[claudespice]

Summary

#2186 added runtime-path reporting to the spice version and spice run pages, both gated on the same condition:

version.md: "For a runtime outside the managed install, the output also includes its path and source"
run.md: "For a runtime outside the managed install, the CLI reports its path and source. spice version also reports these values."

spice version does not test the source. It prints the line whenever a runtime resolves:

if !args.cli_only {
    println!("Runtime version: {}", describe_runtime_version(runtime.as_ref()));
    if let Some(resolved) = &resolved {
        println!("Runtime path:    {} ({})", resolved.path().display(), resolved.source.describe());
    }
}

So a reader on the ordinary spice install layout — the commonest one — is told they will not see a line they do see, and the "sample output" blocks above it show a two-line output that no longer matches.

The conditional is real, but it belongs to spice run, and it is a log level, not presence:

if resolved.source.is_expected_default() {
    tracing::debug!("Using the Spice.ai runtime at '{path}' ({source}).");
} else {
    tracing::info!("Using the Spice.ai runtime at '{path}' ({source}).");
}

is_expected_default() is true only for ManagedInstall, and its doc comment is explicit that this is "what keeps spice run from announcing its runtime". The two commands were collapsed into one sentence that is right for neither.

What changed

• version.md — the line is described as unconditional, with the managed install as the shown example; enumerates the four describe() strings verbatim (pinned by SPICED_PATH, beside the spice CLI, installed by spice install, installed by spice install, by the sudo invoker); names the two cases where it is absent (no runtime resolves, or --cli-only); and records the located-but-unprobeable case, whose Runtime version: text is quoted from source. Notes that runtime_source in JSON is the enum, not the prose — the code comments that this deliberately, so docs describing it as the same string would be wrong.
• run.md — replaces the shared sentence with spice run's own behavior, quoting the log message and saying which level each case gets, then states that spice version reports the same values unconditionally.

Every quoted string is a static template with no substituted fields except the path and source, which the text identifies as such.

Source refs (spiceai/spiceai @ 2f10331)

• bin/spice/src/commands/version.rs#L198-L235 — unconditional table output; runtime_path / runtime_source in JSON
• bin/spice/src/commands/version.rs#L250 — the unavailable — …did not report a version string
• bin/spice/src/runtime_launcher.rs#L118-L133 — report_resolved_runtime, the info/debug split
• bin/spice/src/context.rs#L994-L1012 — SpicedSource::describe() and is_expected_default()

The four-rung selection order #2186 documented is accurate as written — context.rs#L518-L527 lists the same four, and PATH really is excluded by design.

Scope

vNext only — neither claim exists in any versioned snapshot (grep -rn "Runtime path" website/versioned_docs/ is empty), and the reporting itself is newer than v2.2.1.

Test plan

• cd website && npm run build passes (./run#runtime-selection and ./install both resolve)
• Files updated: 2

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🔍 Pull with Spice Failed

Passing checks:

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• ✅ No banned labels detected

Failed checks:

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Please address these issues and update your pull request.

[github-actions]

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