/**
 * Read a settings JSON file into a plain object; a missing file reads as `{}`.
 *
 * This read backs read-merge-write persistence, so a file it cannot parse is
 * about to be overwritten by the merge that follows. Discarding it silently
 * (what the bare `catch` here used to do) destroyed the only copy of whatever
 * the user had on disk. The unparseable file is now quarantined first, moved
 * aside with a `.why` receipt and logged at error level, and the merge starts
 * from `{}` as before, so the settings the caller is writing still land while
 * the previous file survives for inspection.
 */
export declare function readRawSettingsFile(path: string): Record<string, unknown>;
/** Set a dot-path within a raw settings object, creating intermediate objects. */
export declare function writeRawDotPath(root: Record<string, unknown>, key: string, value: unknown): void;
/**
 * Delete a dot-path leaf from a raw settings object, pruning any parent objects
 * it empties. Returns true when something was removed. Mirrors the shared-tier
 * removeSharedKey pruning so a cleared key leaves no `{ section: {} }` shell.
 */
export declare function deleteRawDotPath(root: Record<string, unknown>, key: string): boolean;
/**
 * True when a raw settings file looks like a whole-config dump the old save()
 * produced, every top-level default domain is present. This is the provenance
 * signal the read-time strip migration keys off: a full dump is the frozen-
 * defaults artifact and is safe to minimize; a sparse, hand-authored file
 * (even one whose lone key happens to equal a default) is deliberate user
 * intent and is left untouched. Keeps the migration conservative.
 */
export declare function isFrozenDefaultDump(raw: Record<string, unknown>, defaults?: Record<string, unknown>): boolean;
/**
 * Drop every leaf whose value equals the shipped default at the same path,
 * the "frozen defaults" a whole-config write used to bake in. Keys absent from
 * the defaults (genuine user data we cannot classify) are kept as-is; a value
 * that DIFFERS from its default is kept; an object emptied by stripping is
 * pruned. Conservative by construction: only default-equal, defaults-known
 * leaves are removed. Returns the stripped object and whether anything changed.
 */
export declare function stripFrozenDefaults(raw: Record<string, unknown>, defaults?: Record<string, unknown>): {
    config: Record<string, unknown>;
    changed: boolean;
};
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