20 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
54b4059091 Merge pull request 'docs(modules): phase 5 as built — Android leg A, and the capability a client had to be given' (#257) from docs/rust-phase-5 into main
Reviewed-on: #257
2026-09-17 09:21:44 +00:00
dfdb0a3f63 docs(modules): phase 5 as built — Android leg A, and the capability a client had to be given
module-rust's surface gets its second client. `modules/rust/PLAN.md` §18 records
the phase; `android/PLAN.md` M14 records the app's half, as every Android
milestone does.

The decision worth the most words is D16. This module declared five capability
strings and every one named a SURFACE — `servers`, `killfeed`, `leaderboard`,
`presence`, `wipes` — while a client gating a navigation group needs one that
names the MODULE. Core flattens every started module's capabilities into a single
list, so `servers` is a word another module could declare tomorrow and silently
reveal these screens on a site that does not run Rust. Gating on the module `id`
was considered and rejected in as many words: `id` is a mount prefix, §2.9
forbids inferring a route from a capability, and letting a client gate on `id`
makes the two the same value in practice.

Also recorded: D17 (poll while RESUMED — the phone's Page Visibility gate), D18
(the Rust repositories move to `edge`, releases at the cutover), D19 (the drawer
badge, and NavPaths learning `/rust`), why D15's footer slot had to be translated
rather than copied, and §18.4's three defects — none of which a green suite of
644 could see, because each is about what a screen looks like or when a number is
re-read.

§18.6 is deliberately short and honest: the website's own pages have still not
been read at phone width, and the badge's non-zero case was shown with a seeded
count rather than by people playing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-17 03:45:01 -05:00
2f24236993 Merge pull request 'docs(modules): phase 4 as built — the first pages, and the four defects a browser walk found' (#256) from docs/rust-phase-4 into main
Reviewed-on: #256
2026-09-17 02:42:51 +00:00
788100e048 docs(modules): phase 4 as built — the first pages, and the four defects a browser walk found
Records PLAN.md section 17 and marks the phase row done. Four decisions (D12-D15),
what is on the pages, and the four defects only a live walk could find — two of
them in code phase 3 had already shipped: an unreachable refresh that erased the
server's description, and a "last reported" line reading the timestamp of our own
poll rather than of the server's last frame.

Also written down: why core's useAsync cannot poll, the real per-page cost of a
live count in the footer slot, and the test fake that was *nearly* core.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-16 21:40:39 -05:00
a221d4409b Merge pull request 'docs(rust-link): protocol 2 — the read path, and phase 3 as built' (#255) from docs/rust-protocol-2 into main
Reviewed-on: #255
2026-09-16 16:36:42 +00:00
f80b9f95c8 docs(modules): the ingest walk, and the two-writer trap it walked into
The module half exercised against the live rig rather than only its own tests:
the working tree installed into a running core, pointed at the workstation
sidecar with a real Rust server behind it. The fresh-install path logged
`cursor started at the feed tail`, a console banid/unban arrived as two
rust_events rows carrying the wipe id, and the wipe row was created by being
mentioned rather than by any "a wipe started" call.

Then the boundary on real rows: with both ban events in the table, the public
events route answered {"events":[]} — and answered the same when asked for
player.banned BY NAME.

The trap is worth more than the proof. The state row read as online=1 with
hostname=NULL, a shape no code path writes. Two cores shared one database: a
second instance still held the phase 2 release in memory, spoke protocol 1, was
refused 409, and rewrote the row every thirty seconds. Nothing was wrong with
either. What made it look like a defect was two SELECTs in two round trips
assuming the state did not move between them — the same mistake the Pterodactyl
work recorded, and a single atomic read caught the coherent row alternating with
the other writer's.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-16 08:52:48 -05:00
30e72adfcf docs(rust-link): protocol 2 — the read path, and phase 3 as built
The specification the other three repositories are held against, plus the phase
record.

`PROTOCOL.md` §8 is the new contract. Its centre is one field: every frame now
carries `type` — `event`, `snapshot`, `reply`, `control` — and the sidecar files
on that and nothing else. That is the dumb-forwarder property made structural
rather than intended: ten new event kinds are zero change in Rust-Link, and only
a version adding an indexed column touches it at all.

Also in §8: the fifteen-kind catalogue and what each frame carries; `wipeId`
derived by the plugin, which REVERSES §3.2's "deriving one is the website's job"
and says why; boards re-sent on connect and on a cadence; the aggregate rule (a
hook that can fire more than once a second per player is a counter, not an
event); the void rule that stops a read-path hook vetoing a death or a login; and
`GET /feed`, a cursor route separate from `/events` because one route with two
orderings serves the wrong one to every caller that forgets the parameter.

§8.5 is the part to read twice. The classification of a kind as public or staff
is NOT on the wire, deliberately: a boundary declared by the sender is one a
compromised or out-of-date game host can widen, so the module holds a
default-deny allowlist and this table is what its test holds it against.

§8.8 corrects a catalogue rather than a defect: PLAN.md §10 sources
`rust.login.denied` from `CanUserLogin`, and that hook fires on every attempt —
the only way to learn of a denial from it is to be the denier. A denial is the
absence of an approval, and protocol 2 emits both facts so phase 10 can pair them.

`PLAYER_WALK.md` is new, and it exists because half this catalogue cannot fire
without somebody holding a mouse. Ten steps, what each one should produce, and
what counts as a pass — written so the walk can be run without watching the
output live, and so the answer afterwards is readable as a transcript.

PLAN.md §16 is phase 3 as built: the four decisions, the two defects only a
server that BOOTED with the plugin could find (a wipe id that was null for every
real session, and a two-second main-thread stall on unload), what was proven and
how, and — stated plainly rather than implied — the three measurements still
queued on the org lead.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-16 08:39:27 -05:00
ddf777fd8c Merge pull request 'docs(modules): phase 2 as built — packaging, release and the frozen manifest' (#254) from docs/rust-phase-2 into main
Reviewed-on: #254
2026-09-16 10:51:01 +00:00
5274d5a744 docs(modules): phase 2 as built — packaging, release and the frozen manifest
PLAN.md gains §15 and the phase-2 row is marked done.

What the phase found worth recording:

- The starting position was worse than the row implied: phase 1 built five
  guards and ran every one by hand, because the repo had no .gitea/workflows at
  all. So the org lead widened the phase to include the gate, not only the
  release (D4), and the frozen-manifest job shipped with it rather than waiting.
- That job answers a question §13 had to take on trust. Core mounts /status and
  /version at a tier root where the loader's collision probe cannot see them, so
  phase 1 could only check /rust by reading. Locally and in CI, against the same
  pinned core: 280 core routes, 6 added, all documented, none of core's moved.
- The bundle carries no node_modules (D5), and checkBundle.js asserts the
  emptiness rather than assuming it — the day a dependency appears is meant to
  be a loud day. Verified by breaking the include list.
- No Sonar for the three Rust repos until phase 19 (D6).
- The criterion is met. v0.1.0 published, downloaded, hashed independently
  (7296c76b… matches the manifest), and installed from its manifest URL through
  Admin → Modules into a core with the phase-1 directory and row torn down
  first. The volume received exactly the twenty files the include list names;
  the row reads started with a source and a sha where phase 1's had nulls; the
  public route answers 200, the player and admin tiers 401, and all five /rust
  paths merged into core's own spec.
- REGISTRY_TOKEN was already configured — the one prerequisite this work could
  not check for itself, since the bot can read no Actions secrets.
- One rig finding: Docker Desktop's Linux engine was found dead and answered
  every call with a bare 500, which presents as the website being broken.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-16 05:42:36 -05:00
3c8b430fae Merge pull request 'docs(modules): module-rust supports Carbon too, ships a Pterodactyl egg, and the rigs move to the panel' (#253) from docs/rust-carbon-and-pterodactyl into main
Reviewed-on: #253
2026-09-16 02:54:23 +00:00
22159ec78f docs(modules): the Carbon rig, R19 proven, and one refuted claim
rust-carbon (id 18, 87fb1f67) is built on the same egg with FRAMEWORK=carbon,
a clean install rather than a converted one. Install 122s, boot 543s.

R19 is proven. The byte-identical RunicGateway.cs that runs on the Oxide rig,
with no conditional compilation in it at all, loaded on Carbon 2.0.259.0 and
behaved identically - same startup line, same no-stall retry against an absent
sidecar. That contract now holds on three platforms from one source file:
Windows/Mono, Linux/Oxide, Linux/Carbon.

R18's amendment is confirmed the best way it could have been. The plugin's own
config, written by the same Oxide-compat API on both rigs, landed at
oxide/config/RunicGateway.json on one and carbon/configs/RunicGateway.json on
the other. Had the R18 editor used a literal path it would not have found its
own plugin's config on half of all installs, and no test would have caught it.

One claim is REFUTED, and it was wrong about Oxide as well as Carbon. CARBON.md
said Oxide stores permissions as JSON and Carbon as Protobuf or SQLite. Both
rigs say otherwise: both store Protobuf, under IDENTICAL filenames
(oxide.users.data, oxide.groups.data), differing only in directory - Carbon
writes its own data into files named after Oxide. This strengthens R2's
API-only rule rather than weakening it: a file reader would have worked on both
rigs today and broken silently for the one operator who ran c.migrate_perms_sql.

Two things nobody had thought to claim, found by looking. Carbon auto-creates a
third default group, moderator, which R2's full-set push must tolerate or
report drift for ever. And c.plugins exposes per-plugin hook telemetry that is
most of section 6's fired-hook mechanism, free, and only on Carbon.

Also: a wrong console command is indistinguishable from success at the API.
Pterodactyl's command endpoint returns 204 either way and Carbon prints nothing
for an unknown command, so oxide.plugins on Carbon looks exactly like it
worked. Anything driving the console must read a log to know.

CARBON.md gains a scorecard (section 10) and drops its unproven banner.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 21:51:11 -05:00
069e715b1b docs(modules): the Pterodactyl rig as built, R22, and a correction
Section 14 records R21's first rig, made with the application key and driven
with the client key. Both work; neither can do the other's job, and there is
no egg-write endpoint at all, so a published egg is a JSON file a human
imports.

The tier-2 loop was run rather than described: phase 1's real RunicGateway.cs
pushed from the working tree, oxide.reload through the client API, the edit
observed in Oxide's own log, source restored. About ten seconds end to end.
Three things worked that were not certain to - files/write creates missing
parents, a plugin placed before Oxide exists survives Oxide arriving, and the
plugin compiles and loads on Linux, which no previous phase had established.

Two findings that change decisions. The image installs the framework on EVERY
boot, Carbon from the rolling production_build tag and Oxide from
releases/latest, so a restart is a framework upgrade and neither is pinnable
through the egg. And R20's "wrapper launches the sidecar then RustDedicated"
does not survive Carbon: the entrypoint prepends LD_PRELOAD to the whole
startup string, so the preload would land on the sidecar and the server would
start cleanly, report nothing, and be silently unmodded.

R22 (org lead): the sidecar's configuration moves into the egg's variables.
Nearly free - rust-link already reads all five keys from the environment with
env-over-file-over-defaults precedence - but the game bind must not be
operator-editable, the web bind must derive from an allocation, and the db
path must not be able to agree with REMOVE_FILES.

Also corrects an earlier claim in this branch. The client key listing zero
servers and includes returning empty were both CORRECT; the servers were
being deleted between reads. A differential diagnosis across two API calls
assumes the state did not move between them.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 21:30:06 -05:00
a29cdf0fae docs(modules): record the Pterodactyl client key and its empty-server-list problem
The token file now carries both keys. The client key authenticates as the
admin owner and then lists zero servers, on every listing type and for both
the short identifier and the full UUID, so tier 2 of R21's deployment loop is
not usable yet. Reinstall and SFTP are unaffected.

Records the diagnosis rather than only the symptom, including one trap worth
not repeating: includes are independently broken on this panel, so
servers?include=user returns an empty list where the same route without the
include returns six. Nothing built on an include is evidence about ownership.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 21:08:15 -05:00
5890da633f docs(modules): module-rust supports Carbon too, and ships a Pterodactyl egg
Three new decisions of record, and a new reference for the second modding
framework.

R19 - the bridge plugin is framework-agnostic from now, not ported later.
Carbon is not a fork of Oxide but a separate loader shipping an Oxide
compatibility layer, so one .cs in the Oxide.Plugins namespace serves both,
with #if CARBON only where the APIs genuinely differ. Three existing
decisions take an amendment and none is reversed: R18's config walk roots at
Interface.Oxide.ConfigDirectory rather than a literal oxide/config (Carbon
uses carbon/configs AND lets an operator relocate every directory from the
command line); R2's permission store is Protobuf or SQLite on Carbon, which
permanently closes the file-reading shortcut it never planned to take, while
the PermissionExists pre-check survives because Carbon's bool return is the
one thing we cannot read portably; R4's doctor asks which framework rather
than whether Oxide, and gets a weaker "current enough" claim because Carbon
ships rolling release tags.

R20 - a Pterodactyl egg is a third supported deployment path beside the
installer and the hand install, derived from the community "Rust Autowipe"
egg, which already carries a FRAMEWORK variable offering vanilla/carbon/oxide.
The sidecar runs inside the game's container, which is what lets D2 stand
unchanged: a container's 127.0.0.1 is genuinely private, so the game link
stays loopback and stays unauthenticated. Lands in phase 18 beside the
installer.

R21 - both rigs move to the Pterodactyl panel, because Oxide and Carbon
cannot coexist in one install and so a single server cannot prove R19. Also
retires the wipe-day maintenance that dominated section 4, and makes the rig
Linux where every prior finding came from Windows and Mono.

New: modules/rust/CARBON.md, the difference list - file layout, the
permission store, the c. commands, 30 Carbon-only hooks, and 13 uMod names
Carbon's catalogue omits (at least two of which look like renames). Sourced
from Carbon's own published metadata and source at main, and labelled
throughout as not yet proven on a live Carbon server.

One outstanding request, recorded in section 3: the panel token on disk is an
application key and Pterodactyl puts files, power and console on the client
API, so iteration needs a ptlc_ key only the account holder can mint.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 20:59:23 -05:00
b4b05b4108 Merge pull request 'docs(modules): module-rust phase 1 as built — the transport, and three org-lead decisions' (#252) from docs/rust-phase-1 into main
Reviewed-on: #252
2026-09-16 01:29:48 +00:00
bd83b34614 docs(modules): module-rust phase 1 as built — the transport, and three org-lead decisions
Adds docs/rust-link/, the canonical spec for the Rust bridge: PROTOCOL.md (the
game link and the website API) and INTEGRATION.md (standing it up by hand, and
which of the three components is wrong when it does not work). A new top-level
directory mirroring link/, which is decision D1 below — it keeps the uo/link
symmetry and keeps module docs separate from bridge docs.

Records phase 1 in PLAN.md as section 13. Both criteria met: a server.hello
produced by the live Rust rig travelled game → sidecar → module → the public
website API, killing the sidecar left the game untouched, and all five guards are
green on the module skeleton.

Three org-lead decisions this phase needed, none settled by section 2:

* D1 — the bridge docs live at docs/rust-link/.
* D2 — loopback is the ONLY trust boundary on the game link, no token, exactly
  as on the ServUO bridge. Argued the other way on the grounds that Rust servers
  are far more often on GSPs; overruled, and the consequence is now written down
  as the mistake rather than defended against.
* D3 — the plugin reads Oxide's own config file, so it lands inside the phase-7b
  config editor for free. The argument against — that editing Host/Port from the
  website could cut the link carrying the edit — becomes that phase's guard
  rather than a reason for a second config mechanism.

Section 11.3 is corrected in place: it read module.json's "extensions" array as
held against reality by the loader in the way "mounts" is. Only half true. The
loader checks that a named slot EXISTS and never that the module filled it —
checkDeclared covers "mounts" alone — and only ONE of R13's two slots can be
declared there at all, because site.footer.status is a CLIENT slot and naming it
fails the load outright.

Section 13.3 records five defects a running server found that no test could,
including a bootId that regenerated on every plugin load rather than every server
start — which would have asked core to reconcile its whole ledger on every
oxide.reload, for a world that never moved.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 19:55:35 -05:00
80c7a9dcd1 Merge pull request 'docs(modules): module-rust phase 0 as built — the rig is current, and four plan claims were wrong' (#251) from docs/rust-phase-0 into main
Reviewed-on: #251
2026-09-15 21:42:57 +00:00
b12c6dfde4 docs(modules): phase 0 fully closed — both zone transitions observed live
The org lead connected, so the occupancy criterion is met: a zone created
on the player's own position reported OnEnterZone, occupancy=1 by name,
and OnExitZone. R17's "presence transitions as events" is verified, which
is what the participation ledger and advance conditions rest on.

The exit was produced by relocating the zone rather than walking the
player out — CreateOrUpdateZone on an existing id moves the trigger
volume and fires OnExitZone. Useful for testing presence unattended.

Two ceilings recorded, both constraining later phases:

- No console session can observe a gate (the !player || idiom).
- An admin account cannot see a refusal from most plugins either, and the
  bypass is NOT uniform. PopupNotifications (player.IsAdmin) and
  ZoneManager (authLevel > 0) hard-bypass; Kits' RequiredPermission gate
  is config-gated with a shipped default of false, and Kits' own IsAdmin
  is a permission rather than auth level. So phase 13 is demonstrable on
  this rig as it stands and phase 7 is not — phase 7 needs a second,
  non-admin Steam account.

Adds §12.6: R18's two trees as they actually look now the configs exist.
Its data/ inventory was exactly right, but config/ is FLAT on a fresh
base set — it is data/ that nests, i.e. the nesting R18 cites to justify
the recursive walk is currently only visible in the tree it must never
walk. Also: oxide/data/ holds Oxide's own permission store, so straying
one directory over would edit R2's mirror underneath itself.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 16:40:08 -05:00
98bed8ff3d docs(modules): re-install Oxide after an update is routine, not a finding
Org lead correction: every Rust host already updates the server and
re-installs Oxide together. Presenting that as something an operator
would be caught by talks down to the audience.

Keeps the one narrow consequence that is actually ours: app_update
leaves Oxide.Core.dll and the rest in place, so a phase-18 doctor check
that tests for oxide/ or for Oxide's assemblies passes on a server that
is mid-routine. Compare Assembly-CSharp.dll against the Oxide build.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 16:04:23 -05:00
947e1c1c67 docs(modules): phase 0 as built — the rig is current, and four plan claims were wrong
Brings D:\rust to build 25230300 with Oxide 2.0.7716 and the four base
plugins loaded, and records what the rig disproved.

- §4: start.bat never updated anything. +force_install_dir must precede
  +login; the 2026-09-15 fix corrected the path and left the order, so
  every update run in the rig's history errored without updating. Also:
  app_update reverts Oxide's patched Assembly-CSharp.dll while leaving
  Oxide's own assemblies, producing a server that looks Oxided and loads
  no plugins. Phase 18's doctor should check for this.
- R2: permission.GrantUserPermission silently no-ops for an unregistered
  permission — void, no throw, no log. Since R2 recovers by re-pushing
  the full set on connect, a re-push into a server missing one plugin is
  a silent partial. Plus: grants and groups have different reach for a
  player who has never connected.
- R5: the Clans plugin raises nine hooks, not three, and three carry full
  member lists. The "exactly three, none a membership transition" claim
  was a grep artefact — the hook name is a const at the call site. The
  decision stands on a different reason; phase 17 gains event-driven
  leadership as a sharpening rather than a replacement.
- R17: EraseTemporaryZone's owner scoping refuses only a *different*
  owner. An unowned zone — every zone an operator made by hand — is
  erased by anyone and returns true. Phase 12 must gate on its own id map.
- §12.5: the zone-occupancy criterion stays open. A console command has no
  BasePlayer, so every plugin's permission check short-circuits to allowed
  and no console session can observe a gate closing; NPCs are excluded
  from zone player lists by construction. This is a standing property of
  the rig, relevant at phases 7 and 12.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016wDDVXWMDz82WqE1i969r4
2026-09-15 15:07:59 -05:00
8 changed files with 3144 additions and 57 deletions

View File

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ so they live in one place, independent of either codebase.
website/ docs from the website core (Node/Express + MariaDB + React/Vite)
modules/ docs for installable game modules — one directory per module id
link/ docs from the ServUO bridge (C# plugin + Rust sidecar + Node WS)
rust-link/ docs from the Rust bridge (Oxide plugin + Rust sidecar)
android/ docs from the native Android client (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose)
installer/ docs for the installer that deploys a shard's bridge components
ci/ cross-cutting CI/quality notes
@@ -76,6 +77,18 @@ particular game; a module is what makes it a site *for* one.
| [link-README.md](link/link-README.md) | Snapshot of the link repo's README |
| [PROJECT_TREE.md](link/PROJECT_TREE.md) | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
### `rust-link/`
The same pair of contracts as `link/`, for Rust rather than Ultima Online: an Oxide plugin that
dials out to a sidecar, and a sidecar the website reads. The two bridges are **independent** — they
share a shape and nothing else, so neither document is a fallback for the other.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| [PROTOCOL.md](rust-link/PROTOCOL.md) | **Canonical** — the game link and the website API, the four declaration sites of the wire version, and what each protocol version defines: 1 the transport, 2 the read path |
| [INTEGRATION.md](rust-link/INTEGRATION.md) | Standing the bridge up by hand, and which of the three components is wrong when it does not work |
| [PLAYER_WALK.md](rust-link/PLAYER_WALK.md) | The half of the read path a console cannot reach: ten minutes on a rig with a player, step by step, with what each hook should produce |
### `android/`
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|

View File

@@ -1307,6 +1307,128 @@ push, and Play (M6M8) follow the designed app.
an inbox event link opening the app natively while a forum link still opened a Custom Tab; and
participation history self-scoped, proved by two accounts rather than asserted.
15. **M14 — the Rust module in the app** (post-v1; built 2026-09-17). The platform's **second game
module** reached its first public pages in `module-rust` phase 4
([`../modules/rust/PLAN.md`](../modules/rust/PLAN.md) §17), and this is phase 5 — the app's leg.
R10 has each Android leg trail the website surface it consumes by exactly one phase, so every
route here existed and answered before a line of Kotlin was written.
**Design of record: [`../modules/rust/PLAN.md`](../modules/rust/PLAN.md)**, §17 for the surface
this mirrors and §18 for this phase as built. The contract is normative there; this entry records
what the app does about it.
**No backend work beyond one word.** The five public routes were live. The one change is
Module-Rust#5, which adds `rust` to the module's `capabilities` — see the gate below.
#### Why this is not the shard screens with a different name
The two games have genuinely different shapes, and collapsing them would have cost the app the
thing that makes each legible. **UO is one shard: a place**, five drawer rows, a live SSE stream.
**Rust is a fleet**: a list, and one page beneath it with four tabs. The app grows a second route
tree rather than a second meaning for `shard/`, and both can be installed on one backend — in
which case both trees exist at once and neither row appears on a site without its module.
| Screen | Route | Reads |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Rust servers** (the list) | `rust` | `GET /public/rust/servers` |
| **One server** (four tabs) | `rust/servers/{serverId}` | `…/:id`, `…/:id/events`, `…/leaderboard`, `…/online`, `…/wipes` |
#### Four decisions, taken by the org lead on 2026-09-16
- **D16 — the gate is a new capability, `rust`.** `module-uo`'s five shard rows all hang on one
string, `shard`, because that is the only question a capability can answer: *is the module
there*. `module-rust` declared five and every one named a **surface** — `servers`, `killfeed`,
`leaderboard`, `presence`, `wipes`. Core flattens every started module's capabilities into a
single list, so gating on `servers` would let another module declaring that word silently reveal
these screens on a site that does not run Rust. Gating on the module **id** was considered and
rejected: `id` is a mount prefix (§2.1 requires it to equal the directory core loads from), and
`MODULE_API.md` §2.9 forbids a client inferring a route from a capability — making the two the
same thing would quietly end that separation. So the module declares its own name as a sixth
string, asserted in its suite against `module.json`'s own `id` so the two cannot drift.
- **D17 — poll every 20s while the screen is RESUMED**, the phone's version of D14's Page
Visibility gate. Immediate refresh on return to the foreground; nothing at all while away.
- **D18 — the Rust repositories move to `edge`** for the rest of the workstream, with releases at
the cutover rather than per phase. `pr-checks.yml` in all four repositories already triggers on
`[main, edge]`, so this costs no CI — the trap that made all nine M12 phase PRs land unchecked
was closed in engagement Phase 8.
- **D19 — the drawer row carries a live player count**, and NavPaths learns `/rust`.
#### A refresh is not a load, and the app had only ever done loads
The app has had exactly one shape for a read since M1: set `Loading`, ask, replace. That is right
for opening a screen and wrong for a poll — a twenty-second refresh built on it clears the
killfeed, renders a spinner in its place and re-fills it, three times a minute, for ever. **The
website hit the same wall one tier along**, which is why `module-rust` bundles its own `usePolled`
instead of using core's `useAsync` (§17.3). `ui/Polling.kt` is that hook's other half:
- `refreshInto` — **a refresh is invisible when it succeeds and keeps the rows when it fails.** A
failure with rows on screen keeps them and reports the failure beside them; a failure with
nothing on screen is an ordinary error with a retry, because there is nothing to protect.
- `PollWhileResumed` — `repeatOnLifecycle(RESUMED)`, which buys three behaviours from one line: no
requests at all while backgrounded, an immediate refresh on return, and a pause behind a dialog
or the recents switcher. `STARTED` would keep polling for a reader who is not reading.
Only the **visible** live panel is polled. The leaderboard and the wipe list never are: a
leaderboard that re-sorted itself under a finger every twenty seconds would be worse than a stale
one. Changing the filter, the sort or the wipe **is** a different question, so that panel blanks
and loads — leaving the old rows up would show last wipe's killfeed under this wipe's heading.
#### The drawer badge is D15 translated, not D15 copied
D15 put a live count in core's `site.footer.status` slot, which works because every page of the
website renders the same footer. The app has no footer and no slot. What it has is a drawer row
per surface and, since engagement Phase 8, a precedent for a number beside one — the inbox's
unread badge, in the `NavigationDrawerItem` badge slot, with a `contentDescription` so a screen
reader says "42 players online" rather than "42". The count rides there, and keeps the website
version's three rules: **zero renders nothing** (an empty fleet is not a notification), a failed
read keeps the last number, and it never polls. It is asked for only where the module is
installed, so a UO site makes no request at all.
#### Verified
The app suite (**644 tests, 0 failures**), `lintDebug`, `assembleDebug`, and an emulator walk
against the phase-4 rig — a core with the module installed, one live server and one seeded fixture
that has never reported.
**Both halves of the phase criterion, directly.** With its server unreachable and reading
*Offline*, the page still rendered its map, size, seed, wipe date, killfeed, per-wipe and all-time
leaderboards, its last known presence board and its wipe history. The same app pointed at the UO
core showed Shard / Rules / Atlas / Leaderboards / Market and **no Rust row**.
Also proven rather than asserted: `refreshInto` against a genuinely dead backend (the core was
stopped with the list on screen; a poll tick later the rows were unchanged under one quiet line);
R12's arithmetic on a phone (all-time 59 = 41 + 18, and a player who appears only in the older
wipe **drops out** of it rather than reading zero); every `describe` branch from real rows,
including the fall that must not read as a kill by nobody; the calendar-day rule, filtering to the
August wipe and getting three rows six weeks old, each unmistakably dated; and the badge.
#### The walk found three defects, and 644 green tests found none of them
- **The drawer's live count resolved once per process.** It was keyed on the capability answer
alone, so it was read at connect and never again — which is not what *live* means on a row
somebody opens the drawer to look at. It now refreshes on resume, beside the unread badge.
- **Every card's text sat flush against its edge.** `ShardCard` is the themed `Card` and carries
no padding of its own; each caller pads its own content, and these four did not. On a phone the
first glyph of each line read as clipped.
- **A name touched its own kill count.** Five numeric columns beside an equal-weight name column
left *Brannock* and *50* reading as one field. The name now takes a wider share and ellipsizes,
and the **active sort is marked on the header** rather than by tinting a column of numbers — the
header is the control, and tinting the values says *these are special* instead of *this is what
the table is ordered by*.
#### The rig note worth keeping
The debug `network_security_config.xml` permits cleartext to **`127.0.0.1` and `localhost` only**
— not `10.0.2.2`. An emulator walk against a local core therefore needs
`adb reverse tcp:<port> tcp:<port>` and the loopback address; typed as `10.0.2.2` every request
fails with `UnknownServiceException: CLEARTEXT communication to 10.0.2.2 not permitted`, which the
connect screen reports — correctly, and indistinguishably from a core that is not running.
- **Excluded**, in the same class as every earlier milestone's exclusions: the Rust **admin**
surface. Server configuration, the sidecar token and the connection test are admin
*configuration*, which the app consumes and does not edit. Identity and permissions are legs B
and C (phases 8 and 11), and the map is leg D.
### Deferred (not a milestone)
- **Platform Teams in the app** — **deferred 2026-08-17, no app work scheduled.** The website is

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# Carbon — the second modding framework, and where it differs from Oxide
**Carbon** is the other framework modded Rust servers run. It is not a fork of Oxide and it does not
load Oxide; it is a separate loader that ships an **Oxide compatibility layer** — the `Oxide.Core`,
`Oxide.Plugins` and `Oxide.Game.Rust` namespaces, reimplemented — so that a plugin written for Oxide
compiles and runs unchanged.
This document exists because [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) **R19** commits `module-rust` to supporting both.
It records the places the two frameworks are *not* the same, because those are the only places our
code has to care. Everything not listed here is identical by construction.
> **Provenance.** Facts below were taken on **2026-09-15** from Carbon's own published metadata —
> `api.carbonmod.gg/meta/carbon/{hooks,commands,convars,switches}.json` — and from the
> [`CarbonCommunity/Carbon`](https://github.com/CarbonCommunity/Carbon) source at `main`, with the
> narrative pages at [carbonmod.gg](https://carbonmod.gg) as the prose source. Carbon is upstream
> and wins any disagreement, exactly as uMod does for [`OXIDE_API.md`](OXIDE_API.md). Nothing here
> is a Runic Gateway contract.
>
> **Verified on a live Carbon server on 2026-09-15** — Carbon **2.0.259.0** `[2026.09.03.0]` on
> Linux, the `rust-carbon` rig (PLAN.md §14.5). Three of the four load-bearing claims held. **One was
> wrong, and it was wrong about Oxide as well as Carbon** — see §4. Corrected in place; §10 is the
> scorecard.
---
## 1. The one-sentence version
**A plugin in the `Oxide.Plugins` namespace deriving from `RustPlugin` is Carbon's own documented
first example**, so the bridge plugin is one `.cs` file that serves both frameworks. What diverges is
not the plugin API but **the things around it**: where files live, how the permission store is
persisted, what the console commands are called, and which extra hooks exist.
```csharp
// Carbon's own "first plugin" page shows this, unchanged from Oxide:
namespace Oxide.Plugins;
[Info("MyPlugin", "<author>", "1.0.0")]
public class MyPlugin : RustPlugin
{
private void OnServerInitialized() => Puts("Hello world!");
}
```
Carbon also offers a native shape — `namespace Carbon.Plugins` / `CarbonPlugin` — which we do not
use and should not: it is the one choice that would make the source Carbon-only.
---
## 2. Telling the two apart
### At compile time — `#if CARBON`
Carbon feeds the Roslyn compiler a set of conditional-compilation symbols. **Oxide defines no
equivalent**, so `#if CARBON` / `#if !CARBON` is the portable framework branch, and an Oxide
compiler simply evaluates the unknown symbol as false.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `CARBON` | The framework is Carbon |
| `RUST` | The game is Rust |
| `OXIDE_PUBLICIZED` | Compiled against publicised Oxide assemblies |
| `WIN`, `UNIX` | Host operating system |
| `STAGING`, `AUX01`, `AUX02` | Rust branch |
| `RUST_ABV_<v>`, `RUST_BLW_<v>`, `RUST_IS_<v>` | Rust protocol above / below / exactly `<v>` |
| `CARBON_ABV_<YYYY_MM_DD>` | Carbon protocol above a date |
This works because the bridge plugin ships as **source** and is compiled by whichever framework
loaded it. It would not work for a precompiled DLL — a reason, among others, not to ship one.
**Confirmed on the live rig**: `carbon/config.json` reports
`"ConditionalCompilationSymbols": ["CARBON", "RUST", "OXIDE_PUBLICIZED"]`, and the list is an
operator-editable setting (`c.addconditional` adds to it), so treat the three above as the ones
present by default rather than the ones guaranteed.
### At run time
`#if` is decided when the file is compiled, which is what we want for API differences. Where a
*runtime* answer is needed — reporting which framework a server runs, in a `server.hello` say — ask
for the type rather than the file layout: `Carbon.Community` exists only under Carbon.
---
## 3. Where the files live — **the divergence that reaches the most decisions**
| Oxide | Carbon |
|---|---|
| `oxide/plugins/` | `carbon/plugins/` |
| `oxide/config/` | `carbon/configs/`**plural** |
| `oxide/data/` | `carbon/data/` |
| `oxide/lang/` | `carbon/lang/` |
| `oxide/logs/` | `carbon/logs/` |
| `oxide/extensions/`, plus `Oxide.Ext.*.dll` in `RustDedicated_Data/Managed` | `carbon/extensions/` only |
| — | `carbon/modules/`, `carbon/harmony/`, `carbon/developer/` |
**And none of those paths is fixed.** Carbon takes a command-line override for every single
directory — `-carbon.rootdir`, `-carbon.configdir`, `-carbon.datadir`, `-carbon.scriptdir`,
`-carbon.langdir`, `-carbon.logdir`, `-carbon.extdir`, `-carbon.moduledir`, `-carbon.modifierdir`,
`-carbon.profiledir`, `-carbon.carbonconfigdir`, `-carbon.sqlpermsdb`, `-harmonydir`. An operator
who has moved one is not doing anything unsupported.
**So the rule is: never compose a config or data path.** Carbon reimplements Oxide's own directory
accessors and populates them from its resolver:
```csharp
Interface.Oxide.ConfigDirectory // oxide/config or carbon/configs or wherever -carbon.configdir points
Interface.Oxide.DataDirectory
Interface.Oxide.PluginDirectory
Interface.Oxide.LangDirectory
Interface.Oxide.LogDirectory
Interface.Oxide.ExtensionDirectory
Interface.Oxide.RootDirectory
Interface.Oxide.InstanceDirectory
```
(`Carbon.Common/src/Oxide/OxideMod.cs` assigns each from `Defines.Get*Folder()`; `Interface.cs`
logs all eight at boot.) Asking the framework is both shorter and correct; hardcoding `oxide/config`
is wrong on Carbon and wrong on an Oxide server whose operator moved things.
**This is a direct amendment to R18.** The config editor's recursive walk is rooted at
`ConfigDirectory`, not at a literal `oxide/config/`; the directory it must refuse to walk is
`DataDirectory`, not a literal `oxide/data/`. The reasoning behind R18 is untouched — only the way
the two roots are obtained.
---
## 4. Permissions — same API, same format, different directory
Every member R2 depends on exists with the same name and the same argument shape
(`Carbon.Common/src/Oxide/Libraries/Permissions.cs`): `RegisterPermission`, `PermissionExists`,
`GrantUserPermission`, `RevokeUserPermission`, `GrantGroupPermission`, `RevokeGroupPermission`,
`CreateGroup`, `RemoveGroup`, `AddUserGroup`, `RemoveUserGroup`, `UserHasPermission`,
`GroupHasPermission`, `GetUserGroups`, `GetUserPermissions`, `GetGroupPermissions`,
`GetPermissionUsers`, `GetPermissionGroups`, `GetGroups`, `GetUsersInGroup`, `SetGroupParent`.
Two differences, and they pull in opposite directions.
**All of the member names above were confirmed present on the live Carbon rig**, which loaded and ran
our plugin against them unchanged.
**The return type differs, and the portable answer is the one we already chose.** Carbon's
`GrantUserPermission` returns `bool`; Oxide's returns `void` — which is
[§12.2](PLAN.md#122-four-rules-the-r2-permission-push-must-obey)'s finding, that a grant naming an
unregistered permission silently does nothing. Calling it as a statement compiles on both, so the
source stays single. But **the bool cannot be read portably**, so the `PermissionExists` pre-check
stays the mechanism on both frameworks rather than being replaced by a return value on one. Carbon
is the framework that *would* have told us, and we still cannot listen.
Carbon's signature also takes `BaseHookable` where Oxide's takes `Plugin`. Passing `this` is
correct on both; a variable typed `Plugin` is not.
### The store — **this section was wrong, and the truth is worse**
> **Corrected 2026-09-15 against both live rigs.** This document previously said *"Oxide persists to
> JSON; Carbon persists to Protobuf or SQLite"*, and offered that difference as the reason not to read
> the file. **Both halves were wrong.** The real shape is more dangerous than the one that was
> imagined, which is the only reason it is worth the space.
Read off the two running servers, byte for byte:
| | Oxide rig | Carbon rig |
|---|---|---|
| Path | `oxide/data/oxide.users.data`, `oxide.groups.data` | `carbon/data/oxide.users.data`, `oxide.groups.data` |
| First bytes | `0a 16 0a 07 64 65 66 61 75 6c 74 …` | `0a 17 0a 07 64 65 66 61 75 6c 74 …` |
| Format | **Protobuf** | **Protobuf** |
| Default groups | `default`, `admin` | `default`, `admin`, **`moderator`** |
**Neither framework writes JSON, and Carbon writes Carbon's data into files named after Oxide.** So
the trap is not "two formats you must tell apart". It is:
1. **The filename is identical and tells you nothing**, so a reader keyed on `oxide.users.data`
silently follows the wrong framework's file if it ever guesses the directory wrong.
2. **The format is an undocumented binary**, not the JSON the name and the `.data` extension suggest.
3. **Carbon can change it out from under you at run time** and Oxide cannot. `PermissionSerialization`
in `carbon/config.json` defaults to `0` (the Protobuf above); `c.migrate_perms_sql` moves the whole
store to SQLite at `server/identity/carbon.perms.db`, itself relocatable via `-carbon.sqlpermsdb`.
`Oxide Overrides/PermissionSql.cs` and `PermissionStoreless.cs` are those backends.
**R2's conclusion is unchanged and the argument for it is now much stronger.** A file reader would
have *worked* on both rigs today — same format, same names — and would break for the one operator
who ran a migrate command, with no error and no version marker to notice. **Drift detection reads the
API, or it does not work.**
**One more thing R2 has to accommodate: Carbon creates a third default group.** `carbon/config.json`
names `PlayerDefaultGroup`, `AdminDefaultGroup` and `ModeratorDefaultGroup`, all auto-granted by auth
level (`AutoGrantPlayerGroup` / `AutoGrantAdminGroup` / `AutoGrantModeratorGroup`, all `true`). A
site that pushes its *full* group set on connect must not treat `moderator` as drift to be reported,
nor delete it — the framework will simply recreate it, and the site will report drift for ever.
**Carbon does give R2 something Oxide's docs do not advertise: fourteen permission hooks**, a
`Permissions` category of its own — `OnUserPermissionGranted`, `OnUserPermissionRevoked`,
`OnUserGroupAdded`, `OnUserGroupRemoved`, `OnGroupCreated`, `OnGroupDeleted`, `OnGroupParentSet`,
`OnGroupRankSet`, `OnGroupTitleSet`, `OnGroupPermissionGranted`, `OnGroupPermissionRevoked`,
`OnPermissionRegistered`, `OnPermissionsUnregistered`, `OnUserNameUpdated`. Our uMod mirror carries
most of these as universal hooks too, so drift may be **observable as it happens** on both rather
than only diffable on connect. Phase 7 should test that rather than assume it; a hook that fires on
our *own* push is a feedback loop to suppress, not a bonus.
---
## 5. Console commands — `c.` not `oxide.`
Carbon's 129 published commands are `c.`-prefixed. The ones with Oxide counterparts:
| Oxide | Carbon |
|---|---|
| `oxide.grant` / `oxide.revoke` | `c.grant` / `c.revoke` |
| `oxide.group` | `c.group` |
| `oxide.usergroup` | `c.usergroup` |
| `oxide.load` / `oxide.unload` / `oxide.reload` | `c.load` / `c.unload` / `c.reload` |
| `oxide.plugins` | `c.plugins` |
Carbon can be configured to alias the old prefix, so an operator's muscle memory survives — but an
alias is opt-in and **we must never depend on one**. **Confirmed on the live rig:** `c.version`,
`c.plugins`, `c.grant` and `c.group` all answered; **`oxide.plugins` produced no output at all**. Note
the shape of that failure — Pterodactyl's `command` endpoint returns `204` either way, and Carbon
prints nothing for an unknown command, so *a wrong prefix looks exactly like a command that worked.*
`c.plugins` is also worth knowing about for a reason unrelated to permissions: **it reports per-plugin
`hook fires`, `hook time`, `hook memory`, `hook lag` and `hook exceptions`**, which is most of the
"log which of its expected hooks have fired at least once" mechanism [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) §6 requires
— for free, and only on Carbon. Useful when debugging *on* Carbon; **not a substitute for the
plugin's own counter**, which has to work on both. Our plugin appears there as
`Runic Gateway RunicGateway v0.1.0 … 2367ms [1077ms]`, under `Scripts`, with `failed plugins (0)`.
**Where this reaches us is narrow but real.** R2 and R18 both act through the plugin API, not the
console, so neither cares. The two that do care are **documentation** — every operator-facing
instruction naming `oxide.grant` needs its Carbon line — and **any place we drive a reload by
console string**, which R18's write path does. Resolve the reload through the framework rather than
by composing a command, or branch it on `#if CARBON`.
---
## 6. Hooks — Carbon is a superset, with thirteen names it does not list
Carbon publishes **894 hook entries, 774 unique names, in 42 categories**, against the **476** on
uMod's Rust hooks page that [`HOOKS.md`](HOOKS.md) mirrors. The larger number is not more game
coverage; Carbon documents patched methods our mirror's audience never sees.
Carbon flags every entry for compatibility. **30 are Carbon-only. Zero are marked Oxide-only.**
### The 30 Carbon-only hooks
| Hook | Category | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| `CanAcceptBackpackItem` | Global | Whether to accept a backpack item |
| `CanPatrolHeliSeePlayer` | Global | Patrol-helicopter line of sight to a player |
| `CanPickupAllFromRack` | Global | Taking every weapon from a rack |
| `CanPickupFromRack` | Global | Taking one weapon from a rack |
| `CanPlaceOnRack` | Global | Placing on a rack |
| `OnPickupFromRack` | Global | Controls taking items from a rack |
| `CanPlayerInheritNetworkGroup` | Global | Network-group inheritance |
| `OnChairComfort` | Global | Chair comfort |
| `OnChickenScared` | Global | A chicken is scared |
| `OnGrowableUpdate` | Global | A growable updates |
| `OnConsoleCommand` | Global | A console command is executed |
| `OnNativeCommandHasPermission` | Global | Permission check on a native console command |
| `OnEntitySpawn` | Global | An entity spawns — **not** Oxide's `OnEntitySpawned`, which exists on both |
| `OnJackieChan` | Global | Undescribed upstream |
| `OnCarbonBanPlayer`, `OnCarbonUnbanPlayer`, `OnCarbonKickPlayer`, `OnCarbonMutePlayer` | Player | Carbon admin-module moderation actions |
| `OnCarbonBlinded`, `OnCarbonUnblinded`, `OnCarbonSpectateStart`, `OnCarbonSpectateEnd` | Player | Carbon admin-module spectate and blind actions |
| `OnCarbonPrivateMessage`, `OnCarbonEmpowerPlayerStats`, `OnCarbonLockPlayerContainer` | Player | Carbon admin-module player actions |
| `OnCompilationFail`, `OnConstructorFail` | Engine | Plugin compile / constructor failure |
| `OnPluginCompileFailure`, `OnPluginOutdated` | Plugin | Plugin lifecycle |
| `OnMarketplaceTerminalPurchase` | Vending | Marketplace terminal purchase |
**None of them is load-bearing for us and none should become so.** The `OnCarbon*` family is the
Carbon admin module's own audit trail — tempting for a staff-actions feed, and exactly the kind of
convenience that quietly makes Carbon the required framework. If we ever want that feed, it has to
have an Oxide answer first.
### The 13 uMod names Carbon's catalogue does not carry
| Hook | Category | uMod's description |
|---|---|---|
| `CanNpcAttack` | Entity | An NPC attempts to attack another entity |
| `CanPushBoat` | Player | Cancelling a boat push |
| `CanUnlockTechTreeNode` | TechTree | Unlocking a blueprint in a tech tree |
| `CanUnlockTechTreeNodePath` | TechTree | …after the path check |
| `OnFrame` | Server | Each frame |
| `OnHelicopterKilled` | Entity | A CH47 is going to be killed |
| `OnNpcDestinationSet` | Entity | Cancelling an NPC destination change |
| `OnNpcPlayerResume` | Entity | Cancelling `TryForceToNavmesh` |
| `OnNpcStopMoving` | Entity | Denying an NPC move stop |
| `OnPlayerCorpse` | Player | A non-null corpse has spawned |
| `OnQuarryEnabled` | Resource | A mining quarry is turned on |
| `OnTeamInvite` | Team | Cancelling a team invitation |
| `OnTeamPromote` | Team | Cancelling a promotion |
**Absent from a catalogue is not the same as absent from the framework**, and two of these look like
renames rather than holes: Carbon lists `OnTeamMemberInvite` and `OnTeamMemberPromote` in its `Team`
category, which is `OnTeamInvite` and `OnTeamPromote` under different names. Carbon's `Team`
category also carries visible duplicates and both tenses of the same event (`OnTeamCreate` *and*
`OnTeamCreated`, `OnTeamUpdate` *and* `OnTeamUpdated`, `OnTeamMemberInvite` twice), which says the
catalogue is generated rather than curated.
So this table is **a list of things to check on a live Carbon server**, not a list of losses. The
practical protection is one we already committed to in [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) §6: *hooks bind by name
and arity through reflection with no compile-time check*, so the plugin logs which of its expected
hooks have fired at least once. That mechanism was written for Facepunch renaming a hook on wipe
day; it answers this question too, on either framework, without us having to trust either catalogue.
**None of the 13 is currently in a phase.** R5 settled Teams on Rust's **first-party clans**, not
first-party Teams, so `OnTeamInvite`/`OnTeamPromote` are outside the plan as written.
---
## 7. Convars — a Carbon-only set exists, and leases must not reach for it
Carbon publishes 23 convars of its own, several of them precisely the kind of live, gameplay-shaped
value [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) §9 wants to lease — `c.recycletickmultiplier`,
`c.safezonerecycletickmultiplier`, `c.researchdurationmultiplier` and so on, most flagged
`ForceModded`.
**A lease over one of those would work on Carbon and be undeclarable on Oxide.** Lease keys are
advertised to the event authoring form, and a key that silently does not exist on half of installs
is the failure `EVENTS.md` §H's *verify every key live* rule exists to prevent. So: **the lease
catalogue is drawn from the game's own convars, which both frameworks expose identically.** If a
Carbon-only key is ever worth the cost, it is advertised conditionally on the connected server's
framework, and that is a deliberate decision rather than an oversight.
---
## 8. Operating differences that reach deployment
- **They cannot coexist.** Oxide ships a patched `Assembly-CSharp.dll`; Carbon requires
Facepunch's vanilla one and patches in memory through Harmony. One install runs one framework, so
**one rig cannot prove both** — which is why [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) R21 moves the rigs to
Pterodactyl and runs two.
- **Carbon migrates an Oxide install on first boot** — it copies config, data, lang, user and group
files across and relocates `Oxide.Ext.*.dll` out of `RustDedicated_Data/Managed`. Useful for an
operator; a hazard for a test rig, because a Carbon rig built by converting an Oxide one starts
with the Oxide one's state and proves less than a clean install.
- **Carbon self-updates and its releases are rolling tags**, not versioned ones:
`production_build` (v2.0.259 at the time of writing, 2026-09-06), plus `edge_build`,
`experimental_build` and per-branch Rust builds. Oxide publishes an incrementing build number.
**So "which Carbon is this" is not answerable the way "which Oxide is this" is**, and R4's
`doctor` prerequisite check has to accept that — it can establish *that* Carbon is installed and
report the build it reports, but "current enough" is a weaker claim on Carbon than on Oxide.
- **Carbon patches hooks only when a plugin subscribes**, so an unsubscribed hook costs nothing.
That rewards the selective subscription R17 already requires for ZoneManager's chatty zone
transitions, on Carbon more than on Oxide.
---
## 9. What this costs us, in one table
| Decision | Change |
|---|---|
| **R2** permissions | None to the design. The store is API-only on Carbon *by construction* rather than by choice, and `PermissionExists` stays the check because the useful return value is Carbon-only |
| **R4** installer | `doctor` detects *which* framework, not *whether Oxide*; the payload drops into `PluginDirectory`; "current enough" is weaker on Carbon (rolling tags) |
| **R18** config editor | Roots come from `Interface.Oxide.ConfigDirectory` / `DataDirectory`, never literals; the reload is resolved through the framework, not by composing `oxide.reload` |
| **R6/R17** base mods | Unchanged — Kits, Clans, PopupNotifications and ZoneManager are Oxide plugins and Oxide plugins run on Carbon |
| **§9** event leases | Keys come from the game's convars; Carbon's own convars are out of the catalogue unless advertised conditionally |
| Everything else | Unchanged |
The honest summary: **Carbon costs three amendments and one extra rig, not a second codebase.**
---
## 10. Scorecard — what the live rig confirmed and what it corrected
Run 2026-09-15 against `rust-carbon` (Carbon **2.0.259.0** `[2026.09.03.0]` `21063e8`, Linux,
`production_build`, Rust 103/2633.288.1), with the Oxide rig alongside for comparison.
| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| An `Oxide.Plugins` / `RustPlugin` source file loads unchanged | **CONFIRMED** | The byte-identical `RunicGateway.cs` that runs on the Oxide rig loaded as `Runic Gateway v0.1.0` in `2367ms`, printed the same startup line, and retried the absent sidecar the same way |
| The framework root is `carbon/`, config dir is `configs` (plural) | **CONFIRMED** | `/carbon/{configs,data,lang,logs,plugins,extensions,modules,managed,native,modifiers,temp,tools}`; **no `/oxide` directory at all** |
| `Interface.Oxide.ConfigDirectory` resolves there | **CONFIRMED, indirectly and decisively** | The plugin's own config was written to **`/carbon/configs/RunicGateway.json`** by the same code that writes `/oxide/config/RunicGateway.json` on the Oxide rig. A literal path in R18 would not have found it |
| Console prefix is `c.`, `oxide.` is not aliased | **CONFIRMED** | `c.version` / `c.plugins` / `c.grant` / `c.group` answered; `oxide.plugins` produced nothing |
| `#if CARBON` is defined | **CONFIRMED** | `carbon/config.json``ConditionalCompilationSymbols: ["CARBON", "RUST", "OXIDE_PUBLICIZED"]` — and two symbols this document had not known about |
| Carbon self-updates | **CONFIRMED** | `SelfUpdating.Enabled: true`, plus the egg refetching `production_build` every boot |
| *"Oxide stores JSON, Carbon stores Protobuf or SQLite"* | **WRONG — see §4** | **Both** store Protobuf, under **identical filenames**, differing only in directory. The refutation strengthens R2 rather than weakening it |
| The 13 uMod hook names missing from Carbon's catalogue | **NOT YET TESTED** | None is in a phase; the plugin's own fired-hook log is the standing answer either way |
**Two things this document did not know to claim**, both found by looking rather than reading:
Carbon ships a **third default group** (`moderator`) that R2's push must tolerate, and `c.plugins`
exposes per-plugin hook telemetry Oxide has no equivalent for.

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@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
# Rust — the Oxide/uMod ecosystem reference
# Rust — the modding-framework reference
Reference material for the **upcoming `module-rust`**: a mirror of the uMod/Oxide documentation —
the Rust game API *and* the game-independent plugin framework around it — captured here so the
module can be designed and built against it without a round trip to umod.org on every question.
Reference material for **`module-rust`**: a mirror of the uMod/Oxide documentation — the Rust game
API *and* the game-independent plugin framework around it — captured here so the module can be
designed and built against it without a round trip to umod.org on every question.
Everything below was **scraped verbatim from uMod on 2026-09-15**.
The mirrored material was **scraped verbatim from uMod on 2026-09-15**. One file,
[`CARBON.md`](CARBON.md), covers the *other* framework modded Rust servers run: PLAN.md **R19**
commits this module to supporting Oxide and Carbon both, and that file records only where the two
differ.
## The mirror
@@ -15,6 +18,7 @@ Everything below was **scraped verbatim from uMod on 2026-09-15**.
| [`DEFINITIONS.md`](DEFINITIONS.md) | **What things are called.** 678 items (short name, id, display name) and 2,590 workshop skin ids across 104 items. |
| [`OPERATING.md`](OPERATING.md) | **How it gets run.** The 6 operator pages — installing Oxide on a server, then installing, configuring and permissioning plugins. |
| [`agent/`](agent/README.md) | The same facts in **machine shape** — TSV and JSONL, ~46% of the tokens. Generated in the same pass, so it cannot drift. |
| [`CARBON.md`](CARBON.md) | **The other framework.** Where Carbon diverges from Oxide and nowhere else — file layout, the permission store, the `c.` commands, 30 Carbon-only hooks and 13 uMod names its catalogue omits. Sourced from Carbon's own metadata and source, and **proven on a live Carbon 2.0.259.0 server** — R19 at phase 0, and the whole read path at phase 3. |
**The one file here that is ours:** [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) — the schedule and the decisions of record
for actually building `module-rust`. Everything else in this directory is copied from uMod; that one
@@ -40,8 +44,12 @@ The dry run's central structural fact is the thing this reference serves:
> A ServUO shard is C# **source** the operator compiles into their own server, so our bridge plugin
> can be anything we want. **A Rust server is a binary nobody outside Facepunch patches.** The only
> way in is a mod — specifically an **Oxide plugin**, since Oxide/uMod is what modded Rust servers
> run — hooking the game's own events.
> way in is a mod — hooking the game's own events through a modding framework.
The dry run named that framework as Oxide, and **R19 corrected it: there are two.** Carbon runs an
Oxide compatibility layer, so one plugin serves both and the ceiling below is the same ceiling —
but *which* framework an operator installed is their choice, not ours. [`CARBON.md`](CARBON.md) is
the difference list.
Two consequences, and they are the two halves of this directory:
@@ -50,8 +58,8 @@ Two consequences, and they are the two halves of this directory:
those 477 hooks (or from a game type one of them hands you), the bridge cannot report it. That
makes it the input to the Rust sidecar's event catalogue — the analogue of
[`docs/link/PLAN.md`](../../link/PLAN.md) §5 on the UO side.
2. **We are a guest in someone else's plugin framework.** Our plugin is compiled, loaded, permissioned
and configured by Oxide, on Oxide's terms. [`OXIDE_API.md`](OXIDE_API.md) is that rulebook, and
2. **We are a guest in someone else's plugin framework** — and we do not get to pick which one. Our
plugin is compiled, loaded, permissioned and configured by Oxide or by Carbon, on its terms. [`OXIDE_API.md`](OXIDE_API.md) is that rulebook, and
[`OPERATING.md`](OPERATING.md) is what the server owner has to do — which is the surface our
deployment story has to sit on, the way
[`installer/INSTALL.md`](../../installer/INSTALL.md) sits on top of ServUO.

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# rust-link — standing the bridge up
**Operator- and developer-facing.** How to get a Rust server, a sidecar and a website talking, and
how to tell which of the three is wrong when they are not. The contract itself is
[`PROTOCOL.md`](PROTOCOL.md).
There is no installer support for Rust yet — that is a later phase — so everything here is done by
hand. When the installer gains `--game rust`, this page becomes the fallback path rather than the
only one.
---
## 1. What you need
| Piece | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| A Rust dedicated server with **Oxide** | umod.org |
| `RunicGateway.cs` | [Rust-Plugins](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/Rust-Plugins), `overlay/oxide/plugins/` |
| `rust-link-sidecar` | [Rust-Link](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/Rust-Link) |
| A Runic Gateway website with `module-rust` installed | [Module-Rust](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/Module-Rust) |
**One game server, one sidecar, on that server's own host.** Six servers means six of the first two
pairs and six rows in the website's admin panel.
The module also expects four third-party Oxide plugins to be present for the features that follow
the bridge itself — `Clans`, `Kits`, `PopupNotifications` and `ZoneManager`, all from k1lly0u on
umod.org. The bridge works without them; the features that read them do not.
---
## 2. The order that works
Sidecar first, then plugin, then website. Any order eventually converges — the plugin retries for
ever and the website polls — but this one gives you a readable log at each step instead of three
components all reporting that something else is missing.
### 2.1 The sidecar
```bash
rust-link-sidecar --print-config
```
This resolves the configuration exactly as a normal start would: it writes `sidecar.toml` if it is
missing, generates and saves an auth token if there is none, and prints the whole thing as JSON —
**including the token in clear text**, which is the point. Keep that token; the website needs it and
there is no second way to read it back.
```json
{
"component": "rust-link-sidecar",
"protocol": 1,
"config_path": "/etc/runicgateway/rust-main.toml",
"game": { "bind": "127.0.0.1:7799", "server_id": "" },
"web": { "bind": "127.0.0.1:8090", "auth_token": "…", "ws_path": "/ws" },
"store": { "path": "/var/lib/runicgateway/rust-link.db" }
}
```
Then start it. On a host running more than one game server, give each sidecar its own
`--config`, its own ports and its own database file.
**`[game].bind` stays on loopback.** There is no token on the game link — the plugin and the sidecar
share a host and `127.0.0.1` *is* the authentication. Moving that bind to a routable address puts an
unauthenticated command channel on the network.
**`[web].bind` is the one you may need to move**, because the website is usually on another host.
Behind TLS and a firewall: the token is the only thing guarding it.
Check it:
```bash
curl http://127.0.0.1:8090/health
{"status":"degraded","protocol":1,"plugin_connected":false,"database":"ok","uptime":"0m","last_event":null}
```
`degraded` with `plugin_connected: false` is exactly right at this point — nothing is connected yet.
### 2.2 The plugin
```bash
cp RunicGateway.cs /path/to/rust/oxide/plugins/
```
Oxide compiles and loads it on the write. Watch `oxide/logs/`:
```
[Info] RunicGateway was compiled successfully in 2295ms
[Info] [Runic Gateway] protocol 1, serverId 'main', sidecar 127.0.0.1:7799
[Info] [Runic Gateway] connected to 127.0.0.1:7799
```
The first load also writes `oxide/config/RunicGateway.json`. Set `ServerId` before you go further:
```json
{ "Host": "127.0.0.1", "Port": 7799, "QueueCap": 5000, "ServerId": "main" }
```
**`ServerId` is this server's identity as the website knows it, and it is permanent.** It is not
derived from the hostname on purpose — an operator renames a server for a season, and the site must
not lose its history for it. Changing it later orphans everything recorded under the old one.
Now `/health` should read:
```json
{"status":"ok","protocol":1,"plugin_connected":true,"database":"ok","uptime":"2m","last_event":"…"}
```
If it does not, ask the game server:
```
rg.link
protocol=1 serverId=main connected=True depth=0 sent=3 dropped=0 received=2
connects=1 writeErrors=0 bootId=boot-20260915T194502Z
```
### 2.3 The website
**Admin → Rust → add a server.** Four values:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Id | the slug every URL carries. Match `ServerId` in the plugin config |
| Name | what visitors see |
| Sidecar base URL | `http://<sidecar host>:8090` |
| Sidecar token | the `auth_token` from `--print-config` |
**The token is write-only.** It is stored encrypted and never returned to any client; the panel
reports only whether one is set. A save that leaves the field blank keeps the stored one — so
renaming a server does not mean re-pasting a credential.
Then press **Test**, which probes the sidecar and reports what came back:
```json
{ "ok": true, "status": "ok",
"sidecar": { "status": "ok", "protocol": 1, "plugin_connected": true, } }
```
Within a poll interval the server appears at `/rust/servers`.
---
## 3. When it does not work
A wrong URL, a wrong token and a mismatched protocol version all present as *"the site says my
server is offline"*. The **Test** button is what separates them, and its `status` is the whole
diagnosis:
| `status` | What is wrong | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| `ok` | nothing | — |
| `no-token` | the admin form was saved without one | Admin → Rust |
| `unauthorized` | the token does not match | `--print-config` on the sidecar host |
| `protocol-mismatch` | the sidecar and the module speak different versions | upgrade one of them; the body names both numbers |
| `timeout` | the sidecar answered too slowly, or not at all | the sidecar's own log |
| `transport-error` | nothing is listening at that address | the base URL, the firewall, whether the sidecar is running |
| `http-<code>` | something answered, and it was not a sidecar | usually a reverse proxy in front of the wrong thing |
Two failures that look alike and are not:
- **`plugin_connected: false` with an otherwise healthy sidecar** — the bridge is fine and the game
is not talking to it. Check the plugin is loaded (`oxide.plugins`) and `rg.link` on the game
server.
- **The server is listed but reads `stale`** — something reported once and has not since. The row
says what was true when it was written; nothing has written it since. Either the poll is failing
(the website's log) or the sidecar stopped (its own).
### 3.0 `untyped_frames` on `/health` is not zero
**The plugin and the sidecar are on different protocol versions.** The game link has no handshake
to catch that at connect time (`PROTOCOL.md` §2), so it shows up here instead: the sidecar files a
frame by its `type`, a frame from the wrong version does not carry one it recognises, and it is
dropped and counted rather than guessed at.
The symptom without this counter is the confusing one — a game server plainly up, a sidecar plainly
healthy, and a website showing nothing. Check the plugin's `rg.link` (it prints its protocol) against
the sidecar's `/health` (which prints its own) and upgrade whichever is behind.
### 3.1 The failures that are supposed to happen
Three things look like breakage and are the design:
- **Killing the sidecar does not disturb the game.** The plugin logs `sidecar link lost;
reconnecting` and retries with backoff, buffering into a bounded queue that drops its oldest
entries rather than growing. The game does not stall, and `Emit` never touches a socket.
- **Starting the plugin before the sidecar logs one line and then goes quiet.** `cannot reach the
sidecar: … — retrying quietly until it answers`, printed once per load rather than every few
seconds. A wrong `Host` or `Port` looks exactly like this, which is why it is printed at all.
- **The website renders with every game server off.** The server list, the player counts and the
last-reported times all come from stored state. A page that 500s because a socket is closed would
be a module that made the site's availability depend on the game's.
---
## 4. Running more than one server
Each pair is fully independent: its own ports, its own `sidecar.toml`, its own database file, its
own token, its own row on the website.
Set `[game].server_id` in each `sidecar.toml` to match that server's plugin config. It is a
**cross-check**, not a second source of truth — the plugin's announcement wins — and it exists to
catch exactly one mistake: two game servers pointed at one sidecar by a copied config, which is
silent in every other design and produces one server's history under another's name. When it fires
you get a warning naming both ids.
---
## 4.1 What the bridge sends, and how much of it is kept
From protocol 2 the plugin sends the read path: connects and disconnects, deaths, chat, gathering,
bans and reports, and the wipe. Two things about the volume are worth knowing before you size
anything.
**Gathering and NPC kills are counted, not forwarded.** `OnDispenserGather` fires on every swing at
a tree; sending one frame per swing would make the bridge the most expensive thing on the server. The
plugin keeps a per-player tally and flushes it once a minute as a single `player.tally` frame. So the
leaderboard is exact and the wire is quiet.
**The sidecar's history is bounded; the website's is not.** `[store].retain_days` (default 14) is
how long the sidecar keeps raw events. The permanent record — per-wipe totals that survive a wipe —
lives in the website's own tables, so shortening this loses recent detail and never loses a player's
history. Set it to `0` to keep everything, if the host's disk is yours to spend.
**Every row carries its wipe.** The plugin derives a `wipeId` from the save's creation time and
stamps it on every frame, so a wipe splits the history rather than ending it. That is also why
**the sidecar's database must never be in a wipe script's delete list** — see the Pterodactyl egg's
`REMOVE_FILES`.
---
## 5. Upgrading
The four declaration sites in [`PROTOCOL.md` §2](PROTOCOL.md#2-versioning) must agree. In practice
that means upgrading the sidecar and the plugin **together**, because the game link has no version
check of its own and a mismatched plugin mis-parses rather than refusing.
The website is the forgiving half: it sends its version on every request and a sidecar that
disagrees answers `409` with both numbers, so a module ahead of or behind its sidecar reports a
named fault rather than misbehaving.

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# The player walk — proving the half of the read path a console cannot reach
Protocol 2's catalogue divides cleanly in two, and the line is not about importance: it is about
whether a hook can fire without somebody holding a mouse.
Everything in the first half was proven from a console and a REST client while phase 3 was built —
the boards, the wipe id, the envelope, bans, the server lifecycle. Everything below needs a **real
player on a real server**, because the hooks carry a `BasePlayer`, a `HitInfo` or a chat line, and
none of those three can be manufactured from a console without becoming a different test.
This document is the walk that closes it. It takes about ten minutes, it is the same on Oxide and on
Carbon, and it is written so that the answer is readable afterwards rather than watched live.
---
## Before you start
1. A rig running, with `RunicGateway.cs` loaded — `oxide.plugins` (or `c.plugins`) lists *Runic
Gateway*, and `rg.link` answers `connected=True`.
2. A sidecar the rig can reach, with its store **empty** — that is what makes the event list at the
end readable as a transcript of the walk and nothing else.
3. The sidecar's token to hand, for the reads at the bottom.
Run this once, before you join:
```
rg.hooks
```
Every player hook should read **silent**. That is the baseline: the point of the walk is to move
them, and starting from a run where some already fired proves less.
---
## The walk
Do these in order. The order matters only in two places, noted where it does.
| # | Do this | Fires | The frame should carry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | **Join the server** | `CanUserLogin`, `OnUserApproved`, `OnPlayerConnected` | Three frames, in that order. The first two carry your **IP address** — check it is a real address and not the string `0`. `player.connected` carries your steam id and name |
| 2 | **Wake up / spawn in** (click Respawn if you are dead) | `OnPlayerRespawned` | `player.respawned`, steam id only. It does **not** fire if you simply wake from sleeping — that is the hook's own documented behaviour, so no frame here is a pass, not a failure |
| 3 | **Say something in chat**, then **say something in team chat** if you have a team | `OnPlayerChat` | Two `player.chat` frames, with `channel` reading `Global` and `Team`. The message must arrive whole — if it is truncated or the frame is missing, the flattener ate it |
| 4 | **Chop a tree for about twenty seconds**, then **mine a node** | `OnDispenserGather` | **Nothing immediately.** This is the aggregate: one `player.tally` frame within 60 seconds, carrying `gathered` with `wood` and `stones`, summed. Seeing a frame per swing would be the bug |
| 5 | **Kill an animal or a scientist** | `OnEntityDeath` | Again nothing immediately — `npcKills` on the next `player.tally`. No `player.death`: a chicken is not a killfeed entry |
| 6 | **Die to the environment** — fall damage is easiest | `OnPlayerDeath` | `player.death` with `attackerType: "environment"`, a `grid` like `H7`, and **no** `attackerId`. Check the grid against the map: a wrong sign in the row arithmetic mirrors the whole map, and only a human with the map open can see that |
| 7 | **Kill yourself**`kill` in the F1 console | `OnPlayerDeath` | `attackerType: "self"`, no `attackerId` |
| 8 | **If a second player is available**: kill each other once | `OnPlayerDeath` | `attackerType: "player"`, with `attackerId`, `attackerName`, a `weapon` shortname and a `distance` in metres. This is the killfeed's whole shape, and it is the one row phase 4's page is built from |
| 9 | **Build a foundation, then destroy it yourself** | `OnEntityDeath` | `entity.destroyed` with `ownerId` (yours), `prefab`, `grid` and `attackerId`. Decay must **not** produce one of these — only a player breaking it |
| 10 | **Disconnect** | `OnPlayerDisconnected` | `player.disconnected` with a `reason` and a **`sessionSec`** roughly equal to how long you were on. It also flushes your tally first, so any gathering since the last minute arrives immediately before it |
Two ordering notes: step 4 must come before step 10 by at least a minute if you want to see the
cadence flush rather than the disconnect flush, and step 1's three frames are the only place the
order between hooks is itself part of the answer.
---
## Reading the result
From the machine running the sidecar:
```bash
TOKEN=# [web].auth_token from sidecar.toml, or `--print-config`
BASE=http://127.0.0.1:8090
# The whole walk, oldest first, as a transcript.
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$BASE/feed?since=0&limit=500" \
| python -m json.tool
# Or one kind at a time.
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$BASE/events?kind=player.death&limit=20"
```
And from the game console:
```
rg.hooks
```
Every hook in the walk should now read **fired**, with a count. A hook still `silent` after the step
that should have fired it is the finding — and on Carbon it is the specific question
[`CARBON.md`](../modules/rust/CARBON.md) §6 asks, since Carbon's catalogue omits thirteen uMod names
and nobody has yet checked whether they are renames or holes.
---
## What counts as a pass
Not "frames arrived". Three things, and the third is the one worth slowing down for:
1. **Every hook in the table fired**, on both frameworks, from the same plugin file.
2. **Every frame carries the envelope**`type`, `serverId` and `wipeId` on all of them
([`PROTOCOL.md`](PROTOCOL.md) §8.1). A player frame without a `wipeId` cannot be attributed to a
wipe and its rollup is lost.
3. **The aggregates are aggregates.** `player.tally` is a delta since the last flush, so two minutes
of chopping is two frames that sum to the total, not two frames each carrying the total. Getting
this backwards makes every leaderboard roughly double, and it looks correct until somebody counts.
Anything that disagrees with the table is a finding about the game or the framework rather than a
mistake in the table — record it, the same way phases 0, 1 and 2 recorded theirs.

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# rust-link — the wire protocol
**Canonical.** This document defines the two contracts that make up the Rust bridge. Code in three
repositories is held against it, and a change here is a change in all of them.
| Contract | Between | Transport |
|---|---|---|
| The **game link** | the Oxide bridge plugin ↔ the sidecar | loopback TCP, newline-delimited JSON |
| The **website API** | the sidecar ↔ `module-rust` | HTTP + WebSocket, bearer token |
Mirrors [`link/`](../link/PLAN.md), which is the same pair of contracts for Ultima Online. Where
this document is silent, that one is not a fallback: the two protocols are independent and share
only their shape.
---
## 1. Why the game does not listen
**The plugin is the TCP client; the sidecar owns the listener.** A Rust server therefore opens no
extra port, and the only component the website can reach is the sidecar. This is inherited unchanged
from the ServUO bridge — the footing changed (Oxide hooks instead of game source) and the invariant
did not.
```
Rust server + Oxide (Rust-Plugins, C#)
│ the plugin DIALS OUT · 127.0.0.1:7799 · newline-delimited JSON, bidirectional
rust-link sidecar (Rust-Link) ← the only network-facing bridge component
│ WebSocket (live feed) + REST (point-in-time reads), bearer-token auth
module-rust, inside a website core
```
**One game server, one sidecar, on that server's own host.** A community running six servers runs
six pairs; `module-rust` holds six clients and the website core never learns there is more than one.
Nothing in the sidecar is multiplexed and nothing in it should become multiplexed — the `serverId`
on every frame exists so the *module* can tell its clients apart, not so the sidecar can.
### 1.1 Loopback is the trust boundary on the game link
There is **no token on the game link**. The plugin and the sidecar share a host, and the sidecar
binds `127.0.0.1` — that is the authentication, exactly as on the ServUO bridge. Binding
`[game].bind` to a routable address puts an unauthenticated command channel on the network.
The website-facing surface is the opposite: authentication there is **always on** and cannot be
turned off. The sidecar generates and persists a token on first start, so there is no state in which
it is listening without one.
---
## 2. Versioning
The wire version is a single integer — **2** as of the read path (§8) — declared in **four** places
that must agree:
| Where | Repo |
|---|---|
| `PROTOCOL_VERSION` in `sidecar/src/main.rs` | Rust-Link |
| `ProtocolVersion` in `overlay/oxide/plugins/RunicGateway.cs` | Rust-Plugins |
| `protocol` in `overlay.toml` | Rust-Plugins |
| `PROTOCOL_VERSION` in `server/sidecarClient.js` | Module-Rust |
Bump all four in the same change as the emitters, together with this document.
**The two halves of the contract enforce it differently, and the asymmetry is the reason
`overlay.toml` exists at all:**
- On the **website API** the check is live. Every response carries `X-RustLink-Version`; a client
that declares a different one in its request header is refused `409` with both numbers in the
body, rather than served something it will mis-parse.
- On the **game link** there is no such check, and a mismatched plugin would simply mis-parse. The
plugin announces its protocol in `server.hello`, which is readable only after the game server has
booted with it loaded — far too late for an installer to refuse a bad pairing. So `overlay.toml`
declares it statically, and the installer refuses to pair an overlay and a sidecar whose numbers
disagree. A bump landing in one repo and not the others fails to compose rather than half-deploying.
---
## 3. Protocol 1 — the transport
Everything phase 1 defines, and deliberately nothing more. It is still the floor every later version
stands on — the framing, the greeting, the heartbeat and the one correlated round trip are unchanged
— but **two things below were amended by protocol 2**: every frame now carries `type`, `serverId`
and `wipeId` (§8.1), and `server.hello` is a *board* rather than a one-off greeting (§8.3). Read §8
beside this section rather than after it.
### 3.1 Framing
Newline-delimited JSON over TCP, both directions, UTF-8. One complete JSON object per line, no
embedded newlines.
- **Outbound frames** (plugin → sidecar) carry `kind`.
- **Inbound frames** (sidecar → plugin) carry `cmd`.
Both ends cap an inbound line at **1 MiB**. An over-long line is **discarded, not buffered**, and
the connection stays up: a single malformed frame is not a reason to tear down a link that live
events are flowing over, and a dropped reply simply times out on the caller's side and is
re-requested.
The cap exists from protocol 1 rather than being added after the first large frame arrives. An
unbounded read facing a peer that will one day send a map image is a memory-exhaustion shape we
would be inventing ourselves.
### 3.2 `server.hello` — plugin → sidecar
Sent on **every successful connect**, not once at game-server start. The sidecar restarts
independently of the game, so anything it needs up front has to be re-sent per connection.
```json
{
"kind": "server.hello",
"t": 1789510452152,
"protocol": 1,
"serverId": "main",
"bootId": "boot-20260915T194502Z",
"plugin": "0.1.0",
"hostname": "Test Server",
"description": "No server description has been provided.",
"level": "Procedural Map",
"seed": 1234,
"worldSize": 4000,
"maxPlayers": 10,
"players": 0,
"joining": 0,
"queued": 0,
"uptimeSec": 8947,
"saveCreatedAt": "2026-09-15T19:58:17Z"
}
```
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `t` | epoch milliseconds, stamped when the world was read |
| `serverId` | this server's stable identity across wipes and restarts, from the plugin's config. **Not derived from the hostname** — an operator renames a server for a season and the site must not lose its history for it |
| `bootId` | see §3.2.1 |
| `saveCreatedAt` | when the current save was created. Protocol 1 called this *raw material for a wipe id* and left deriving one to the website; **§8.2 reversed that** — the plugin derives `wipeId` from this value and stamps it on every frame |
Everything from `hostname` down is read from `ConVar.Server` and `BasePlayer.activePlayerList` on
the game's main thread. A field the game cannot answer is **absent**, never zero.
#### 3.2.1 `bootId` identifies the server PROCESS
It is the server process's start instant, formatted `boot-yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ`, and it must change
**when and only when the world started over**.
That makes three things it is deliberately not:
- **Not a fresh value per plugin load.** `oxide.reload RunicGateway` must not change it. The website
watches this value to tell a game restart — where everything an event put in the world is gone —
from a bridge reconnect, which loses nothing; a plugin reload is the second kind, and a boot id
regenerated at `Init` would ask the site to reconcile its whole ledger for no news.
- **Not the sidecar's identity.** The sidecar restarting is invisible to the world.
- **Not the wipe.** A wipe is `saveCreatedAt` changing; a restart is not a wipe.
The plugin reads it from `Process.StartTime`, which is exact and identical on every read.
### 3.3 `ping` / `pong` — the heartbeat
The sidecar sends `{"cmd":"ping"}` every 30 seconds while a plugin is connected; the plugin answers
`{"kind":"pong","t":…}`.
A `pong` is **never persisted**. It only moves the sidecar's `last_event`, which is the whole point:
a Rust server with nobody on it is very quiet, and without a heartbeat "the game has said nothing
for six hours" would be indistinguishable from "the link died six hours ago".
### 3.4 `server.status` — the request/reply verb
The one correlated round trip in protocol 1. It exists so the correlation path is exercised by
something before anything depends on it.
```
sidecar → plugin {"cmd":"server.status","reqId":"r-1"}
plugin → sidecar {"kind":"server.status","reqId":"r-1","t":…, …the §3.2 body…}
```
**Correlation is by `reqId`, a process-unique counter minted by the sidecar.** The plugin echoes it
verbatim and **only when one was supplied**: a reply that invented one would be routed to nobody,
and a reply that omitted one the caller sent would leave that caller waiting out its whole timeout.
`server.hello` and `server.status` share a body by construction, in one function in the plugin. They
differ in what wraps them, not in what they say about the server, and letting them drift is how a
site ends up showing two different player counts.
### 3.5 `link.down` — the sidecar's own observation
Not a frame the plugin sends. When a plugin connection ends the sidecar synthesises
`{"kind":"link.down"}` onto its broadcast channel, so the website sees the drop without polling. It
is **never persisted**: it is this process's observation, not something the game said.
---
## 4. The website API
Served by the sidecar. Everything except `/health` requires the token, which may arrive as
`Authorization: Bearer <t>`, `X-Api-Key: <t>`, or `?token=<t>` — the last so browser WebSocket
clients, which cannot set handshake headers, can still authenticate. The compare is constant-time.
Every response carries `X-RustLink-Version`, including `/health` and including error responses.
| Route | Backed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `GET /health` | — | **Unauthenticated**, so monitoring can reach it |
| `GET /server` | the store | The last `server.hello`. **`204` when the game has never connected** |
| `GET /events?kind=&wipe=&limit=` | the store | Newest first; `limit` clamped to 11000. For a human |
| `GET /feed?since=&limit=` | the store | **Oldest first**, from a cursor. For a consumer that must not miss a row (§8.9) |
| `GET /status` | the plugin (RPC) | A live round trip. `503` with no plugin, `504` on no reply |
| `GET /ws` | broadcast | The live feed; sends `{"kind":"ws.hello","protocol":1}` on connect |
### 4.1 The split between store-backed and live is deliberate
The store-backed reads answer **while the game server is off**, which is what lets the website render
a server list during a wipe or a restart. `/status` is the one route that fails when the game is
down, because "what is it doing right now" has no stale answer worth giving.
### 4.2 `204` is an answer
`GET /server` answers `204`, not `200` with a null, when the game has never connected. "We have
never heard from this server" and "this server reports nothing" are different answers, and a client
that cannot tell them apart renders a server that does not exist. `module-rust` maps the two onto
distinct stored states (`reachable` without `online`, versus neither).
### 4.3 Status codes carry the diagnosis
A wrong URL, a wrong token and a mismatched protocol all present to an operator as "the site says my
server is offline", and each has a different fix. The codes keep them apart:
| Code | Means | Where the fix is |
|---|---|---|
| `409` | protocol mismatch, both numbers in the body | upgrade one component |
| `401` | wrong or missing token | the admin form |
| `503` | no plugin connected | the game server |
| `504` | the plugin did not reply in time | the game server, differently |
| *(transport error)* | nothing is listening | the sidecar, or the URL |
### 4.4 The RPC timeout is a ceiling on every later command budget
The sidecar waits **10 seconds** for a correlated reply (`rpc::REPLY_TIMEOUT`). `module-rust`'s own
client waits **12 seconds** (`TIMEOUT_MS`).
Core's event dispatcher classifies a `budgetMs` overrun as retryable **unconditionally** — it cannot
ask the action, which is still awaiting a socket. So an action whose `budgetMs` does not exceed the
module's client timeout can never report `retry: false`, and that code is unreachable. The ordering
is:
```
sidecar RPC timeout (10s) < module client timeout (12s) < an action's budgetMs
```
Derive one from another rather than writing all three down independently.
---
## 5. What the plugin owes the game
Three rules, and each has a failure behind it. They are the ServUO bridge's, unchanged.
1. **`Emit` is called from the main thread. It formats nothing, blocks on nothing, and touches no
socket.** It enqueues and returns. A slow, wedged, or absent sidecar cannot stall the game.
2. **One link thread owns the socket.** A single writer keeps event ordering intact. It reconnects
with bounded backoff, and the backoff waits on a handle rather than sleeping — an uninterruptible
sleep there is a stall of up to the backoff on every plugin reload, on the main thread.
3. **A reader thread parses inbound lines and marshals each to the main thread** via
`Interface.Oxide.NextTick`. The reader touches no Unity object, no `BasePlayer` and no `ConVar`.
The outbound queue is **bounded, drop-oldest**: on overflow the oldest record goes and is counted,
because telemetry is worth less than the server's memory.
### 5.1 Diagnosing the link
```
rg.link
```
from the game server's console or over RCON:
```
protocol=1 serverId=main connected=True depth=0 sent=3 dropped=0 received=2
connects=1 writeErrors=0 bootId=boot-20260915T194502Z
```
This separates "the plugin is not loaded", "the plugin cannot reach the sidecar" and "the website
cannot reach the sidecar", which look identical from the site.
---
## 6. Configuration
### 6.1 The plugin — `oxide/config/RunicGateway.json`
Written by Oxide on first load; edited like any other plugin's config.
```json
{
"Host": "127.0.0.1",
"Port": 7799,
"QueueCap": 5000,
"ServerId": "main"
}
```
### 6.2 The sidecar — `sidecar.toml`
Resolved as `--config <PATH>`, else `$RUSTLINK_CONFIG`, else `./sidecar.toml`. Environment variables
override the file.
| Key | Env | Default |
|---|---|---|
| `[game].bind` | `RUSTLINK_GAME_BIND` | `127.0.0.1:7799` |
| `[game].server_id` | `RUSTLINK_SERVER_ID` | *(empty)* |
| `[web].bind` | `RUSTLINK_WEB_BIND` | `127.0.0.1:8090` |
| `[web].auth_token` | `RUSTLINK_WEB_TOKEN` | *(generated on first start)* |
| `[store].path` | `RUSTLINK_DB_PATH` | `rust-link.db` |
| `[store].retain_days` | `RUSTLINK_RETAIN_DAYS` | `14` |
Two things about those are load-bearing:
- **A relative `[store].path` resolves against the directory holding `sidecar.toml`**, not the
working directory. A service manager's working directory must not decide where the database lands
— on Windows that can be `%SystemRoot%\System32`, or a silently redirected VirtualStore copy.
- **`[game].server_id` is a cross-check, not a second source of truth.** The plugin announces its own
`serverId` and that is the authority; when both are set and they disagree, the sidecar logs the
disagreement loudly and keeps the plugin's. Two game servers pointed at one sidecar by a copied
config is the mistake this catches, and it is silent in every other design.
`rust-link-sidecar --print-config` resolves the configuration exactly as a normal start would —
writing the file and generating the token if they are missing — and prints it as JSON on stdout,
**including the token in clear text**. That is the supported way for an installer to read it back.
---
## 7. What is deliberately not here yet
Protocol 2 is the transport plus the read path. Every one of these arrives with the phase that needs
it, and each is a version bump:
- identity and the in-game link code (phase 6)
- the permission mirror (phase 7), and plugin configuration edited from the site (phase 7b)
- clans, for core's Team provider (phase 9)
- leases, budgets and the event actions (phases 12-13)
- the map image over the asset-bridge shape (phase 14)
The rule that governs all of them: **the sidecar is a dumb forwarder.** It defines no schema for a
frame's contents, so a version that adds fields to an event needs no change there — only one that
adds a new *indexed* column does. §8.1 is what turns that from an intention into a property of the
code.
---
## 8. Protocol 2 — the read path
Protocol 1 proved a line could travel. Protocol 2 is what travels: presence, deaths, chat, gathering,
moderation and the wipe, on both mod frameworks from one plugin file.
It is the first version with a *catalogue*, and a catalogue is the thing that grows fastest. So the
shape below is chosen to make growth free everywhere except in the one place that must stay
deliberate — what the public is allowed to see.
### 8.1 Every frame says what it **is**, not only what it is about
Protocol 1 routed on `kind`, in a `match` the sidecar had to learn a new arm for on every addition.
Protocol 2 adds **`type`**, and the sidecar files by `type` alone:
| `type` | Persisted | Broadcast on `/ws` | Routed by `reqId` | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `event` | appended to the history | yes | no | `player.death` |
| `snapshot` | **replaces** the board of that `kind` | yes | no | `players.online` |
| `reply` | no | no | **yes** | `server.status` |
| `control` | no | no | no | `pong` |
**This is the dumb-forwarder property made structural.** A protocol version that adds ten event
kinds needs no change in the sidecar at all, because the sidecar never learns a kind — it learns
four verbs, and they are the complete set of things that can be done with a frame. Only a version
that adds a new *indexed column* touches it.
Every outbound frame therefore carries five fields before anything specific to it:
```json
{
"kind": "player.death",
"type": "event",
"t": 1789510452152,
"serverId": "main",
"wipeId": "w-20260915T195817Z"
}
```
- **`type` is required.** A frame without one is **dropped and counted**, and the sidecar says so
once per connection. It is not defaulted to `event`: guessing files a board as history, which is
invisible until somebody wonders why the presence board has four thousand rows. The game link has
no version handshake (§2), so this is the place a mismatched pair fails loudly instead of quietly.
- **`serverId` is on every frame**, not only in the server body (R8). A frame is stored beside
frames from five other servers and has to be able to say which one it came from on its own.
- **`wipeId` is on every frame** — see §8.2.
### 8.2 `wipeId` is derived by the **plugin**, and this amends §3.2
§3.2 called `saveCreatedAt` *"raw material for a wipe id, not a wipe id — deriving one is the
website's job"*. That is reversed here, deliberately, and the reason is that by protocol 2 there are
**three** components storing rows that need it:
```
w-yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ e.g. w-20260915T195817Z
```
It is `SaveRestore.SaveCreatedTime` in UTC, to the second — the same instant `saveCreatedAt` already
reports, in the id-shaped spelling `bootId` uses. The plugin stamps it because the plugin is the only
component that can *read* it; every other component would be re-deriving a value it was already told,
and two derivations of one fact eventually disagree about a boundary.
Three consequences worth stating rather than discovering:
- **A server that has never saved has no wipe**, so `wipeId` is **absent**, never `""` and never
`w-unknown`. Absent is a fact; an empty string is a row that will sort beside every other empty
string forever.
- **The id changes on `OnNewSave` and at no other time.** It is not the boot id: a restart re-reads
the same save and reports the same wipe, which is exactly what R12 needs to keep a player's
history across a restart while splitting it across a wipe.
- **A wipe boundary is a fact about the world, not about the bridge.** The plugin re-reads the value
on `OnNewSave` and caches it otherwise; nothing about a reconnect can change it.
### 8.3 Boards — current state, one producer, re-sent on connect
A board is chapter 4's word: *current state with exactly one producer, re-sent on every connect*.
Protocol 2 defines two.
| Board (`kind`) | Holds |
|---|---|
| `server.hello` | the server's own description — §3.2's body, now `type: "snapshot"` |
| `players.online` | who is connected right now: `steamId`, `name`, `connectedAt`, `sleeping` |
**Boards are re-emitted on connect and on a 60-second cadence thereafter.** The events carry the
story — `player.connected`, `player.disconnected` — and the board is the **reconciliation point**. A
missed event is corrected within a minute rather than persisting until the next restart, and the
acceptance criterion *"a restarted sidecar is fully populated within one connection"* is met by
construction rather than by hoping no event was in flight.
The cadence is cheap on purpose: a full board for a 100-slot server is a few kilobytes, and a server
with nobody on it emits an empty array, which is a different answer from having said nothing.
### 8.4 The catalogue
Every kind protocol 2 defines, and the hook behind it. **`class` is not a field on the wire** — see
§8.5 — it is what this table binds the module's allowlist to.
| `kind` | Hook | `class` | Carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| `player.connected` | `OnPlayerConnected` | public | steamId, name |
| `player.disconnected` | `OnPlayerDisconnected` | public | steamId, name, reason, sessionSec |
| `player.respawned` | `OnPlayerRespawned` | public | steamId |
| `player.death` | `OnPlayerDeath` | public | victim, attacker, attackerType, weapon, distance, grid |
| `player.chat` | `OnPlayerChat` | public | steamId, name, channel, message |
| `player.tally` | *aggregate* — see §8.6 | public | steamId, gathered{}, npcKills, structures |
| `entity.destroyed` | `OnEntityDeath` on owned building blocks | **staff** | ownerId, prefab, grid, attacker |
| `player.reported` | `OnPlayerReported` | **staff** | reporter, target, subject, message, type |
| `player.banned` / `player.unbanned` | `OnUserBanned` / `OnUserUnbanned` | **staff** | id, name, **ip**, reason |
| `player.login.attempt` | `CanUserLogin` *(observed, never answered)* | **staff** | id, name, **ip** |
| `player.approved` | `OnUserApproved` | **staff** | id, name, **ip** |
| `server.wipe` | `OnNewSave` | public | the new `wipeId`, the one it replaced |
| `server.initialized` | `OnServerInitialized` | public | — |
| `server.shutdown` | `OnServerShutdown` | public | — |
`grid` is the Rust map reference (`H7`), not a coordinate. A death's grid is where a fight happened
and every community site shows it; a **structure's** grid is where somebody lives, which is why
`entity.destroyed` is staff-class here and why R9 makes the same distinction for map layers.
**Three hooks are deliberately not in this wave, and none of them is an oversight:** `OnEntityTakeDamage`
and `OnFrame`/`OnTick` fire at a rate that makes a bridge a performance regression, and nothing in
phases 319 needs per-hit or per-frame fidelity. R17's warning about chatty zone transitions is the
same rule: **subscribe selectively; the cost of a hook is paid on the game's main thread.**
### 8.5 The class is enforced by the **module**, not declared on the wire
The wire carries no visibility field, and this is a security decision rather than an economy.
**A boundary must be enforced by the side that serves, never declared by the side that sends.** The
website's own shard fan-out works this way — a public SSE stream with an allowlist of event kinds,
and an admin stream that adds the rest — and the property that makes it trustworthy is that a
compromised or merely out-of-date sender cannot widen it. A `"class":"public"` field on the frame
would move the decision to the game host.
So: the table in §8.4 is the specification, `module-rust` holds the allowlist, and it is
**default-deny** — a kind the allowlist has never heard of is not public. The module's own test holds
its allowlist against this document, so adding a kind here without classifying it there fails a
build rather than shipping an IP address to a public page.
`player.login.attempt`, `player.approved` and `player.banned` carry **IP addresses**, and
`player.reported` carries the text of one player's complaint about another. They are stored because
an operator chasing ban evasion needs them and because the sidecar persists what it is told; they
reach no tier below admin, and the raw window that holds them is bounded (§8.9).
### 8.6 Two things are aggregated in the plugin, and that is the interesting part of this phase
`OnDispenserGather` fires on **every swing at a tree**. A single player chopping for a minute is
hundreds of hooks; ten players gathering is a frame rate problem in the bridge rather than in the
game. The same is true of animal and scientist kills, at a lower rate.
Neither is interesting per occurrence — nobody wants a killfeed of chickens — and both are wanted
*in total*, for the leaderboard. So the plugin keeps a per-player tally on the main thread and flushes
it as one `player.tally` frame:
- on a **60-second cadence**, for players with a non-zero tally;
- on **disconnect**, so a session's last minute is not lost;
- at `OnServerShutdown`, which is the flush that covers a restart.
A plugin *reload* is the one case that loses a tally, by choice: `Unload` runs on the game's main
thread, and draining the outbound queue there means waiting on a socket from the main thread — the
stall phase 1 removed. Under a minute of one player's gathering is the price, and a wedged peer
would make the cure worse than the disease.
A tally frame is a **delta, not a running total** — it reports what happened since the last flush,
so the consumer sums rather than diffs and a missed frame costs that interval instead of corrupting
the series.
This is the general rule for every later wave: **if a hook can fire more than once a second per
player, it is a counter, not an event.**
### 8.7 The read path never vetoes, and it is structural rather than disciplined
Four hooks in §8.4 are documented by uMod as *"returning a non-null value overrides default
behavior"* — `OnPlayerDeath`, `OnDispenserGather` and `CanUserLogin` among them. A read-path bridge
that returned something by accident would cancel a death, swallow a player's wood, or refuse a
login, and it would do it on a production server at 3am.
**So every vetoable hook in the read path is declared `void`.** Both frameworks bind hooks by name
and arity and take the method's return value; a `void` method returns nothing and therefore cannot
override anything. The rule is enforced by the signature rather than by remembering to write
`return null`, which is the only version of this rule that survives a year of edits.
`CanUserLogin` is in the wave for what it *observes*, never for what it answers.
### 8.8 A login denial is not a hook — and §10 of `PLAN.md` says it is
`PLAN.md` §10 sources the `rust.login.denied` trigger from `CanUserLogin`. Reading the hook says that
cannot work: `CanUserLogin` is called on **every** connection attempt, and the only way to learn of a
denial from it is to *be* the denier, which §8.7 forbids. uMod publishes no `OnUserRejected`.
What the game can actually tell us is two facts — an attempt, and an approval — so protocol 2 emits
both and **a denial is the absence of an approval** for an attempt, decided by a deferred read rather
than by a hook. Phase 10 owns that pairing; protocol 2 owes it the two frames and the `t` on each.
Recorded here because it is a correction to a catalogue, not a defect: the trigger survives, its
source changes.
### 8.9 History, cursors and retention
Three changes on the sidecar's own side follow from a catalogue that actually produces volume.
**`events` gains `server_id` and `wipe_id` as indexed columns.** This is the one migration shape the
store's own header predicted: *"only a version that adds a new indexed column ever needs a
migration"*. It is applied as an `ALTER` guarded by a column check, never as an edit to the `CREATE`
— the same rule the website's schema fragments live under, for the same reason.
**A new route, `GET /feed?since=&limit=`, is the ingest cursor**, and it is deliberately *not*
`/events` with a flag:
| Route | Order | For |
|---|---|---|
| `GET /events?kind=&wipe=&limit=` | newest first | a human, an admin screen, a point-in-time look |
| `GET /feed?since=&limit=` | **oldest first**, from a cursor | a consumer that must not miss a row |
One route with two orderings depending on a query parameter is a trap: every caller that forgets the
parameter gets the other one silently, and for the ingesting caller that means it advances its cursor
past rows it never read. Two routes, one ordering each.
`/feed` items are wrapped rather than bare, because a cursor needs the row's identity:
```json
{ "items": [ { "id": 1041, "t": 1789, "kind": "player.death", "frame": { } } ],
"lastId": 1041, "more": false }
```
`more` is `true` when the page filled, so a consumer that has fallen an hour behind drains at its own
pace instead of guessing from a count.
**Omitting `since` asks where the end is** — no rows, and the current `lastId`. `since=0` is the
other question entirely: replay everything retained. That is deliberate, because the two intentions
must not be separated by whether somebody typed a parameter: a module installed today against a
month-old sidecar wants what happens next, not a fortnight of deaths it has no rollups for.
**The store prunes.** `[store].retain_days` (default 14) bounds the event history, swept hourly.
Three things make that safe rather than lossy: the website holds the permanent per-wipe rollups
(R12), boards are never pruned because they hold exactly one row per kind, and the sidecar's database
lives inside a game container whose disk is the operator's (R20). A store that grows without bound on
a game host is a wipe-day outage waiting for a busy month.
---