ADR-0003: Project name: Shiin

Note

Architecture decision: accepted.

• Date: 2026-09-14
• Deciders: Founding maintainer
• Supersedes: none
• Superseded by: none
• Related: ADR index, Documentation style guide, Overview

Context and problem statement

The project began under the working name “latch.” As it moved from a private sketch to a public specification, a permanent name was needed that conveys the project’s role: it stops an agent, briefly, to ask whether an action is permitted. The name must be pronounceable, memorable, and free of collisions on crates.io and standard domain names.

Decision drivers

• The name should evoke stopping or gating, without suggesting isolation or a blunt refusal of everything.
• It must not collide with an existing high-profile crate or domain.
• It should be language-neutral enough for an agent-agnostic tool.

Considered options

1. Keep “latch” as the permanent name.
2. “Gate” — conveys the gating function directly.
3. “Shiin” — the Japanese word for the conceptual barrier that blocks or permits.

Decision outcome

Chosen option: “Shiin”, because it conveys the gating role in an understated, memorable way and is free of known collisions at the time of writing.

• The binary is shiin, the daemon is shiind, matching the convention described in the glossary.
• The former name “latch” may appear only in this record and in the landscape, as enforced by cargo xtask docs-check.

Consequences

• Good, because the project has a distinctive, non-colliding name.
• Bad, because existing references to the old name in discussions need updating.

Confirmation

• cargo xtask docs-check rejects the former working name outside the two allowed pages.

Pros and cons of the options

Keep “latch”

• Good, because no migration of references is needed.
• Bad, because the name does not convey the gating role, and it is already used as a GitHub organization name (latchagent/latch, verified 2026-09-14).

“Gate”

• Good, because it is short and directly descriptive.
• Bad, because it is a common word with many existing packages and domains, and it implies a single point of control rather than layers.

“Shiin”

• Good, because it is distinctive and pronounceable.
• Bad, because readers outside Japanese-speaking contexts may not know the meaning.

More information

The name change does not affect the technical design. See ADR-0004 for the licensing implications of the rename.