@jimhoyd/urlcode 0.4.0-alpha.1 → 0.4.0-alpha.3

package/docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md

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+# Spike: layering `link` and `middleware` out of core
+
+> Review update, 2026-09-19: Current baseline: **both extractions this spike
+> proposes are over, and neither ended in a shipped separate package.** Link
+> extraction completed and the resulting package was then retired. Middleware
+> extraction never completed: core still implements native middleware, and the
+> separate middleware extension — which added a different API with per-entry
+> sandboxing — has itself been unpublished at `0.1.0-alpha.2` and its
+> repository deleted. The extraction direction below is superseded, and it is
+> not an instruction to remove core middleware: core's native `middleware:`
+> array is now the only implementation of per-route middleware there is.
+>
+> An earlier version of this note said "monorepo work is starting now:
+> middleware moves in as a separate package first, and folds into core
+> afterward." Monorepo work is still starting, for core, auth, admin and UI —
+> but the middleware clause is void. There is no package to move in and
+> nothing to fold in afterward.
+
+
+Status: proposal, nothing implemented. No code in this repository does any of
+this, and nothing here is committed scope. This combines two extraction ideas
+into one spike because they share a mechanism and a sequence, not because
+either is blocked on the other.
+
+> **Update:** this spike's `link` extraction (Phase 1 below) was implemented —
+> core no longer has a native `link`/`LinkStore`/`dynamicLinks` API — and the
+> separate `urlcode-dynamic-link` package that received it has since been
+> retired, unpublished from npm and its repository deleted (September 2026).
+> Nothing owns stored links today. Present-tense references to `link` as a core
+> feature elsewhere in this document describe the pre-extraction state this
+> spike was analyzing, not current core.
+
+## The shape this is aiming at
+
+Core's job is to stay the smallest thing that is still a complete product on
+its own: YAML routing (`redirect`/`respond`/`page`/`static`/`download`) plus
+`function`, the one primitive with an actual serverless story
+([`SPIKE-LAMBDA-COMPILE.md`](SPIKE-LAMBDA-COMPILE.md) — compile each `function`
+route to its own Lambda, the pattern `src/build-cloudflare.ts` already uses).
+That base alone serves static and dynamic content and deploys anywhere
+(`docs/FRAMEWORK.md` layer 1–3). Everything past that — accounts, admin,
+stored links, UI kit — is an extension a project opts into. `docs/FRAMEWORK.md`
+already describes this as four composed packages; `auth` is the existing proof
+that "basic project to enterprise in minutes" works by adding declarations,
+not by forking core.
+
+`link` and `middleware` are the two pieces of today's core that don't fit that
+story: `link` owns durable state no other core feature needs, and
+`middleware` is guest code that only some projects want. Extracting both
+narrows core to exactly YAML + function, matching the vision above.
+
+## Why one spike, not two independent ones
+
+Both extractions land on the same extension mechanism, already implemented in
+`src/extensions.ts`, and reusing one proof point for both keeps the design
+honest instead of inventing two different shapes:
+
+- **Mount ownership** (`route.extension`, `RuntimeExtension.activate` →
+  `ExtensionInstance.handle`): an extension owns an exclusive `/prefix/*` and
+  answers every request under it. This is the shape `link` needs — it already
+  behaves like a self-contained mount (documented in the since-retired
+  `urlcode-dynamic-link` package), and
+  `auth`/`admin` already use it for `/account/*` and `/admin/*`
+  (`docs/FRAMEWORK.md:10-15`).
+- **Wrap without owning** (`ExtensionInstance.authorize`, called when a route
+  declares `policies.extensions.<name>` without an `extension:` mount): the
+  extension is asked to authorize a request that some *other* handler will
+  still serve, and can short-circuit with a `HandlerResult` or return nothing
+  (`src/extensions.ts:19`, `docs/EXTENSIONS.md:74-78`: "Its instance handles
+  bounded requests and, when used in policies, authorizes requests"). This is
+  already exactly how `auth` guards a `redirect`/`page`/`function` route today
+  without taking it over.
+
+**Resolved — `ExtensionInstance.middleware` now exists.** This section
+previously identified a real gap: `authorize()` can only gate (run before the
+handler, either proceed or short-circuit) and never sees the handler's actual
+response, so it could not express what native `middleware:` does today — wrap
+the handler with `next()`, running code before *and* after it and
+inspecting/mutating the returned `HandlerResult`. That gap is closed: a third,
+additive `ExtensionInstance` capability, `middleware(config, request, next)`,
+is attached the same way as `authorize` (`policies.extensions.<name>`, same
+validated `config`) but with wrap semantics, chainable across multiple
+extensions declared on one route, and composable with `authorize` on the same
+route without either mechanism special-casing the other (see
+[EXTENSIONS.md#wrapping-a-route-extension-middleware](EXTENSIONS.md#wrapping-a-route-extension-middleware)
+and `src/extensions.ts`/`src/runtime.ts`). `urlcode-middleware` now has a real
+contract to build the extraction against, rather than only mount ownership and
+the gate-only `authorize()`.
+
+**Resolved — `ExtensionActivation.root` now exists.** Building
+`urlcode-middleware` against `ExtensionInstance.middleware` surfaced a second
+gap: resolving a project-relative `source` (`middleware/headers.mjs`, the same
+shape core's own native `middleware:` entries use) needs the project's
+resolved directory, and `ExtensionActivation` (`{origin, target,
+projectSha256, mounts}`) didn't carry one. `process.cwd()` is not a
+substitute — `--project`/`--host-file` are independent, arbitrary paths, a
+server can be started from any working directory, and the JS API can load a
+project programmatically with no relationship to `cwd()` at all. `root` is
+now a field on `ExtensionActivation`, set from the same resolved path
+(`loadDocument()`'s `realpath`) that `router.ts`'s `functionFile()` already
+resolves native `function`/`middleware` sources against, so an extension
+resolves project-relative paths the identical way core does.
+
+**Superseded by `docs/SPIKE-DEFAULT-TRUST-MODEL.md` — read that first.** This
+section originally argued `middleware` should stay sandboxed like `function`
+was under the old blanket-untrusted default. The maintainer has since decided
+first-party `function`/`middleware` code is **trusted by default**, with
+sandboxing an explicit per-declaration opt-in (`sandbox: true`), and
+confirmed the same rule applies uniformly to `middleware` — no special case
+for its wider per-request blast radius. So: `urlcode-middleware` runs trusted
+in-process by default, same as `function`, with the sandboxed path available
+for whichever specific `middleware:` wrap a developer judges needs it.
+`authorize()` is still a distinct mechanism reserved for vetted,
+operator-installed, revision-pinned extensions like `auth` — that split is
+unchanged — but the reason `middleware` doesn't use `authorize()` is now
+about mount-vs-wrap shape and contract ownership, not about needing its own
+guest sandbox by default the way this section originally argued.
+
+## Sequence: `link` first, `middleware` second — and why it isn't arbitrary
+
+1. **`link` → `@jimhoyd/urlcode-dynamic-link`.** Already scoped in detail in
+   a sibling session's reviewed plan (Phase 1: remove `link`/`dynamicLinks`
+   from `src/types.ts`, `src/router.ts`, `src/runtime.ts`
+   (`src/runtime.ts:269-282`), schema and ~13 test files; Phase 2: the new
+   package, blocked on that repo existing/being attached). It is ready to
+   execute pending approval and needs nothing from the middleware work to
+   proceed.
+2. **`middleware` → extension.** Depends on Phase 1's incidental fix, not on
+   Phase 2: today `src/capabilities.ts` gives a blanket native/refused
+   answer for `extension`/`policies.extensions` without consulting the
+   specific registered extension's own `targets`
+   (`RuntimeExtension.targets`, `src/extensions.ts:31`) — wrong for any
+   self-hosted-only extension. `link`'s Phase 1c makes capability analysis
+   extension-target-aware. A `middleware` extension needs that same fix to
+   correctly report itself refused on Cloudflare/Vercel/AWS the way today's
+   native `middleware` handler is refused there — so it should land after,
+   reusing that work rather than duplicating it.
+
+Sequence matters for that one dependency; nothing else forces an order.
+`middleware` extraction now also depends on `docs/SPIKE-DEFAULT-TRUST-MODEL.md`
+landing first (trusted-by-default needs to exist as a real execution path
+before `urlcode-middleware` can be built against it) — recommended order is
+`link` → default-trust-model → `middleware`, not `link` → `middleware`.
+
+## Cross-repo dependency
+
+Neither extraction is core-only in effect, even though Phase 1 of each is
+core-only in *scope*. `docs/FRAMEWORK.md:10-15` lists three other repos —
+`urlcode-auth`, `urlcode-admin`, `urlcode-ui` — that already implement
+`RuntimeExtension`/`ExtensionInstance` against core's contract
+(`src/extensions.ts`). None of them are attached to this session, so the
+following is reasoned from the documented contract, not verified against
+their actual source; it needs confirming against those repos (via `add_repo`)
+before anything here is treated as settled.
+
+- **Core is upstream of every extension repo, never the reverse.** `auth`,
+  `admin`, `ui`, and the future `dynamic-link` and `middleware` extensions
+  each pin to a core contract version; core does not import or depend on any
+  of them (`AGENTS.md`: "Core never imports them"). So the dependency
+  direction for both extractions is: land the core contract change and cut a
+  release, *then* update/ship the consuming extension repos against it — not
+  the other way around.
+- **The capability-analysis fix (`link`'s Phase 1c) is additive, not a
+  `RuntimeExtension` contract change.** It changes what core *reports* about
+  an extension's declared `targets`, not the shape an extension implements.
+  On paper this needs no changes in `auth`/`admin`/`ui` — but that assumption
+  should be checked against their actual `targets` declarations once those
+  repos are available, since a repo currently relying on the old blanket
+  native/refused answer could see a new, more accurate `refused` result it
+  wasn't expecting.
+- **`middleware` does not reuse `authorize()`, so it does not force a change
+  to that hook** — it needs its own contract surface (a sandboxed-execution
+  extension shape, closer to how `function` is wired in `runtime.ts` than to
+  how `auth` is wired). `auth`/`admin`/`ui` are unaffected by `middleware`'s
+  extraction unless a project happens to combine `middleware` with one of
+  them, which is a project-level composition question, not a contract change
+  those three repos need to absorb.
+- **A new `urlcode-dynamic-link` and a new `urlcode-middleware` repo** both
+  need to exist or be attached before their Phase 2 work can be written or
+  verified, matching the constraint already flagged for `link`.
+
+## Repo governance for the two new repos (decided — both repos since deleted)
+
+> **Historical, 2026-09-19.** Both repositories this section governs were
+> created, released once, and then deleted; both packages are unpublished. The
+> decisions below were applied while they existed and are kept as the recorded
+> template for any future extension repository — not as a description of
+> anything live. Note in particular that the "published public from the start"
+> departure recorded below is the one whose consequences are worth reading
+> back: both repos that took it are gone within days of their first release.
+
+Both `urlcode-dynamic-link` and `urlcode-middleware` follow `GOVERNANCE.md`
+and `AGENTS.md` as written, with one explicit decision recorded here per
+AGENTS.md's "do not publish packages without an explicit decision":
+
+- **License: Apache-2.0**, same as core, no separate CLA/DCO — matching
+  `GOVERNANCE.md`'s "Licensing and participation" section exactly. No new
+  licensing terms for either repo.
+- **Repo settings mirror core's ruleset** (`GOVERNANCE.md` "Changes and
+  responsibility"): `main` protected against force-push/deletion, requires an
+  up-to-date branch, passing CI and a PR, squash merges, no ruleset bypass for
+  admins or automation, CODEOWNERS recording ownership. CI/release workflow
+  shape copied from core's `release.yml` (candidate build → audit → pack →
+  attest → publish via trusted publisher, no long-lived npm token), per the
+  pattern §2.1 of the archived plan (`docs/archive/2026-09-19/NEXT-STEPS.md`)
+  already used for `auth`/`admin`/`ui`.
+  CodeQL required on main, secret scanning and push protection on, same as
+  core.
+- **Published public from the start** — both the GitHub repo and the npm
+  package (`@jimhoyd/urlcode-dynamic-link`, `@jimhoyd/urlcode-middleware`) are
+  public, not the "`private: true` until reviewed" alpha pattern
+  `auth`/`admin`/`ui` used at their first release. This is a deliberate
+  departure from that precedent, not an oversight — record the same alpha
+  caveat in each README/status file (source complete, independent review and
+  deployment evidence pending) so "public" doesn't read as "reviewed."
+- Naming matches convention: repo `urlcode-<name>` ↔ package
+  `@jimhoyd/urlcode-<name>`, consistent with `urlcode-auth`/`-admin`/`-ui`.
+- Still outside this session's scope to execute: creating the two GitHub
+  repos, setting their branch protection/CODEOWNERS, and the actual npm
+  publish are maintainer actions, not something done from within this repo's
+  checkout.
+
+## Performance considerations
+
+Both extractions keep everything in the same Node process — extensions are
+loaded and activated in-process via a host file (`src/extensions.ts`), not a
+network hop or separate deployment unit — so neither is a "distributed
+system tax." The real costs are narrower and different for each:
+
+- **`link`** moving from a native `runtime.ts` branch (`src/runtime.ts:269-282`)
+  to an extension mount means every stored-link lookup now also passes through
+  `extensionResponse()` (`src/extensions.ts:164-172`): a header-count/byte-size
+  check (≤256 headers, ≤16 KiB), a 1 MiB body-size assert, and a `Cache-Control`
+  rewrite. That's small, bounded, per-request work — but `link` is the
+  project's most latency-sensitive path (a redirect lookup), and
+  `docs/CAPACITY.md:200` already warns "do not extrapolate in-memory redirect
+  benchmark numbers to database lookups" for the *native* handler today. The
+  extension path adds a fixed increment on top of that existing SQLite-bound
+  latency; worth a benchmark comparison (native vs. extension-mounted `link`)
+  before calling this cost-neutral rather than assuming it from the code shape.
+- **`middleware`'s performance story changes under `SPIKE-DEFAULT-TRUST-MODEL.md`.**
+  Under the old blanket-sandboxed default, this section argued middleware's
+  cost was worse than `function`'s because it runs on every request through
+  every route it's attached to, not once per matched route — paying the
+  worker-thread/fresh-heap tax repeatedly on the hot path. That cost is now
+  the *opt-in* path, not the default: trusted-by-default execution runs
+  `middleware` as ordinary in-process code with no worker pool ceiling, the
+  same throughput profile `authorize()` already has (see the concurrency
+  discussion in this conversation — thousands of concurrent trusted
+  executions is realistic, bounded by normal Node concurrency and the
+  instance's HTTP admission cap, not a fixed worker-slot count). The sandbox
+  cost described above still applies, in full, to whichever specific
+  `middleware:` wrap a developer explicitly opts into `sandbox: true` — and
+  the same mitigation still matters there: native declarative primitives
+  (the Phase 4.2 `auth: { required: true, role: ... }` direction in the
+  archived plan, `docs/archive/2026-09-19/NEXT-STEPS.md`) reduce how much logic
+  ever needs to reach for the sandboxed opt-in at all, for the cases where a
+  developer does judge it warranted.
+
+## Other core pieces considered and set aside
+
+Checked against the same test used for `link`/`middleware` — does it own
+state or behavior nothing else in core needs, and is it optional rather than
+part of the smallest complete product:
+
+- **`proxy`** — explicitly *not* a candidate. The sibling session's plan for
+  `link` calls this out directly: unlike `link`, `proxy` is a shared egress
+  primitive future extensions are expected to build on, so extracting it
+  would create a dependency extensions have on an extension, which core's
+  "extensions never depend on each other" shape doesn't support today.
+- **`policies`** (`throttle`, `agents`, security headers, compression,
+  cache) — these are declarative YAML behavior applied by core to every
+  route, not guest code or durable external state; `throttle`/`agents`
+  counters are already scoped as "per instance, not distributed"
+  (`docs/OPERATIONS.md`), which is a limitation to document, not a reason to
+  extract. A bare project (no extensions at all) still needs security
+  headers and basic rate limiting, so these stay part of the smallest
+  complete product.
+- **`conditional`, `static`, `download`, `page`, `respond`, `redirect`** —
+  these *are* the YAML-routing half of "YAML + function"; extracting any of
+  them would shrink core below the "complete product on its own" bar rather
+  than trim it.
+- **Management API / operator grants / credential policy** — foundation that
+  extensions themselves depend on (`docs/archive/2026-09-19/MANAGEMENT-SECURITY.md`,
+  `docs/FUNCTION-SECURITY.md`); moving it out would mean extracting the thing
+  the extraction pattern relies on.
+
+Nothing else in core matches the `link`/`middleware` shape today. If a third
+candidate is going to be found, the repetition-log discipline of Phase 6 in the
+archived plan (`docs/archive/2026-09-19/NEXT-STEPS.md`) — extract from observed
+repetition, not speculation — is the more defensible way to find it than
+continuing to eyeball the handler list. That plan records Phase 6 as never
+started, and no `docs/REPETITION-LOG.md` was ever written, so the log itself
+would have to be started before it could inform the decision.
+
+Recommendation: before either Phase 2 begins, attach `urlcode-auth`,
+`urlcode-admin` and `urlcode-ui` to a session and confirm (a) their actual
+`targets` declarations against the Phase 1c capability-analysis change, and
+(b) whether any of them implement `authorize()` beyond `auth`. That turns the
+bullets above from reasoned-from-docs into verified, and gives real basis for
+sequencing core's release against theirs (e.g. a core minor version that adds
+extension-target-aware capability reporting without breaking the contract,
+versus a core change that requires those repos to update in lockstep).
+
+## Open questions before either is built
+
+- `link`: hard break vs. deprecation window (pre-1.0, `0.4.0-alpha.1`;
+  sibling session's plan recommends a hard break, flagged explicitly since it
+  breaks any project with `dynamicLinks: true` until the new package ships).
+- `middleware`: how much of today's `middleware:` guest code is genuinely
+  custom logic versus a common pattern (auth gating, headers, CORS, rate
+  limiting) that a native declarative primitive could cover with no guest
+  execution at all? This sizing decides how much the sandbox's per-request
+  cost actually matters in practice, and should come from an inventory of
+  real usage, not a guess, before `urlcode-middleware`'s guest-execution
+  contract is designed.
+- Both: this repo stays core-only per `AGENTS.md` ("the auth, admin and ui
+  extensions live in their own repositories... Core never imports them");
+  neither extraction's Phase 2 can be written here.
+
+## The full ladder: one contract, one vocabulary per level
+
+`link` and `middleware` shrink core by moving pieces *out*; there's a
+complementary, additive move that extends the ladder *below* core instead of
+touching it: a `static` compile target, alongside the existing
+`node`/`aws`/`vercel`/`cloudflare` targets in `src/capabilities.ts`. Same
+`urlcode.yaml`, same routing vocabulary — the difference between levels is
+only which capabilities a given target can serve, exactly the mechanism that
+already exists (Cloudflare already refuses `function`/`link`/`middleware`
+today; `static` would additionally refuse `function`, keeping only
+`redirect`/`respond`/`page`/`static`/`download`). No new syntax, no second
+schema, no fork of the contract — a project written once reads as:
+
+```
+static hosting (S3, CloudFront)  →  routing + static assets only, no server
+node/aws/vercel (serverless)     →  + function, the dynamic primitive
+extensions (auth/admin/link/…)   →  + accounts, admin, stored links, middleware
+```
+
+This is the same YAML at every level; the only thing that changes is which
+handlers a target accepts, reported the same way `urlcode capabilities
+--target <name>` already reports it. That's the point being made here: the
+progression isn't three different products, it's one contract with graduated
+vocabulary, so a project can start at "static site" and grow into "function"
+and then "extensions" without a rewrite — just fewer refusals as the target
+gets more capable.
+
+This is additive, not part of the `link`/`middleware` extraction: it doesn't
+touch core's code, doesn't shrink core's self-definition ("YAML + function"
+stays true for the `node`/`aws`/`vercel` targets), and needs nothing from
+either extraction to be built. It reuses `build-cloudflare.ts`'s pattern
+(compile YAML to the target's native format) for S3/CloudFront redirect
+rules and object routing.
+
+**One real gap, not glossed over:** GitHub Pages has no server-side rewrite
+layer, so `redirect` routes can't compile to true HTTP redirects there — only
+a meta-refresh/JS fallback or a static 404-page trick, both lower fidelity
+than what the same route does on every other target. If `static` ships,
+GitHub Pages needs either an explicit fidelity caveat in its target
+description or exclusion from the `static` target's claimed support, not a
+silent "same behavior everywhere" promise the platform can't keep.
+
+## Non-goals
+
+This spike does not decide `link`'s Phase 1 breaking-change policy, does not
+design the `middleware` extension's config schema, and does not touch
+`function` — `function` stays in core as the serverless-capable primitive
+that makes YAML + function a complete product on its own.

package/docs/SPIKE-DEFAULT-TRUST-MODEL.md

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+# Decision: first-party `function`/`middleware` code is trusted by default
+
+Status: **decided by the maintainer and implemented in `0.4.0-alpha.2`**
+(`sandbox`/`sandboxReason` in `schemas/urlcode.schema.json`; see the
+`0.4.0-alpha.2` entry in [the roadmap](../ROADMAP.md) and the resulting contract
+in [function security](FUNCTION-SECURITY.md)). The release is published; this file retains the decision rationale. This overturns an
+explicit, previously-stated project rule — see "What this reverses" below —
+so treat it as a deliberate, recorded policy change, not a code cleanup. The
+body below is preserved as written at decision time; where it calls downstream
+packages unbuilt, that was true then, and the notes mark what exists now.
+
+## The decision
+
+Project-authored `function` and `middleware` code runs **trusted and
+unsandboxed by default** (direct host-process execution, no worker thread, no
+QuickJS/WASM, no fresh-heap-per-call cost). Sandboxing becomes **opt-in**,
+declared per route by the developer when they judge a specific piece of code
+needs it (e.g. code processing input from an untrusted third party, a
+plugin/contribution the project owner hasn't personally reviewed, or genuinely
+adversarial-input-facing logic).
+
+Rationale on record: the maintainer's own reasoning is that the current
+blanket sandbox is a major performance ceiling (2 workers, no queue, shared
+across every programmable route — `docs/CAPACITY.md`) that does not scale to
+real concurrent traffic "out of the box," and that treating all first-party
+code as equally untrusted regardless of the developer's own judgment is the
+wrong default for a framework whose primary author is often the same person
+deploying it. The alternative (sandboxed-by-default, opt-in-to-trusted) was
+raised and explicitly rejected in favor of this direction.
+
+Industry comparison supporting this call: mainstream frameworks that serve
+AI-agent-generated backend code today (Express, Next.js API routes, Django,
+Rails) run that code directly in the host process at serve time, unsandboxed,
+identically to hand-written code — there is no mainstream precedent for
+production request-handling code running in an isolated engine. Where the
+industry *does* sandbox AI-generated code (E2B, Modal sandboxes, OpenAI Code
+Interpreter, Anthropic's own code execution tool) is at generation/dev-time,
+while the agent is writing and iterating — not at serve-time once code is
+reviewed and deployed. URLCode's current design is the unusual one: it keeps
+the isolation boundary at production serve-time rather than following the
+"sandbox generation, trust deployment" pattern the rest of the ecosystem
+uses. This decision brings first-party `function`/`middleware` code in line
+with that mainstream pattern by default, while keeping the stricter,
+less-common serve-time isolation available as an explicit opt-in for code
+that specifically warrants it.
+
+## What this reverses — read before touching anything else
+
+This is not additive; it contradicts explicit, multiple-file statements that
+currently describe the opposite as an unconditional guarantee. All of the
+following assert or depend on "guest code is always sandboxed, regardless of
+origin, even your own repository," and need to be rewritten, not just
+extended, once this ships:
+
+- `AGENTS.md:9-11` — "Treat all application code as untrusted... never add a
+  host-code execution fallback."
+- `docs/FUNCTION-SECURITY.md:3-6` — "Application code is untrusted even when
+  it came from your own Git repository... There is no `unsafe`, `trusted` or
+  automatic host-execution fallback." (This line directly anticipated and
+  rejected exactly this proposal; it cannot be left standing as written.)
+- `SECURITY.md:3-5` — "Application functions are untrusted by default...
+  There is no unrestricted host-execution fallback."
+- `docs/SANDBOX-REVIEW.md:5-6` — "No unrestricted Node execution fallback is
+  permitted."
+- `docs/SECURITY-AUDIT.md` and `docs/PROJECT-DIRECTION.md:25-27` — the
+  "not a general Node web framework" framing and residual-risk reasoning
+  assume any guest code could be adversarial.
+- `README.md`'s function description states the sandbox as an unconditional
+  runtime property, not a mode a route opts into.
+- `docs/AI-AUTHORING.md` treats `FUNCTION-SECURITY.md` as required reading
+  with no first-party exemption in the authoring contract.
+
+None of these can be quietly left in place once `trusted` is the default —
+an operator or a security reviewer reading them after this ships would be
+reading claims the runtime no longer makes.
+
+## What has to actually change (not just docs)
+
+There is no execution branch for this today — sandboxing is hardwired, not a
+config path. Per the earlier sweep:
+
+1. **Schema/types**: a per-route (or per-function-declaration) field, e.g.
+   `sandbox: true`, defaulting to `false`/absent = trusted. Needs a home in
+   `schemas/urlcode.schema.json` and `src/types.ts` (`RouteConfig`, whatever
+   shape `function`/`middleware` declarations take).
+2. **Execution path**: `src/functions.ts`/`function-worker.ts` currently has
+   no branch that skips `FunctionPool`'s worker/QuickJS dispatch and calls a
+   guest export directly in-process — that in-process path needs to be built
+   from scratch as the new default, with the existing sandboxed path kept
+   fully intact and reachable via the opt-in flag.
+3. **Trust-declaration integrity**: since this is opt-out rather than
+   opt-in, the risk shifts from "can code fake being trusted" (the sandboxed
+   default's concern) to "does everyone correctly opt untrusted-input-facing
+   code INTO the sandbox." That's a documentation/authoring-guidance problem,
+   not an enforcement one — `urlcode audit`/`validate` cannot know a
+   developer's intent, so the authoring docs (`docs/AI-AUTHORING.md`, the
+   generated project `AGENTS.md`, the `urlcode-authoring` skill) need to
+   clearly teach **when** a project should reach for `sandbox: true` — e.g.
+   code parsing third-party webhook payloads it doesn't fully trust, a
+   contributed function nobody on the team reviewed, anything handling a
+   secret binding it can't fully vet. Reasonable defaults in generated
+   scaffolding (recipes, starter templates) should still model this judgment
+   correctly rather than silently omitting it everywhere.
+4. **Test suite**: `test/sandbox.test.ts`, `test/sandbox-pool.test.ts`,
+   `test/egress.test.ts`, `test/middleware.test.ts` and related isolation
+   suites (~60-90 tests) stay valid for the `sandbox: true` path unchanged;
+   new tests are needed for the trusted default path (it can reach Node APIs,
+   the module graph, etc., on purpose) plus tests confirming the two paths
+   don't cross-contaminate (a trusted-path failure can't be mistaken for a
+   sandboxed one, and vice versa).
+5. **Capacity docs**: `docs/CAPACITY.md`'s worker/deadline/heap numbers stay
+   as the sandboxed-path limits; the trusted path needs its own documented
+   capacity model (ordinary Node concurrency, the existing HTTP admission cap
+   `--max-in-flight`, no worker-pool ceiling) — see the concurrency
+   discussion earlier in this conversation for the concrete numbers.
+6. **Extension-model consistency**: `auth`/`admin`/`ui` already run trusted
+   via a *different* mechanism (`authorize()`/`handle()`, operator-installed,
+   revision-pinned packages outside the project). This decision does not
+   merge that model with first-party `function`/`middleware` trust — they
+   remain two separate trust paths that happen to both be unsandboxed, for
+   different reasons (operator-vetted package vs. developer's own judgment
+   call). Keep that distinction explicit in the docs rewrite so "trusted"
+   doesn't become one undifferentiated concept.
+
+## Cross-repo impact
+
+Same caveat as `docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`: `urlcode-auth`, `urlcode-admin`,
+`urlcode-ui` are not attached to this session, so the following is reasoned
+from the documented contract, not verified against their source — confirm
+with `add_repo` before treating it as settled.
+
+- **`auth`/`admin`/`ui` themselves: contract unaffected.** They run through
+  `authorize()`/`handle()` — a separate mechanism from `function`/`middleware`
+  guest execution, unchanged by this decision. No `RuntimeExtension` code
+  changes needed on their side.
+- **But their own docs/examples likely need an audit anyway.** If any of the
+  three repos' READMEs, threat-model docs, or example projects describe core's
+  sandbox as an unconditional guarantee (language inherited from today's
+  `AGENTS.md`/`FUNCTION-SECURITY.md` wording, which this decision replaces),
+  those statements become inaccurate the moment core ships the new default.
+  Anywhere one of these repos ships an example `urlcode.yaml` with `function:`/
+  `middleware:` routes (onboarding docs, a demo, a conformance fixture), it's
+  now running trusted by default unless that example explicitly opts into
+  `sandbox: true` — worth checking whether any existing example implicitly
+  depends on sandboxing (e.g., a demo built to showcase "safe to run
+  arbitrary/third-party code") and would silently stop meaning what it claims.
+- **This is a behavior change, not just a schema addition — versioning must
+  reflect that.** A project upgrading core with zero YAML changes gets a
+  materially different execution model for every existing `function`/
+  `middleware` route it already has. That needs a major/minor version bump
+  with an explicit changelog entry and migration note (not a patch release),
+  and `peers.json` in `auth`/`admin`/`ui` (`docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`'s
+  §2.2 reference) should pin deliberately to a core version that includes
+  this change, not inherit it silently on a routine bump.
+- **`urlcode-dynamic-link` (built and published after this was written, then retired, unpublished and deleted in September 2026): moot.** It was a
+  mount-based extension like `auth`, not a `function`/`middleware` consumer —
+  nothing here changes its design.
+- **`urlcode-middleware` (built and published since, then retired, unpublished
+  and deleted in September 2026): the rule outlived the package — decided.**
+  The decision below was made for that package but is not about it: it governs
+  core's own native `middleware:` array, which is where per-route middleware
+  lives now that the extension package is gone. First-party middleware is trusted by default, exactly like
+  `function`; `sandbox: true` is the same opt-in a developer reaches for
+  when a specific `middleware:` wrap genuinely warrants it (e.g. it's
+  processing input from a source the developer doesn't fully trust). This
+  was flagged as an open fork (middleware's wider blast radius — it wraps
+  every request through a route, not one operation) and the maintainer has
+  resolved it: one uniform default across `function` and `middleware`, not a
+  special case. `docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`'s middleware section, which
+  still describes middleware as sandboxed-by-default, is superseded by this
+  and needs updating to match.
+- **Extension-authored project-level lifecycle hooks: same rule, no special
+  case.** `docs/EXTENSIONS.md`'s "Project-level lifecycle hooks" section
+  settles this explicitly: a hook a project names in an extension's own YAML
+  config (`urlcode-auth`'s `onSignUp`/`beforeRegister`/`onDelete` and the
+  like) is first-party project code in the same category as any
+  `function`/`middleware` route, trusted and in-process by default, with the
+  same per-hook `sandbox: true` opt-in. No hardwired always-sandboxed case
+  for lifecycle hooks specifically. Trusted execution of such a hook needs no
+  core primitive — an extension's own `activate()` already has
+  `ExtensionActivation.root` and can `import()` the project's module
+  directly. The isolated half of that opt-in previously had no equivalent:
+  core's trusted/sandboxed dispatch was wired to route dispatch only, not
+  exposed to extensions. `@jimhoyd/urlcode/sandbox`'s `SandboxPool` (see
+  [FUNCTION-SECURITY.md](FUNCTION-SECURITY.md), [TYPESCRIPT.md](TYPESCRIPT.md))
+  closes that: the same worker/QuickJS engine `FunctionPool` already used for
+  route dispatch, generalized to explicit `{source, export}` entries/targets
+  instead of `FunctionRoute`, with no second engine and no "trusted" mode
+  exported alongside it.
+
+## Recommended sequencing
+
+This is independent of, but touches the same files as, the `link`/
+`middleware` extraction in `docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`. Recommend landing
+this trust-model change first, since it changes what "keep middleware
+sandboxed" in that spike even means (middleware's default execution mode
+changes too) — building the extraction against the old assumption first
+would mean redoing it once this ships. `docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`'s
+middleware section will need a follow-up pass once this decision's schema
+shape exists.
+
+## Not decided here
+
+- The exact field name/shape (`sandbox: true` vs. `trust: sandboxed` vs.
+  something else) — a naming/schema-design pass, not a policy question.
+- Whether `link`'s extraction or the `static` target need any changes as a
+  result — on current understanding, no (neither touches guest-code
+  execution), but worth re-checking once the schema shape is settled.
+- The actual rewritten wording for `AGENTS.md`/`SECURITY.md`/
+  `FUNCTION-SECURITY.md` — drafting that is a deliberate writing pass, not
+  something to improvise inline here.

package/docs/SPIKE-LAMBDA-COMPILE.md

@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 # Spike: compiling `function` routes into their own Lambdas
 
+> Review update, 2026-09-19: Current baseline: trusted Node execution is the default, so fresh invocation
+> state is a guarantee of `sandbox: true` only. AWS/Vercel still reject functions
+> and middleware in `src/capabilities.ts`; changing the default did not implement
+> a provider adapter for them. Re-evaluate the proposed per-route lowering against
+> a single trusted Node deployment per project before choosing either. Removed
+> link APIs in the analysis below are historical.
+
+
 Status: proposal, nothing implemented. No code in this repository does any of
 this, and nothing here is committed scope.
 
@@ -109,8 +117,10 @@ out rather than picking one under time pressure.
 
 Stored live links need a durable writable store that instances share. That is
 the same refusal before and after this change. DynamoDB is the natural lowering,
-but it is a store implementation with its own export and restore discipline
-([dynamic links](DYNAMIC-LINKS.md)), not something a compile step produces.
+but it is a store implementation with its own export and restore discipline, not
+something a compile step produces. (Note: the native `link` handler this
+section describes was later removed from core; see
+`docs/SPIKE-CORE-LAYERING.md`.)
 
 ## 4. Emitting infrastructure is a new kind of output
 

package/docs/STARTERS.md

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ See [readiness](READINESS.md) and [security](FUNCTION-SECURITY.md).
 
 To start an extended site instead, install the extension packages from npm
 (`npm install @jimhoyd/urlcode-auth @jimhoyd/urlcode-admin`, published as
-`0.1.0-alpha.1` prereleases) in the directory you run from and pass their names: `urlcode init ../my-site --with
+`0.1.0-alpha.x` prereleases) in the directory you run from and pass their names: `urlcode init ../my-site --with
 auth,admin` writes the same starter under `my-site/app/`, merges each package's
 routes and declarations into it, and generates one `host.mjs` and README beside
 it. The contract each package fulfils is in [extensions](EXTENSIONS.md#scaffolding-with-init---with).