diff --git a/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/__init__.py b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbaaf02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+"""Fourteen recipe families, one per way something reaches a machine.
+
+A family is the unit of reuse: adding a tool that installs the way an existing
+tool installs is a manifest edit with no code at all. That property is what
+keeps a 120-entry inventory cheap to grow, and it is why the family is derived
+from the entry's shape rather than declared beside it.
+
+Three families are implemented: ``declare-mcp``, ``artifact`` and
+``npm-global``. Between them they cover 60 of Linux's 105 entries with no
+vendor installer, no GUI session and no model downloads - and they are the two
+categories where the collector does the most inference, so the cheapest half of
+the manifest exercises the most interesting logic.
+
+The other eleven declare themselves and record ``unimplemented``. That is a
+deliberate status: it keeps those entries out of the denominator, and it keeps
+them loud. A harness that silently omitted them would report a recall computed
+over whatever happened to work.
+"""
+
+from typing import Dict, Type
+
+from .base import Outcome, Recipe, Unimplemented
+from .artifact import ArtifactRecipe
+from .declare_mcp import DeclareMcpRecipe
+from .npm_global import NpmGlobalRecipe
+
+#: Families with no implementation yet, and the phase that will bring each in.
+#: Named individually rather than defaulted, so adding a family to the manifest
+#: without a recipe fails loudly instead of inheriting a stub.
+PENDING = {
+    "app-installer": "P2/P3 - 16 vendors, 16 sets of silent flags",
+    "service": "P2 - starts a listener and pulls a model",
+    "channel-variant": "P2 - second installs, after the first ones",
+    "vscode-ext": "P2 - depends on app-installer",
+    "scheduler": "P2 - launchd, cron, systemd, schtasks",
+    "identity": "P3 - baked into the image, not scripted",
+    "baseline-prereq": "P1 - already in the golden image, verified only",
+    "runtime-state": "P2 - processes must stay alive across the scan",
+    "vendor-binary": "P2 - download, chmod, place on PATH",
+    "non-ai-app": "P2 - reuses app-installer / vscode-ext",
+    "pipx": "P2 - one command",
+}
+
+REGISTRY: Dict[str, Type[Recipe]] = {
+    "declare-mcp": DeclareMcpRecipe,
+    "artifact": ArtifactRecipe,
+    "npm-global": NpmGlobalRecipe,
+}
+
+
+def for_family(family: str) -> Recipe:
+    """The recipe that executes this family, or one that records why it cannot."""
+    implementation = REGISTRY.get(family)
+    if implementation is None:
+        return Unimplemented(family, PENDING.get(family, "no recipe registered"))
+    return implementation()
+
+
+__all__ = ["Outcome", "Recipe", "REGISTRY", "PENDING", "for_family"]
diff --git a/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/artifact.py b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/artifact.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45480f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/artifact.py
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+"""``artifact`` - 24 entries, every one of them a file the collector must notice.
+
+Skills, commands, hooks, instruction files, a plugin directory, a malformed
+bundle, two lookalike scripts and a dangling symlink. No installer, no network:
+the whole family is file creation, which is why it is built first alongside
+``declare-mcp``.
+
+Four creation shapes, and the distinction between them matters. ``merge`` is
+not ``file``: two hook entries write the same ``settings.json``, and a recipe
+that overwrote would silently delete the first and report it as a miss.
+"""
+
+import json
+import os
+import posixpath
+from typing import Any, Dict
+
+from .. import bodies, writers
+from .base import Outcome, Recipe
+
+
+class ArtifactRecipe(Recipe):
+    family = "artifact"
+
+    def execute(self, context: Any, entry: Any) -> Outcome:
+        block = entry.create
+        path = context.path_for(entry)
+        if not path:
+            return self._outcome(entry, "failed",
+                                 reason="no %s path for %s" % (context.platform, entry.id))
+        kind = block.get("kind", "file")
+        try:
+            handler = getattr(self, "_" + kind)
+        except AttributeError:
+            return self._outcome(entry, "failed", reason="unknown create kind %r" % kind)
+
+        handler(context, entry, path)
+        if block.get("mode") and context.platform != "win":
+            (context.driver.sudo if entry.privileged else context.driver.run)(
+                ["chmod", block["mode"], path])
+
+        # Verify, always. A write that silently did not land - no permission, a
+        # missing parent, a transport that does not elevate - would otherwise be
+        # recorded `installed`, and the scorer would report the collector missing
+        # a file that was never there. That is the worst failure this harness can
+        # have: it manufactures a defect in the thing it is measuring.
+        if not context.driver.exists(path):
+            return self._outcome(entry, "failed", path=path,
+                                 reason="wrote %s but it is not there afterwards" % path)
+        return self._outcome(entry, "installed", path=path, method="agent_artifact")
+
+    # -- the four shapes ----------------------------------------------
+
+    def _file(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> None:
+        context.driver.write(path, self._body(context, entry, path), privileged=entry.privileged)
+
+    def _directory(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> None:
+        name = posixpath.basename(path.rstrip("/"))
+        for filename, content in bodies.plugin(name).items():
+            context.driver.write(posixpath.join(path.rstrip("/"), filename), content)
+
+    def _merge(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> None:
+        """A hook joins a settings file rather than replacing it."""
+        fragment = bodies.hook(entry.create["event"], context.substitute(entry.create["command"]))
+        existing: Dict[str, Any] = {}
+        if context.driver.exists(path):
+            local = context.scratch_file(path)
+            context.driver.pull(path, local)
+            try:
+                with open(local, encoding="utf-8") as handle:
+                    existing = json.load(handle)
+            except (OSError, ValueError):
+                existing = {}
+        context.driver.write(path, writers.as_json(writers.merge(existing, fragment)))
+
+    def _append(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> None:
+        """AG-12: a key exported from a shell profile that already exists."""
+        addition = bodies.shell_export(entry.create["variable"],
+                                       context.substitute(entry.create["value"]))
+        if context.platform == "win":
+            addition = "\n# %s\n$env:%s = \"%s\"\n" % (
+                bodies.MARKER, entry.create["variable"], context.substitute(entry.create["value"]))
+        existing = ""
+        if context.driver.exists(path):
+            local = context.scratch_file(path)
+            context.driver.pull(path, local)
+            try:
+                with open(local, encoding="utf-8") as handle:
+                    existing = handle.read()
+            except OSError:
+                existing = ""
+        context.driver.write(path, existing + addition)
+
+    def _symlink(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> None:
+        """N-09: a link to a target that does not exist, left dangling on purpose."""
+        target = entry.create["target"]
+        context.driver.mkdir(posixpath.dirname(path), privileged=entry.privileged)
+        if context.platform == "win":
+            context.driver.shell("New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Force -Path %r -Target %r"
+                                 % (path, target))
+        elif entry.privileged:
+            context.driver.sudo(["ln", "-sfn", target, path])
+        else:
+            context.driver.run(["ln", "-sfn", target, path])
+
+    # -- content -------------------------------------------------------
+
+    def _body(self, context: Any, entry: Any, path: str) -> str:
+        name = posixpath.basename(path)
+        stem = os.path.splitext(name)[0]
+        body = entry.create.get("body", "instructions")
+        if body in ("backup_script", "llm_wrapper", "malformed_bundle"):
+            return getattr(bodies, body)()
+        return getattr(bodies, body)(stem)
diff --git a/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/base.py b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3658a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+"""What every recipe is, and the three answers it may give."""
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field
+from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
+
+#: The four statuses `manifest.actual.json` records, and what each means to the
+#: scorer. Only `installed` is scoreable. The rest leave the denominator - but
+#: they leave it *visibly*, because a silently shrinking denominator flatters
+#: every recall number computed after it.
+STATUSES = ("installed", "unavailable", "failed", "unimplemented")
+
+
+@dataclass
+class Outcome:
+    """What actually happened to one entry, as the runner will record it."""
+
+    id: str
+    status: str
+    catalog_id: Optional[str] = None
+    family: str = ""
+    version: Optional[str] = None
+    path: Optional[str] = None
+    method: Optional[str] = None
+    reason: Optional[str] = None
+    extra: Dict[str, Any] = field(default_factory=dict)
+
+    def to_dict(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        row = {"id": self.id, "status": self.status, "family": self.family}
+        for key in ("catalog_id", "version", "path", "method", "reason"):
+            value = getattr(self, key)
+            if value is not None:
+                row[key] = value
+        row.update(self.extra)
+        return row
+
+
+class Recipe:
+    """One way something reaches a machine.
+
+    ``execute`` installs, verifies and locates in a single call, because the
+    three are inseparable: a recipe that installed without verifying would let
+    the runner record a version it never saw, and the scorer would then compare
+    the collector's answer against the manifest's intention rather than against
+    the disk.
+    """
+
+    family = ""
+
+    def execute(self, context: Any, entry: Any) -> Outcome:
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    # -- helpers shared by the implementations -------------------------
+
+    def _outcome(self, entry: Any, status: str, **fields: Any) -> Outcome:
+        return Outcome(id=entry.id, status=status, catalog_id=entry.catalog_id,
+                       family=entry.family, **fields)
+
+
+class Unimplemented(Recipe):
+    """A family the manifest declares and the harness cannot yet execute.
+
+    Deliberately not an error. The manifest is complete before the harness is,
+    which is the right way round - the inventory is the specification - and an
+    entry nobody has automated yet must be visible as exactly that rather than
+    as a vendor that stopped shipping or a collector that missed something.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, family: str, reason: str):
+        self.family = family
+        self.reason = reason
+
+    def execute(self, context: Any, entry: Any) -> Outcome:
+        return self._outcome(entry, "unimplemented",
+                             reason="%s recipe not implemented: %s" % (self.family, self.reason))
diff --git a/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/declare_mcp.py b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/declare_mcp.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a967ef4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/declare_mcp.py
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+"""``declare-mcp`` - 27 entries, no installer, the most inference exercised.
+
+An MCP server exists because a config file says so. So this recipe writes the
+config file the host application would have written, in the format that
+application uses, at the path it uses on this OS - and nothing else. No package
+is fetched, no process is started, nothing is granted network access.
+
+That is the whole point of building this family first: it covers the two dozen
+entries where the collector does the most guessing, and it needs no package
+manager, no vendor installer, no GUI session and no network to do it.
+"""
+
+import json
+from typing import Any, Dict, List
+
+from .. import writers
+from .base import Outcome, Recipe
+
+#: How each site spells "here are my MCP servers". A site whose shape is wrong
+#: produces a file the collector reads as empty, which would score as a missed
+#: site and blame the collector for the harness's own mistake.
+SITE_SHAPES = {
+    "claude-code": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "claude-desktop": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "cursor": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "windsurf": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "vscode": ("json", ["servers"]),
+    "cline": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "zed": ("json", ["context_servers"]),
+    "jetbrains": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "opencode": ("json", ["mcp"]),
+    "codex": ("toml", ["mcp_servers"]),
+    "goose": ("yaml", ["extensions"]),
+    "managed-claude-code": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "managed-adr": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+    "project": ("json", ["mcpServers"]),
+}
+
+
+class DeclareMcpRecipe(Recipe):
+    family = "declare-mcp"
+
+    def execute(self, context: Any, entry: Any) -> Outcome:
+        declared = entry.declare
+        sites = declared.get("sites") or [declared.get("site")]
+        written: List[str] = []
+
+        for site in sites:
+            if site not in SITE_SHAPES:
+                return self._outcome(entry, "failed", reason="unknown declaration site %r" % site)
+            path = context.path_for(entry, site=site)
+            if not path:
+                return self._outcome(entry, "failed",
+                                     reason="no %s path for site %r" % (context.platform, site))
+            self._declare_at(context, entry, site, path)
+            if not context.driver.exists(path):
+                return self._outcome(entry, "failed", path=path,
+                                     reason="declared in %s but the file is not there" % path)
+            written.append(path)
+
+        # M-SP-02 writes two files on purpose - a managed one and a user one -
+        # and the *managed* path is the one precedence says wins, so that is the
+        # path recorded. Recording the user path would make the scorer expect
+        # the wrong scope for an entry that exists to test scope.
+        return self._outcome(entry, "installed", path=written[0], method="config",
+                             extra={"paths": written} if len(written) > 1 else {})
+
+    def _declare_at(self, context: Any, entry: Any, site: str, path: str) -> None:
+        shape, keys = SITE_SHAPES[site]
+        document: Dict[str, Any] = {}
+        for key in reversed(keys):
+            document = {key: {entry.declare["server_name"]: self._server(context, entry, site)}} \
+                if not document else {key: document}
+        privileged = bool(entry.privileged) or site.startswith("managed-")
+        if shape == "json":
+            existing = self._read_json(context, path)
+            content = writers.as_json(writers.merge(existing, document))
+        elif shape == "toml":
+            content = writers.as_toml(document)
+        else:
+            content = writers.as_yaml(document)
+        context.driver.write(path, content, privileged=privileged)
+
+    def _read_json(self, context: Any, path: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        """Merge rather than overwrite: nine M-PIN rows share ~/.claude.json.
+
+        A recipe that wrote the file whole would leave one server declared and
+        eight missing, and the run would report eight misses that never
+        happened.
+        """
+        if not context.driver.exists(path):
+            return {}
+        local = context.scratch_file(path)
+        context.driver.pull(path, local)
+        try:
+            with open(local, encoding="utf-8") as handle:
+                return json.load(handle)
+        except (OSError, ValueError):
+            return {}
+
+    def _server(self, context: Any, entry: Any, site: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        """The server block, with canaries substituted for their real values."""
+        declared = entry.declare
+        block: Dict[str, Any] = {}
+        if declared.get("url"):
+            block["url"] = declared["url"]
+            block["type"] = declared.get("transport", "sse")
+        else:
+            block["command"] = declared["command"]
+            block["args"] = [context.substitute(arg) for arg in declared.get("args", [])]
+        for key in ("env", "headers"):
+            if declared.get(key):
+                block[key] = {name: context.substitute(value)
+                              for name, value in declared[key].items()}
+        return block
diff --git a/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/npm_global.py b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/npm_global.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ed14d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Discovery/tests/install/recipes/npm_global.py
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+"""``npm i -g`` - nine CLI agents, one command, one of the cheapest families."""
+
+from typing import Any
+
+from .base import Outcome, Recipe
+
+
+class NpmGlobalRecipe(Recipe):
+    family = "npm-global"
+
+    def execute(self, context: Any, entry: Any) -> Outcome:
+        if entry.install.get("unresolved"):
+            return self._outcome(entry, "unimplemented",
+                                 reason="source unresolved: %s" % entry.install["unresolved"])
+        package = entry.install["package"]
+        version = entry.install["version"]
+        installed = context.driver.run(["npm", "install", "-g", "%s@%s" % (package, version)],
+                                       timeout=600)
+        if not installed.ok:
+            return self._outcome(entry, "failed", version=version,
+                                 reason="npm install failed: %s" % installed.stderr.strip()[:200])
+
+        binary = entry.install.get("binary") or package.rsplit("/", 1)[-1]
+        located = context.driver.run(["command", "-v", binary])
+        if not located.ok or not located.text():
+            # Installed but not on PATH is a harness failure, not a detection
+            # one: the collector cannot be asked about a binary the shell itself
+            # cannot find.
+            return self._outcome(entry, "failed", version=version,
+                                 reason="%s not on PATH after install" % binary)
+
+        # The canonical path, because usr-merge and version-manager shims mean
+        # the first spelling on PATH is often not the file itself - and the
+        # scorer compares the collector's `install_path` against this one.
+        path = context.driver.realpath(located.text())
+        return self._outcome(entry, "installed", version=self._version(context, entry, version),
+                             path=path, method="npm")
+
+    def _version(self, context: Any, entry: Any, pinned: str) -> str:
+        """What the machine says, falling back to what we asked for.
+
+        A tool that prints its version differently from the version we pinned is
+        worth recording as the tool prints it: the collector reads the machine,
+        not the manifest, and scoring it against the manifest would be scoring
+        it against something it never saw.
+        """
+        if not entry.verify:
+            return pinned
+        result = context.driver.shell(entry.verify)
+        if not result.ok or not result.text():
+            return pinned
+        for token in result.text().replace("v", " ").split():
+            if token[:1].isdigit():
+                return token
+        return pinned