RailDock supports repository-level manifests including raildock.toml, railway.toml, and app.json. A manifest describes project state that can be parsed, compared with current state, previewed, and applied.

1manifest → parse → validate → diff → plan → confirm risky removals → apply → status

RailDock stores the manifest content and format, tracks synchronization/application timestamps, and exposes drift information so automation does not have to infer whether declared and actual state still match.

Treat preview as part of the normal workflow. The apply endpoint may require explicit confirmation for planned removals, so a CI job should not assume every desired-state change is safe to apply unattended.