Handing a scenario over

A .hippo bundle is a configuration plus every file it reads, in one artefact. It exists for the case where a schema reads an external spreadsheet: the .yaml alone is not enough to reproduce the data, and a bundle makes it enough again.

Export

File → Export bundle… writes a single .hippo holding the configuration and every file it reads.

Two columns reading the same file store it once, and same-named files from different folders are kept apart. The output path is reduced to a bare file name, so it does not point at a folder that only exists on your machine.

Exporting the same configuration twice produces an identical bundle - it is a function of its contents, not of when it was made - so you can tell whether two people have the same scenario by comparing checksums.

Open one

File → Import bundle… asks where to unpack, then opens the schema from there. If the folder already contains files, you are warned before anything is written - you can continue or pick somewhere else.

After unpacking you have an ordinary folder with an ordinary .yaml in it. Nothing about it stays special.

From the command line

The command-line tool takes a bundle directly:

hippodatamus-cli --config scenario.hippo

It unpacks to a temporary folder, generates, and cleans up. So handing someone one file really is enough - they need nothing else present.

A transport format, not a working format

A bundle is written on export and unpacked on import. In between you work with plain YAML, and saving writes YAML - re-export when it is time to hand over again.

Every file in a bundle is checksummed and verified on unpack, so a corrupted or tampered bundle is refused rather than silently producing different data.

A bundle records each source's file name only, never the path it came from - an absolute path would bake your username and folder layout into a file you send to other people.