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deepseek-harness/docs/rfc/008-immutable-public-surfaces.md
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Tianyi Cui 11a29fdefe feat(invariants): dev-mode event-contract assertions + session-log freeze (RFC 005 pt 3, RFC 008)
New @deepseek-ai/dsh-invariants plugin (pure listeners, off in prod) asserts
the event taxonomy at runtime — seq monotonicity, turn/step nesting, a
tool/result needs a prior tool/call (NOT the converse), legal agent/status
transitions — and deep-freezes logged event data so mutating history throws.
Seeded sessions are checked + frozen on session/created.

The real RFC 008 fix is always-on: deriveMessages now structured-clones the
content it emits, so the loop's sanctioned request/adapter mutation can no
longer reach back and rewrite the append-only log. The pervasive
DeepReadonly<T> type flip is rejected (compile-only, high-noise, castable) —
recorded in ADR 0012, which folds in RFC 008. Wired into both demos.
2026-06-13 23:25:12 +08:00

2.1 KiB

RFC 008: Deep-readonly public surfaces

Status: implemented (revised) — the pervasive DeepReadonly<T> type flip was rejected in favor of an always-on deriveMessages clone plus dev-mode Object.freeze + invariants. See ADR 0012.

Problem

The session log is append-only by contract, but session.events returns readonly SessionEvent[] whose elements are mutable: a plugin can reach in and rewrite history (events[0].data.content.push(...)), silently breaking replay equivalence and the derived-history guarantee. The same applies to derived messages and prompt assemblies passed through waterfalls — mutation is sometimes the intended idiom (waterfall middleware mutates the request) and sometimes corruption (mutating a logged event), and the types don't distinguish.

Proposal

Make immutability part of the type where mutation is corruption:

  • SessionEvent data becomes DeepReadonly on the way OUT of a session (events, session/event listeners); append() keeps taking plain mutable input. A DeepReadonly<T> utility type lands in dsh-llm next to the brand/never helpers.
  • deriveMessages() returns deep-readonly messages; the loop clones before handing a mutable request to the agent/request waterfall (mutation there is sanctioned — the clone makes the boundary explicit and cheap, once per step).
  • PromptAssembly stays mutable through its waterfall (sanctioned) but the registry's internal section list is cloned per assembly (already true).
  • Optionally, dev-mode Object.freeze of event data behind the RFC 005 invariants flag, so sanctioned-mutation violations throw in tests rather than corrupting silently.

Plan

Introduce DeepReadonly, flip the session read paths, fix resulting compile errors in consumers (expected: a handful in tests), add the freeze-in-dev option alongside RFC 005's invariants plugin.

Risks

DeepReadonly types can produce noisy errors at waterfall boundaries where mutation IS the API — keep the mutable/readonly boundary exactly at "logged vs in-flight" and document it in the session README.