A module says what it builds, and the built manifest is a different

document

The manifest in a repository names artifacts; the manifest the mesh holds
names digests. Keeping them the same file would mean a repository
carrying a digest — wrong the moment anybody edits anything, and pinning
a value nobody could have checked.

So a resource says `"artifact": "server"`, and resolving a build rewrites
it to the image reference or the archive's source and digest, removing
the build-time word entirely. The host has never heard of an artifact and
its strict decoder would refuse one, at the worst moment.

A module that builds nothing is ordinary and needs no build section —
most of what a person installs is configuration, and a field that exists
to be left blank is a field nobody fills in correctly.

Refusals worth having:

- an artifact declared and not produced blames THE BUILD, not the
  resource. Both are failures and the remedies are in different places;
  telling somebody to fix the wrong one costs an afternoon. Found by
  injection: the first version's message could not be told apart from
  the resource-level one, so the check was not actually tested.
- a build reads its own repository and nothing else. An input path
  leaving it makes what gets built depend on whatever happens to be on
  the machine building it.
- two artifacts with one name, because a resource naming it could mean
  either.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-30 03:29:17 +02:00
parent d978712d7f
commit 44ba100595
3 changed files with 328 additions and 0 deletions
+147
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@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
package catalogue
import (
"fmt"
"sort"
"strings"
)
// Turning a manifest that names artifacts into one that names digests.
//
// **Two documents, deliberately.** The manifest in a repository says *this resource uses the
// archive called `config`*; the manifest the mesh holds says *this resource is sha256:…*. A digest
// is not knowable until something is built, so a repository carrying one would be a repository
// whose file is wrong the moment anybody edits anything — and the mesh would be pinning a value
// nobody could have checked.
//
// So the built manifest is **derived**, and the record of which commit it was derived from is what
// makes "is this current?" answerable without building (novox/hq ADR 0009).
// Built is one artifact after it exists: where it is and what it hashes to.
type Built struct {
// Name is what the manifest called it.
Name string
// Kind is "image" or "archive".
Kind string
// Reference is what a machine uses to get it — an image reference for an image, a URL for an
// archive. Both already carry the digest for an image; an archive carries it separately.
Reference string
// Digest is "sha256:<hex>", for an archive. An image reference already ends in one.
Digest string
}
// Resolve fills a manifest's resources in from what was built.
//
// Every resource naming an artifact is rewritten to name the thing itself, and the `artifact` key
// is removed — because it is a build-time word and the host has never heard of it. A resource
// naming an artifact nothing produced is refused: it would otherwise reach a machine with an
// empty image or an unpinned archive, which is the shape of failure that looks like success.
func (m Manifest) Resolve(built []Built) (Manifest, error) {
if m.Build == nil && len(built) == 0 {
return m, nil
}
by := map[string]Built{}
for _, b := range built {
by[b.Name] = b
}
// Declared and not produced is a build that did not do what the manifest asked, and saying so
// here beats a machine reporting it later.
var missing []string
if m.Build != nil {
for _, a := range m.Build.Artifacts {
if _, ok := by[a.Name]; !ok {
missing = append(missing, a.Name)
}
}
}
if len(missing) > 0 {
sort.Strings(missing)
return Manifest{}, fmt.Errorf(
"%s says it builds %s and the build did not produce %s — the build did not do what "+
"the manifest asked, which is a different fault from a resource asking for the "+
"wrong thing",
m.Module, strings.Join(missing, " and "), oneOrOther(len(missing)))
}
out := m
out.Build = nil
out.Resources = nil
for _, r := range m.Resources {
named, _ := r["artifact"].(string)
if named == "" {
out.Resources = append(out.Resources, r)
continue
}
artifact, ok := by[named]
if !ok {
return Manifest{}, fmt.Errorf(
"%s: %v uses the artifact %q, and this module builds no such thing",
m.Module, r["id"], named)
}
filled := map[string]any{}
for k, v := range r {
filled[k] = v
}
delete(filled, "artifact")
switch artifact.Kind {
case ArtifactImage:
filled["image"] = artifact.Reference
case ArtifactArchive:
filled["source"] = artifact.Reference
filled["digest"] = artifact.Digest
default:
return Manifest{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: %q is a %q, and an artifact is %q or %q",
m.Module, named, artifact.Kind, ArtifactImage, ArtifactArchive)
}
out.Resources = append(out.Resources, filled)
}
return out, nil
}
// checkBuild is the manifest's own account of what it builds.
func (b *Build) problems(module string) []string {
if b == nil {
return nil
}
var problems []string
seen := map[string]bool{}
for _, a := range b.Artifacts {
if a.Name == "" {
problems = append(problems, module+" builds an artifact with no name")
continue
}
if seen[a.Name] {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s builds two artifacts called %q, and a resource naming it could mean either",
module, a.Name))
}
seen[a.Name] = true
if a.Kind != ArtifactImage && a.Kind != ArtifactArchive {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s: %q is a %q, and an artifact is %q or %q",
module, a.Name, a.Kind, ArtifactImage, ArtifactArchive))
}
if a.From == "" {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s: %q says nothing about what it is built from", module, a.Name))
}
if strings.HasPrefix(a.From, "/") || strings.Contains(a.From, "..") {
// A build reads its own repository and nothing else. A path leaving it would make
// what gets built depend on whatever happens to be on the machine building it.
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s: %q is built from %q, which is outside its own repository",
module, a.Name, a.From))
}
}
return problems
}
// oneOrOther keeps the message readable for one artifact and for several, because a message that
// says "neither" about one thing reads as a bug in the message.
func oneOrOther(n int) string {
if n == 1 {
return "it"
}
return "them"
}
+144
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@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
package catalogue
import (
"strings"
"testing"
)
// The manifest in a repository and the manifest the mesh holds are two documents.
//
// A digest is not knowable until something is built, so a repository carrying one would be a
// repository whose file is wrong the moment anybody edits anything — and the mesh would be pinning
// a value nobody could have checked.
func buildable() Manifest {
return Manifest{
Module: "meshboard", Version: "1",
Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{
{Name: "server", Kind: ArtifactImage, From: "Dockerfile"},
{Name: "theme", Kind: ArtifactArchive, From: "files"},
}},
Resources: []map[string]any{
{"id": "svc", "type": "container", "name": "meshboard", "artifact": "server"},
{"id": "look", "type": "archive", "path": "/opt/meshboard", "artifact": "theme"},
{"id": "dir", "type": "directory", "path": "/opt/meshboard"},
},
}
}
func wasBuilt() []Built {
return []Built{
{Name: "server", Kind: ArtifactImage,
Reference: "registry.invalid/meshboard@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("a", 64)},
{Name: "theme", Kind: ArtifactArchive,
Reference: "https://store.invalid/theme.tar.gz",
Digest: "sha256:" + strings.Repeat("b", 64)},
}
}
func TestAResourceNamingAnArtifactBecomesOneNamingTheThing(t *testing.T) {
got, err := buildable().Resolve(wasBuilt())
if err != nil {
t.Fatal(err)
}
for _, r := range got.Resources {
if r["artifact"] != nil {
// A build-time word the host has never heard of. Leaving it would be a field the
// strict decoder refuses on the machine, at the worst moment.
t.Fatalf("%v still names an artifact: %v", r["id"], r)
}
}
if got.Resources[0]["image"] != "registry.invalid/meshboard@sha256:"+strings.Repeat("a", 64) {
t.Fatalf("the image was not filled in: %v", got.Resources[0])
}
if got.Resources[1]["source"] != "https://store.invalid/theme.tar.gz" ||
got.Resources[1]["digest"] != "sha256:"+strings.Repeat("b", 64) {
t.Fatalf("the archive was not filled in: %v", got.Resources[1])
}
// And a resource that names nothing is untouched.
if got.Resources[2]["path"] != "/opt/meshboard" || len(got.Resources[2]) != 3 {
t.Fatalf("an ordinary resource was changed: %v", got.Resources[2])
}
// The built manifest carries no build section: it is the derived document, and something
// holding both would invite somebody to build from it again.
if got.Build != nil {
t.Fatal("the built manifest still says how to build itself")
}
}
func TestAnArtifactDeclaredAndNotBuiltIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
// A build that did not do what the manifest asked. Said here rather than by a machine later
// reporting an empty image.
_, err := buildable().Resolve(wasBuilt()[:1])
if err == nil {
t.Fatal("a manifest resolved with an artifact missing")
}
if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "theme") {
t.Fatalf("the refusal does not name what is missing: %v", err)
}
// And it must blame the build rather than the resource. A resource asking for something that
// does not exist is a manifest fault; a build not producing what the manifest declared is a
// build fault, and telling somebody to fix the wrong one costs an afternoon.
if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "the build did not produce") {
t.Fatalf("the refusal blames the wrong thing: %v", err)
}
}
func TestAResourceNamingSomethingTheModuleDoesNotBuildIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
m := buildable()
m.Resources = append(m.Resources,
map[string]any{"id": "other", "type": "archive", "path": "/x", "artifact": "nothing"})
if _, err := m.Resolve(wasBuilt()); err == nil {
t.Fatal("a resource naming an artifact nobody builds was accepted")
}
}
func TestAModuleThatBuildsNothingIsOrdinary(t *testing.T) {
// Most of what a person installs is configuration. Requiring an empty build section would be
// a field that exists to be left blank.
m := Manifest{Module: "shell", Version: "1", Resources: []map[string]any{
{"id": "rc", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/zsh/zshrc", "content": "setopt"},
}}
got, err := m.Resolve(nil)
if err != nil {
t.Fatal(err)
}
if len(got.Resources) != 1 {
t.Fatalf("got %v", got.Resources)
}
}
func TestTwoArtifactsWithOneNameAreRefused(t *testing.T) {
_, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"a","version":"1","build":{"artifacts":[
{"name":"x","kind":"image","from":"Dockerfile"},
{"name":"x","kind":"archive","from":"files"}]}}`))
if err == nil {
t.Fatal("two artifacts with one name were accepted")
}
if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "could mean either") {
t.Fatalf("unhelpful refusal: %v", err)
}
}
func TestAnArtifactBuiltFromOutsideItsRepositoryIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
// A build reads its own repository and nothing else. A path leaving it would make what gets
// built depend on whatever happens to be on the machine doing the building.
for _, from := range []string{"/etc/passwd", "../elsewhere"} {
_, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"a","version":"1","build":{"artifacts":[
{"name":"x","kind":"archive","from":"` + from + `"}]}}`))
if err == nil {
t.Fatalf("%q was accepted as a build input", from)
}
if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "outside its own repository") {
t.Fatalf("refused for the wrong reason: %v", err)
}
}
}
func TestAnArtifactOfAnUnknownKindIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
_, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"a","version":"1","build":{"artifacts":[
{"name":"x","kind":"binary","from":"main.go"}]}}`))
if err == nil {
t.Fatal("an artifact of an unknown kind was accepted")
}
}
+37
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@@ -171,6 +171,14 @@ type Manifest struct {
// secret is the one thing that must not be.
Serves map[string]map[string]any `json:"serves,omitempty"`
// Build says how this module's artifacts are produced from its source.
//
// The manifest in a repository names artifacts; the manifest the mesh holds names digests.
// **They are not the same document**, and that is deliberate: a digest is not knowable until
// something is built, and a repository that carried one would be a repository whose file is
// wrong the moment anybody edits anything.
Build *Build `json:"build,omitempty"`
// Binds is where this module wants to be told about something it requires, per requirement.
//
// Because "this machine needs a database from the anchor" is useless to the program that
@@ -199,6 +207,34 @@ type Manifest struct {
Grants map[string]string `json:"grants,omitempty"`
}
// Build says how to produce this module's artifacts from its source.
//
// **Absent means nothing is built.** A module can be entirely configuration — a shell's rc file,
// a set of firewall rules — and having to declare an empty build for it would be a field that
// exists to be left blank.
type Build struct {
// Artifacts are what the source produces, each named so a resource can refer to it before
// anybody knows its digest.
Artifacts []Artifact `json:"artifacts,omitempty"`
}
// Artifact is one thing built from a module's source.
type Artifact struct {
// Name is how resources refer to it. Local to the module.
Name string `json:"name"`
// Kind is "image" or "archive".
Kind string `json:"kind"`
// From is what it is built from, relative to the repository root: a Dockerfile for an image,
// a directory for an archive.
From string `json:"from"`
}
// Kinds an artifact may be.
const (
ArtifactImage = "image"
ArtifactArchive = "archive"
)
// SecretID is the resource identity of the file a module is given a credential in.
func SecretID(requirement string) string { return "secret-" + requirement }
@@ -307,6 +343,7 @@ func ParseManifest(raw []byte) (Manifest, error) {
"%s contributes nothing to %q; if it only needs one, require it", m.Module, to))
}
}
problems = append(problems, m.Build.problems(m.Module)...)
for to := range m.Serves {
var offered bool
for _, o := range m.Offers() {