sausage/PROTOCOL.md

The Sausage protocol

This is the contract between the core and the plugins. A plugin in any language that follows it works in a Sausage world. The core shows this file at /proc/core/PROTOCOL.md. DECISIONS.md in the repository says why the contract is the way it is.

Rust plugins use the SDK sausage-plugin. Its source is at /plugins/cargo/sdk/, and its crate docs explain each item.

1. Terms

Term	Meaning
world	The folder that a sausage host runs. It is / for every process.
core	The host. It runs processes, routes calls, serves the virtual files, and keeps the journal.
plugin	A folder /plugins/<name>/ with a plugin.wasm. A plugin does not run by itself.
process	One run of a plugin version. Its ID is <plugin>-<uuidv7>, for example notes-0197f3a2-7c1e-7d2b-9a41-5f0c2e8b1d34.
call	A JSON-RPC request. notes.add calls the method add of the plugin notes.
interface	A set of methods. A plugin has one main interface. It can also declare endpoint interfaces.
endpoint	An interface that a running process serves on a TCP port. An endpoint file tells others where it is.
service	A call in /config/boot.json. The core starts it at boot and again after an upgrade of its plugin.
import	An interface of another plugin that a plugin uses.
provider, consumer	The plugin that has an interface, and a plugin that imports it.
journal	The central log of the world.

2. The world folder

<world>/
  plugins/<name>/
    plugin.wasm               the current version
    plugin.prev.wasm          the version before, for `core.revert`
    source/                   the source. `cargo.build` builds it from here.
      imports/<plugin>.json   descriptions of the imported plugins
  state/<plugin>/             persistent state of a plugin, by convention
  state/core/journal.sqlite   the journal
  config/                     global configuration
    boot.json                 the services
    agent.json                API, base URL, model, and token of the agent

• Every process can read and write all of it. There are no permissions.
• Plugin names use a-z, 0-9, -, and _. The name core is reserved.
• The world folder must not contain proc, run, or self. These names are mount points (section 4). The host does not start a world that has them.

3. Calls and processes

3.1 The wire protocol

• A plugin is a wasi:cli/command component for wasm32-wasip2.
• stdin and stdout carry JSON-RPC 2.0, one message per line.
• A line is a message only if it is a JSON object with "jsonrpc": "2.0". The core discards every other line on stdout. For the first discarded line of a process, it writes one warning to the journal.
• Each line on stderr goes to the journal. Log to stderr.
• params is always an object. Batches are not supported.
• Write each message in one write, and write a newline before it. Then a print! without a newline cannot damage a message.

3.2 Method names

• A method name has the form <target>.<method>. The core splits it at the first ..
• notes.add starts a new process of notes and sends it the request add. notes.rpc.discover sends it rpc.discover.
• core.<method> is a method of the core (section 9).
• Method names that start with rpc. are reserved: rpc.discover, rpc.retired, and rpc.endpoint.

3.3 What a call does

1. The core gives the call a UUIDv7 and starts the process <plugin>-<uuid> with the current version of the plugin.
2. The core writes the request to the stdin of the process. The request ID is the process ID, and the method has no plugin prefix.
3. The process writes the response to stdout. The core sends the response to the caller, with the caller's request ID.
4. If the process ends before it answers, the caller gets the error -32002. Its data has the exit status and the last journal lines of the process. Before the core decides this, it reads the stdout of the process to the end.

• A process can write calls to stdout at any time, to the core and to plugins. The responses come on stdin. A process can have many calls in flight.
• The core keys each pending request by the process and the exact JSON ID. The core drops a response with an unknown or late ID.
• A notification to plugin.method (without an ID) starts an attached process. That process gets the notification without an ID, and nobody gets a result.

3.4 Detached calls

core.call {"method": "www.start", "params": {...}, "detach": true} makes the call and returns its result to the caller. The new process has no parent, so it does not end with its caller.

Sent as a notification (without an ID), the same core.call starts the process and forgets it.

3.5 Notifications to the caller

A process can tell its caller about progress. It sends the notification core.notify {"name": "text", "params": {...}}. The core gives it to the caller as core.notify {"call": <ID of the caller's request>, "name": "text", "params": {...}}. After the call has ended, the core drops such notifications.

So a process never needs to know who called it.

3.6 Lifetime

A process lives until main returns. A process that uses the SDK lives while one of these runs:

• a handler of a call,
• a background task,
• an endpoint that listens.

A process has three states:

1. running
2. stopping: the core has closed stdin. EOF on stdin means "stop now".
   • New calls of the process fail at once, and its pending calls fail.
   • A stop hook can still write files and send notifications. It cannot make calls, because no response can arrive.
   • After 5 seconds, the core kills the process.
3. ended: the core releases the locks of the process (section 6) and removes its folder in /proc.

Rules:

• core.stop {pid} starts the stopping state. core.kill {pid} kills the process at once.
• When a process ends, the core stops each of its attached children. All children stop in parallel, so a whole tree takes 5 seconds at most.
• A detached process has no parent. Only core.stop, core.kill, an upgrade (section 3.7), and the end of the host stop it.
• At host shutdown, the core stops every process in parallel.

Note: on Unix, children outlive their parent. Here, an attached child ends with its parent. Only detach makes a process independent.

3.7 Upgrades

A process is an instance of one plugin version. When a new version becomes active (section 10.3):

1. New calls get the new version at once.
2. Each process of an older version gets a grace period to finish its work. The default is 60 seconds. A plugin can declare its own value in rpc.discover (x-sausage-grace). Then the core stops the process.
3. When the old process of a service has ended, the core starts the service again with the new version.
4. When the last process of an older version has ended, the core starts a process of the new version and calls rpc.retired {"previous": "<sha256 of the older file>"}. A plugin can use this hook to migrate its state, or to write a marker that its other new processes wait for. The result goes to the journal.

During the grace period, an old process can call a method that a new provider no longer has.

3.8 Environment and network

• SAUSAGE_PID: the process ID.
• SAUSAGE_PLUGIN: the plugin name.
• SAUSAGE_PARENT: the parent: console, core, or a process ID.

Every process gets the network: outgoing HTTP and HTTPS through wasi:http, and TCP, UDP, and DNS through wasi:sockets.

A process that computes for a long time does not block other processes. The core interrupts it every 10 milliseconds.

3.9 Errors

The standard JSON-RPC codes apply. The core adds these codes:

Code	Meaning
-32001	There is no such plugin.
-32002	The process ended without an answer. data has the exit status and the last journal lines.
-32003	The activation was rejected. data has the reasons.

4. The filesystem

Each process gets one preopen, /. The core resolves each path through a mount table:

Path	What it is	Access
/	the world folder	read-write
/proc	generated by the core	read-only
/self	the folder /proc/<own pid>/, in memory	read-write
/run	in memory, shared, empty at each host start	read-write

A listing of / shows proc, run, and self. A rename across two of these areas fails.

/proc/
  core/
    PROTOCOL.md          this file
    graph.json           plugins, imports, and the result of each check
    graph.dot            the same graph for Graphviz
    locks.json           held locks and waiting processes
    plugins/<name>/
      discover.json      the rpc.discover document of the current plugin.wasm
      client.rs          the Rust code that import!("<name>") generates
  <pid>/
    info.json            plugin, version, method, params, parent, detached, start time, state
    log                  the journal lines of this process
    <files>              the files that the process writes to /self

Rules:

• A process writes its own folder only through /self. Writes through /proc always fail.
• In a process folder, the names info.json, log, and fs belong to the core. A write to /self/info.json fails.
• A read of a generated file returns a snapshot that ends. For example, /proc/<pid>/log returns the lines up to the time of the open.
• The folder of a process goes away when the process ends. Its files are in memory. Large or persistent data belongs in /state.
• Do not send a /self path to another process. There it means a different folder, like localhost on another machine.

Principle: inspect through files, act through calls.

5. Endpoints

An endpoint is a JSON-RPC interface that a running process serves over TCP, for example the control interface of a web server.

• The process binds a free port on 127.0.0.1. When the listener is ready, it writes an endpoint file in one atomic step (write a temporary file, then rename it). The file has one line: the address, the owner process, and the interface. Example: tcp:127.0.0.1:41234 www-0197… control.
• Usually the file is in /self. A service that others must find uses a fixed path in /run, for example /run/secrets.
• A client reads the file and connects. Its first request is rpc.endpoint, which returns {"owner", "plugin", "interface"}. If they do not match the file, the client disconnects. So a stale file or a reused port cannot connect a client to the wrong process.
• JSON-RPC runs on the connection, one message per line, in both directions. Notifications of a handler (core.notify) go over the connection.
• A plugin declares its endpoint interfaces in rpc.discover (x-sausage-endpoints).

6. Locks

• core.lock {"path": "/state/notes/notes.json"} returns {"held": true} when the caller holds the lock.
• Each acquisition gets its own place in a FIFO queue. The same process cannot take one lock twice: its second acquisition waits behind its first.
• With "wait": false, the call returns at once with {"held": true} or {"held": false}.
• core.unlock {path} (a notification) releases the lock.
• When a process ends, the core releases all of its locks, also after a crash or a kill. It waits until the last file operation of the process has returned. So a write of a killed process cannot land after the next process got the lock.
• Locks are advisory. The core does not block writes to the file: the path is only a name.
• SQLite has no file locks in WASI. Hold the lock while the database is open.

7. The journal

• An SQLite file at /state/core/journal.sqlite. Only the core writes it.
• Each entry has a UUIDv7 (it sorts by time), the process ID, the plugin, the stream (stderr or core), and the line.
• The core writes its own events too: start (with method and params), exit status, stop, kill, upgrades, and the warning about discarded stdout.
• core.log {plugin?, pid?, since?, until?, grep?, limit?} queries the journal. /proc/<pid>/log shows the lines of one running process.

8. Boot and services

At start, the core starts each service in /config/boot.json, in order:

[
  {"method": "secrets.serve", "params": {}},
  {"method": "www.start", "params": {"port": 8080}}
]

• A service is a detached call with the parent core. The core waits for its result before it starts the next one. The result shows that the service is ready.
• If a service fails, the core writes the error to the journal and continues.
• After an upgrade of the plugin of a service, the core starts the service again with the new version (section 3.7).
• The core does not restart other detached processes.
• A singleton is a service with a fixed endpoint in /run. Only the core starts it, so two instances cannot start at the same time.

9. The core API

Method	Params	Result
core.call	method, params, detach?	the result of the method
core.notify	name, params	none (a notification)
core.stop	pid	{} when the process has ended
core.kill	pid	{}
core.lock	path, wait?	{"held": bool}
core.unlock	path	none (a notification)
core.activate	plugin and wasm, or plugins: [{plugin, wasm}]. force?	the new rpc.discover documents
core.revert	plugin, force?	like core.activate
core.log	filters (section 7)	journal entries
core.exit	none	{}. Then the host stops with exit code 75.

Everything else is a file.

10. Interfaces

10.1 rpc.discover

Each plugin answers rpc.discover with an OpenRPC 1.2 document. The schemas are JSON Schema Draft 7, as OpenRPC requires. Shared schemas are in components.schemas, and $refs point to #/components/schemas/<Name>. Params are by name. The document can have these extension fields:

• x-sausage-params for each method: a $ref to the schema of the params object.
• x-sausage-endpoints: the endpoint interfaces by name, each with its methods.
• x-sausage-imports: for each provider, the part of its document that the plugin uses.
• x-sausage-grace: the grace period in seconds.

The schema of params describes what the provider can read. The schema of a result describes what the provider writes. Descriptions are part of the interface: other agents read them to use it.

The core starts a process only to call rpc.discover. Do not do expensive work at start.

10.2 Compatibility

A provider can add methods, optional params, and result fields. For each imported method:

1. The provider has the method.
2. Each params value that the consumer can send is valid for the provider.
3. Each result that the provider can return is valid for the consumer.

• The same rules apply to endpoint interfaces.
• There are no version numbers. This check replaces them.
• The check covers a fixed subset of JSON Schema: objects with properties and required, the primitive types, arrays, optional and nullable values, string enums, integer ranges, and $ref. A construct outside the subset fails the check.
• The check covers calls, not state. Old and new processes share the files in /state, and core.revert restores only code. A plugin must keep its state format compatible, or migrate it in rpc.retired.

10.3 Activation

core.activate {"plugin": "notes", "wasm": "/state/cargo/builds/7/notes.wasm"}:

1. The core copies the file. All further steps use this copy, even if the file changes.
2. It starts the copy and calls rpc.discover.
3. It waits until it has the documents of all plugins (section 10.4).
4. It checks the imports of the new version against the current providers.
5. It checks each current consumer of the plugin against the new version.
6. If all checks pass, plugin.wasm becomes plugin.prev.wasm, and the copy becomes plugin.wasm. Then the upgrade starts (section 3.7).

If a check fails, nothing changes, and the error -32003 lists each problem, with a counterexample where possible.

• The core runs one activation at a time.
• plugins: [...] activates several plugins together. The checks then use the new set.
• force: true skips steps 4 and 5.
• core.revert {plugin} activates plugin.prev.wasm in the same way, and the current version becomes plugin.prev.wasm.
• A person can also copy a file to plugin.wasm by hand. That skips the checks.

10.4 The graph

• The core keeps the rpc.discover documents of all plugins, by file hash. At start, it gets them in the background.
• A file watcher on /plugins/*/plugin.wasm updates them, for example after a copy by hand. /proc/core/graph.json then shows each broken import, and the journal records it.
• An import of a plugin that does not exist is "missing".

11. Building and tests

The core has one native plugin: cargo. cargo.build {"plugin": "notes"} builds /plugins/notes/source/:

1. It copies the source once. The tests and the build both use this copy.
2. It runs the tests under WASI.
3. It builds the release .wasm for wasm32-wasip2.
4. It returns {"wasm": "/state/cargo/builds/<n>/notes.wasm", "tests": {"passed", "failed", "output"}, "warnings"}. If a step fails, it returns an error with the compiler or test output.

• A call to cargo.build gets a process ID, a folder in /proc, and journal entries, like other calls.
• The dependency sausage-plugin = "0.1" points to the SDK copy at /plugins/cargo/sdk/.
• Build scripts can compile C: CC_wasm32_wasip2 and AR_wasm32_wasip2 point to a WASI clang.
• The build does not activate the result. Call core.activate next.

Tests:

• Each test runs in its own instance, so a panic ends only its own test.
• The normal Rust test setup works: #[test], tests/*.rs, name filters, and --ignored. #[should_panic] cannot work, because WASI cannot catch a panic.
• Each test gets an empty temporary world as /, the package folder at its path, and its own /proc, /self, and /run.
• The test runner answers core.lock, core.unlock, core.notify, and core.log. A call to a plugin fails: a test has no other plugins.