Machine output

Unobin commands use versioned JSON or Unobin output when --format json or --format unobin is selected. Most commands write one complete document. Apply streams one complete record per line as work progresses; in JSON, this is JSON Lines.

Each actual JSON document or stream record is compact and followed by one newline. Examples in this document may be indented for readability. Actual Unobin output is also one compact literal per line.

{"kind":"version","format-version":1,"name":"unobin","version":"v0.10.0","diagnostics":[]}

Selecting an output format

Standard commands accept --format text|json|unobin; text is the default. Developer and compiled print-graph commands additionally accept dot. DOT is a payload format, not a versioned machine contract, and its application errors are text on stderr.

An unsupported format is reported as text on stderr, for example:

--format: unknown 'yaml' (want text, json, unobin)

Graph errors also list dot.

The following payload and protocol commands use command-specific output:

• unobin fmt writes formatted source, changed paths, or files.
• factory schema template writes a .ub stack skeleton or a requested file.
• factory state pull writes a raw decrypted JSON snapshot that may contain sensitive values.
• unobin lsp owns stdio for the language-server protocol.
• Help remains text, and shell completion retains its protocol output.

For those commands, --format produces a plain-text unknown-flag error.

When machine output takes effect

Arguments and flags are parsed and validated before the format selected by --format takes effect. Help, usage, unknown commands, unknown or malformed flags, missing flag values, missing required flags, and positional-argument errors are therefore text. Help goes to stdout. Invocation errors go to stderr. Shell completion retains its protocol output.

After invocation validation succeeds, source, state, provider, backend, resolver, dependency, and external-tool failures use the selected machine contract.

Situation	stdout	stderr	Exit
Help or successful shell completion	Text or completion protocol	Empty	0
Invocation error	Empty unless the invocation is a completion request	Bare text	1
Successful text command	Result or payload	Warnings, notices, and progress	0
Failed text command	Any command-specific partial output	Bare error and diagnostics	1
Successful single-document machine command	One result document	Empty	0
Negative machine result	One result with ok: false	Empty	1
Machine operation failure	One command-error document	Empty	1
Machine apply	A versioned JSON Lines or Unobin record stream	Empty	0 or 1
Response encoding or stdout write failure	May be malformed or truncated	Bare response-channel error if the process survives	1 or signal status

Plain-text invocation errors contain the error message followed by one newline.

After invocation validation succeeds, machine output uses stdout. Response encoding or stdout write failures may report a bare response-channel error on stderr if the process survives. A closed stdout can also terminate the process through SIGPIPE before stderr is written.

Encoding and values

Every document and record starts with kind and format-version. All contracts in this reference currently use format version 1. Single-document results have no timestamps.

JSON documents are UTF-8, compact JSON with HTML escaping disabled and one trailing newline. They are encoded completely before the first write. Apply JSON is JSON Lines: one complete compact object per line, no blank lines, and a trailing newline after every record.

Unobin documents and stream records use the same logical fields as JSON. Each is one compact literal followed by one newline.

Machine values may contain:

• null, booleans, strings, and finite numbers;
• arrays and slices of permitted values;
• maps with string keys and permitted values;
• response objects composed recursively from those values;
• RFC 3339 Nano timestamps.

Cycles, non-finite numbers, non-string map keys, duplicate keys after invalid UTF-8 replacement, functions, channels, complex numbers, json.Number, raw durations in dynamic values, and format-specific custom marshalers are rejected. Invalid UTF-8 is replaced with the Unicode replacement character in both formats.

Required collection fields are always arrays or objects, never null. This applies to diagnostics, files, dependencies, inputs, outputs, nodes, edges, state-moves, steps, replace-triggers, depends-on, sensitive, sensitive-inputs, sensitive-outputs, entries, snapshots, and mismatches.

In the contract tables below, every field is required unless it is explicitly marked "omitted when absent." A field whose type includes null is still required and is encoded as null when absent.

Deterministic ordering

Unobin sorts string map keys, as does Go's JSON encoder. Other collections use these rules:

• dependencies and verification mismatches by id;
• composed file changes by path, then action;
• diagnostics by path, position, severity, code, message, and hint;
• graph nodes by address and edges by from, then to;
• schema inputs and outputs in declaration order;
• plan steps by address and state moves in semantic execution order;
• state entries by address and snapshots in backend chronological order;
• sensitivity names, depends-on, and replace triggers lexically;
• apply records by sequence, which is authoritative over timestamps.

Compatibility

Each kind has an independent format-version sequence. Consumers must ignore unknown fields. Apply consumers must also ignore unknown nonterminal record kinds, but must recognize the last record as apply-result or apply-error. An unknown terminal kind is an unsupported stream contract.

Adding an optional field does not increment a version. Adding a nonterminal apply kind starts that kind at version 1 without changing other kinds. Removing or renaming a field, changing its type, nullability, semantics, or required ordering, making an optional field required, or changing an enum meaning increments the containing kind. Adding an enum value also increments the containing kind unless that field explicitly accepts unknown values. An incompatible shared nested-value change increments every kind that contains it. Changing terminal apply kinds or the terminal-last guarantee increments both terminal kinds.

Paths and sensitive values

Dedicated machine path fields always use forward slashes.

1. A user-supplied relative path retains its lexically cleaned relative spelling.
2. A user-supplied absolute path remains absolute.
3. A file below a user-supplied directory uses that display path plus its suffix.
4. Discovered project files are relative to the project.
5. Dependency source uses logical dependency display paths.
6. Cache roots, temporary directories, module-cache paths, and other discovered local absolute paths are not exposed in dedicated fields or known internal messages.
7. An unmappable absolute path is reduced to its base name in a diagnostic path.

File-change paths are relative to the command working directory unless the corresponding destination argument was absolute.

These guarantees apply to dedicated fields and messages produced by Unobin. Opaque provider, resolver, operating-system, and external-tool messages remain verbatim except for known workspace, project, cache, and temporary prefixes. They may contain paths or sensitive text.

Asset path and content values remain logical in plans and state. Machine values never replace them with a source path, cache path, or embedded content. Consumers must treat their encoded strings as opaque references. Text plans render them as source-like values such as <asset.lambda.path> and <asset.lambda['main.go'].content>.

Known sensitive values are replaced with exactly <sensitive> in apply outputs, output results, state entry inputs and outputs, and text plans. Plan summaries do not include values or sensitivity lists. Unobin does not claim to redact arbitrary provider or external-tool error strings; those diagnostic messages remain verbatim.

Shared nested values

Diagnostic

Field	Type	Meaning
code	string	Stable code where one is defined; diagnostic codes are otherwise extensible.
severity	enum	error, warning, or info.
message	string	Prefix-free diagnostic message.
hint	string	Omitted when absent.
path	string	Omitted when absent.
span	span	Omitted when absent.

A span has required start and optional, exclusive end positions. Each position has required integer line, column, and offset fields. Line and column are one-based; column counts bytes. Offset is zero-based bytes from the input start.

Source error codes initially map to unobin.parse, unobin.lex, unobin.schema, unobin.type, unobin.resolve, and the fallback unobin.error.

File change

Field	Type	Meaning
path	string	Public path of the attempted mutation.
action	enum	created, updated, removed, or unchanged.

Actions compare the path before its first command mutation with its final observed state, including partial failure. Repeated mutations are composed to at most one entry per path. An absent path created and then removed has no final effect and is omitted.

Factory identity

Field	Type	Meaning
name	string	Factory name.
version	string	Factory version.
content-revision	string, except nullable in compile-result	Compiled content identity.
library-path	string or null	Public factory library path, if configured.

Binding

Field	Type	Meaning
library-path	string or null	Public library path.
alias	string	Source import alias.
export	string	Selected library export.

Target

A target has required string fields path and type. Target type is one of factory, library, stack, project, project-lock, or directory.

Single-document contracts

Every successful single-document result has a required diagnostics array. A negative result such as ok: false is still a normal result document, not a command-error.

Command error

Any single-document command can emit kind command-error version 1.

Field	Type	Meaning
command	string	Command path without the executable name.
code	enum	Failure class.
message	string	Stable command-level summary.
diagnostics	diagnostic array	Every collected and converted cause.
files	file-change array	Known effects before the failure.

Command error codes are unobin.command.invalid-args, unobin.command.io, unobin.command.failed, and unobin.command.stdout-conflict.

Developer command results

version

Produced by unobin version. Fields are name (unobin), version, and diagnostics.

check-result

Produced by unobin check. Fields are ok, target, and diagnostics. Error diagnostics make ok false and exit 1; warnings do not. Failure before the target can be identified uses command-error.

compile-result

Produced by unobin compile.

Field	Type	Meaning
factory	compile factory identity	content-revision is null without --build.
source	object	Required path and project-dir strings.
output	object	Required dir, main-go, go-mod, built, and binary; optional assets; binary is string or null.
files	file-change array	Composed effects for generated Go and UB files, go.sum, and the binary.
diagnostics	diagnostic array	Includes captured Go tool output in machine mode.

binary and content-revision are non-null only after a build. Machine compile rejects -o - with unobin.command.stdout-conflict. External-tool stdout and stderr are each bounded to 1 MiB and reported as diagnostics rather than written outside the document.

output.assets is the public path to factory.assets and is omitted when the compiled source has no captured assets. Changes to the sidecar also appear in files, including its removal when a later compile has no assets.

Dependency results

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
dependency-list	unobin deps list	dependencies, diagnostics
dependency-sync-result	unobin deps sync	project-file, lock-file, direct, indirect, selected, files, diagnostics
dependency-get-result	unobin deps get	dependency, version, indirect, project-file, lock-file, direct, selected, files, diagnostics
dependency-verify-result	unobin deps verify	ok, checked, mismatches, diagnostics
dependency-cache-clean-result	unobin deps clean	removed, diagnostics

Each dependency entry has required id, kind, version, and indirect fields. Dependency kind is ub or go. A verification mismatch has required id, expected-hash, actual-hash, and message fields. Mismatches produce ok: false and exit 1; fetch or I/O failure uses command-error. removed is true only when the dependency cache existed before cleaning.

Generator results

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
factory-generation-result	unobin generate factory	output-dir, files, diagnostics
ub-library-generation-result	unobin generate ublibrary	output-dir, type, files, diagnostics
go-library-generation-result	unobin generate golibrary	output-dir, module-path, provider, resources, data-sources, files, diagnostics

provider preserves the exact requested provider, including an organization prefix. Partial generation failures attach known effects to command-error.files.

Shared graph result

Developer and compiled print-graph produce kind graph. Fields are name, nodes, edges, and diagnostics.

Each node has required address, category, binding, and composite fields. binding is a binding object or null. Category is resource, data-source, action, output, or library-config. Each edge has required from and to strings. An edge may target an input.* root that is absent from nodes.

Compiled factory results

Identity, validation, and schema

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
factory-version	factory version	factory, diagnostics
validation-result	factory validate	ok, target, diagnostics
schema	factory schema show	factory, inputs, outputs, diagnostics

Validation error diagnostics make ok false and exit 1; warnings do not. Each schema input has required name, type, default, description, and sensitive fields. default is canonical Unobin expression text or null. Each schema output has required name, description, and sensitive fields. Type is canonical Unobin type-expression text. Missing descriptions are empty strings.

Bare factory schema prints help and exits 0. schema template remains the payload command described above.

plan-summary

Produced by factory plan.

Field	Type	Meaning
factory	factory identity	Compiled factory identity.
stack	string	Stack name.
plan-digest	string or null	sha256: digest of a written sealed artifact.
file	file change or null	Plan artifact effect.
state-rev	string or null	State revision used by the plan.
parallelism	integer	Effective apply parallelism.
destroy	boolean	Whether this is a destroy plan.
summary	object	Required count for every decision.
state-moves	array	Required {from, to} objects in execution order.
steps	array	Public plan step summaries.
diagnostics	diagnostic array	Collected notices and warnings.

The summary has required integer fields create, read, update, replace, destroy, rerun, skip, no-op, and eval. These are also all decision enum values.

Each step has required address, category, decision, composite, drift, gone, replace-triggers, and deferred-config. deferred-config is string or null. Step category uses the graph category enum. A summary contains no input, output, prior, or observed values and no sensitivity lists. Without -o, both plan-digest and file are null.

Refresh and output

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
refresh-result	factory refresh	factory, stack, ok, refreshed, removed, state-rev, diagnostics
outputs	factory output	factory, stack, outputs, sensitive, diagnostics
output	factory output NAME	factory, stack, name, value, sensitive, diagnostics

refresh-result.state-rev is string or null. If refresh wrote state and then failed, it reports ok: false, completed counts, the latest revision, error diagnostics, and exits 1. Before any observed write, failure uses command-error. Sensitive output values are masked and their names are listed lexically.

Pin and state inspection

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
pin-result	factory pin	stack, action, file, factory, diagnostics
state-list	factory state list	factory, stack, state-rev, entries, diagnostics
state-entry	factory state show	factory, stack, state-rev, entry, diagnostics
state-snapshots	factory state snapshots list	factory, stack, current, snapshots, diagnostics

Pin action is added-factory-block, added-pin-block, added-supported-versions, appended-entry, or already-pinned. The last action uses an unchanged file change.

state-list.state-rev and state-snapshots.current are string or null. A state entry summary has required address, entry-type, category, and binding. Entry type is leaf, library-call, action, or data-source. State category is resource, data-source, or action. Binding is required for valid current entries.

A detailed state-entry.entry adds required schema-version, trigger-hash, inputs, outputs, depends-on, sensitive-inputs, and sensitive-outputs. trigger-hash is string or null. Each snapshot has required revision and current fields. Snapshots remain in backend chronological order.

State mutation

Kind	Command	Required fields after the common header
state-move-result	factory state move	factory, stack, ok, from, to, moved, state-rev, diagnostics
state-remove-result	factory state remove	factory, stack, ok, address, state-rev, diagnostics
state-gc-result	factory state snapshots gc	factory, stack, ok, deleted, kept, current, failed-revision, diagnostics
state-force-unlock-result	factory state force-unlock	factory, stack, unlocked, diagnostics

state-gc-result.current and failed-revision are string or null. A mutation that writes a new current snapshot and then fails, including during unlock, reports its normal result kind with ok: false, completed effects, the latest revision, error diagnostics, and exit 1. A failure before a new revision is observed uses command-error. GC similarly retains completed deletion counts and the failed revision.

Apply stream

factory apply --format json emits JSON Lines. Unobin apply emits the equivalent one-literal-per-line stream. Every record has required kind, format-version, sequence, and timestamp fields. Sequence starts at 1 and increments after each complete record write. Timestamp is RFC 3339 Nano UTC and is sampled immediately before encoding; sequence defines order.

The stream order is:

command-diagnostic*
apply-ui?
(apply-event | command-diagnostic)*
apply-output*
apply-result | apply-error

Startup diagnostics precede the optional UI record. First-interrupt and browser-open diagnostics are asynchronous and may follow runtime events. Their sequence records their actual order. No diagnostic or event follows the first output. Failure emits no outputs. Runtime failure events go to the UI but are not encoded as apply-event; the terminal apply-error represents them.

command-diagnostic

Adds one required diagnostic object to the common stream fields.

apply-ui

Adds one required url string. It appears at most once. --ui is valid in every format. Browser-open failure or the five-second timeout emits a diagnostic with code unobin.ui.browser-open and apply continues; UI server startup failure is a setup-stage apply-error.

apply-event

Adds required stage, decision, and address. Stage is start or done. elapsed is omitted for start and required for done. Decision uses the plan decision enum. Composite boundaries, outputs, no-op resources, and skipped actions retain the command's silent-event filtering.

apply-output

Adds required name, value, and sensitive. Records sort by name. All effective values are validated before the first output is written. A sensitive value is replaced before validation, so its original value is never inspected by the machine encoder. An apply with no outputs emits no output records.

apply-result

This success terminal adds required started-at, finished-at, elapsed, state-rev, and output-count. The timestamps are RFC 3339 Nano UTC; elapsed uses Unobin's short duration rendering. output-count equals the number of preceding apply-output records.

apply-error

This failure terminal has the following fields:

Field	Type	Meaning
started-at	timestamp	Apply stream start.
finished-at	timestamp	Terminal-record time.
elapsed	duration string	Total elapsed time.
stage	enum	setup, execute, or finalize.
code	enum	Stable apply failure code.
message	string	Stable operation summary.
state-rev	string or null	Latest observable current revision.
diagnostics	diagnostic array	Converted underlying causes.
address	string	Omitted when unavailable.
decision	decision enum	Omitted when unavailable.
library	string	Public library path; omitted when unavailable.
skipped	integer	Required, including zero, when a runtime step error supplies counts; otherwise omitted.
succeeded	integer	Required, including zero, when a runtime step error supplies counts; otherwise omitted.

Apply error codes are unobin.apply.setup-failed, unobin.apply.step-failed, unobin.apply.finalize-failed, and unobin.apply.interrupted. Setup failures omit step fields. Execution step failures include available step fields. Finalization includes output evaluation, final state persistence, and lock release.

Interrupts and terminal records

The first SIGINT requests a scheduler drain and emits unobin.apply.drain-requested with this prefix-free diagnostic message:

Interrupted; letting in-flight steps finish. Press Ctrl-C again or send SIGTERM to abort.

After 60 seconds, a second SIGINT, or any SIGTERM, cancellation produces terminal code unobin.apply.interrupted. A handled interrupt exits 1 after that terminal record. Abrupt process termination uses the platform signal status and may not write a terminal record.

When response encoding and stdout writes succeed, an apply stream contains exactly one recognized apply-result or apply-error, and it is the last record. An encoding failure may be replaced by a primitive finalization apply-error if stdout remains usable. A stdout write failure cannot safely emit another record.

Consumers must treat malformed output, a partial line, or a stream without a recognized terminal record as a transport failure. A transport failure does not prove that apply had no effects. Inspect current state and compute a new plan before applying again; do not blindly retry the same plan.

Exit status

• 0: successful commands and help, including results with warnings.
• 1: invocation errors, text application failures, command-error, negative results such as ok: false, handled interrupts, and apply-error.
• Platform signal status: abrupt termination, including default SIGPIPE behavior.

There are no additional numeric status classes. Machine consumers classify nonzero results by kind, code, and result fields.