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Aura/docs/design/contracts/c13-hot-reload-frozen-deploy.md
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claude 8688a60ded docs(ledger): split the design ledger into an INDEX map, per-contract live files, and history sidecars
The single-file ledger had grown to 2968 lines / ~42k tokens, mixing
current design law with accreted history: 59 cycle-stamped realization
blocks, 18 [HISTORY] passages, 22 supersession markers, and the C10 /
C22 / C24 reframe sagas layered several supersessions deep. A
code-grounding audit (31 agents, adversarially verified) confirmed 11
defects stated as current truth: stale crate homes from the C28 #288
roster split (cost nodes, PositionManagement, PositionEvent, Session),
the renamed InputSpec->PortSpec, the pre-#241 project model in C16 and
the open-threads section, a stale HarnessKind retirement deferral in
C24, and three C28-internal inconsistencies.

New shape, per the ailang precedent:

- INDEX.md stays the sole addressable entry point: foundation, external
  components, a C-id-keyed contract map (one line per contract), and
  only the genuinely open architectural threads.
- contracts/cNN-<slug>.md carries each contract's current truth only:
  Guarantee / Forbids / Why with ratified refinements integrated, plus
  a code-anchored Current state. All confirmed defects are fixed here;
  crate anchors were re-verified against the tree.
- contracts/cNN-<slug>.history.md (18 sidecars) and INDEX.history.md
  preserve every superseded block verbatim, stamps and issue refs
  intact, under a frozen-record banner. Nothing was deleted: superseded
  design intent remains an addressable working-tree artifact, off the
  per-cycle audit walk.
- Ledger discipline is now stated in INDEX.md: live files are edited in
  place at cycle close, superseded text moves verbatim to the sidecar,
  and a supersession marker in a live file is itself an audit finding.

Every contract file was verified against its old text by an independent
zero-loss pass (statement-by-statement) plus a code-accuracy spot check;
C-ids and contract titles are unchanged, so existing C-id citations in
code, tests, and issues resolve as before.
2026-07-21 16:40:36 +02:00

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Markdown

# C13 — Hot-reload is authoring-only; deploy is frozen
**Guarantee.** A node/strategy is authored as a native Rust `cdylib`,
hot-reloaded during the authoring loop (Rust-ABI; host and node built with the
same toolchain). The live/deploy bot is a statically-linked, versioned, frozen
artifact.
**Forbids.** Hot-swapping a running live bot; loading third-party / foreign-
toolchain plugins.
**Why.** Hot-reload makes the research loop fast; a live artifact must be frozen
and reproducible (audit trail: this bot = this commit). A sweep pays no
hot-reload tax — params are runtime data ([C12](c12-atomic-sim-unit.md)), so
the cdylib loads once.
## Current state
The authoring-loop half is realized; the frozen live/deploy artifact is not yet
built.
A research project compiles to an external cdylib exporting one symbol,
`AURA_PROJECT`, a two-tier `#[repr(C)]` `ProjectDescriptor`
(`aura-core::project`, `crates/aura-core/src/project.rs`, emitted by the
`aura_project!` macro). A **C tier**`magic` (`AURAPROJ`),
`descriptor_version`, the rustc-version and aura-core-version stamps, the
namespace, all C-compatible field types — is validated **before** any Rust-ABI
field is touched; a **Rust tier** — the vocabulary resolver
`fn(&str) -> Option<PrimitiveBuilder>` and the enumerable type-id list — is read
only once both stamps match. The stamp cannot certify the channel it rides on,
so it does not depend on the Rust ABI it certifies; both stamps are baked at
*aura-core* compile time (build.rs, per consuming build), so host and dylib each
carry their own side's truth.
"Hot-reload" reads, in v1, as **per-invocation load of the freshest build**: the
author runs `cargo build`, and the next `aura` invocation locates the artifact
via `cargo metadata` (debug default, `--release` opt-in) and loads it
**load-and-hold** — the `Library` is leaked, never unloaded, so its `'static`
strings and fn-pointers stay valid (`aura-runner::project::load`,
`crates/aura-runner/src/project.rs`). `validate_c_tier` checks the four stamps
front-to-back; a mismatch of either version stamp refuses with exit 1 naming
both sides (`ProjectError::Incompatible`). The project vocabulary is
charter-checked at load (`check_charter`): non-empty namespace, every id
`<ns>::`-prefixed, no duplicate, no collision against the std vocabulary,
list↔resolver cross-check — the invariant-9 data-plane discipline (the
[C24](c24-blueprint-data.md) enforcement-shift note) enforced at this one
seam.
**Scope boundary.** Load-and-hold is trivially sound only because the CLI is a
one-shot process. A future long-running host — the local-server thread
([C22](c22-playground-traces.md)) — must re-solve reload by host restart or subprocess
isolation, never in-process unload.
## See also
- [C12](c12-atomic-sim-unit.md) — params are runtime data, so the cdylib
loads once across a sweep
- [C16](c16-engine-project-split.md) — engine/project separation; the
per-case dependency policy the cdylib boundary serves
- [C22](c22-playground-traces.md) — the long-running host that must re-solve reload
- [C24](c24-blueprint-data.md) — the enforcement-shift note whose
data-plane discipline the charter check applies
> History: [c13-hot-reload-frozen-deploy.history.md](c13-hot-reload-frozen-deploy.history.md)