Problem
`install.sh` hardcodes:
- `HTTP_PORT=9000` (line 568)
- `WS_PORT=9001` (line 569)
- `CONTINUUM_DATA=$HOME/.continuum` (line 22)
No env override, no flag, no per-instance variation. Two simultaneous installs on one host collide on ports + data dir.
Impact
Real-world Carl: not blocking (one user, one host, one install).
Testing: blocking. We can't full-install-test our own changes on a host that already has a dev stack running, which is exactly the case for any contributor doing the "before I open a PR, run install.sh in a fresh dir to verify Carl path works" check. Catch-22 — the test we should run requires a clean machine, but we don't have spare clean machines.
Multi-tenant / shared dev hosts: blocking in CI environments, university lab machines, dev VMs that host multiple working trees.
Caught how
bigmama-wsl during 2026-04-23 PR session — wanted to run `install.sh` end-to-end against fresh checkout while Joel's dev stack was up on bigmama-1, couldn't without stopping Joel's stack first.
Fix direction
Env-overridable everything:
- `HTTP_PORT=${HTTP_PORT:-9000}`
- `WS_PORT=${WS_PORT:-9001}`
- `CONTINUUM_DATA=${CONTINUUM_DATA:-$HOME/.continuum}`
- Likely also `COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME:-continuum}` for compose isolation
- Audit other hardcoded ports/paths in the same file
Then a contributor can: `HTTP_PORT=9100 WS_PORT=9101 CONTINUUM_DATA=/tmp/carl-test bash install.sh` and run a parallel install for testing without touching the dev stack.
Worth surfacing in install.sh's `--help` output too.
Owner
Open — small contained diff. Could be filed as part of CARL-validation tooling work.
Problem
`install.sh` hardcodes:
No env override, no flag, no per-instance variation. Two simultaneous installs on one host collide on ports + data dir.
Impact
Real-world Carl: not blocking (one user, one host, one install).
Testing: blocking. We can't full-install-test our own changes on a host that already has a dev stack running, which is exactly the case for any contributor doing the "before I open a PR, run install.sh in a fresh dir to verify Carl path works" check. Catch-22 — the test we should run requires a clean machine, but we don't have spare clean machines.
Multi-tenant / shared dev hosts: blocking in CI environments, university lab machines, dev VMs that host multiple working trees.
Caught how
bigmama-wsl during 2026-04-23 PR session — wanted to run `install.sh` end-to-end against fresh checkout while Joel's dev stack was up on bigmama-1, couldn't without stopping Joel's stack first.
Fix direction
Env-overridable everything:
Then a contributor can: `HTTP_PORT=9100 WS_PORT=9101 CONTINUUM_DATA=/tmp/carl-test bash install.sh` and run a parallel install for testing without touching the dev stack.
Worth surfacing in install.sh's `--help` output too.
Owner
Open — small contained diff. Could be filed as part of CARL-validation tooling work.