Files
shopdb-flask/docs/CONTRACT-STABILITY.md
cproudlock 534f179ee6 Make main the lean product a site receives
main was 16 days and 259 commits behind the line the product is actually built
on, at contract 0.30.0 against 0.35.0, with no per-PC credential code at all. It
was neither current nor curated - just stale. This brings it forward and, at the
same time, makes it mean something: main is what a receiving site installs, and
nothing else.

WHAT IT CARRIES. Twelve plugins - backups, computers, endpoints, guides,
knowledgebase, machines, network, notifications, printers, slides, tools,
warranty - plus applications, which is manifest-less core and always ships. The
only manifest dependency inside that set is endpoints on computers, and both are
in it, so the closure is self-contained.

WHAT IT DOES NOT. employees, geenforce, measuringtools, printedparts and usb
stay on the site line. So do the Windows installer tree, the VM rehearsal
helpers, the agent tooling config, one site's data loader, the internal audit
and findings records, and the planner spreadsheet. 1,135 tracked files against
1,438.

A REMOVAL THAT BREAKS THE APP IS NOT A REMOVAL, and two nearly shipped:

deploy/site-profile-universal.json still named all seventeen plugins. It is the
file docs/DEPLOY.md tells a site to provision from, so a fresh install would
have failed at `flask plugin apply-profile` with PluginError - the first thing a
receiving site does, broken by the branch meant to serve them. It now names the
twelve that exist, and its comment says the two must agree.

agent/ was never refreshed. Whoever populated this branch copied shopdb/,
plugins/, frontend/ and tests/ from the site line and left the agent tree at its
September state: 22 C# and PowerShell sources missing, including AgentCredentials,
EnrollmentService, AgentHttpFactory and the fleet-alert client, plus one file the
site line had deleted still present. The old tree is internally consistent, so it
compiles, and nothing in CI builds it - every gate was green over a server that
speaks enrollment and per-PC credentials to a bundled agent source that cannot.
Resynced whole.

DECISIONS THIS ENCODES, rather than defers:

- The plugin-authoring lab builds printedparts, whose manifest depends on
  employees, so it could not stay. The lab remains on the site line and main
  ships no build-along tutorial. That is a real loss for an adopting developer
  and is recorded here rather than discovered later.
- Recognition, Training and Recertification notifications are no longer seeded.
  Each splits one notification into a card per employee and renders a photo,
  which needs a plugin this branch does not bundle. Seeding them would offer an
  author a type that cannot resolve anybody. A site that installs employees gets
  them from that plugin's own seed.
- Windows/IIS is documented as the legacy path throughout, and the README leads
  with Docker, because that is what a receiving site gets.

The API description is regenerated for THIS branch - 347 paths and 483
operations, down from 415 and 573 - so the published contract describes what is
here rather than what the site line serves. docs/CONFIG.md lost the two
measuring-tool label keys the code no longer declares, which two lanes had
decided opposite ways.

Suite: 3124 passed, 6 skipped. Naming and style gates pass. The docs gates run
rather than skip, and every index line count is derived from the file it names.
2026-09-19 11:24:40 -04:00

150 lines
15 KiB
Markdown

<!-- docmeta
purpose: explanation
audience: adopter, integrator
status: current
summary: How stable each part of the plugin contract is today, and how tightly a sister site should pin.
loadwith: none
-->
# Path to contract 1.0
This page is an honest read of how stable the plugin contract is today, for a
sister site deciding how much to build on it. It is derived from the ADRs and
the live code, not aspiration. It does NOT define the contract - what each hook
takes and returns is in [PLUGIN-HOOKS.md](PLUGIN-HOOKS.md), and the versioning
rules are in [ADR-002](adr/ADR-002-plugin-versioning.md). What it adds is a
judgement about how much weight each part will bear.
## Current version
The plugin contract version is declared in `shopdb/__init__.py` as
`__contract_version__`, and the current value is in
[PROJECT-MAP.md](PROJECT-MAP.md), which is generated. It is pre-1.0, which under
semver means any 0.x minor bump is allowed to break the contract, and this
project has used that latitude - see 0.19.0 below.
The product release version (`__version__`) is a separate series with its own
bump rules; see [ADR-007](adr/ADR-007-product-versioning-and-releases.md).
Do not pin against it for compatibility - pin against `__contract_version__`.
### 0.x history
Recorded in the comment block in `shopdb/__init__.py`:
| Version | Change | Kind |
|---------|--------|------|
| 0.3.0 | `shopdb.api` expanded to the full plugin import surface (db, cache, model bases, core models, response + pagination helpers, `employee_connection`) so plugins stop importing internal core paths | additive (minor) |
| 0.4.0 | Removed the never-implemented `get_searchable_fields` hook (search is a core concern over the asset model) and wired `get_dashboard_widgets` to a real consumer (`/api/dashboard/widgets`) | pre-1.0 contract reduction |
| 0.6.0 | Added the `get_reports` hook, consumed by `GET /api/reports` to merge plugin report cards into the Reports hub | additive optional hook (minor) |
| 0.7.0 | Added the four ADR-010 frontend-contribution hooks (`get_settings_cards`, `get_asset_panels`, `get_map_overlays`, `get_asset_presentation`), consumed by the `GET /api/pluginui/*` endpoints | additive optional hooks (minor) |
| 0.9.0 | Exposed the dualpath pair-resolution helpers on `shopdb.api` for the machines plugin | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.10.0 | Added the `get_permissions` hook so plugins declare their own RBAC permissions; the catalog is resolved dynamically from core + enabled plugins | additive optional hook (minor) |
| 0.11.0 | Added `service_token_authorized(scope)` to `shopdb.api` so a plugin's unattended endpoints can authorize a scoped managed service token without importing core token internals | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.12.0 | Added the mailer helpers (`send_email`, `send_alert`) to `shopdb.api` | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.13.0 | Added the `User` model to the `shopdb.api` surface | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.14.0 | Added `send_webhook` to the `shopdb.api` surface | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.15.0 | Added `authorized_service_token` / the `SupportTeam` model to the `shopdb.api` surface | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.16.0 | Added the `get_settings_defaults` hook so a plugin declares the Setting rows it owns; the framework seeds them at install, at enable, and on `flask plugin upgrade-all`, files a first-time write under the declared category, and honours `public: True` for pages that render before login | additive optional hook (minor) |
| 0.17.0 | Added `DashboardDefault` to the `shopdb.api` surface, so a plugin can resolve a display without reaching into core | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.18.0 | Added `DISPLAY_ROLES`, `DISPLAY_ROLE_PATHS` and `normalize_display_role`, and finally exported `DashboardDefault`, which 0.17.0 imported but left out of `__all__`. The role vocabulary became the kiosk's own - `Dashboard`, `Lobby`, `3DPrintRoom` - so a plugin holding its own copy of that map reads core's instead of drifting from it | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.19.0 | **BREAKING.** `get_dashboard_widgets` returns DATA AND SHAPE, not a component name. The old shape (`name` + `component` + `size`) named a Vue component per widget, which cannot survive a lean build - a plugin's component may never be staged into the frontend bundle (ADR-013) - and five plugins were declaring widgets that pointed at components nobody had written. A card now declares `id` / `title` / `endpoint` / `render` / `severity` / `permission` / `empty` / `position`; see PLUGIN-HOOKS.md. Also added `send_upload` so a plugin serving user-supplied bytes gets the headers that keep an SVG from running as script | **contract change (minor, pre-1.0)** |
| 0.20.0 | The `Asset` model gained `levelid` (which floor plan its `mapx`/`mapy` are pixels of) and `mapverifiedat`; `Location` gained `levelid` too, and `resolve_asset_position` now returns the `levelid` belonging to whichever source supplied the coordinates. A plugin that writes a map position MUST write the level with it - a position without one renders as "level unknown" rather than being drawn on the default drawing, because a marker on the wrong floor plan looks correct (ADR-017) | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.21.0 | Added the `get_guest_grantable_permissions` hook: a plugin names the WRITE permissions a site may grant to the seeded `guest` role, which is who anyone without a token now holds. Reads (`.view`/`.read`) are grantable without a plugin saying anything; anything else is refused. Also exposed `require_any_permission` on `shopdb.api` for a read two different rights should reach | additive optional hook + surface (minor) |
| 0.22.0 | Added the `register_import_hook` surface: a plugin owns a VIRTUAL COLUMN on an importable CSV table - a header the bulk importer accepts but never writes - plus a post-write row hook that turns the value into a plugin concept. The computers plugin uses it for `machineassetnumber` on `computers.csv`, which builds the PC->machine controls link, so a site writes the machine number in the PC's own row instead of hand-building a separate relationships sheet. Core never learns what the column means. `RowWarning` is exported with it so a hook can report a soft failure without aborting the import | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.23.0 | Added `mint_service_token`, `list_service_tokens` and `revoke_service_tokens` so a plugin can provision, list and revoke a single-scope managed service token without importing core token internals. The endpoints plugin uses them for a UI-managed, regenerable agent key scoped to `collector.ingest.endpoints` alone - narrow on purpose, so rotating or revoking it cannot disturb the computers collector, and revocation is an instant kill switch on agent ingest | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.24.0 | Added `collector_authorized(pluginname)` so a plugin can gate an agent-facing route that lives OUTSIDE the generic collector blueprint on the same per-plugin key and kill switch the ingest route uses. The endpoints command channel needs it: the agent long-polls `/api/endpoints/commands/next` and posts results back, and those are agent callbacks rather than JWT routes. Without it a plugin would reach into core collector internals to authorize them | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.25.0 | Added `caller_holds(permission)`, which answers whether the current caller holds a permission WITHOUT refusing the request - the complement to `require_permission` for a route that serves everyone but should only offer what the caller can act on. The endpoints services panel is the case: it emitted Start/Stop row actions to every reader, because the emission never consulted the caller. Clicking them was always refused server-side, so nothing was exploitable, but offering a read-only viewer controls over a shop-floor PC is the wrong signal, and it becomes a real problem once a site grants that panel to guests. Guests are included in the answer, since a signed-out visitor holds whatever the guest role was granted | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.26.0 | Dashboard cards may declare `shortname`. The dashboard merged its per-source cards into one worst-first queue, and a card's `title` is written as a heading ("Endpoints with crashes or shutdowns") which as a row badge ran wider than the hostname it qualified. Optional, defaults to the title, so a plugin that does not declare one is unaffected | additive field (minor) |
| 0.27.0 | Added `Script` so a plugin can read the ShopDB-hosted script library that backs endpoint `run_script` delivery without importing core model internals. The endpoints plugin resolves a delivered script by name and serves its body by digest to the agent | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.29.0 | Added an optional `group` to `get_asset_panels`, naming which detail-page tab a panel belongs to: `details` (the default) / `monitors` / `software` / `activity`. The detail pages are tabbed, and a page that placed panels by knowing their ids would defeat the hook. Additive: an absent or unrecognised group resolves to `details` server-side, so every existing plugin keeps working with no change | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.28.0 | Added `client_ip` and `strip_port` so a plugin does not hand-roll caller-IP extraction. Two plugins had, and both read the first `X-Forwarded-For` hop, which the caller supplies - so a rate limit keyed on it was defeated by rotating the header. The helper resolves from `remote_addr`, which ProxyFix has already filled from the header when `TRUSTED_PROXY_COUNT` says a proxy is really in front | additive surface (minor) |
| 0.31.0 | The asset-panel vocabulary a plugin may declare grew four optional things: two more tab groups, `serviceprocess` and `reports`, beside the 0.29.0 set; a `format: 'datetime'` on a column or field, so a panel stops shipping pre-formatted date strings the browser cannot re-localise; a `map.body` key, so a keyvalue field can name where its value lives in a nested payload; and a `tabs` section that carries `columns`/`rows`/`empty` and renders as a table, so one card can hold two tables that share no key (volume capacity and physical drive health are the case). All optional and all resolved server-side when absent, so a plugin declaring none of them is unaffected | additive surface (minor) |
The source comment block documents 0.3.0, 0.4.0, 0.6.0, 0.7.0, 0.9.0, 0.10.0,
0.11.0, 0.16.0, 0.18.0 and 0.19.0; 0.12.0 through 0.15.0 and 0.17.0 are recorded
in this table only.
**0.19.0 is the one to read before pinning.** It is the only entry in this
series that took something away, and it shipped before it was recorded here -
which is precisely the reason to pin tight rather than to trust that a minor
bump is safe. Earlier points
(0.1.x / 0.2.x) predate that recorded rationale; `PluginMeta`'s fallback
`core_version` default of `>=0.2.0,<1.0.0` is the only remaining trace of the
0.2 baseline.
## Settled surface
These are unlikely to break before 1.0. A plugin can depend on them with
reasonable confidence; a breaking change to any would be a major bump and would
land with a new or amended ADR. What each one does is in
[PLUGIN-HOOKS.md](PLUGIN-HOOKS.md); this is only the stability judgement.
- The required hooks and the manifest schema: `meta` / `PluginMeta`,
`get_blueprint`, `get_models`.
- Plugin plumbing: `init_app`, `get_cli_commands`, `get_services`, the settings
helpers (`get_setting` / `set_setting`), and the four lifecycle hooks.
- The UI-contribution hooks: `get_navigation_items`, `get_dashboard_widgets`,
`get_reports`, `get_permissions`, and the ADR-010 set (`get_settings_cards`,
`get_asset_panels`, `get_map_overlays`, `get_asset_presentation`).
- The collector pair, `get_collector_schema` + `apply_collector_payload`, per
[ADR-006](adr/ADR-006-collector-contract.md).
- The setup-wizard declarations: `get_provisioning_note`, `get_config_schema`.
- The `shopdb.api` import surface itself: adding a name is minor, removing one
is major.
The asset model itself - `Asset`, `AssetType`, `AssetStatus`,
`AssetRelationship`, and the shared reference models - is the platform contract
locked in [ADR-001](adr/ADR-001-asset-as-platform-contract.md).
## Expected churn before 1.0
Known-unstable areas. Building on these means expecting rework.
| Area | Status | Reference |
|------|--------|-----------|
| Frontend renderers (residual) | The four data-only hooks and their `/api/pluginui/*` consumers are settled (0.7.0). The generic core renderers are landing incrementally: the settings-cards rail/landing renderer ships with 0.7.0; the asset-panel, map-overlay, and search-presentation renderers are wired opt-in per the ADR adoption plan. Real component-backed panels (bespoke charts, custom overlays) remain deferred to Option C (build-time glob discovery). | [ADR-010](adr/ADR-010-frontend-plugin-hooks.md) (ACCEPTED) |
| Per-plugin migrations | Brand new. The per-plugin Alembic engine exists and every bundled plugin now carries a chain, but the pattern has one release of production mileage, not years. | [ADR-008](adr/ADR-008-plugin-migration-ownership.md) (2026-07-10) |
| Pip distribution | Deferred to v2. External plugins install by clone / submodule / symlink; there is no entry-point discovery and no automatic update path yet. | [ADR-003](adr/ADR-003-plugin-distribution.md) |
## Bump rules
From [ADR-002](adr/ADR-002-plugin-versioning.md), applied to `__contract_version__`:
| Bump | Trigger |
|------|---------|
| major | Breaking change to the `BasePlugin` ABC, the `PluginMeta` schema, or any model in the platform contract (`Asset`, `AssetType`, `AssetStatus`, `AssetRelationship`, `Vendor`, `Location`, `BusinessUnit`, `Model`, `OperatingSystem`). Removing a name from `shopdb.api` is major. |
| minor | Additive change: a new optional hook, a new field on a contract model with a default, a new name added to `shopdb.api`. |
| patch | Bug fix with no change to the contract surface. |
### Deprecation policy
ADR-002 defines the bump classification above but is **silent** on any
deprecation window or notice period for pre-1.0 removals. In practice a removal
is simply a major (or, pre-1.0, a breaking minor) bump: the hook or name is
gone, and the loader fails loud in dev or excludes the mismatched plugin in prod
(see the load-time table in [PLUGIN-EXTERNAL-REPO.md](PLUGIN-EXTERNAL-REPO.md)).
Because the ADR says nothing about a grace period, this document proposes none;
the honest guidance for sister sites is the mitigation that already exists - pin
a tight `core_version` range and re-test before widening it.
## Criteria for declaring 1.0
Provisional. This is the maintainer's working list, not a committed checklist,
and it will move. ADR-002's own open question ("When does the framework declare
1.0.0?") ties 1.0 to the `Machine` retirement from ADR-001 and the framework
being "ready for sister sites"; the items below expand that intent.
- Frontend hook contract defined via its own ADR (asset-detail panels, map
markers, search results), closing the biggest churn item above.
- `Machine` / legacy-model retirement complete per ADR-001, so the asset model
is the only contract.
- At least two external plugins running in production at a second site - the
bar ADR-003 already sets before pip distribution and sister-site readiness
are considered justified.
- The per-plugin migration pattern (ADR-008) proven across real upgrades, not
just fresh installs.
- No contract bump needed for N consecutive product releases (N to be fixed
when the list is firmed up), showing the surface has actually settled.
Until then: pre-1.0, pin tight, re-test on every framework bump.