core/docs/workbench/api-contract-v1.md

CORE Workbench API Contract v1

Status: draft Scope: read-only local operator API

This contract defines the initial API surface for CORE Workbench v1.

The API exists to expose:

• runtime observability,
• replay evidence,
• proposal visibility,
• eval visibility,
• and trace inspection

without widening the mutation surface.

Transport

• HTTP JSON
• optional websocket stream later
• local-first (127.0.0.1) in v1

Response envelope

All responses SHOULD follow:

{
  "ok": true,
  "generated_at": "2026-05-26T00:00:00Z",
  "data": {}
}

Errors:

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "not_found",
    "message": "artifact not found"
  }
}

---

Runtime

GET /health

Purpose:

Basic liveness/readiness.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "status": "ok"
  }
}

---

GET /runtime/status

Purpose:

Expose runtime metadata.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "backend": "rust",
    "git_revision": "abc123",
    "engine_state_present": true,
    "checkpoint_revision": "abc123",
    "revision_warning": false,
    "active_session_id": "session-001"
  }
}

---

Chat

POST /chat/turn

Purpose:

Execute a normal runtime turn.

Request:

{
  "prompt": "What does alpha cause?"
}

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "turn_id": "turn-001",
    "surface": "alpha causes beta",
    "grounding_source": "teaching",
    "trace_hash": "sha256:...",
    "proposal_state": null,
    "replay_available": true
  }
}

Important:

This endpoint must use the existing runtime path. It must not introduce a parallel persistence layer.

---

Trace

GET /trace/{turn_id}

Purpose:

Inspect trace evidence for a turn.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "turn_id": "turn-001",
    "surface": "...",
    "articulation_surface": "...",
    "walk_surface": "...",
    "trace_hash": "sha256:...",
    "grounding_source": "teaching",
    "replay_digest": "sha256:...",
    "proposal_refs": [],
    "admissibility": {
      "rejected_attempts": 0
    }
  }
}

---

Replay

GET /replay/{artifact_id}

Purpose:

Return replay comparison information.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "artifact_id": "artifact-001",
    "original_hash": "sha256:...",
    "replay_hash": "sha256:...",
    "equivalent": true,
    "divergences": []
  }
}

---

Proposals

GET /proposals

Purpose:

List proposal metadata.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {
        "proposal_id": "proposal-001",
        "state": "pending",
        "source_kind": "contemplation",
        "replay_equivalent": true,
        "created_at": "2026-05-26T00:00:00Z"
      }
    ]
  }
}

---

GET /proposals/{proposal_id}

Purpose:

Detailed proposal inspection.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "proposal_id": "proposal-001",
    "state": "pending",
    "source_kind": "contemplation",
    "replay_equivalent": true,
    "proposed_chain": {},
    "replay_evidence": {},
    "downstream_effect": {},
    "artifact_refs": []
  }
}

Forbidden:

• accept endpoint
• reject endpoint
• mutation endpoint

---

Evals

GET /evals

Purpose:

List eval lanes.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "lanes": [
      "cognition",
      "learning-arc",
      "contemplation-quality"
    ]
  }
}

---

POST /evals/run

Purpose:

Run a read-only eval lane.

Request:

{
  "lane": "contemplation-quality"
}

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "lane": "contemplation-quality",
    "passed": true,
    "metrics": {}
  }
}

Constraints:

• only lanes explicitly marked safe/read-only may run through the API
• mutation-capable workflows are forbidden in v1

---

Artifacts

GET /artifacts

Purpose:

Enumerate readable runtime artifacts.

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "items": []
  }
}

---

GET /artifacts/{artifact_id}

Purpose:

Read structured artifact content.

Constraints:

• artifacts must be repo-root constrained
• no arbitrary path traversal
• no arbitrary shell execution

---

Security Constraints

Forbidden in v1

• proposal mutation
• corpus mutation
• workflow dispatch
• arbitrary file reads
• remote execution
• arbitrary command execution
• hidden background jobs

Required

• deterministic serialization
• stable artifact ids
• digest visibility
• explicit provenance where available
• read-only route tests