capabilities.json

The Reviewer Lane Registry exists specifically for lanes that are not install targets in their own right. If your capability is a host integration that happens to review as well, it belongs under its primary shape — do not list it twice.

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Open the discussion thread first

The discussion field is required, so the thread has to exist before you open the PR. Doing this second is the most common way to get sent back.

Start an open-ended discussion in the EoS Registry category. Despite the name, that category carries threads for all three catalogs. One thread per entry; it is where upvotes, experience reports, and your follow-up live.

Keep the URL — it goes straight into the entry.

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Write your entry

Append exactly one object to docs/registries/reviewers.json:

{
  "id": "acme-review-lane",
  "name": "Acme Review Lane",
  "type": "reviewer",
  "repo": "some-org/msd-lane-acme",
  "description": "Adds an Acme-hosted model as an external reviewer lane for /msd-review, evaluating diffs against Acme's static-analysis findings.",
  "author": "Some Org <hello@some-org.example>",
  "license": "MIT",
  "enginesMsd": ">=1.9.1",
  "install": "msd capability install https://github.com/some-org/msd-lane-acme.git#v1.0.0",
  "uninstall": "msd capability remove acme-review-lane",
  "interactions": {
    "slug": "acme",
    "flags": ["--acme"],
    "transport": "openai-http",
    "evidenceClass": "diff-only",
    "reviewsSection": "## Acme Review",
    "requiresBinaries": [],
    "configKeys": ["acme.api_key"],
    "runtimeCompat": ["all"]
  },
  "discussion": "https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/discussions/1236"
}

Three fields reject entries more often than the rest, so check them before anything else:

• interactions.slug must equal your manifest's reviewer.slug and follows the lane grammar ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*$ — underscores and a leading digit are allowed (lm_studio, 4o-mini). This is not the same grammar as the top-level id, which is kebab-only.
• interactions.flags are kebab even when the slug is snake: lm_studio → --lm-studio. Each must match ^--[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$.
• install and uninstall must be exact and copy-pasteable. Someone will paste them verbatim; a placeholder that does not run is the one thing a directory cannot tolerate.

If a configKeys entry holds a live credential, say so in your README. The example above declares acme.api_key to show the shape, and that shape has a consequence worth understanding before you copy it. Config values are written in plaintext to .planning/config.json — masking applies to display only, and that file is the security boundary. planning.commit_docs defaults to true, so unless the installing user has gitignored .planning/, a credential stored that way lands in their repository. None of the twelve first-party lanes stores a credential this way; they own only review.models.*, host, and prompt-budget keys. If your lane genuinely needs a secret, document the exposure for your users rather than leaving them to discover it — and never invent your own storage side-channel to route around it.

Everything else follows the shared entry shape. For the complete field-by-field table, see the registry specification.

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Regenerate the catalog

Never hand-edit docs/registries/reviewer-registry.md — it is generated, and a drift gate will fail your PR:

npm run gen:registry

Commit both the JSON source and the regenerated markdown.

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Open the PR

Branch as docs/<issue#>-<slug>, and use the registry-entry PR template.

One entry, one PR. Do not bundle additions, updates, or removals together.

A maintainer checks one thing: whether the entry is a real, linkable solution with every required field present. It is not a quality review — inclusion is explicitly not an endorsement, and entries are removed only for illegal content, malware, spam, or a dead link. Nobody will reject your lane for design decisions they would have made differently.

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Ship new versions without touching the registry

Register once. Your GitHub Releases are the update channel from then on.

Each entry embeds a live shields.io badge and a permalink to your repository's latest release, rendered directly by GitHub's markdown viewer. Cutting v1.1.0 updates what visitors see with no follow-up PR.

The one thing worth revisiting is enginesMsd — if a later version of your lane starts depending on a newer MSD, update that range so the catalog does not advertise compatibility you no longer support.

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Related

• Ship a reviewer lane in your capability — build the lane you are listing
• Registry specification — the full entry schema, non-endorsement stance, and removal policy
• Reviewer Lane Registry — the generated catalog itself
• Publish a capability — versioning, engines.msd, and distribution