API Contract Model

An api.* contract defines one coherent endpoint surface. It owns endpoint names, endpoint kinds, payload message references, frame policy, timing policy, state ownership, failure semantics, authority, limits, and conformance level.

Endpoint Kinds

Kind	Runtime shape	Use for
Event	publish or subscribe stream	observations, state, telemetry, and fanout
Control	periodic timed exchange	commands with period, deadline, validity, and overrun sensitivity
Procedure	bounded request and response	non-periodic synchronous actions or queries
Operation	long-running command	feedback, cancellation, result, and terminal state

Endpoint kind is enforced. A Procedure cannot be registered in place of a Control endpoint, and a required timed endpoint cannot silently accept an untimed request.

Runtime Timing Envelope

Message payloads do not duplicate transport timestamps.

Events expose three distinct times.

Field	Meaning
observed_at_sync_ns	when the source data was acquired or observed
published_at_sync_ns	when the publisher committed the Event
received_at_sync_ns	when the subscriber received it

Controls and timed requests expose the execution path.

Field	Meaning
generated_at_sync_ns	when the command intent was produced
sent_at_sync_ns	when it entered transport
execute_at_sync_ns	requested execution time
valid_until_sync_ns	last acceptable execution time
accepted_at_sync_ns	provider acceptance time
scheduled_for_sync_ns	provider schedule target
dispatched_at_sync_ns	dispatch to implementation or device boundary
sampled_at_sync_ns	time of the response sample, when applicable
completed_at_sync_ns	completion time
responded_at_sync_ns	response transport time
lateness_ns	execution lateness relative to schedule

This separates data acquisition time from middleware transit time and execution time without proliferating stamped payload variants.

Frame Rule

• fixed frames belong in API semantics
• dynamic frames belong in the domain message that owns the value
• pure spatial types do not carry a frame field
• a provider must reject or transform an unsupported frame according to its API contract

Contract Metadata

Public API contracts declare frames, timing, state_model, failure_semantics, authority, limits, and conformance. Controls also declare endpoint timing behavior such as periodicity, validity, scheduling, and late handling.

Full Inventory

See the generated API Contract Reference for every official endpoint and message reference.