The catalog

The template catalog index, its entries, how it is built with pack catalog, and how pack list reads it.

Since 0.6.0.

What it is

The catalog is a static index of packs (routineos.catalog.v1) built from the bundled templates into site/templates/: one <id>.json pack file per template and an index.json listing them.

Why it exists

People need to see what packs exist, what each does and needs, and get a file they can verify, without running anything. A static index does that, and the RoutineOS MCP serves the same index to Claude.

How it works

routineos.py pack catalog [--check]
routineos.py pack list <index-file-or-url>

• pack catalog writes site/templates/<id>.json and site/templates/index.json. --check fails when they are stale.
• pack list prints the entries of an index from a file or an https URL. The index is at most 1 MiB.

The index is {format, templates: [entry]}, sorted by id. Each entry:

JSON Schemas (draft 2020-12) are published next to it: site/templates/schema/pack.v1.schema.json and site/templates/schema/catalog.v1.schema.json.

Worked example

The jobs-watch entry in the built index, shortened:

{"format": "routineos.catalog.v1", "templates": [
  {"id": "jobs-watch", "version": "1.0.0", "title": "Jobs watch", "category": "sales", "maturity": "piloted",
   "type": "watch", "schedule": "0 22 * * 1,4", "path": "jobs-watch.json", "bytes": 15882, "sha256": "0b7576988a579f12...",
   "connectors": [{"id": "web-search", "label": "Web search", "required": true},
                  {"id": "web", "label": "Web fetch", "required": true},
                  {"id": "mail", "label": "Mail", "required": false}]}
]}

summary and inspiration are left out above, and the hash is cut short. bytes and sha256 change whenever the pack changes.

Common pitfalls

• Installing without checking sha256. Compare it when the pack came from somewhere other than the index’s own host.
• Editing site/templates/ by hand. Rebuild with pack catalog.

Related

• Install a pack
• The RoutineOS MCP