AetherContracts compatibility and release gates

Authoritative source: AetherContracts. This page is mirrored into the unified AetherIoT documentation.

Compatibility is evidence-based. Sharing a version string or successfully decoding one fixture does not prove complete interoperability. The current v0.1.0-alpha.3 release freezes an experimental common contract while keeping legacy transport as the default.

Current product baseline

Product	Contract relationship	Current status
AetherEdge	Digest-pinned complete alpha.3 consumer; strict Rust codec and MQTT transport foundation	Experimental consumer evidence
AetherCloud	Digest-pinned complete alpha.3 consumer; strict TypeScript codec, MQTT ingress, and accepted-telemetry ACK slice	Experimental consumer evidence
Independent implementations	Exact release archive, closed consumer lock, public fixtures, and TCK	Supported distribution path; conformance must be proven by the consumer

Both product consumers import the same required artifact closure and execute the same public fixture outcomes. This proves distribution integrity and a shared experimental core. It does not prove production identity, complete state-machine behavior, crash durability, or safe legacy cutover.

CloudLink gate status

Gate	Status	Meaning
Shared-Broker authentication	Proposal	The transcript is frozen, but production key provisioning, rotation, revocation, and verifier ownership are not implemented
Single wire contract	Experimental	Core envelope, time, identity, digest, and ACK semantics have one public authority
Cross-language fixtures	Passed, experimental	TypeScript, Rust, C, and C++ execute the same fixture manifest and stable failure classes
Real-Broker dual harness	Consumer evidence required	Products must prove concurrent edge and cloud behavior through application use cases
Fault injection	Consumer evidence required	Disconnect, ACK loss, restart, duplicate, conflict, and data-loss outcomes require product evidence
Signed durable ACK	Planned	The signing projection, key lifecycle, and production fact transaction remain open
Legacy cutover	Blocked	Every preceding gate must pass and rollback must remain available

The machine-readable authority is compatibility/cloudlink-v1alpha1-gates.json.

Binding compatibility

Binding	Implemented alpha.3 surface	Not yet claimed
TypeScript	Canonical `uint64`, JSON canonicalization, public fixture manifest	Complete production Schema and transport codec
Rust	Full-range canonical `u64`, typed failures, public fixture manifest	Complete production JSON, model, and transport codec
C99	Bounded canonical `uint64`, allocation-free P/M/A lookup, bounded fixture profile	Complete production JSON, model, and transport codec
C++17	Thin views and results over the C99 core	Independent wire semantics or a second codec
Go, Java, Python	Planned	No conformant binding is currently published

Stable string failure codes are contractual. Numeric error values and message text remain binding-specific. Read the machine-readable compatibility/failure-codes.json before mapping errors or retry behavior.

Compatibility rules

Protocol uint64 values use canonical decimal strings.
Core JSON objects are closed and reject unknown fields.
Duplicate keys, invalid Unicode, unsafe numbers, and unbounded input fail closed.
MQTT acknowledgement is transport evidence, never durable application acceptance.
Thing Model capabilities are declarations, not authority grants.
CloudLink contains no direct physical-control operation.
A later encoding requires explicit negotiation and its own TCK.

Every future release should publish exact product versions or commits and link to executable evidence. Floating main, latest, and implied compatibility are not release evidence.