flybrain/services/flysim/crates/flybus

flybus

A small local RPC and pub/sub bus with immutable file-backed artifacts, for Tokio.

One library, one router, one wire protocol. Messages are small JSON envelopes carrying metadata and artifact references. Large immutable bytes live in a file store the router manages. Ownership follows deliveries and explicit holds. The router moves messages and tracks ownership; it does not know what the messages mean.

This crate implements the Flybus v1 draft (session-framework design, bus-v1, draft 1 of 2026-09-18), using the scalar encodings of its companion ipc-v1 (Id, U64, Digest). Where this crate narrows or extends the draft, the difference is listed under Differences from the draft.

Nothing in the crate is specific to a game, a brain or a stream. It is a workspace member and no other crate depends on it yet.

Layout

Module	Contents
wire (public)	Scalars, strict JSON, Envelope, ArtifactRef, Attachment, Location, framing, CONTRACT and contract_digest()
error (public)	ErrorCode, Dispatch, BusError
limits (public)	Limits and its hello encoding
policy (public)	Policy, Grants, Pattern
router	Router, RouterConfig, RouterStats, UnixListenerHandle; the state machine in router/state.rs
client	Client and every handle type
store	The file store (router side) and location resolution (client side)
transport	Transport, the Stream trait

Dependencies: tokio, serde, serde_json, sha2 and libc (for flock, posix_fallocate and O_NOFOLLOW), all already in the workspace lockfile.

API

Router

let mut config = RouterConfig::new("/run/example/bus-store"); // default Limits, closed Policy
config.policy = Policy::closed()
    .client("coordinator", Grants { call: vec![Pattern::prefix("agent.")], ..Grants::default() })
    .client("agent-a", Grants { register: vec![Pattern::exact("agent.fly-a")], ..Grants::default() });
let router = Router::new(config)?;                 // creates <root>/<storeId>, cleans orphans
let listener = router.listen_unix_as("/run/example/coordinator.sock", "coordinator").await?;
let transport = router.connect_in_memory_as("coordinator");
router.serve_as(any_async_read_write_stream, "coordinator");
router.stats();                                    // RouterStats (logical registry counters)
router.shutdown();                                 // notices, then closes every connection

• Router is Clone; all clones are one router. serve_as, connect_in_memory_as and listen_unix_as bind the launcher's expected participant id to the transport before Hello. A mismatching Hello is refused before registration or routing.
• The unbound serve, connect_in_memory and listen_unix entry points are only for explicit Policy::open() trusted/test deployments. Restricted policies refuse unbound transports. Identity in open/unbound mode is self-asserted and is not authentication.
• RouterConfig::hello_timeout defaults to 5 seconds. max_clients counts all accepted connections, pending and active.
• router_id(), store_id(), store_root() and store_dir() report the incarnation and paths.
• RouterStats has connections, services, topics, subscriptions, calls (correlation records, detached included), active_calls, artifacts, sealed_artifacts, artifact_roots, owners, reply_capabilities, queued, store_bytes and retained_bytes.
• Limits (defaults in brackets): max_clients [64], max_services [256], max_topics [512], max_subscriptions_per_client [128], max_subscriptions [1024], max_active_calls_per_client [64], max_service_queued / max_service_in_flight [16 / 16], max_latest_in_flight [2], max_bounded_queued / max_bounded_in_flight [64 / 16], max_owners_per_client [256], reserved_owners_per_client [64], max_store_bytes [512 MiB], max_artifact_bytes [128 MiB], max_retained_bytes [128 MiB], max_queued_bytes_per_client [1 MiB], max_control_frames / max_control_bytes [128 / 1 MiB]. Router::new refuses a configuration Limits::validate rejects.
• Policy::open() explicitly enables trusted unbound transports and admits any client id with every grant. Policy::closed() admits only the ids added with .client(id, grants). .with_default(Some(grants)) admits unlisted ids too. Grants lists register, call, publish, subscribe and manage_topics (declare, clear, delete) as Pattern::Any, Pattern::exact(name) or Pattern::prefix(prefix). An empty list grants nothing.

Client

let bus = Client::connect(transport, ClientConfig::new("coordinator", store_root)).await?;
let bus = Client::connect_unix(socket_path, ClientConfig::new("coordinator", store_root)).await?;
bus.info();          // SessionInfo: router_id, connection_id, identity, selected_major,
                     // selected_minor, contract_digest, limits
bus.closed();        // Some(reason) once the connection has closed
bus.control_errors();// fire-and-forget releases/consumes/unregisters the router refused
bus.close().await;   // flush queued releases, close, wait for the reader to stop

ClientConfig has client_id, client_incarnation (generated when None; a reconnect needs a new one), store_root (the router's) and control_lane_capacity [4096]. Client is Clone. The connection closes when the client and every handle made from it are dropped, or on close(). After that, handles are inert and the router has released what they owned.

RPC

let mut svc = bus.register("agent.fly-a", ServiceConfig { max_queued: 16, max_in_flight: 16 }).await?;
while let Some(req) = svc.next().await {           // Request
    req.method(); req.payload(); req.caller();     // authenticated only on a launcher-bound transport
    let frame = req.artifact("frame")?;            // shares the request's delivery guard
    req.reply(outcome_map, &[("result", &artifact)]).await?; // Ok(true) routed, Ok(false) detached
}                                                  // dropping a Request consumes its delivery

let mut pending = bus.call("agent.fly-a", Some(&incarnation), "Agent.Prepare", payload, &[("frame", &frame)]).await?;
let result = pending.result().await?;              // RpcResult: outcome(), responder(), artifact()
let state = pending.cancel().await?;               // CancelState
let result = bus.call_and_wait(service, pin, method, payload, &attachments).await?;

• register is exclusive; Service::incarnation() is the id callers pin. Dropping the Service unregisters it.
• call returns once the router has admitted the call. The PendingCall then yields exactly one terminal outcome. result() is cancel-safe: wrap it in tokio::time::timeout, then call it again or cancel(). There is no deadline parameter; the deadline belongs to the caller.
• cancel() returns CancelledBeforeDispatch, ExecutionUnknown, Completed or CallGone. After any state except Completed, result() fails with CALL_GONE. The error's dispatch is not-dispatched only for CancelledBeforeDispatch.
• Dropping an unfinished PendingCall sends a best-effort rpc.cancel. The reactor consumes any result that still arrives.
• Request::responder() returns a Responder that can reply after the request itself has been dropped. Request delivery credit returns normally; a separate router-visible reply capability preserves correlation until the last Request/Responder is dropped or a reply is admitted. If the final capability is dropped while the caller is still attached, the call terminates with CALL_GONE and dispatch dispatched while the route remains live, or the existing NO_SERVICE/dispatched terminal if the route has ended. Capabilities share the service connection's owner bound.
• A call fails with call.failed data in its BusError:
  • Queued calls whose service unregisters or disconnects fail with NO_SERVICE and dispatch not-dispatched.
  • Dispatched calls whose service disconnects without replying fail with NO_SERVICE and dispatch dispatched.
  • Dispatched calls whose last responder is released without replying fail with CALL_GONE and dispatch dispatched.
  • A lost connection fails pending calls with ROUTER_LOST and dispatch unknown.

Pub/sub

bus.declare_topic("session.demo.snapshots", Retained::Latest).await?;  // TopicInfo
bus.clear_topic(name).await?;    // bool: a retained value was released
bus.delete_topic(name).await?;   // bool; CONFLICT while it has subscribers
let mut sub = bus.subscribe(name, SubscriptionConfig::latest().in_flight(1).replay(true)).await?;
let receipt = bus.publish(name, payload, &[("frame", &frame)]).await?; // topic_sequence, subscribers, replaced
let msg = sub.next().await;      // Option<Message>; try_next() does not wait
msg.topic_sequence(); msg.replaced(); msg.topic_incarnation(); msg.payload(); msg.artifact("frame")?;

• SubscriptionConfig::latest() is 1 queued and 2 in flight. SubscriptionConfig::bounded() is 64 queued and 16 in flight. .queued(n), .in_flight(n) and .replay(bool) adjust them.
• A credit returns only when the delivery is consumed: when the Message and every artifact or ArtifactFile taken from it have been dropped.
• A retained replay into a bounded subscription is admitted atomically under the same queued envelope-byte quota as an ordinary bounded publication. Latest replay remains outside that byte pool and is bounded by one slot per subscription.
• Dropping a Subscription unsubscribes and discards its queue. Messages already handed out stay valid.

Artifacts

let mut writer = bus.artifacts().allocate(len, "image/x-rgba").await?; // ArtifactWriter: io::Write
writer.write_all(&pixels)?;
let frame = writer.seal().await?;              // or seal_with_digest(Some(sha256_hex))
frame.reference();                             // ArtifactRef
let bytes = frame.read_all().await?;           // Vec<u8>
let file = frame.open().await?;                // ArtifactFile: io::Read + io::Seek, keeps the handle
let kept = frame.retain().await?;              // an independent explicit hold

• Artifact is a read-only, cloneable handle on one owner: a delivery or an explicit hold. Its last clone (including any ArtifactFile) releases that owner.
• ArtifactWriter is unique. Dropping it unsealed releases the staging storage. Writes past the allocated length fail. Unwritten bytes read as zeros.
• Sealing copies staging into a fresh read-only (0444) file and unlinks staging. A descriptor the producer kept or duplicated afterwards writes only to the unlinked staging inode. Sealing therefore needs quota for both copies while it runs.

Errors

BusError { code: ErrorCode, message, dispatch: Dispatch }. The codes are the draft's INVALID_ENVELOPE, VERSION_MISMATCH, NOT_AUTHORIZED, NO_SERVICE, TARGET_CHANGED, BACKPRESSURE, CALL_GONE, ARTIFACT_UNSEALED, ARTIFACT_GONE, OWNER_INVALID, QUOTA_EXCEEDED, STORE_FAILURE and ROUTER_LOST, plus CONFLICT, NO_TOPIC and ARTIFACT_MISMATCH. Dispatch is not-dispatched, dispatched or unknown. Refusals before admission are not-dispatched. A command in flight when the connection is lost reports unknown.

Wire summary

• Frames are a u32 little-endian length followed by 1..=65,536 bytes of UTF-8 JSON. The length is checked before any allocation.
• Every frame is parsed strictly:
  • Duplicate keys at any depth, invalid UTF-8, non-finite numbers and trailing bytes are refused. Nesting is limited to 128 levels.
  • Unknown fields are refused in the envelope, attachments, references and every management body. payload and outcome are opaque objects.
• Frame or envelope errors close the connection after a connection.closing notice. They include a bad length, bad JSON, an unknown envelope field, a wrong kind, a non-null replyTo, a command id that is not canonical or does not increase, a command before bus.hello, a second hello, and a major/minor other than 1.0 after hello. A body-level error (unknown op, bad field, out-of-range value, attachments on a management op) gets an INVALID_ENVELOPE reply and the connection stays up.
• The SDK applies symmetric checks to router frames: exact 1.0 version, strictly increasing canonical bus-<U64> ids, kind/replyTo/attachment direction rules, expected reply operation, delivery correlations and complete strict reply, delivery and notice body parsing.
• Ids:
  • Commands: msg-<U64>, strictly increasing per connection.
  • Router envelopes: bus-<n>. Connections: conn-<n>. Services: svc-<n>. Topics: top-<n>. Subscriptions: sub-<n>. Calls: call-<U64>, increasing per client.
  • Artifacts: a-<n>. Deliveries: dlv-<n>. Holds and writers: own-<n>.
  • routerId is router-<16 hex> and storeId is store-<16 hex> (same tag).
  • Delivery and hold serials have separate per-connection watermarks.
• Notices:
  • call.failed {callId, code, message, dispatch}
  • route.removed {name, serviceIncarnation, reason}
  • subscription.closed {subscriptionId, topic, topicIncarnation, reason}
  • connection.closing {code, message}
• The hello reply's limits object gives counts as JSON integers and byte sizes as U64 strings. Its fields: maxEnvelopeBytes, maxAttachments, maxBatch, maxClients, maxServices, maxTopics, maxSubscriptionsPerClient, maxSubscriptions, maxActiveCallsPerClient, maxServiceQueued, maxServiceInFlight, maxLatestInFlight, maxBoundedQueued, maxBoundedInFlight, maxOwnersPerClient, reservedOwnersPerClient, maxControlFrames, maxStoreBytes, maxArtifactBytes, maxRetainedBytes, maxQueuedBytesPerClient and maxControlBytes.
• contractDigest is the SHA-256 of wire::CONTRACT, a text listing of every operation, delivery and notice shape. The client refuses a router whose digest differs from its own.

Semantics worth knowing

• Admission is all or nothing. rpc.call, rpc.reply and publish validate every attachment and every bound before changing any state. A refused publication creates no delivery, does not move the retained value and spends no topic sequence number. A refused syntactically valid call id advances the issued-id watermark even when semantic admission is refused, while creating no call, delivery or root. Reuse or decrease is rejected.
• Ownership. Each sealed artifact has a root count. Roots are held by queued deliveries, delivered-but-unconsumed deliveries, explicit holds and a retained topic value. A delivery that names one artifact twice holds one root. Fan-out adds roots and never copies bytes. When the last root goes, the artifact leaves the quota and its file is unlinked, outside the router lock. A process that still has the file open keeps its pages until it closes it.
• Owner budget. max_owners_per_client counts deliveries handed to the client and not consumed, explicit holds and writers. Topic deliveries, holds and writers may use all but reserved_owners_per_client; the reserve is for RPC requests and results. A topic delivery over budget waits in its queue. A hold or allocation over budget fails with QUOTA_EXCEEDED. Request reply capabilities consume the same finite bound independently of request delivery credit, preventing retained responders from growing detached correlation state without limit.
• Lanes. The router sends each client its replies and notices first, then RPC requests and results, then topic messages. Topic messages still get one frame after 16 consecutive higher-priority frames. Router envelope ids are assigned only after this scheduler selects the next item, so they increase in actual write order. Replies and notices waiting for one client are bounded by max_control_frames / max_control_bytes; exceeding either closes that client with a connection.closing notice. The client sends consumes, releases and cancels ahead of ordinary commands and batches up to 64 ids per command. A full client control lane closes the connection rather than drop a release.
• No waiting on readers. A client that stops reading stalls only its own writer task. The router keeps admitting until that client's queues refuse, then returns BACKPRESSURE to publishers of bounded topics. Connection teardown is synchronized with each synchronous poll_write/poll_flush call without holding a mutex across an await. Teardown either observes a complete frame before reclaiming its delivery owner, or marks a partial frame canceled before cleanup and appends no final notice to the truncated stream. At a frame boundary, normal final notices are still attempted.
• RPC. First dispatch is FIFO per service, which includes per caller. A call is marked dispatched when its bytes are about to be written. Replies correlate by call id and may arrive in any order. A second reply to one call fails with CALL_GONE. A reply to a detached call returns routed:false and creates no roots. Unregistering a service fails its queued calls; dispatched calls can still be answered while a Request or Responder retains reply capability. Both cancel/consume orderings retire cleanly.
• Seals copy (and hash, when a digest was given) on Tokio's blocking pool, alongside the connection's reader, so a large copy does not hold up that client's releases. If the writer is released or disconnects mid-seal, the copy is discarded and the artifact is never published.

Differences from the draft

1. Extra error codes. CONFLICT covers a duplicate registration, a conflicting topic redeclaration and deleting a topic that has subscribers. NO_TOPIC covers publishing or subscribing to an undeclared topic. ARTIFACT_MISMATCH covers a seal whose length or digest is wrong, and a reference that disagrees with the artifact it names.
2. Topics must be declared. Publish and subscribe fail with NO_TOPIC otherwise. topic.delete of an unknown topic returns deleted:false. topic.clear of an unknown topic returns NO_TOPIC.
3. When notices are sent.
   • subscription.closed is sent only when the router shuts down, because topic.delete requires no subscribers and nothing else closes a subscription.
   • route.removed goes to callers with queued or dispatched calls on the removed registration, not to every client.
   • connection.closing is an extra notice that precedes every router-initiated close.
4. Byte budgets.
   • max_queued_bytes_per_client counts only bounded subscriptions. A latest slot is bounded by subscription count times envelope size.
   • max_retained_bytes (not in the draft's table) counts the artifact bytes pinned by retained values, once per topic.
5. Delivery size. Admission computes the delivery's size with the router-added ids at their longest. If that would exceed 65,536 bytes it refuses with INVALID_ENVELOPE, so an inbound envelope near the limit can be refused even though it fits.
6. Identity. One live connection per client id. The router remembers each client id's last incarnation and refuses its reuse. Launcher-bound *_as endpoints authenticate the Hello id; trusted open/unbound endpoints do not. With an open policy this is one small record per distinct client id ever seen.
7. Seal reply. The reply's ownerId is the writer's own id, now an explicit hold.
8. No budget argument on calls, and no router executable. Timeouts are the caller's (tokio::time::timeout plus cancel). The draft's executable is optional; embed Router.
9. Wire strictness. Management bodies reject unknown fields. After hello, envelopes must carry minor: 0.
10. Reply capability release. The SDK sends rpc.responder.release {callId, requestDeliveryId} -> {released} when the last local reply capability is dropped. This keeps request consumption independent from late-reply correlation while bounding that correlation under the service connection's owner limit. For an attached dispatched call, final release atomically retires the correlation and caller slot and emits call.failed with dispatch dispatched: CALL_GONE while the route remains live, or NO_SERVICE after route loss.

Limitations

• One host, one user. Clients must run as the router's user and see the same store root. The store directory is 0700, staging files 0600, sealed files 0444 and the socket 0600. Bus authority (grants, connection-scoped owner ids, location grants) is enforced on bus operations, not on the filesystem: a process running as the same user can read, mutate, replace, chmod or unlink store files directly and can deny service. Mode 0600 authenticates only the shared OS user, not a Flybus participant.
• No memory maps. Artifacts are read through std::fs::File (ArtifactFile) or read_all(); there is no mmap API. ArtifactFile reads are blocking I/O.
• Stats are logical. RouterStats counts registry entries. Unlinked files that are still open, client memory and OS pages are not in it.
• Fairness is modest. Fairness between clients is Tokio's scheduling plus a yield after every 32 commands a connection sends. Within a connection, subscriptions and services are served round robin. There is no weighting.
• Orphan cleanup needs a restart. Store directories left by a stopped router are removed only when a new router starts on the same root. A directory counts as orphaned when it carries the store marker and its flock is free.
• Rust only. There are no other language bindings.
• Two perf runs. tests/perf.rs (ignored by default) measured 640x480 RGBA frames at 60 Hz over a Unix socket to three latest-mode consumers, one delayed 40 ms per frame. It ran twice, on a laptop under WSL, release build, router and clients in one process. Allocate, write and seal took p50 1.2 to 1.3 ms and p99 1.5 to 2.0 ms per 1.2 MB frame. Publish admission took p50 0.2 ms. The RPC round trip took p50 0.24 / 0.29 to 0.31 / 0.50 ms with 1 / 2 / 4 agents. The whole process used 0.18 to 0.25 cores and about 15 MB RSS. The store peaked at 3.7 MB. These are two runs, not capacity data.

Tests

cargo test -p flybus                                              # unit + integration
cargo test --release -p flybus --test perf -- --ignored --nocapture  # the measurement above
cargo run -p flybus --example demo                                # counter RPC, observer, held frame

Every integration test runs twice, once over the in-memory transport and once over a Unix socket, through the same router code:

• tests/wire.rs: hello negotiation and refusals, malformed frames of every kind, body errors that keep the connection, the exact 65,536-byte limit and control-lane exhaustion.
• tests/rpc.rs: exclusive and pinned registration, authority, FIFO dispatch with out-of-order completion, backpressure, all four cancel states, single replies, service disconnect and unregister, forged replies and call ids, an endpoint cache replaying an artifact result, and abandoned calls.
• tests/sol_review_races.rs: launcher-bound identity and Hello resource bounds, detached RPC orderings, responder/service teardown, reply/cancel races, replay admission, call-id watermarking, strict client router validation, unsent rollback and shared task shutdown.
• tests/pubsub.rs: bounded FIFO with atomic backpressure, latest coalescing, credits, retention and incarnations, zero-subscriber publication, unsubscribe, validation, quotas, a saturated subscriber that does not block RPC, and shutdown notices.
• tests/artifacts.rs: allocate, seal and read; unsealed use; immutability against live writable descriptors; length and digest checks; quotas; one physical object shared by fan-out and collected after the last consumer; extracted artifacts and holds; atomic admission; release watermarks; connection-scoped owners; abandoned futures; disconnects; and router restarts.
• tests/integration.rs: two agents called in parallel with a forwarded frame, an environment service, committed snapshot publication, a slow latest consumer and a bounded recorder.