Manifest format

A manifest is the contract between authoring tools and runtimes: plain, versioned JSON describing an app. The TypeScript SDK is one way to write one; another SDK, a code generator, or an AI agent can produce the same JSON.

{
  "formatVersion": "0.2",
  "app": { "name": "notes" },
  "auth": { "roles": [], "apiKeyScopes": [] },
  "entities": { "Note": { "key": ["ownerId", "noteId"], "fields": { "...": "..." }, "indexes": {} } },
  "counters": {},
  "routes": [
    {
      "id": "post_notes",
      "method": "POST",
      "path": "/notes",
      "auth": { "kind": "signedIn" },
      "input": { "params": {}, "query": {}, "body": { "text": { "type": { "kind": "string", "min": 1, "max": 500 } } } },
      "errors": {},
      "plan": {
        "body": [{ "kind": "let", "var": 0, "op": { "op": "insert", "entity": "Note", "values": { "...": "..." } } }],
        "output": { "kind": "var", "id": 0 }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Structure

Section	Contents
`entities`	Keys, fields, indexes, invariants, and options
`counters`	Maintained aggregates
`routes`	HTTP routes with inputs, auth, errors, options, examples, and a plan
`events`, `queues`, `channels`, `integrations`	Async declarations
`handlers`	Plans run by triggers: events, entity changes, queues, schedules, and workflow steps
`workflows`	Workflow declarations
`auth`, `cors`	App-level settings
`sourceMap`	Optional manifest paths to source locations

A plan has a body of statements and an output expression:

Statements: let, ensure, fail, if, forEach, return, response control, and workflow transitions.
Operations: storage, effects, and integration calls.
Expressions: pure, from a closed set.

Schema and types

The JSON Schema is schema/manifest.schema.json in the repository. TypeScript types are in @aleph-lang/manifest. Both are generated from the Rust types in aleph-core, which are the single source of truth.

Running a manifest

Any host that embeds aleph-core can run a manifest: validate it, then hand requests to the engine, which takes the tenant, a request, a store, and an environment. The WebAssembly build (@aleph-lang/core) runs it in Node, with validate, runExamples, compareManifests, and DevEngine. A conformance suite of golden manifests and request scenarios defines the expected behavior for every implementation.