Is the bazel-file-ops-component dependency still wanted? (blocks archiving a dormant repo)

[avrabe]

Question

Is the dependency on bazel-file-ops-component still wanted, or should it be replaced/dropped?

Asking because we are archiving dormant repositories across the org, and this one is not archivable while rules_wasm_component consumes it — so the decision belongs here, not there.

What we found

The dependency is real and load-bearing, not vestigial — 18 files reference it:

• MODULE.bazel:305-320 — fetches file_ops_component.wasm from the component's GitHub releases and registers //toolchains:file_ops_toolchain_target
• tools/bazel_helpers/file_ops_actions.bzl — invokes the component as the action executable
• checksums/tools/file-ops-component.json — pins v0.2.0
• CLAUDE.md documents the wiring as the reference example of the external-tool checksum pattern

Why we are asking anyway

The upstream is dormant and pinned to an old release:

last push	2026-05-10 (~3 months)
pinned version	v0.2.0, released 2025-11-01 — 9 months ago
last_checked in the pin file	2025-11-01
open issues upstream	4

So rules_wasm_component depends on a component that nobody has touched in months, at a version nobody has revisited in nine. That is fine if it is done — a small, stable tool that does its job needs no commits. It is not fine if it is stalled.

The three answers we can act on

1. Still wanted, and it is done. We leave it active, and note explicitly that dormancy is intentional rather than neglect — worth writing down so the next audit does not re-ask.
2. Still wanted, but it needs work. Then the 4 open upstream issues and the 9-month-old pin are the backlog, and it should not be treated as dormant.
3. No longer wanted. Tell us what would replace it (native Bazel actions? a different component?), and once rules_wasm_component drops the dependency, the repo gets archived.

No action is being taken on the dependency without an answer here — this is a question, not a deprecation notice.

🤖 Filed during an org-wide repository resync (dormant-repo sweep + org profile cleanup).