224 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
224 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
---
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status: stable
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last_updated: "2026-10-11 (the notify prune-cadence note — the
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notifications table's at-attach-only hygiene sharpened, accepted at
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the growth-posture review)"
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---
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# SQLite engine
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The `alkstore-sqlite` engine implements
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[core-contract.md](core-contract.md) on rusqlite over the
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[forked honker-core substrate](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md) —
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carried in-tree as the engine crate's substrate module subtree
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([ADR-013](decisions/013-fold-substrate-into-sqlite.md)). This spec
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records WHAT the engine is internally (its connection architecture,
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seam, and wake plumbing) — not code-level HOW. Decisions live in ADRs;
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per-contract obligations live in the core spec and are not restated here.
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## Identity and posture
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- Single driver: rusqlite, riding the
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[forked honker-core substrate](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md)
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— the forked lineage machinery carried in-tree as this crate's
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`src/substrate/` module subtree
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([ADR-012](decisions/012-forked-substrate-design.md) design,
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[ADR-013](decisions/013-fold-substrate-into-sqlite.md) packaging) —
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with `bundled-sqlite` for hermetic builds. No `.so` runtime artifacts
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([ADR-003](decisions/003-sqlite-driver.md) for the driver decision;
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ownership resolved by
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[ADR-011](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md) — OQ-06's read
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fired ADR-005's fork trigger).
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- Sync machinery, async-facing trait: honker-core is sync (std
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threads, blocking iterators); the engine bridges at the trait seam
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per the family-standard posture (alktty REQ-TTY-01 precedent).
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Every engine call runs in `spawn_blocking`.
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- Single-host by nature: file-backed, one machine, NFS-two-writers
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unsupported (honker's honesty posture, inherited). See
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[deployment.md](deployment.md); the boundary's surface location is
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decided ([ADR-016](decisions/016-deployment-honesty.md)) — this
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crate's identity and docs state the posture; no runtime descriptor
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exists.
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## Connection architecture
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- **Writer** — one dedicated connection; the only one permitted to
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write. Serializes all mutations (WAL single-writer, modeled
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honestly, not fought).
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- **Readers** — a small pool of read connections for lookups and
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claim/ack work.
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- **Watcher** — honker-core's `SharedUpdateWatcher`: a dedicated
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thread polling `PRAGMA data_version` at the default 1 ms cadence,
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fanning out to listeners, overtriggering on purpose (waking all
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subscribers per poll tick, even when several commits coalesced
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inside one tick — wake is a hint; consumers re-read indexed state,
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[ADR-006](decisions/006-wake-and-delivery-contract.md)). The 1 ms
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default is the shipping default — the POC's published wake-latency
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numbers were measured at it
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([ADR-023](decisions/023-fourth-review-round.md) §4); the cadence
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is tunable via `SqliteOpts::poll_interval`
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([ADR-008](decisions/008-contract-v1-pinning.md) §6's config split
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— engine opts carry cadence), the documented idle cost and tuning
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recipe in [deployment.md](deployment.md).
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- Each connection runs the substrate's bootstrap at open: pragmas
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(WAL, `synchronous=NORMAL`, busy timeout), `attach_notify`,
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the substrate's function attachments and schema bootstrap (the
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alknet-filesystem POC's wiring shape). Watcher spawn is fallible in
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the substrate ([ADR-012](decisions/012-forked-substrate-design.md)
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§4); open fails if the watcher cannot start.
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- **The `open` path argument is a plain filesystem path**
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([ADR-023](decisions/023-fourth-review-round.md) §3): the
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substrate's `open_conn` drops the inherited `SQLITE_OPEN_URI` flag
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(a registered fork delta), so `?name=value` suffixes in the path
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are literal filenames — no URI interpretation, no connection-
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semantics mutation outside the constructor's opts (`:memory:` works
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without URI mode; URI-only features like shared-cache memory DBs
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re-enter with a consumer-inventory row).
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## Mapping the contract
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| Contract piece | Engine realization |
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|---|---|
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| notify / listen | honker's notify functions inside the caller's tx; `listen()` bridges the watcher's fanout into a tokio receiver (one `spawn_blocking` thread per subscription doing `blocking_send`) |
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| streams | the forked substrate's stream machinery (inherited near-verbatim — the `__alkstore_stream` table's field set is already the contract's shape (its `topic` column carries the contract's `stream` field — the one name delta, ADR-012 §3's fidelity posture), the offset-ASC read path, keyed publish's nullable key column, monotone offset saves ([ADR-015](decisions/015-streams-depth.md)); explicit offset saves through the tx seam; `trim_to` is a `DELETE FROM … WHERE offset <= ?` inside the writer-slot lease) |
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| queues | owned queue machinery (forked substrate re-derived on [ADR-010](decisions/010-queue-semantics-depth.md) — stamps, no-stranded-rows sweep, dead-visible `get_job`); ADR-003's ride posture superseded on ownership by [ADR-011](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md) |
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| named locks | the substrate's lock machinery (`lock_renew` carries the renew semantics the guarantee row pins; re-acquire does not refresh TTL — inherited deliberately, [ADR-012](decisions/012-forked-substrate-design.md) §4) |
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| scheduler / outbox | collapse shape ([ADR-009](decisions/009-scheduler-collapse.md)): owned scheduler storage (`__alkstore_scheduler_tasks`, forked substrate) carrying `@every` specs (cron machinery not ported); the leader loop pattern (TTL lock, heartbeat, exit-before-tick-on-loss); the leadership lock is `__alkstore_scheduler`; outbox = helper over queues with the derived backing-queue name ([ADR-008](decisions/008-contract-v1-pinning.md) §4) |
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| begin_tx | acquires the writer slot, opens `BEGIN IMMEDIATE`, returns the caller-held handle ([ADR-007](decisions/007-transactional-seam.md)) |
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| handle ops | each `*_tx` op round-trips `spawn_blocking` to the same connection (thread-affinity note in [ADR-007](decisions/007-transactional-seam.md)) |
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| commit/rollback | releases the writer slot |
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## Obligations and constraints
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- **A long transaction parks the writer** (the slot lease is the
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honest model). Contract docs must surface this so consumers budget
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transactions ([ADR-007](decisions/007-transactional-seam.md) negative
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consequence).
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- Watcher failure handling is inherited: on watcher death, every
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subscriber's receiver closes (`WatcherDeathGuard` behavior) —
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consumers see the close, never a silent hang
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([ADR-006](decisions/006-wake-and-delivery-contract.md)). New
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subscriptions issued *after* a watcher death (a `listen()` or a
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stream `subscribe()`) fail closed with the opaque `Error::Database`
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fallback — they never enroll onto a dead feed to park forever
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(review 004 item 2); recovery is a fresh store open. The watcher
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also treats the db file's identity as unknown until its first
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successful stat: a failed startup stat does not seed a false
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identity that the first later stat would spuriously trip into the
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death path (review 004 item 3 — a transient stat hiccup at start
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closes nothing).
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- Wake coalescing: bursts inside one poll tick produce one wake;
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correctness is preserved by the re-read contract
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(POC-pinned: missed-wake stress with correct post-burst re-reads).
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- **Deployment note**: the lineage's rusqlite generation
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(^0.40.1) — this engine crate's own dependency — has a rustc floor
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≥ 1.99; binaries linking this engine
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carry that requirement ([deployment.md](deployment.md) matrix).
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- The optimization path, if seam throughput ever demands it: a
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dedicated std-thread bridge (one thread owning the writer conn, ops
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over mpsc — measured ~2× the spawn_blocking shape at p50 in POC #1),
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or a raised watcher cadence for idle CPU. Neither is the default.
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### Notifications-table hygiene
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The `__alkstore_notifications` table (this engine's notify wake
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transport) is pruned to its newest 10,000 rows, oldest-first —
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the at-attach cap (ADR-010 §6, register D-16) — and the attach is
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the **only** prune site: the prune runs at every connection open (the
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substrate's bootstrap); there is no background sweeper, no
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time-based retention, and no consumer-visible prune operation — the
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table stayed off the contract surface by ADR-008 §4's disposition
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(upstream's `prune_notifications*` helpers are not carried).
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The consequence a deployer should size honestly: an idle-but-listening
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process — one that opens its connections at startup and holds them —
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attaches never, so nothing trims the table; every committed notify
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across the fleet lands a row and the table grows past the cap until
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the next attach (a reconnect, a second `open` of the same file by any
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process, or a restart). Attach-prune is hygiene at open, not retention
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at runtime. Long-lived, notify-heavy single-process deployments should
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either budget an attach event into their runbook or size the table
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deliberately. Accepted with that caveat at the growth-posture review;
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the per-engine record lives in [deployment.md](deployment.md)'s growth
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postures.
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## What the fork question resolved
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The [quality read (OQ-06)](../research/quality-read-honker-core.md) —
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this engine's dependency gate — resolved 2026-10-05: ADR-005's fork
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trigger **fired** ([ADR-011](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md)),
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and the fork's design is pinned by
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[ADR-012](decisions/012-forked-substrate-design.md): the substrate is a
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vendored contract-blind lineage module folded into this engine crate
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([ADR-013](decisions/013-fold-substrate-into-sqlite.md)); the
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watcher/connection architecture this spec describes is inherited
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verbatim where kept ([ADR-003](decisions/003-sqlite-driver.md)
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unchanged in architecture), with the port deltas ADR-012 §4 decides
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(fallible watcher spawn, bounded reconnect backoff, panic-free
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death-closes-subscribers). The
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[evidence](../research/quality-read-honker-core.md): published
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0.5.0's unreleased-fix-train defect class, plus ADR-010's queue depth
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requiring engine-owned queue SQL in any posture. The substrate's table
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family is `__alkstore_*` (ADR-010 §8's naming authorization).
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## Design Decisions
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| ADR | Decision | Summary |
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|---|---|---|
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| [001](decisions/001-crate-split.md) | Crate split | single-driver engine crate |
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| [002](decisions/002-feature-scope.md) | Feature scope | which rows this engine serves |
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| [003](decisions/003-sqlite-driver.md) | Driver | rusqlite + the forked substrate lineage, bridged seam, inherited watcher — ownership resolved by 011 |
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| [005](decisions/005-dependency-ownership.md) | Ownership | published honker-core; fork trigger fired by OQ-06 (ADR-011) |
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| [006](decisions/006-wake-and-delivery-contract.md) | Wake contract | data_version watcher, coalescing, death-closes-receivers |
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| [007](decisions/007-transactional-seam.md) | Tx seam | writer-slot lease, `BEGIN IMMEDIATE`, `spawn_blocking` round-trips |
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| [008](decisions/008-contract-v1-pinning.md) | Contract v1 | pinned surface; outbox backing queue derived under the reserved prefix; wake payload transport unused (non-contract) |
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| [009](decisions/009-scheduler-collapse.md) | Scheduler collapse | `@every` specs; `__alkstore_scheduler` leadership; cron rejected |
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| [010](decisions/010-queue-semantics-depth.md) | Queue depth | semantics pinned; §5/§3a realization resolved by ADR-011 (owned code) |
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| [011](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md) | Substrate fork | OQ-06's trigger fired; substrate owned, queue ops re-derived on contract v1 |
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| [012](decisions/012-forked-substrate-design.md) | Fork design | contract-blind substrate, fidelity posture, port deltas, panic-free watcher death |
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| [013](decisions/013-fold-substrate-into-sqlite.md) | Substrate packaging | folded into `alkstore-sqlite` (`src/substrate/`); no fourth crate |
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| [014](decisions/014-outbox-tx-enqueue.md) | Outbox tx enqueue | `outbox_enqueue_tx` on `TxHandle`; derivation engine-side through the writer-slot lease |
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| [015](decisions/015-streams-depth.md) | Streams depth | key = carried metadata (the inherited nullable column); global-FIFO ordering; `trim_to` as a writer-lease delete; event shape already the substrate's |
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| [016](decisions/016-deployment-honesty.md) | Deployment honesty | no runtime capability surface; single-host posture stated by crate identity + docs; this engine never produces `PayloadTooLarge` (pinned in the contract suite) |
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| [017](decisions/017-contract-versioning.md) | Contract versioning | engine pins core `alkstore = "1.y"` in its manifest; substrate cherry-picks are class-4 non-events; adoption duties per its §5 |
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| [018](decisions/018-provenance-register-and-cherry-picks.md) | Substrate provenance | `src/substrate/PROVENANCE.md` (identity, delta register — cherry-picks as tagged entries); cherry-picks recorded at adoption, non-versioning |
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| [019](decisions/019-mechanism-handle-surfaces.md) | Handle surfaces | boxed handle traits (`Queue`/`StreamHandle`/`Outbox`/`Lock`/`JobHandle`); `worker_id` stamps the row's claimant column; `StopToken` core-owned |
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| [020](decisions/020-enqueue-opt-semantics-and-bridges.md) | Enqueue options | delay-over-`run_at` in the substrate's re-derived enqueue; scheduler fires stamp from derived defaults; serde_json byte encoding |
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| [021](decisions/021-tx-reads-and-value-shape-fixes.md) | Third review round | tx-read methods route through the writer-slot lease; `Job.claimed_at` (the fork's claimed_at column, surfaced in `Job`); `schedule()` queue argument validated; drop = rollback releases the lease with `ROLLBACK` |
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| [023](decisions/023-fourth-review-round.md) | Fourth review round | `open` path is a plain filesystem path (URI flag dropped — registered fork delta); 1 ms watcher default stands, cadence carried onto `SqliteOpts::poll_interval`; `encode_payload` typed (`Codec`); numeric-argument domains pinned contract-side (extents clamp empty — enforced at this engine's trait-impl entry over the substrate) |
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## Open Questions
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Open questions are tracked in
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[open-questions.md](open-questions.md). Key
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questions affecting this document:
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- **OQ-06**: honker-core quality read — fork-trigger assessment —
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**resolved** (2026-10-05,
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[ADR-011](decisions/011-sqlite-substrate-fork.md); trigger fired).
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- **OQ-12**: streams depth — **resolved**
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(2026-10-05, [ADR-015](decisions/015-streams-depth.md)): key =
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carried metadata; global-FIFO-by-offset ordering row;
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`StreamEvent` shape (honker's, `topic` → `stream` in the contract
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type — the substrate's column name stays per the ADR-012 §3
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fidelity posture); `publish_with_key_tx` routes through the
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writer-slot lease; `trim_to` is a plain delete in the same lease.
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- **OQ-13**: transactional outbox enqueue shape — **resolved**
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(2026-10-05, [ADR-014](decisions/014-outbox-tx-enqueue.md)):
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`outbox_enqueue_tx(outbox, opts, payload)` on the `TxHandle` trait;
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the SQLite handle routes the op through the writer-slot lease
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([ADR-007](decisions/007-transactional-seam.md)) into the forked
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substrate's `__alkstore_outbox:{name}` backing queue.
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Resolved: **OQ-09** (scheduler collapse —
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[ADR-009](decisions/009-scheduler-collapse.md)), **OQ-05** (queue
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semantics depth — [ADR-010](decisions/010-queue-semantics-depth.md)),
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**OQ-12** (streams depth — [ADR-015](decisions/015-streams-depth.md)),
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**OQ-08** (capability surface — none, by default ever;
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[ADR-016](decisions/016-deployment-honesty.md)), **OQ-10** (contract
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versioning — [ADR-017](decisions/017-contract-versioning.md)), and
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**OQ-11**
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(fork follow-through — the substrate's provenance register and the
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cherry-pick procedure;
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[ADR-018](decisions/018-provenance-register-and-cherry-picks.md)),
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2026-10-05/06. |