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blue_lang_runtime/
lib.rs

1//! The blue runtime — **one** definition of what a blue program runs against.
2//!
3//! Before this crate existed, every consumer hand-rolled its own
4//! `Interpreter::new()` + `install_primitives(...)` pair — three of them, in
5//! three crates — and they had silently drifted: none of them loaded the Lisp
6//! stdlib. So `6 % 3` lowered correctly to `(mod 6 3)`, `mod` was genuinely
7//! defined, and the program still died with `unbound symbol: mod`, because
8//! the definition lived in a stdlib nobody loaded.
9//!
10//! That is the duplication tax in its usual shape: the bug is not in any one
11//! copy, it is in there *being* copies. One function now owns the answer.
12//!
13//! ## Layers
14//!
15//! A blue interpreter is built in two layers, and both are required:
16//!
17//! 1. **Rust primitives** — arithmetic, comparison, list ops, I/O.
18//! 2. **The full tatara stdlib** — primitives, higher-order functions
19//!    (`map`/`filter`/`fold`), maps, channels, fibers, type-check, and
20//!    everything tatara defines in tatara-lisp itself
21//!    (`mod`, `rem`, `first`, `inc`, `even?`, the actor and transducer
22//!    helpers, …). Loading it is not optional garnish: blue's own operator
23//!    lowering depends on it.
24//! 3. **blue's own core** ([`stdlib`]) — strings and number conversion, which
25//!    tatara-lisp does not have in any form. A Ruby-surface language without
26//!    `length` or `upcase` is not usable, and the semantics are Ruby's
27//!    (characters, not bytes), which is why they are blue's and not the
28//!    substrate's.
29//! 4. **JSON** ([`json`]) and **cryptography** ([`crypto`]) — pure
30//!    computation, installed unconditionally, so the wasm consumer keeps them.
31//! 5. **The host layer** (`sys`, behind the `sys` feature) — every name in it
32//!    is a host import.
33//! 6. **Processes** ([`attach_node`]) — `spawn`, `send`, `receive` and the
34//!    rest of `blue_lang_proc::node`'s words, bound to a node of the
35//!    interpreter's own, so the program is that node's root process.
36
37pub mod alloc;
38pub mod crypto;
39pub mod docs;
40pub mod domain;
41pub mod erase;
42pub mod hosted;
43pub mod inputs;
44pub mod json;
45pub mod literal;
46pub mod messages;
47#[cfg(feature = "sys")]
48pub mod net;
49pub mod nix;
50pub mod observe;
51pub mod pipeline;
52pub mod project_rules;
53pub mod session;
54pub mod stdlib;
55#[cfg(feature = "sys")]
56pub mod sys;
57pub mod uses;
58
59pub use erase::{erase_types, to_sexps};
60pub use inputs::{declarations, install_input_primitives, Declaration, InputError, Inputs};
61pub use pipeline::{
62    parse, parse_tree_with_depth, parse_with_depth, run, run_with_inputs, Run, RunError,
63};
64pub use stdlib::install_blue_stdlib;
65
66use tatara_lisp_eval::{install_full_stdlib_with, Interpreter};
67
68/// Build an interpreter with the complete blue runtime installed.
69///
70/// This is the *only* sanctioned way to obtain one. A caller that builds an
71/// `Interpreter` directly gets a partial runtime, and the failure shows up as
72/// an unbound symbol at the far end of a program.
73pub fn interpreter<H: 'static>(host: &mut H) -> Interpreter<H> {
74    let mut interp = Interpreter::new();
75    // The FULL substrate, not just `install_primitives`.
76    //
77    // blue called `install_primitives` + `install_lisp_stdlib_with` and got
78    // neither `install_hof` nor `install_map` — so `map`, `filter`, `fold` and
79    // every map literal were UNBOUND SYMBOLS. A language with no higher-order
80    // functions, in a workspace whose whole surface is Ruby's.
81    //
82    // Same shape as the stdlib gap this crate was created to fix: the substrate
83    // has layers, and naming them one at a time is how one gets missed. Call
84    // the composed installer.
85    install_full_stdlib_with(&mut interp, host);
86    // Layer 3: blue's own core — strings and number conversion, which
87    // tatara-lisp does not carry at all. See `stdlib` for why the
88    // character-counting semantics are blue's rather than the substrate's.
89    stdlib::install_blue_stdlib(&mut interp);
90    // Layer 4: blue's JSON surface — parse, stringify, read. Pure
91    // computation, no host imports, so it is installed unconditionally; the
92    // `wasm32-unknown-unknown` consumer keeps it. See `json` for why objects
93    // arrive as alists rather than Maps.
94    json::install_json_stdlib(&mut interp);
95    // Layer 4b: cryptography — BLAKE3 and Ed25519. Pure for the same reason
96    // JSON is: a deterministic function of its arguments, with the keypair's
97    // seed supplied by the caller rather than drawn from an entropy source,
98    // so it lowers to no import and the wasm consumer keeps it. See `crypto`.
99    crypto::install_crypto_stdlib(&mut interp);
100    nix::install_nix_stdlib(&mut interp);
101    // Layer 5: the host-side system surface — process, filesystem, env,
102    // clock, network. Feature-gated: every sys primitive is a host import, so the
103    // wasm consumer (which builds with `sys` OFF) keeps its zero-host-import
104    // surface by construction. Only the CLI turns it on.
105    #[cfg(feature = "sys")]
106    sys::install_sys_stdlib(&mut interp);
107    // Layer 6: processes. Bound here so every name oracle built from this
108    // interpreter (the check stage, the LSP, `blue reference`) knows them.
109    attach_node(&mut interp);
110    // Last, so installing the stdlib is not metered against the program.
111    apply_execution_bounds(&mut interp);
112    interp
113}
114
115/// Give `interp` a process node of its own: its program becomes the node's
116/// root, and `spawn` starts processes in this node and no other.
117///
118/// [`interpreter_hostless`] calls it on every fork, so two programs never
119/// share processes. A door that forks an interpreter per unit of work (a test
120/// per fork) calls it on each fork for the same reason.
121pub fn attach_node<H: 'static>(interp: &mut Interpreter<H>) {
122    blue_lang_proc::install(interp, blue_lang_proc::Node::new(node_config()));
123}
124
125/// [`attach_node`] for a program that runs under `frame`: every process it
126/// starts is held to the same frame, so a host name the program may not call
127/// is refused in its children too. Without this a spawned child would run on
128/// the full runtime and a frame would be one `spawn` away from meaningless.
129pub fn attach_node_in_frame<H: 'static>(interp: &mut Interpreter<H>, frame: &blue_lang_waku::Waku) {
130    let mut config = node_config();
131    let refused: Vec<(&'static str, &'static str)> = blue_lang_waku::Capability::host_effects()
132        .into_iter()
133        .filter(|cap| !frame.reach.grants(*cap))
134        .flat_map(|cap| cap.names().into_iter().map(move |n| (n, cap.label())))
135        .collect();
136    config.child = std::sync::Arc::new(move || {
137        let mut child = child_interpreter();
138        for (name, label) in &refused {
139            if child.lookup_global(name).is_none() {
140                continue;
141            }
142            let name: &'static str = name;
143            let label: &'static str = label;
144            child.register_fn(name, tatara_lisp_eval::ffi::Arity::Any, move |_: &[tatara_lisp_eval::Value], _: &mut (), span| {
145                Err(tatara_lisp_eval::EvalError::native_fn(
146                    name,
147                    format!("refused: `{name}` reaches the host ({label}), which this process's frame does not grant"),
148                    span,
149                ))
150            });
151        }
152        child
153    });
154    blue_lang_proc::install(interp, blue_lang_proc::Node::new(config));
155}
156
157/// The node every interpreter's processes run under: the execution bounds
158/// per incarnation, a scheduling quantum, and the host's clock when there is
159/// a host (a node with no host has a virtual clock: time passes only when
160/// every process waits).
161fn node_config() -> blue_lang_proc::NodeConfig {
162    let b = execution_bounds();
163    let mut config = blue_lang_proc::NodeConfig::new(std::sync::Arc::new(child_interpreter));
164    config.budget = tatara_lisp_eval::vm::Budget {
165        fuel: b.max_steps,
166        max_depth: Some(b.max_call_depth),
167        quantum: Some(blue_lang_proc::node::DEFAULT_QUANTUM),
168    };
169    config.clock = if cfg!(feature = "sys") {
170        blue_lang_proc::ClockKind::Real
171    } else {
172        blue_lang_proc::ClockKind::Virtual
173    };
174    config
175}
176
177/// A fresh interpreter for a child process: the hostless base, forked. The
178/// node adds its child words to it.
179fn child_interpreter() -> Interpreter<()> {
180    let mut interp = match HOSTLESS_BASE.lock() {
181        Ok(base) => base.fork(),
182        Err(_) => interpreter(&mut ()),
183    };
184    apply_execution_bounds(&mut interp);
185    interp
186}
187
188/// The execution bounds every interpreter this crate builds runs under.
189static EXECUTION_BOUNDS: std::sync::OnceLock<ExecutionBounds> = std::sync::OnceLock::new();
190
191/// How much a blue program may do before it is refused: nested calls and
192/// evaluation steps.
193///
194/// Both are BOUNDS in the sense `blue-lang-cli`'s `config` module admits: a
195/// terminating program under bounds above its cost returns the same value, and
196/// one that exceeds either is refused with a catchable `depth-exceeded` or
197/// `fuel-exhausted` error naming the limit and the function — never a process
198/// abort, which is what exceeding the host stack was before tatara-lisp-eval
199/// 0.3.63. The walker and the VM run under the same bounds and refuse with the
200/// same message.
201#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
202pub struct ExecutionBounds {
203    /// Nested (non-tail) calls alive at once. Tail calls do not count.
204    pub max_call_depth: usize,
205    /// Evaluation steps per run; `None` is unbounded.
206    pub max_steps: Option<usize>,
207}
208
209impl ExecutionBounds {
210    /// Depth at tatara-lisp-eval's `DEFAULT_MAX_DEPTH`, steps unbounded.
211    ///
212    /// The two defaults differ for one reason: whether a program that works
213    /// today keeps working. A recursion past 100k frames never worked — it
214    /// aborted the process — so bounding depth removes no behaviour. A run
215    /// longer than any finite step count did work (simulations, tools on
216    /// nodes), so a default step bound would remove it; for a few hours of
217    /// 2026-09-29 blue shipped 50M (~3 s) and did exactly that. A host that
218    /// runs code it did not write, or a test that must see a runaway end,
219    /// sets `max_steps` itself.
220    pub const DEFAULT: Self = Self {
221        max_call_depth: tatara_lisp_eval::vm::DEFAULT_MAX_DEPTH,
222        max_steps: None,
223    };
224}
225
226/// Name the bounds for this process. The CLI calls this once with the resolved
227/// `BlueConfig`, before any interpreter is built; an embedder that never calls
228/// it runs under [`ExecutionBounds::DEFAULT`]. Only the first call counts,
229/// like `sys::set_program_args`.
230pub fn set_execution_bounds(bounds: ExecutionBounds) {
231    let _ = EXECUTION_BOUNDS.set(bounds);
232}
233
234/// The bounds interpreters are built with.
235#[must_use]
236pub fn execution_bounds() -> ExecutionBounds {
237    EXECUTION_BOUNDS
238        .get()
239        .copied()
240        .unwrap_or(ExecutionBounds::DEFAULT)
241}
242
243fn apply_execution_bounds<H: 'static>(interp: &mut Interpreter<H>) {
244    let b = execution_bounds();
245    // No quantum, so the tree-walker refuses nothing of this budget.
246    let _ = interp.set_budget(tatara_lisp_eval::vm::Budget {
247        fuel: b.max_steps,
248        max_depth: Some(b.max_call_depth),
249        quantum: None,
250    });
251}
252
253/// The prebuilt hostless substrate, built once per process.
254///
255/// **Measured 2026-08-01, and this is the entire reason the fork exists.**
256/// Profiling a trivial blue program found the run dominated by ONE thing:
257///
258/// ```text
259/// parse                     9.6 µs
260/// check                     1.6 µs
261/// interpreter_hostless()  5 820 µs   <- 98.4% of the run
262/// ```
263///
264/// Splitting that further: `Interpreter::new()` is 24 µs and
265/// `install_full_stdlib_with` is the rest — the stdlib was being rebuilt from
266/// scratch on every single `run()`, and blue's whole surface (`map`, `filter`,
267/// string ops) lives in it, so no program could avoid the cost.
268///
269/// `fork` already existed upstream for exactly this, and blue simply was not
270/// using it. tatara-lisp-eval's own `fork_cost.rs` opens with *"cheapness is
271/// the entire reason it exists"* — the capability was built, documented and
272/// guarded, and the consumer kept paying full price beside it.
273///
274/// | | per call |
275/// |---|---|
276/// | rebuild (`Interpreter::new` + `install_full_stdlib_with`) | **9.03 ms** |
277/// | `fork()` of a prebuilt base | **0.102 ms** |
278///
279/// **88× on the dominant cost.** This is purgatory's computation-layer clause
280/// made real: the stdlib is the most-reused computation in the language, and
281/// it was being discarded and recomputed rather than resurrected.
282///
283/// Isolation is `fork`'s contract, not an assumption made here — its
284/// correctness gates live upstream in `fork.rs`, and `fork_cost.rs` guards
285/// against a future change that deep-copies (which would keep every
286/// correctness test green while silently restoring the cost this removes).
287static HOSTLESS_BASE: std::sync::LazyLock<std::sync::Mutex<Interpreter<()>>> =
288    std::sync::LazyLock::new(|| std::sync::Mutex::new(interpreter(&mut ())));
289
290/// The common host-free case.
291///
292/// Forks the process-wide base rather than rebuilding the stdlib. Falls back to
293/// a full build if the lock is poisoned: a poisoned lock means another thread
294/// panicked mid-fork, and answering a correct-but-slow interpreter beats
295/// propagating someone else's panic into an unrelated caller.
296pub fn interpreter_hostless() -> Interpreter<()> {
297    let mut interp = match HOSTLESS_BASE.lock() {
298        Ok(base) => base.fork(),
299        Err(_) => interpreter(&mut ()),
300    };
301    // Again after the fork: the base may have been built before the bounds
302    // were named, and a fork inherits whatever its base had.
303    apply_execution_bounds(&mut interp);
304    // A node per fork: the base's own node would be shared by every program.
305    attach_node(&mut interp);
306    interp
307}
308
309/// Lift spanless forms into what the evaluator eats.
310///
311/// **No longer on the `blue run` path, and that is the point.**
312/// [`erase::erase_types`] now takes and returns `Spanned`, so
313/// `pipeline::run_in_surface` hands the evaluator the *parser's own* tree with
314/// the author's positions on it — there is nothing left to lift. This
315/// function survives for a caller that genuinely holds spanless `Sexp` and
316/// has no position to preserve, and as the subject of the two tests below
317/// that pin why the hop it replaced was unsafe.
318///
319/// `Interpreter::eval_program` takes `&[Spanned]`; blue's stages produced
320/// `Sexp`. Two callers bridged that gap by *printing the tree and reading it
321/// back* — `forms.map(ToString::to_string).join("\n")` into
322/// `tatara_lisp::read_spanned`. Both stopped, and the round trip is gone from
323/// the pipeline.
324///
325/// **Why it had to go.** Printing a tree we already hold and re-parsing it puts
326/// the reader's lexer between blue and its own output, for nothing — and the
327/// printer and the reader are **not inverses**. `Atom::Str`'s `Display` escapes
328/// its payload and its own docs explain at length why; the `Atom::Symbol` arm
329/// is a bare `write_str`. So a symbol whose text carries a separator prints as
330/// several tokens and reads back as several symbols: a well-formed tree with a
331/// different meaning, no error raised. Measured 2026-08-02 —
332/// `pipeline::tests::the_round_trip_is_not_the_identity_in_general` pins which
333/// separators are silent and which are loud. The only thing that kept this from
334/// biting was blue happening not to emit those bytes. A stage that never
335/// serialises cannot be mis-read.
336///
337/// **What is given up: spans.** The old path's spans pointed into the
338/// re-printed lisp text, a buffer no human ever wrote and no diagnostic could
339/// usefully cite — they were positions in blue's own output, not in the
340/// author's source. `Span::synthetic` says the same thing honestly.
341///
342/// **Carrying real blue-source spans through erasure was the separate piece of
343/// work, and it is done — but NOT the way this doc predicted.** It said the
344/// work "would start from `Spanned::from_sexp_at`". It did not, and could not:
345/// `from_sexp_at` is a *lift*, stamping ONE span across a whole subtree, so
346/// starting there would have replaced a tree of synthetic spans with a tree of
347/// identical wrong ones. The actual shape was to stop projecting in the first
348/// place — erasure walks `Spanned` and keeps each node's own span, because it
349/// only ever deletes (see [`erase`]). **A pointer at the nearest-looking API is
350/// how a reader is sent to the wrong starting point**; the note is corrected
351/// here rather than deleted, because the wrong lead was load-bearing enough to
352/// be worth naming.
353#[must_use]
354pub fn lower_to_spanned(forms: &[tatara_lisp::Sexp]) -> Vec<tatara_lisp::Spanned> {
355    forms
356        .iter()
357        .map(tatara_lisp::Spanned::from_sexp_synthetic)
358        .collect()
359}
360
361#[cfg(test)]
362mod tests {
363    use super::*;
364    use tatara_lisp_eval::Value;
365
366    fn eval(src: &str) -> Value {
367        let forms = tatara_lisp::read_spanned(src).expect("read");
368        let mut interp = interpreter_hostless();
369        interp.eval_program(&forms, &mut ()).expect("eval")
370    }
371
372    /// Every layer is present. A test that only checked layer 1 is exactly
373    /// what let the stdlib gap survive.
374    #[test]
375    fn both_layers_are_installed() {
376        // Layer 1: a Rust primitive.
377        assert!(matches!(eval("(+ 1 2)"), Value::Int(3)));
378        // Layer 2: a stdlib definition, which is the layer that was missing.
379        assert!(matches!(eval("(mod 7 3)"), Value::Int(1)));
380        assert!(matches!(eval("(inc 41)"), Value::Int(42)));
381        assert!(matches!(eval("(first (list 9 8))"), Value::Int(9)));
382        // Layer 3: blue's own core — string and number conversion.
383        assert!(matches!(eval(r#"(length "héllo")"#), Value::Int(5)));
384        // Layer 4: the JSON surface.
385        assert!(matches!(
386            eval(r#"(json_parse "{\"outcome\":\"ok\"}")"#),
387            Value::List(_)
388        ));
389        // Layer 4b: cryptography.
390        assert!(matches!(eval(r#"(blake3_hex "")"#), Value::Str(_)));
391    }
392
393    /// Anti-vacuity: a bare interpreter really does LACK layer 2, so the test
394    /// above is measuring the runtime's contribution and not a property the
395    /// interpreter has for free.
396    #[test]
397    fn a_bare_interpreter_lacks_the_stdlib() {
398        let forms = tatara_lisp::read_spanned("(mod 7 3)").expect("read");
399        let mut bare = Interpreter::new();
400        tatara_lisp_eval::install_primitives(&mut bare);
401        assert!(
402            bare.eval_program(&forms, &mut ()).is_err(),
403            "if a bare interpreter already resolved `mod`, this crate would be measuring nothing"
404        );
405    }
406}