dev.idiolect.adapter

A subprocess or HTTP-endpoint wrapper for a framework's tooling, authored by incentive-aligned parties. Adapters are how idiolect glues existing frameworks (Hasura, Prisma, Datomic, FHIR, Coq, Meilisearch, ...) without forking them. The substrate publishes the adapter declaration; the orchestrator runs the adapter under the declared isolation policy.

Source: lexicons/dev/idiolect/adapter.json · Rust: idiolect_records::Adapter · TS: @idiolect-dev/schema/adapter · Fixture: idiolect_records::examples::adapter

Shape

Field	Type	Required	Notes
`framework`	string (≤128)	yes	Canonical framework name (e.g. `hasura`, `prisma`, `coq`).
`versionRange`	string	yes	Semver range supported.
`invocationProtocol`	object	yes	How the adapter is invoked.
`isolation`	object	yes	Sandboxing requirements the orchestrator must honour.
`author`	did	yes	DID of the adapter author.
`verification`	at-uri	no	Optional verification record demonstrating conformance.
`occurredAt`	datetime	yes	Publication timestamp.

`invocationProtocol`

Subfield	Type	Required	Notes
`kind`	open enum	yes	`subprocess` / `http` / `wasm`.
`kindVocab`	`vocabRef`	no	Vocab the kind slug resolves against.
`entryPoint`	string	no	Binary name (subprocess), URL (http), or WASM module reference.
`inputSchema`	`schemaRef`	no	Schema of the adapter's input.
`outputSchema`	`schemaRef`	no	Schema of the adapter's output.

`isolation`

Subfield	Type	Required	Notes
`kind`	open enum	yes	`none` / `process` / `container` / `vm` / `wasm-sandbox`.
`kindVocab`	`vocabRef`	no	Vocab the kind slug resolves against.
`networkPolicy`	open enum	no	`none` / `egress-denylist` / `egress-allowlist` / `full`.
`networkPolicyVocab`	`vocabRef`	no	Vocab the policy slug resolves against.
`filesystemPolicy`	open enum	no	`readonly` / `scratch` / `writable-subtree` / `full`.
`filesystemPolicyVocab`	`vocabRef`	no	Vocab the policy slug resolves against.
`resourceLimits`	`{ maxMemoryBytes?, maxCpuSeconds?, maxWallSeconds? }`	no	Hard ceilings the orchestrator enforces.

Field details

Why an adapter is a record

An adapter is a declared contract: the publisher asserts that "this framework, at this version range, can be invoked via this protocol under this isolation policy". The orchestrator running the adapter trusts the contract only as far as it trusts the publisher's signature; verification records can pin specific conformance claims.

The alternative (each orchestrator hand-coding adapter wrappers per framework) does not scale. The adapter record is the declarative replacement: a community with framework expertise publishes the wrapper once; orchestrators pick it up from the network.

`invocationProtocol.kind`

The transport over which the orchestrator drives the adapter:

Slug	What it means
`subprocess`	The orchestrator forks `entryPoint` as a child process and pipes JSON over stdin/stdout.
`http`	The orchestrator POSTs JSON to the URL at `entryPoint`.
`wasm`	The orchestrator instantiates the WASM module at `entryPoint` and calls a designated export.

The slug is open-enum: a community publishing a vocab with an additional kind (e.g. nats-rpc, grpc-stream) extends the transport set without modifying the lexicon.

`isolation.kind`

The sandboxing posture the orchestrator must honour:

Slug	What it means
`none`	Run in the orchestrator's own process. Only safe for fully-trusted code.
`process`	Fork into a separate process; OS-level isolation.
`container`	Run in a container (Docker, Podman, Firecracker microVM).
`vm`	Run in a full VM.
`wasm-sandbox`	Run in a WASM runtime with capability-based access.

The orchestrator's policy is to refuse any adapter whose isolation.kind is weaker than its configured floor. An orchestrator configured for container minimum will not run an adapter declaring process.

Network and filesystem policies

Orthogonal axes layered on top of the kind:

`networkPolicy`	What it means
`none`	No network access.
`egress-denylist`	Network access except to listed denied hosts.
`egress-allowlist`	Network access only to listed allowed hosts.
`full`	Unrestricted.

`filesystemPolicy`	What it means
`readonly`	The adapter sees a read-only mount.
`scratch`	The adapter writes to a scratch directory cleaned up after each invocation.
`writable-subtree`	The adapter writes to a designated subtree.
`full`	Unrestricted.

The orchestrator's enforcement is best-effort and depends on the underlying isolation runtime; e.g. wasm-sandbox makes egress-allowlist cheap and exact, process makes it harder.

`resourceLimits`

Hard ceilings. The orchestrator kills the adapter if it exceeds any of:

Field	Unit
`maxMemoryBytes`	RAM, in bytes.
`maxCpuSeconds`	CPU time, in seconds.
`maxWallSeconds`	Wall-clock time, in seconds.

A consumer running an untrusted adapter sets all three.

`verification`

An optional pointer to a dev.idiolect.verification record demonstrating conformance. A consumer that wants to trust an adapter's claim about its inputSchema / outputSchema looks for a conformance-test verification (see verification).

Example

{
  "$type": "dev.idiolect.adapter",
  "framework": "hasura",
  "versionRange": "^2.30",
  "invocationProtocol": {
    "kind": "http",
    "entryPoint": "https://hasura.example/v1/graphql",
    "inputSchema":  { "uri": "at://did:plc:adapter-author/dev.panproto.schema.schema/hasura-input" },
    "outputSchema": { "uri": "at://did:plc:adapter-author/dev.panproto.schema.schema/hasura-output" }
  },
  "isolation": {
    "kind": "container",
    "networkPolicy": "egress-allowlist",
    "filesystemPolicy": "scratch",
    "resourceLimits": {
      "maxMemoryBytes": 1073741824,
      "maxCpuSeconds": 30,
      "maxWallSeconds": 60
    }
  },
  "author": "did:plc:adapter-author",
  "occurredAt": "2026-04-19T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Concept references

Concepts: The dev.idiolect.* lexicon family
Lexicons: verification · bounty (wantAdapter)