Checking a FACT relation directly (rt.check('u:1', 'owns', 'doc:9')) now
runs the provider-retrieval pipeline instead of returning 0 without ever
consulting the registered provider. The retrieval set for a direct fact
check is the fact itself (plus, for evidence checks, the injectable deps as
before). The result reports requiredFacts/providedFacts/missingFacts for the
fact, and missingFacts surfaces 'no_provider' when neither a provider nor an
edge can satisfy the check.
Automatically-retrieved facts (balances, sessions, etc.) are now cached with
a time expiry so repeated checks don't re-invoke the underlying data store.
- check(): registered providers cache their normalized edges per
(relation, subject, object) with a TTL; a fresh entry is reused without
re-invoking the provider. Per-check factProviders are one-off observations
and stay cache-transparent (no read, no write).
- TTL resolution: DSL-declared 'BEHAVES { ttl <duration> }' on a fact >
setFactTTL(relation, ms) > policy.providerCacheTTL (default 30s; 0 disables).
- Grammar: facts may now declare a freshness window via
'fact balance(user, amount) BEHAVES { ttl 1h }' (previously BEHAVES only
accepted 'AS edge|transitive|hierarchical|symmetrical_graph'). The runtime
indexes it as the fact's ttlMs.
- registerFact/unregisterFact, graph mutations (add/update/remove node or
relation), and invalidateProviderCache(relation?) keep the cache consistent.
- Injectable clock (default wall clock) drives cache freshness, mirroring the
core's unpinned-clock contract.
Tests: DSLRuntimeCache (reuse within TTL, expiry re-invoke, per-check
override transparency, registerFact invalidation, mutation invalidation,
per-relation/all invalidation, policy default, DSL-declared 1h TTL).
- _expandChainSteps: a logical/defeasible evidence referenced by a chain step
is now a condition step ({ rule, conditionStep }) at ANY position. As the
FINAL step the engine verifies it at (intermediate, object); as an
INTERMEDIATE step the engine expands it from the current node (rule-based
reachability: base edges' destinations filtered by the rule's
defeaters/requirements) and continues traversal from each discovered node.
- buildPredicateRule / buildDirectRule: unary predicate calls whose subject
entity IS the evidence's object parameter (trusted(other) inside
peer_trusted(user, other)) are marked _subjectIsObject (was: only subject-var
calls got _subjectAsObject). Requires @arbiter/core@^1.0.4.
Tests: ChainConditionStep intermediate expansion; oracle campaign gains a
chain_intermediate_condition construct (oracle = min(peer*(1-trusted), read)).
The higher-order DSL+Core wrapper now covers the full contract the DSL
informs, beyond the typed mutations already present:
- getSchema(): serializable introspection of the compiled type system —
entity types/fields, facts (params + injectable flag), evidence (with
transitive dependsOn), and registered providers. relationNames() lists all
declared relations. (The DSL's type system was always present; this exposes
it programmatically.)
- registerFact(relation, fn) / unregisterFact / registeredFacts: per-relation
async providers that retrieve missing partial-graph edges; per-check
factProviders merge OVER registered ones.
- Bounded fixed-point provider retrieval loop (maxProviderRounds): each round
invokes providers for required facts whose edges are not yet injected. A
provider may return edges for relations other than its own — those satisfy
the other required facts and can unblock later rounds.
- check() now type-validates FACT relations too (not just evidence); edge
normalization preserves a provider edge's own relation name.
- removeNode / removeRelation passthroughs; require() throws on denial for
middleware.
- Field typing extended to the DSL's full value-type universe
(timestamp/duration accept number or string; object/any accept anything).
Tests: DSLRuntimeExt (schema, registration, merge, fixed-point, require,
removal, fact-check validation, timestamp typing).
A chain's FINAL (object-side) step may now reference a defeasible/logical
evidence. The compiler lowers it to a condition step
({ rule: <config>, conditionStep: true }) that the engine verifies at
(intermediate, object) instead of traversing an edge. Requires
@arbiter/core@^1.0.3 (ChainRule condition-step support).
- _expandChainSteps: a logical/defeasible/comparator evidence is expressible
as a final condition step; non-final such steps remain a compile error
(a condition cannot discover intermediate nodes).
- Dependency collection (generator + DSLRuntime) descends into condition-step
rule configs, so partial-graph requirements reach through them.
Tests: ChainConditionStep (defeasible + ALWAYS steps, independent checkability,
parallel aggregation), oracle campaign chain_condition_step construct
(oracle = min(pm, pv*(1-pb))), DSLRuntime transitive required facts through a
condition step.
A chain step that references a derived evidence is now expanded at compile
time, keeping the engine a flat edge-traversal evaluator:
- DIRECT evidence step -> renamed to its underlying relation
(member_of(user,*g){ group_read(g,doc) } where group_read = can_view
becomes step 'can_view').
- CHAIN evidence step -> its steps are spliced into the parent chain
(a sub-path flattens into the linear source->...->object traversal).
- Any other evidence type (defeasible/logical/comparator) as a step is a
compile-time error: it is a condition, not an edge traversal.
- Cycles and self-references through chain steps are compile-time errors
(the existing composition cycle guard now covers steps).
Rigor: oracle campaign gains a chain_step_composition construct; illegal
mutations gain a non-lowerable-chain-step case. Fixture suites updated to
retarget the self-recursive 'canRead/canAccess/...' terminals (an unsupported
recursion pattern that now fails loudly) to an any-typed 'reachable' fact,
preserving the nested-pattern parsing intent.
An evidence may now reference another derived evidence as a sub-rule
(WHEN can_read(user, doc) where can_read is itself an evidence). Resolution
is a compile-time linker pass: after every evidence config is generated, each
direct reference to an evidence is inlined with that evidence's own (resolved)
config, so the engine evaluates a fully-resolved, acyclic config tree.
- resolveEvidenceReferences(): post-generation pass over evidence configs,
recursing into logical/defeasible containers (when/unless/never/always/
requires/union/intersection), always.direct nests, and comparator operands.
- Forward references resolve (all configs exist before the pass runs).
- Cycles and self-references are compile-time errors.
- _subjectAsObject scoping is preserved through inlining.
- dependsOn is recomputed after resolution, so partial-graph requirements
reach transitively through composed evidence.
- buildDirectRule/buildPredicateRule now apply subject-scoping to top-level
PredicateCall evidence bodies (latent gap, previously missed).
- validation: reject relation names shared across facts/sources/evidence/
measures (a collision silently overwrote configs and read as a false cycle).
Tests: EvidenceComposition (9), DSLRuntime transitive requiredFacts, oracle
campaign composition construct, illegal-mutations cycle + cross-kind cases.
Lowering fixes (validate/lower/compile into known-correct core structures):
- tuple_to_userset: structural classification by object-side predicate
(owner(*g, doc) { member_of(user, g) } -> tuple_to_userset with direction
'in'/'out'); the old heuristic routed every outer-wildcard to chain.
- relational_comparator: operands now lower to real direct-rule configs
(evaluateFrom derived from evidence param positions; expectedValue for
literal args) instead of raw AST nodes the engine could not evaluate.
- defeasible: multi-level bodies (NEVER/REQUIRES/ALWAYS/WHEN/UNLESS) merge
into one five-level rule instead of ANDed level-only rules that always
resolved 0; nested PatternMatches flatten to N-step chains; unary predicate
calls mark _subjectAsObject (subject-as-object semantics).
- validation: reject duplicate fact/evidence definitions.
DSLRuntime (higher-order DSL+Core wrapper):
- typed addNode/updateNodeData/addRelation/updateRelation against the DSL
schema (known types, relation params, field types, value-carrying facts);
- check() derives the evidence's injectable partial-graph requirements,
retrieves missing facts through caller data callbacks, injects them, and
delegates, returning requiredFacts/providedFacts/missingFacts.
js-rigor campaigns:
- generative oracle: generate legal DSL per construct and compare every
verdict against an independent hand-computed oracle (8 constructs x P grid)
plus an exhaustive deterministic sweep;
- illegal mutations: one-flaw perturbations of a valid program must be
reliably rejected (duplicate evidence/fact, arity/type mismatches, reserved
built-ins, malformed syntax), with a control that must compile.
Depends on @arbiter/core@^1.0.2 (reason codes + _subjectAsObject).
The legacy test files (Definition/Evidence/Expression/Fact/Integration/
Measure) predate the DSL's validation rules: reserved built-in types
(User/Account/Device/AuthSession) and the boolean/predicate-call
requirements on evidence statements. Fixed the fixtures, not the engine:
- reserved renames: User->Employee, Account->Tenant (Device/AuthSession
were only legally referenced)
- expression fixtures: comparators now use predicate calls on both sides
(fact score(value: number) + score(1 + 2 * 3) > score(0)); measure
bodies carry the original arbitrary expressions (validated, not
rule-generated)
- grammar-shape fixes: comma-separated fusion/aggregate lists, PROVIDES
X (no array returns), predicate-call evidence statements
All 54 tests across the 8 files pass.
The Evidence DSL (ADR-000) is a thin declarative layer that compiles to
engine rule types. It has zero runtime coupling to the core engine
(DSLCompiler takes an arbiter as a duck-typed argument; the only shared
code was the ip-utils helpers, now local). Extracting it into its own
package keeps the core artifact free of the DSL surface.
- @arbiter/evidence-dsl depends on @arbiter/core (config formats are the
compilation target)
- deep-path exports for the compiler, parser, generator, validation,
and built-in functions (the surface the core's DSL tests consume)
- tests moved alongside; generate-parser script + peggy devDep local
- CI: test on push, publish on v* tags
John Dvorak