CultLib/packages/cultcache-ts/README.md

CultCacheTS

CultCacheTS is the TypeScript port of the useful part of GameCult's CultCache idea: consumer code talks to typed domain documents, while a closed-world persistence layer deals with schemas, routing, name lookups, indexes, globals, and raw MessagePack bytes.

This is not an ORM in a fake mustache. It is for cases where you want:

• one cache API for heterogeneous domain documents
• typed reads and writes instead of every script massaging anonymous blobs
• lookup by type, logical key, name, and indexed property
• singleton-style global documents
• backing-store routing instead of every caller pawing raw files directly
• a persistence boundary that refuses unregistered polymorphic junk

Current Shape

• document types are registered explicitly
• a document schema only needs a parse(...) function, so generated JSON-schema contracts can plug in directly without growing a second hand-written Zod body
• each persisted record stores:
  • key
  • schemaId
  • raw MessagePack payload bytes
  • storedAt
• the single-file store writes the CultCache v1 snapshot shape:
  • formatVersion
  • embedded schema catalog
  • record array
• payload bytes only decode through the registered document definition for that schema
• name and index maps live in the cache, not in the backing store
• global documents are treated as a singleton per type
• backing stores are adapters, not the public data model

That keeps the polymorphic boundary tight without making callers write boilerplate by candlelight.

Reading And Writing Payloads

A document's bytes travel as a DocumentPayload: in a store envelope, a CultNet record and a realtime frame. At run time it is the same Uint8Array, so nothing on the wire changes. At compile time it is opaque: it is assignable to and from neither Uint8Array nor ArrayLike<number>, so no MessagePack decoder accepts it.

What the type guarantees is that a payload cannot be read or assigned directly: a decoder call, an assignment to Uint8Array and new Uint8Array(payload) fail to compile. It does not stop what the runtime value allows, because the value is a Uint8Array. These routes read it without the owner: instanceof Uint8Array or ArrayBuffer.isView narrowing, Object.values, Object.assign onto a Uint8Array, a JSON round trip, Reflect.get, and a cast. A read made that way sees the raw bytes, which for a codec or formatter document are not the document. No lint or guard closes them. Read through decodeDocumentPayload, and when you need the bytes themselves (hashing, signing, a store write) take them with documentPayloadBytes, the sanctioned escape.

• decodeDocumentPayload(definition, payload) reads a payload through the definition's formatter, codec or plain map and then its schema. The definition is required.
• encodeDocumentPayload(definition, value) is the writer: the schema first, then the formatter, codec or plain map.
• documentPayloadFromBytes(bytes) is where bytes enter (a record you validated, a store read, a writer of pre-encoded or signed bytes) and documentPayloadBytes(payload) is where they leave (a store write, a frame encode, hashing or signing). Reach for them only at those edges.

const note = decodeDocumentPayload(noteDocument, envelope.payload); // parsed Note
const payload = encodeDocumentPayload(noteDocument, note); // DocumentPayload

Browsers import the same names from @gamecult/cultcache-ts/document, which holds no Node built-ins.

.cc Inspection

CultCache files may use the .cc extension. The bytes are still the canonical cultcache.store.v1 MessagePack snapshot; the extension is the human handle, not a second format.

inspectCultCacheBytes(...) reads .cc, .msgpack, or .mpack bytes and returns the snapshot header, schema catalog, records, and decoded MessagePack payload previews without registering application schemas. Presentation runtimes such as Huginn consume that inspection result; they do not own the storage format.

Example

import { z } from "zod";
import {
  CultCache,
  SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore,
  defineDocumentRegistry,
  defineDocumentType,
} from "@gamecult/cultcache-ts";

const itemDocument = defineDocumentType({
  type: "item",
  schemaId: "gamecult.item.v1",
  schemaName: "item",
  schemaVersion: "item.v1",
  schema: z.object({
    name: z.string(),
    category: z.string(),
    value: z.number().int(),
  }),
  name: "name",
  indexes: {
    category: "category",
  },
});

const settingsDocument = defineDocumentType({
  type: "settings",
  schema: z.object({
    theme: z.string(),
    retries: z.number().int().nonnegative(),
  }),
  global: true,
});

const registry = defineDocumentRegistry(itemDocument, settingsDocument);

const cache = CultCache.builder()
  .withRegistry(registry)
  .withGenericStore(new SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore("cache.msgpack"))
  .build();

await cache.pullAllBackingStores();

await cache.put(itemDocument, "item:potion", {
  name: "Potion",
  category: "Consumable",
  value: 50,
});

await cache.putGlobal(settingsDocument, {
  theme: "ash",
  retries: 3,
});

const potion = cache.getByName(itemDocument, "Potion");
const consumable = cache.getByIndex(itemDocument, "category", "Consumable");
const settings = cache.getRequiredGlobal(settingsDocument);

Public Surface

• defineDocumentType(...)
• defineDocumentRegistry(...)
• CultCache.builder()
• registerDocumentType(...)
• registerRegistry(...)
• registerNameLookup(...)
• registerIndex(...)
• addBackingStore(...)
• addGenericBackingStore(...)
• pullAllBackingStores()
• get(...)
• getRequired(...)
• getAll(...)
• getKeyByName(...)
• getByName(...)
• getKeyByIndex(...)
• getByIndex(...)
• getGlobal(...)
• getRequiredGlobal(...)
• put(...)
• putGlobal(...)
• update(...)
• updateGlobal(...)
• delete(...)
• deleteGlobal(...)
• snapshot()
• getEnvelope(...)
• getRequiredEnvelope(...)
• getGlobalEnvelope(...)
• putEnvelope(...)

Document definitions may also carry persistence metadata for cross-language stores: schemaId, schemaName, schemaVersion, contentHash, canonicalSchemaJson, compatibleSchemaIds, and slot members.

Backing Store Routing

const cache = CultCache.builder()
  .withRegistry(registry)
  .withBackingStore(new SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore("settings.cc"), settingsDocument)
  .withGenericStore(new SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore("cache.cc"))
  .build();

A document type has exactly one home store (src/GameCult.Caching/Contracts/cultcache-store-composition.md in CultLib):

• a store added with types owns those types; otherwise the generic store is the home
• a second generic store throws, and so does a type claimed by a second store; a refused registration attaches nothing
• put, putEnvelope and delete touch exactly one store; nothing is mirrored
• a write whose type has no home store throws

Name, Index, and Global Semantics

name and indexes can be declared on the document definition:

const playerDocument = defineDocumentType({
  type: "player",
  schema: playerSchema,
  name: "displayName",
  indexes: {
    faction: "faction",
    email: "email",
  },
});

You can also register them later if you feel like changing the machine after boot:

await cache.registerNameLookup(playerDocument, "displayName");
await cache.registerIndex(playerDocument, "faction", "faction");

Registration, addBackingStore, pullAllBackingStores and every write and delete run one at a time through a per-cache queue and return promises; reads are synchronous. A write validates the whole record (home store, global key, name and index accessors) before any store is touched, so a refused write changes neither store nor cache. Registering an accessor that throws on a held record installs nothing.

Global documents are singleton-style per type, always stored under CultCache.GLOBAL_KEY (__global__); writing one under any other key throws:

await cache.putGlobal(settingsDocument, { theme: "ash", retries: 3 });
const settings = cache.getRequiredGlobal(settingsDocument);

If persisted state contains two globals for the same type, pullAllBackingStores() fails closed instead of pretending the contradiction is charming.

Typed Formatters

Each document definition can provide a custom formatter:

const combatLogDocument = defineDocumentType({
  type: "combat-log",
  schema: combatLogSchema,
  formatter: {
    encode(value) {
      return myFastBinaryEncoder(value);
    },
    decode(payload) {
      return myFastBinaryDecoder(payload);
    },
  },
});

If you do not supply one, CultCacheTS uses MessagePack plus Zod validation by default.

The 256-container nesting bound (MAX_PAYLOAD_DEPTH, refused with CultCachePayloadDepthError) covers the MessagePack the library itself writes: the default format and a codec. A payload your formatter writes is opaque bytes in any format, so the library does not walk it as MessagePack; its format and its bounds are your formatter's.

Zod is no longer mandatory. Any schema object with a parse(...) function will do, which means generated Ajv-backed JSON-schema contracts can feed the cache directly as long as they expose the same parse surface.

The important boundary is this:

• payload bytes are persisted as bytes
• decoding goes through the registered formatter for that document type
• the decoded value is still validated against the declared schema

So callers get typed values, and the persistence layer does not become an open polymorphic sewer.

Slot Records and Unions

codec writes the reference runtimes' record shape: a MessagePack array indexed by slot key, nil in a gap, and a union as [armKey, [armSlots...]]. A union value is { kind: armName, ...armFields }.

import { codecs, defineDocumentType } from "@gamecult/cultcache-ts";
const { slots, union, list, lazy, string } = codecs;

const NS = "MyApp.Scene+"; // the C# names of the types, as the reference writes them into a store's schema catalog

type Node =
  | { kind: "Box"; id: string; children: (Node | null)[] }
  | { kind: "Text"; id: string; content: string }
  | { kind: "Image"; id: string; uri: string; alt: string };

const node: codecs.Codec<Node | null> = union<Node>("Node", {
  0: ["Box", slots<{ id: string; children: (Node | null)[] }>({ 0: ["id", string], 1: ["children", list(lazy(() => node))] })],
  1: ["Text", slots<{ id: string; content: string }>({ 0: ["id", string], 1: ["content", string] })],
  5: ["Image", slots<{ id: string; uri: string; alt: string }>({ 0: ["id", string], 1: ["uri", string], 3: ["alt", string] })], // slot 2 retired
}, `${NS}Node`);

const sceneDocument = defineDocumentType({
  type: "scene",
  schema: sceneSchema,
  codec: slots<Scene>({ 0: ["id", string], 1: ["root", node], 2: ["title", string, ""] }),
  name: "id",
});

• A slot is [name, codec, default?]. A gap is written nil and skipped on read; an extra trailing slot is skipped; a slot missing from the payload (or nil, when a default is declared) takes its default, and is refused without one.
• A union refuses an undeclared arm key on read, naming the union, the key and the declared keys. Nothing falls back to a default arm. An arm with no slots is codecs.unit and is written [key, []].
• A refusal names the union, the field and the slot; it never echoes the value it refused.
• The leaves are string, boolean, bytes, int32, int64, float32 and float64, each writing the MessagePack the C# type writes and refusing what C# refuses (a float in an int slot, an int outside Int32). int64 reads a number when the value is a safe integer and a bigint beyond 2^53, and refuses a number beyond 2^53 on write. list, array and nullable wrap a leaf, a union or a record. A float32 slot rounds an integer once, as the reference's cast does.
• Every codec carries the reference's type name, and a store's schema catalog is derived from those names, because the reference refuses a store whose slot names another type. The leaves know theirs; give a union or a record its C# name as the last argument of union(name, arms, typeName) or slots(spec, typeName). A codec with a slot it cannot name refuses to derive members: pass members instead.
• An arm key is an integer within Int32 (negative too), in any MessagePack integer encoding. A float key (even 1.0) is refused on read, and a union refuses a key outside Int32 when it is defined. A slot key is within 0 to Int32 max.
• codec supplies the document's formatter and, unless members is given, its catalog members. A definition may not carry both codec and formatter. schema.parse still runs on every decoded value.

Raw Envelope Fast Path

For bit-compatible neighbors such as CultNet peers that already share the same formatter contract, CultCacheTS can now move the persisted envelope directly:

• getEnvelope(...) / getRequiredEnvelope(...) export the canonical MessagePack payload bytes for a typed document
• putEnvelope(...) ingests that envelope into another cache instance without re-encoding the payload first

Raw envelopes may carry schemaId and catalog metadata. Domain callers should not need that sludge. Replication, migration tooling, and wire-compatibility tests do.

That still is not magic shared memory. The cache decodes once so lookups and typed reads stay honest. But it stops doing the stupid part where identical MessagePack payload bytes get decoded into a generic value, then re-encoded into the same bytes again just to cross the room.

Security Model

CultCacheTS should never deserialize arbitrary persisted payloads into arbitrary runtime shapes.

It only accepts persisted records whose schemaId or legacy type discriminator resolves to a registered document definition on the cache instance. Unknown schemas fail immediately. Known schemas decode through the registered formatter and schema only.

That is the TypeScript version of the original CultCache trick:

• closed discriminator set
• explicit registration
• typed formatter path
• no runtime type-name roulette

Persistence Model

SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore is the first concrete store.

• it writes atomic CultCache v1 MessagePack snapshots
• the top-level MessagePack value is [formatVersion, schemaCatalog, records]
• each record is [key, schemaId, storedAt, payload]
• each catalog entry is [schemaId, schemaName, schemaVersion, contentHash, canonicalSchemaJson, compatibleSchemaIds, members]
• it still reads the older TS/Rust-style envelope array and rewrites repaired legacy payloads as v1 snapshots
• it queues local writes in order, then takes the shared <file>.lock (flock on Unix, LockFileEx on Windows, via koffi, loaded on the first write) for each one, so C#, Rust and TypeScript writers exclude each other; the read a write merges from is taken under that lock
• it fsyncs the staged file and, on Unix, the directory after the replace; on Windows it replaces with a POSIX-semantics rename and falls back to a write-through MoveFileExW, retrying briefly on sharing violations
• it persists raw MessagePack payload bytes inside schema-addressed records

It is a control-plane store, not a tiny god: every write rewrites the whole file.