zireael-abi-formats

name: zireael-abi-formats description: Maintain stable C ABI and versioned binary formats (drawlist + event batches). metadata: short-description: ABI stability + binary formats

When to use

Use this skill when changing:

• public engine ABI surface (function signatures, structs)
• drawlist binary format
• packed event batch format
• versioning/negotiation strategy

Source of truth

• docs/modules/CONFIG_AND_ABI_VERSIONING.md — ABI and versioning rules
• docs/modules/DRAWLIST_FORMAT_AND_PARSER.md — drawlist spec
• docs/modules/EVENT_SYSTEM_AND_PACKED_EVENT_ABI.md — event batch spec
• docs/ERROR_CODES_CATALOG.md — error code semantics
• docs/VERSION_PINS.md — pinned versions

ABI rules (must follow)

• Return 0 on success, negative ZR_ERR_* codes on failure
• Engine MUST NOT return heap pointers requiring caller free
• Caller provides buffers:
  • drawlist bytes (input)
  • event batch buffer (output)
  • user-event payload (engine copies)

Format rules (must follow)

All on-wire formats are:

• Little-endian
• Versioned (header contains version)
• Bounds-checked (no OOB reads, no UB)
• Cap-limited (hard caps via zr_limits_t)

Drawlist:

• Versioned header with magic, total_size, table offsets
• Commands are self-framed: {opcode, size, flags, payload}
• Parsing uses safe unaligned reads (memcpy), not casts

Event batches:

• Batch header with magic/version/total_size/event_count
• Per-record header with type/size/timestamp
• Unknown record types skippable by size (forward-compat)

Versioning

Maintain separate version axes:

• Engine ABI version
• Drawlist format version
• Event batch format version

Negotiation at engine_create(config).