Naming: One Brand, One Contract

TL;DR

Everything is animus. There is no legacy ao.* prefix. The CLI binary, the plugin protocol, MCP tool names, environment variables, configuration directories, pack ids, JSON envelopes, crate prefixes, and standalone plugin repositories all use the animus name.

This is a v0.4.0 hard cut. v0.3.x used ao.* for several internal surfaces during a partial rebrand; v0.4.0 finishes the rename in one go. There are no deprecation aliases. Existing v0.3.x users migrate their working state once, manually, using the migration steps in docs/migration/v0.3-to-v0.4.md.

The catalog

Every public surface uses the animus name:

Surface	Convention	Examples
CLI binary	animus	animus subject next --kind task, animus workflow run, animus daemon start
Daemon binary	animus (subcommand today; animusd reserved)	animus daemon start --autonomous
MCP tool namespace	animus.*	animus.subject.create, animus.workflow.run, animus.plugin.call
Environment variables	ANIMUS_*	ANIMUS_CONFIG_DIR, ANIMUS_PLUGIN_PATH, ANIMUS_RUNNER_SCOPE
Project-local config dir	.animus/	.animus/config.json, .animus/workflows.yaml, .animus/plugins/
Scoped runtime state	~/.animus/<repo-scope>/	runs, artifacts, compiled config, state machines
Pack ids	animus.*	animus.task, animus.review, animus.requirement
JSON output schema envelope	animus.cli.v1	every --json response carries "schema": "animus.cli.v1"
Plugin protocol host name	animus	host announces itself as animus on initialize
Rust workspace crates (in-tree)	orchestrator-* (existing) and animus-* (new)	orchestrator-cli, orchestrator-core, animus-provider-mock, animus-plugin-smoke
Standalone plugin repos	animus-{kind}-{name}	animus-subject-linear, animus-provider-claude, animus-trigger-slack
Standalone plugin binaries	animus-{kind}-{name}	the binary name matches the repo name
Standalone plugin crates	animus-{kind}-{name}	published to crates.io under the same name
Documentation voice	animus	guides, reference, README, marketing

One name across every surface. No translation table required.

Why one name now

v0.3.x kept dual surfaces because changing the wire-level names mid-rebrand would have broken external integrations (MCP clients, CI scripts, packs). By v0.4.0 the user base is small enough that a hard cut costs less than maintaining the dual surface forever, and the rename is a precondition for treating Animus as an ecosystem rather than a tool: external plugin authors, multi-language SDK maintainers, and alternative orchestrator implementations should encounter one name, not two.

Hard cut beats deprecation aliases here because there is no significant fleet to migrate. v0.4.0 is the inflection point where the brand commits to itself.

Migration from v0.3.x

Every v0.3.x install needs three local actions before running v0.4.0. There is no automatic migration tool because the rename touches user filesystem state and shell environment in ways the daemon cannot safely modify on its own.

# 1. Per project repo
mv .ao .animus

# 2. Scoped runtime state
mv ~/.ao ~/.animus

# 3. Shell environment (zsh shown; adapt for bash, fish)
sed -i '' 's/AO_/ANIMUS_/g' ~/.zshrc

In addition:

• Update any .mcp.json files that reference ao.task.* (or any ao.* tool name) to use the animus.* namespace. The full rename table is in docs/migration/v0.3-to-v0.4.md.
• Update CI pipelines that reference AO_* env vars or .ao/ paths.
• Plugins built against v0.3.x crate names (ao-provider-*, ao-plugin-protocol) need a single-character rename in Cargo.toml and a recompile.

For integrators

If you write code that calls Animus, use the animus.* names. They are the only names. There is no fallback path.

• MCP clients bind to animus.subject.*, animus.workflow.*, animus.daemon.*, etc. See MCP Tools.
• Shell scripts and CI read and set ANIMUS_* environment variables. See Configuration.
• Project automation treats .animus/ and ~/.animus/<repo-scope>/ as the canonical state locations.
• Plugin packs declare animus.* pack ids and depend on animus.* subject kinds.
• JSON consumers validate against the animus.cli.v1 envelope. See JSON Envelope Contract.

If these surfaces ever rename again, it would be a v2.0+ break, and that is not on any roadmap. Treat the animus.* names as stable from v0.4.0 onward.

For contributors

When you add a new surface, the rule is: it uses the animus name.

• New MCP tool: name it animus.<group>.<verb> (for example, animus.queue.reorder).
• New environment variable: prefix it ANIMUS_ (for example, ANIMUS_RUNNER_BUILD_ID).
• New CLI command: invoked as animus <command>. The subcommand text itself uses ordinary words.
• New first-party pack: id is animus.<name>.
• New standalone plugin repo: repo is animus-<kind>-<name>, binary inside is animus-<kind>-<name>, crate published as animus-<kind>-<name>.
• New state file: keep it under .animus/ or ~/.animus/<repo-scope>/. No parallel paths.

The intent is structural: one name per surface, the same name everywhere, forever.

Related

• MCP Tools -- animus.* tool names
• Configuration -- ANIMUS_* environment variables
• Data Layout -- .animus/ and ~/.animus/<repo-scope>/ layout
• JSON Envelope Contract -- the animus.cli.v1 schema
• Plugin Pack Kernel -- animus.task, animus.review, animus.requirement pack ids
• Migration: v0.3 to v0.4 -- the rename + plugin extraction migration