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feat(template): a module that builds and loads — Phase 5 slice 1
The kit's `template/`: a complete, minimal Runic Gateway module a reader copies,
renames, and runs before reading a chapter. Slice 0 landed the workflow that runs
it; this is the tree that workflow was written against, so the `template` job
arms itself with no edit to the guard.

Installed into a real core it adds one public page at `/examplegame/status`, a nav
row pointing at it, one API route described in an OpenAPI fragment core merges,
one table created by an idempotent schema fragment and dropped by a purge file,
and both lifecycle hooks. That is deliberately less than a real module does; what
it is complete about is the shape — every seam used once, with the reasoning next
to it.

Four decisions, settled with the org lead:

1. **Public tier only, plus the lifecycle hooks.** §2.11.1 d1's "one public route",
   plus enough to show the whole vertical seam once. Admin and player tiers become
   worked examples quoted from module-uo in chapter 2 rather than two thirds of a
   tree the reader deletes on day one.
2. **The release workflow ships as a file, in BOTH flavours** — `.gitea/` and
   `.github/`. Neither runs where it sits (a workflow is only read from a
   repository root) and each arms itself when the reader's copy is its own repo.
   Packaging is the part of a module that cannot be guessed at, and the kit's
   audience is outside this org, so assuming Gitea would have been assuming our
   own deployment. Core installs from a URL and does not care where the release
   lives — only that the host is on the operator's `MODULE_SOURCE_HOSTS`.
3. **A rename checklist that CI verifies**, not a rename script. `template/README.md`
   carries the table; `scripts/checkRenameSites.js` holds it against the tree in
   both directions — an unlisted file that still carries the placeholder fails, and
   so does a listed file that no longer does. The second half is the one usually
   left out and the more valuable: a row that has stopped matching reads as
   instructions to edit something that is not there. Same rule core's identifier
   check follows about its own exemptions. It has its own ten-test suite, run by
   CI as `node --test`, because a check that has never been shown to fail is a
   check nobody knows the state of.
4. **A neutral invented game.** One deviation from the literal answer, forced by
   decision 3: the id is `examplegame`, not `example`. The checklist check is a
   text search, and `example` occurs in ordinary English ("for example") all over
   prose that is not a rename site — a placeholder that cannot occur by accident is
   what makes the check answerable instead of a source of false alarms someone
   learns to ignore.

**The pin moves to the 1.4.0 bump** (website `edge` 1b692bf), which is what
`template/module.json` declares as `coreApi`. Slice 0 pinned its parent, before
1.4.0 existed, so `checkCoreApi.js` arms for the first time here — it asserts
EQUALITY, and its failing on the next contract bump is the system working.

Also in CI: the client tests now run AFTER the build (two of them read the built
chunk and skip without one — run first, the job reports green while asking nothing
about the artifact that ships), and `check:swagger` verifies the committed
fragment is current.

## The finding: an UPDATE that changes nothing does not touch ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

Every suite passed, both guards passed, the chunk built, the module loaded into a
real core and the page rendered correctly. Two hours later the same page said the
world was offline, and it was wrong.

`updated_at` was declared `ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`, and MariaDB fires that
only when an UPDATE actually CHANGES a value. The boot refresh writes the same
numbers every thirty seconds — which is exactly what a quiet game looks like — so
the timestamp froze at the first write, the row crossed the freshness window, and
the model correctly reported a stale row as offline. Verified against the live
database: two hours of refreshes, `updated_at` still the boot timestamp.

No test in this repo could see it. The model takes its clock as an argument, and
nothing in a suite runs the same UPDATE twice against a real database. It is only
visible as a page that was right when you looked at it and wrong an hour later.

The writer now sets `updated_at = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP` explicitly and the column
drops the clause that was not doing what it looked like it was doing; both carry
the reasoning. Re-verified end to end: the timestamp advances every interval and
the API reports fresh.

Falling out of the fix, the schema fragment gained the rule the reader hits next:
**changing a table is an ALTER, never an edit to its CREATE** — `CREATE TABLE IF
NOT EXISTS` does nothing when the table exists, so an edited column definition
takes effect on a fresh install and on no existing one, which is the worst
possible split because your development database is usually the fresh one.

## Verified

- 29 server tests, 18 client tests, 10 kit-script tests; `check:imports`,
  `check:externals`, `check:swagger` and `checkCoreApi` all green, run in CI's own
  order from a clean `npm ci`.
- Browser smoke (MODULE_API.md §7.7) against a real core built from the pinned
  ref: module `started`, published on `/api/v1/public/modules`, chunk served
  `no-cache` with the right MIME from the entry's directory while `module.json`
  and the server source 404, script tag injected after core's bundle, the page
  rendering inside core's own chrome, the nav row interleaved into the public
  header between Wiki and About, SPA navigation into it from another page, the
  module's path and schema and tag merged into `/api/docs.json`, and
  `[examplegame] registered against core API 1.4.0` in the console with no CSP
  report and no React error.

Refs: MODULE_SYSTEM.md §2.11.1 (slice 1), MODULE_API.md §2.x, §3.x, §5.1, §7.7.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-12 12:56:32 -05:00
..

The template module

A Runic Gateway module that builds, loads, and does almost nothing. Copy it, rename it, and you have a running module before you have read a chapter.

Installed into a core, it adds:

  • one public page at /examplegame/status, and a nav row pointing at it;
  • one API route, GET /api/v1/public/world/status, described in an OpenAPI fragment core merges into its own /api/docs;
  • one table, examplegame_world_status, created by an idempotent schema fragment and dropped by a purge file;
  • both lifecycle hooks, so there is something to see at boot and at shutdown.

That is deliberately less than your module will do. What it is complete about is the shape: every seam a real module uses is here once, with the reasoning next to it, and CI proves the whole thing still builds against a pinned core.

The tree

module.json                 what core reads first — id, version, coreApi, mounts
server/
  index.js                  register(ctx, api) — the entire server-side handshake
  core.js                   the lazy accessors over ctx; read this second
  boot.js                   onBoot / onShutdown
  db/schema.sql             idempotent, replayed every boot
  db/purge.sql              destructive, run only by an explicit admin purge
  model/worldStatus/        the .db.js / .model.js pair
  router/public/            one router, one controller, the #swagger annotations
  swagger/doc.js            tags and schemas the annotations refer to
  scripts/checkImports.js   the module boundary, enforced
  scripts/swaggerFragment.js  generates swagger-fragment.json from your own routes
  test/                     the suites — start with entry.test.js
client/
  vite.config.js            the library build: anchored aliases, external: []
  src/entry.jsx             registers routes and nav at evaluation time
  src/core.js               what core hands you: the seven-member UI kit
  src/shim/                 the four shared dependencies, re-exported from core
  src/routes/public/        the page
  scripts/checkExternals.js asks the BUILT chunk whether a bare import survived
  test/                     build.test.js and registration.test.js
.gitea/workflows/release.yml   packaging CI — Gitea
.github/workflows/release.yml  the same, for GitHub. Keep one, delete the other.
swagger-fragment.json       generated; commit it

Neither workflow runs while it sits inside the kit — a workflow is only read from a repository root. They arm themselves when your copy is a repository of its own.

Build it

npm ci   --prefix server
npm test --prefix server
npm run check:imports --prefix server

npm ci    --prefix client
npm run build --prefix client        # → client/dist/entry.js, the chunk that ships
npm run check:externals --prefix client
npm test  --prefix client            # build FIRST: two of these tests read the chunk

npm test in client/ passes with no build, by skipping the tests that need one. That is on purpose — the suite has to be runnable before the build — and it means a CI job that tests without building is a job asking nothing. Build first.

Regenerate the OpenAPI fragment whenever a route or an annotation changes:

npm run swagger --prefix server        # writes swagger-fragment.json
npm run check:swagger --prefix server  # fails if it is stale

Install it

Three supported ways, and none of them builds anything on the operator's machine:

  1. Admin → Modules, pasting the URL of an install manifest — the JSON the release workflow attaches beside the tarball. This is how an operator installs your module.
  2. The MODULES environment variable, <id>@<version>=<manifest URL>, for a deployment that declares its module set rather than clicking it.
  3. A directory on the volume. Copy this whole tree to <website>/modules/<id>/ and restart. The fastest loop while you are developing.

For (3): copy, do not symlink. The loader lists directory entries and a symlink is not a directory, so a linked module is skipped in silence.

Rename it

Change id in module.json first, then work down the list. Nothing here is subtle, and the suites catch most of a half-finished job: schema.test.js fails the moment a table name stops matching the id, and registration.test.js fails when a nav row stops matching its route.

Your id must match ^[a-z][a-z0-9-]{1,31}$, must equal the directory name core loads you from, and becomes your table prefix — so no hyphen unless you enjoy backticking table names.

File What to change
module.json id, name, version, the mounts prefix, capabilities
server/package.json package name and description
server/core.js the message every accessor throws
server/boot.js the placeholder world name
server/db/schema.sql every table name — the prefix must be your id
server/db/purge.sql the same table names
server/model/worldStatus/worldStatus.db.js the TABLE constant
server/router/public/world.router.js the #swagger.tags name
server/swagger/doc.js the tag, and the Examplegame… schema prefix
server/scripts/swaggerFragment.js the generated fragment's info.title
server/test/_fakes.js ctx.moduleId
server/test/worldStatus.test.js the fixture's world name
server/package-lock.json regeneratednpm install --prefix server
client/package.json package name and description
client/vite.config.js the guard plugin's name
client/src/core.js the console tag on the identity check
client/src/shim/rg.js the console tag on the missing-global error
client/src/entry.jsx ID, and every route path and nav to
client/test/registration.test.js the example path in the comment
client/package-lock.json regeneratednpm install --prefix client
swagger-fragment.json regeneratednpm run swagger --prefix server

That table is checked. scripts/checkRenameSites.js at the root of this kit compares it against the tree on every pull request: a file that still mentions the placeholder and is not listed fails the build, and so does a listed file with nothing left to rename. A checklist nobody verifies is a checklist that is wrong by the second edit.

Two things you do not rename: the mount prefix /world need not be your id (the server's prefix namespace is shared with core's, and /status, /settings, /version and /contact are already taken), and the world / worldStatus naming throughout is ordinary vocabulary you should replace with your own domain's when you replace the feature.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later, like everything else in this project — see LICENSE.md. This directory is meant to be copied and made yours; it carries that licence, and so does anything derived from it.