Publish ksail & ksail-desktop casks to official homebrew/cask tap (blocked on notability)

[devantler]

Goal

Publish both Homebrew casks — ksail (CLI) and ksail-desktop (GUI) — to Homebrew's official homebrew/cask tap, so users can brew install --cask ksail / ksail-desktop without tapping the third-party devantler-tech/homebrew-tap first.

Scope decision: everything ships as a cask to homebrew/cask. We will not publish anything to homebrew/core (no formula). homebrew/core requires building from source under a DFSG/OSI open-source license, which KSail's PolyForm Shield 1.0.0 (source-available, non-compete) does not satisfy — and we are not relicensing to pursue it. homebrew/cask imposes no license restriction, so it is our only official target, for both artifacts.

This is a tracking issue. We cannot submit yet — see blockers below. Revisit when the criteria are met.

Current state

Both ship as casks to devantler-tech/homebrew-tap and the release pipeline drives them to merge automatically:

• ksail cask — .goreleaser.yaml (homebrew_casks:), a binary-only cask (binary "ksail", macOS + Linux tarballs)
• ksail-desktop cask — .goreleaser.desktop.yaml, a GUI cask (app "KSail.app", macOS arm64)
• .github/workflows/cd.yaml homebrew job — promotes both draft cask PRs and merges them post-publish

The destination changes (third-party tap → homebrew/cask); the artifact shape does not — both stay casks. Nothing becomes a homebrew/core formula.

Blockers

1. Notability — blocks BOTH (the gating blocker)

Homebrew rejects "obscure" submissions. Because we are the project maintainers, the self-submission (3×) thresholds apply — meeting any one clears it:

Metric	Self-submit threshold	Current
Stars	≥ 225	147
Forks	≥ 90	10
Watchers	≥ 90	2

We currently meet none. (A non-affiliated community member could submit at the lower 75★ / 30-fork / 30-watcher bar — 147★ would pass — but that cannot be self-driven.)

2. ksail CLI cask — binary-only-cask policy risk

homebrew/cask policy says an open-source, CLI-only cask (uses only the binary artifact) "should be a homebrew/core formula instead." Our ksail cask is exactly that shape (binary "ksail"), so reviewers may push back and try to redirect it to core.

Our position: core is off the table — PolyForm Shield is not a DFSG/OSI license and we are not relicensing — so the CLI cannot become a core formula. We will therefore pursue the ksail CLI as a cask on homebrew/cask, making the case that, since a core formula is impossible under our license, the binary cask is the only viable official-tap form for it. If reviewers ultimately reject the CLI cask, the fallback is to keep it on the third-party tap (we do not relicense as a workaround). ksail-desktop (a real GUI app cask) is unaffected by this policy point.

3. ksail-desktop — code-signing / notarization

The desktop cask strips quarantine on install (xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine, .goreleaser.desktop.yaml) because KSail.app is unsigned and un-notarized. Cask reviewers flag apps that don't pass Gatekeeper. Before submitting, sign + notarize the .app (Apple Developer ID) so the quarantine hack is unnecessary.

Acceptance criteria (revisit when all true)

• Repo notability clears the self-submission bar (≥ 225★ or ≥ 90 forks or ≥ 90 watchers) — or a non-affiliated contributor volunteers to submit at the 75★ bar
• ksail-desktop .app is code-signed + notarized (Developer ID), quarantine-strip hook removed
• Submit ksail CLI cask to Homebrew/homebrew-cask (argue the binary-cask case; fall back to the third-party tap if rejected — no relicensing)
• Submit ksail-desktop cask to Homebrew/homebrew-cask
• Nothing submitted to homebrew/core — no formula, no relicensing of the CLI
• Keep the third-party devantler-tech/homebrew-tap as a fallback/mirror

References

• Homebrew — Acceptable Casks: https://docs.brew.sh/Acceptable-Casks
• Homebrew — Acceptable Formulae (license + notability): https://docs.brew.sh/Acceptable-Formulae
• License: LICENSE (PolyForm Shield 1.0.0)