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Runtime API & Integration Contract

codewhale app-server is the canonical local runtime API and control plane. Local SDKs, mobile/remote-control clients, and editor integrations talk to it instead of screen-scraping terminal output. It serves the full HTTP/SSE runtime API (/v1/*), a JSON-RPC control transport over stdio, and the phone-friendly mobile page. codewhale doctor --json provides machine-readable health, and codewhale serve --acp speaks the Agent Client Protocol over stdio for editors such as Zed.

codewhale serve --http / serve --mobile remain as compatibility aliases for codewhale app-server --http / --mobile; both launch the identical server. New integrations should target app-server.

codewhale exec is the separate one-shot headless worker path (stream-json, fleet worker subprocess, CI primitive). It is not part of this API, but it shares the same runtime, provider/model resolution, permission profiles, and event vocabulary.

This document is the stable integration contract for native workbench applications (and other local supervisors) that embed the DeepSeek engine.

Architecture

local supervisor / SDK / automation harness
        │
        ├─ codewhale app-server --http     → HTTP/SSE runtime API (/v1/*)        [canonical]
        ├─ codewhale app-server --mobile   → runtime API + mobile control page
        ├─ codewhale app-server --stdio    → JSON-RPC control transport over stdio
        ├─ codewhale doctor --json         → machine-readable health & capability
        ├─ codewhale serve --acp           → ACP stdio agent for editors such as Zed
        ├─ codewhale serve --mcp           → MCP stdio server
        ├─ codewhale serve --http/--mobile → legacy aliases for `app-server --http/--mobile`
        └─ codewhale exec [args]           → one-shot headless worker (stream-json)

The engine runs as a local-only process. All APIs bind to localhost by default. No hosted relay, no provider-token custody, no secret leakage.

For a proposed read-only audit export over completed turns, see docs/RECEIPTS.md. That document is a protocol note; the receipt CLI/API surfaces are not implemented yet.

Runtime API entrypoints

Entry Transport Use
codewhale web [--port 7878] HTTP/SSE on 127.0.0.1:7878 + embedded client First-class loopback-only browser client; opens the default browser
codewhale app-server --http HTTP/SSE on 127.0.0.1:7878 Full /v1/* runtime API (canonical)
codewhale app-server --mobile HTTP/SSE on 0.0.0.0:7878 + /mobile Runtime API + phone control page
codewhale app-server --stdio JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio Local SDK / control probe (no listener)
codewhale app-server HTTP on 127.0.0.1:8787 Legacy in-process app-server (/healthz, /thread, /app, /prompt, /tool, /jobs)
codewhale serve --http / --mobile same server as app-server --http/--mobile Compatibility aliases

app-server --http and --mobile launch the same mature runtime API server historically reached through serve --http — no routes or behavior changed, so every endpoint documented below is identical across both entrypoints. The runtime API token is read from --auth-token, then CODEWHALE_RUNTIME_TOKEN, then DEEPSEEK_RUNTIME_TOKEN; use --insecure-no-auth only with a loopback bind. The serve compatibility aliases keep their --insecure flag. The legacy in-process codewhale app-server also requires an explicit --auth-token or CODEWHALE_APP_SERVER_TOKEN before binding a non-loopback host; its generated one-time cwapp_* token is loopback-only.

Runtime and account identity

GET /v1/runtime/info reports codewhale_version plus the full 40-character codewhale_commit embedded by the shared CLI/TUI build. A source archive that cannot provide an exact commit reports unknown, allowing compatibility clients to fail closed rather than accepting an ambiguous binary pair.

The same response advertises capabilities.account_session: true and a token-free account receipt:

{
  "account": {
    "schema_version": 1,
    "state": "authenticated",
    "api_base": "https://api.codewhale.net",
    "account_id": "acct_...",
    "session_id": "session_...",
    "scopes": [],
    "expires_at": "2026-08-01T20:00:00Z"
  }
}

The Runtime reads this receipt from the exact profile- and API-origin-scoped secure record written by codewhale account login; it does not run a second login flow. States are signed_out, authenticated, offline_cached, expired, or revoked. Scopes are copied only from explicit stored session grants and are never inferred from account identity. Access/refresh tokens, email, provider profile, and provider credentials are never returned. account_id and session_id are included only for a request authorized with the Runtime token (or an explicitly insecure loopback server); the public bootstrap response remains usable but reports signed_out. Signed-out local Work remains supported and never allocates cloud compute implicitly.

The --stdio control transport is newline-delimited JSON-RPC 2.0. Probe it without spending model tokens:

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"healthz"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"capabilities"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"shutdown"}' \
  | codewhale app-server --stdio

capabilities returns the advertised method families (thread/*, app/*, prompt/*) and the full method list; thread/capabilities, app/capabilities, and prompt/capabilities scope it per family. The method set is pinned by a drift test in crates/app-server/src/lib.rs, so SDK and local integration clients can rely on it not changing silently.

Interrupting a turn

thread/message streams until the turn reaches a terminal state, which can take minutes. The read loop keeps polling stdin while a turn streams, so a client can send:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":9,"method":"thread/interrupt","params":{"thread_id":"thr_..."}}

and the runtime is asked to interrupt that turn (POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/interrupt). The reply carries interrupted: false when no turn is streaming for that thread — this is not an error, just nothing to stop. The interrupted thread/message then fails with a turn interrupted error, and its reply is written before the interrupt's own reply, since the turn owns the writer until it unwinds.

shutdown sent during a live turn also interrupts first: it needs the same bridge that the turn holds, so without that it would wait for the very turn it was meant to stop. Other requests that arrive mid-turn are queued and run in order once the turn finishes.

SDK contract

The app-server exists so an external SDK can answer — without scraping TUI output — what route ran, which provider/model/reasoning/permission profile was effective, what events happened, how many tokens were used, and how the run finished. The durable Thread/Turn/Item data model already carries most of this; the table maps each integration need to where a local client reads it.

Integration need Where it comes from Status
Route / effective model / billing surface TurnRecord + thread model; per-run --provider/--model overrides available
Permission / sandbox / approval profile thread auto_approve, sandbox + approval policy available
Run / thread / turn IDs thread_id, turn_id, SSE event envelope available
Event stream GET /v1/threads/{id}/events (replay + live SSE) available
Turn status / terminal classification TurnRecord.status + error summary available
Token usage TurnRecord.usage; aggregate via GET /v1/usage available
Single-read run receipt (route + usage + cost) GET /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/receipt proposed (RECEIPTS.md)

For one-shot/headless automation, prefer codewhale exec with explicit --provider <id> --model <id> so a failure identifies the exact provider/model pair. Use app-server when a local integration needs to start, resume, steer, or interrupt turns, list models/capabilities, follow the event stream, or read usage. Both paths share the same runtime, so route-effective model resolution and the event vocabulary match.

Release smoke

scripts/release/app-server-smoke.sh is the committed pre-release check:

scripts/release/app-server-smoke.sh                 # stdio health/capabilities probe (no tokens)
scripts/release/app-server-smoke.sh --matrix        # + print the configured provider/model matrix
scripts/release/app-server-smoke.sh --matrix --real # + exec a cheap sentinel per provider

The stdio probe runs against a throwaway config, so it never reads real keys. The matrix discovers configured providers from codewhale auth list, skips unconfigured providers, and maps a provider to a cheap sentinel model only when it has a built-in cheap default. That built-in set is deliberately conservative (currently deepseek, zai, moonshot, and openai); every other provider — including arcee, openrouter, xiaomi-mimo, and openai-codex — is left unmapped on purpose and must be given a model per run via SMOKE_MODEL_<SLUG> rather than a guessed default (#3205). Any configured-but-unmapped provider fails loudly in --real mode. auth list reports presence flags only and exec output is passed through a redactor, so secrets are never printed. The parser is covered by scripts/release/app-server-smoke.test.sh against a fake codewhale binary.

ACP stdio adapter: codewhale serve --acp

codewhale serve --acp speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over newline-delimited stdio for ACP-compatible editor clients. The initial adapter implements the ACP baseline:

  • initialize
  • session/new
  • session/prompt
  • session/cancel

Prompt requests are routed through the configured DeepSeek client and current default model. Responses are emitted as session/update agent message chunks followed by a session/prompt response with stopReason: "end_turn".

The adapter is intentionally conservative: it does not yet expose shell tools, file-write tools, checkpoint replay, or session loading through ACP. Use codewhale serve --http for the full local runtime API and codewhale serve --mcp when another client needs DeepSeek's tools as MCP tools.

Capability endpoint: codewhale doctor --json

Returns a JSON object describing the current installation's readiness state. Suitable for health-check polling from a macOS workbench. This command is strictly structural and offline: it does not load workspace credential .env files, inspect credential environment values, open secret/OAuth files, probe an OS keyring, contact providers, or start MCP processes.

codewhale doctor --json

Response schema (key fields)

Field Type Description
version string Installed version (e.g. "0.8.9")
config_path string Resolved config file path
config_present bool Whether the config file exists
paths object Canonical config, settings, state, sessions, logs, automations, and secrets paths
secret_backend object Metadata-only file-store shape, or literal unknown / not_probed for system and unsupported backends
workspace string Default workspace directory
legacy_state.primary_root string Primary Codewhale state root inspected for known state paths
legacy_state.legacy_root string Legacy .deepseek state root inspected for known state paths
legacy_state.needs_attention bool Whether known ~/.deepseek state paths need review or the read-only session recovery diagnostic found missing destination filenames / could not complete
legacy_state.legacy_only_count number Count of known state paths present only under the legacy root
legacy_state.dual_present_count number Count of known state paths present under both primary and legacy roots
legacy_state.entries array Per-path migration status: {name, primary_present, legacy_present, status}
legacy_state.session_recovery.status string isolated, no_legacy_sessions, migration_pending, migration_incomplete, migration_complete, or scan_failed
legacy_state.session_recovery.read_only bool Always true; doctor never invokes session migration or modifies either session directory
legacy_state.session_recovery.chat_contents_read bool Always false; comparison is based only on top-level .json filenames and filesystem metadata
legacy_state.session_recovery.checkpoint_internals_scanned bool Always false; sessions/checkpoints/ and all other directories are skipped
legacy_state.session_recovery.recoverable_files array Bounded sample of up to 100 missing destination filenames with source and destination paths; no chat payloads
legacy_state.session_recovery.recoverable_file_count number Total missing destination filename count, including entries beyond the bounded sample
legacy_state.session_recovery.recoverable_files_truncated bool Whether more than 100 recoverable filenames were found
legacy_state.session_recovery.recovery_command string or null codewhale sessions when additive automatic recovery is available; null for isolated, complete, empty, or failed scans
api_key.source string Structural source state: config_declared, env_declared, external_auth_declared, secret_store_unprobed, secret_store_unavailable, oauth_unprobed, external_consent, none, local_runtime, or unknown; declarations are not availability proof
api_key.availability string Literal present, not_required, not_probed, unavailable, or unknown; only present and not_required certify structural Setup/Fleet credential readiness
base_url string Provider URL authority only (scheme://host[:explicit-port]); userinfo, path, query, and fragment are omitted
default_text_model string Default model
memory.enabled bool Whether the memory feature is on
memory.path string Path to memory file
memory.file_present bool Whether memory file exists
mcp.config_path string MCP config file path
mcp.present bool Whether MCP config exists
mcp.probe_scope string configuration; doctor does not start MCP servers
mcp.live_health_checked bool Always false for doctor JSON
mcp.servers array Per-server structural result and counts plus separate checks; URL userinfo/path/query/fragment and command argv, environment, header, and token values are never emitted, and all live stages are not_checked
skills.selected string Resolved skills directory
skills.global.path / .present / .count — Codewhale global skills dir (~/.codewhale/skills, with legacy ~/.deepseek/skills support)
skills.agents.path / .present / .count — Workspace .agents/skills/ dir
skills.agents_global.path / .present / .count — agentskills.io global skills dir (~/.agents/skills)
skills.local.path / .present / .count — skills/ dir
skills.opencode.path / .present / .count — .opencode/skills/ dir
skills.claude.path / .present / .count — .claude/skills/ dir
tools.path / .present / .count — Global tools directory
plugins.path / .present / .count — Global plugins directory
sandbox.available bool Whether sandbox is supported on this OS
sandbox.kind string or null Sandbox kind (e.g. "macos_seatbelt")
storage.spillover.path / .present / .count — Tool output spillover dir
storage.stash.path / .present / .count — Composer stash

Example

{
  "version": "0.8.9",
  "config_path": "/Users/you/.codewhale/config.toml",
  "config_present": true,
  "workspace": "/Users/you/projects/codewhale-tui",
  "api_key": {
    "source": "secret_store_unprobed",
    "availability": "not_probed"
  },
  "base_url": "https://api.deepseek.com",
  "default_text_model": "deepseek-v4-pro",
  "memory": {
    "enabled": false,
    "path": "/Users/you/.codewhale/memory.md",
    "file_present": true
  },
  "mcp": {
    "config_path": "/Users/you/.codewhale/mcp.json",
    "present": true,
    "servers": [
      {"name": "filesystem", "enabled": true, "transport": "stdio", "args_count": 2, "env_count": 0, "status": "ok"}
    ]
  },
  "sandbox": {
    "available": true,
    "kind": "macos_seatbelt"
  }
}

HTTP/SSE runtime API: codewhale app-server --http

codewhale app-server --http [--host 127.0.0.1] [--port 7878] [--workers 2] [--auth-token TOKEN] [--insecure-no-auth]
codewhale app-server --mobile [--host 0.0.0.0] [--port 7878] [--auth-token TOKEN]
codewhale app-server --mobile --host 127.0.0.1 [--port 7878] [--insecure-no-auth]
codewhale web [--port 7878]

# Compatibility aliases — identical server, serve flag names:
codewhale serve --http   [...] [--insecure]
codewhale serve --mobile [...] [--insecure]

Defaults: host 127.0.0.1, port 7878, 2 workers (clamped 1–8).

The server binds to localhost by default. Configuration is via CLI flags — there is no [app_server] config section.

/v1/* routes require a bearer token unless codewhale app-server is started with --insecure-no-auth on a loopback bind such as 127.0.0.1. Do not combine no-auth mode with the --mobile default host 0.0.0.0; use a token for LAN mobile access, or add --host 127.0.0.1 for local-only no-auth testing. The codewhale serve compatibility aliases use --insecure for the same loopback escape hatch. Pass --auth-token TOKEN or set CODEWHALE_RUNTIME_TOKEN=TOKEN before starting the server; DEEPSEEK_RUNTIME_TOKEN remains a compatibility alias. If neither is set, the process generates a Runtime token for that process and does not print it. /health, /v1/runtime/info, and an enabled static client shell remain public; Runtime mutations and thread data stay behind /v1/* authentication. /mobile returns 404 when mobile mode is disabled and serves the unchanged static shell when it is enabled.

Authenticated clients can provide the token as Authorization: Bearer TOKEN, X-Codewhale-Runtime-Token: TOKEN, the legacy X-DeepSeek-Runtime-Token: TOKEN, or the codewhale_runtime_token cookie. Query-string authentication is not supported.

Local browser client

codewhale web starts the canonical Runtime API on 127.0.0.1, serves dependency-free assets embedded in the binary, and opens the default browser. It cannot bind to a non-loopback host and cannot run with Runtime auth disabled.

The browser-launch URL contains a random, short-lived, one-time bootstrap capability, never the Runtime token. A loopback request exchanges that capability for a codewhale_web_session=…; HttpOnly; SameSite=Strict; Path=/ cookie backed by a single process-local server session that expires 12 hours after the server process starts, consumes the capability immediately, and redirects to /. Reused, expired, malformed, or non-loopback bootstrap attempts fail closed. The Runtime bearer token is not placed in rendered HTML, browser storage, logs, URL queries/fragments, or browser-launch arguments. The one-time bootstrap capability does transit the OS browser launcher's argument list for a sub-second window; a same-user process scraping the process table in that window could race the browser to the exchange, which is why the capability is single-use, loopback-only, and expiring — and why a same-user attacker has strictly easier local avenues than this race. Existing bearer/header/cookie authorization for /v1/* is unchanged outside web mode. In web mode, cookie-authenticated unsafe requests must also carry the exact local web origin, and Fetch Metadata identifying a cross-origin cookie request is rejected. Explicit bearer and Runtime-token header clients keep their existing behavior.

The v0.9.1 client provides a responsive thread/search rail, Runtime-owned session facts, transcript and tool receipts, and a bottom composer. It can create, select, rename, and archive threads; start or steer turns; interrupt work; resolve approvals; and answer Runtime user-input requests. Selection loads GET /v1/threads/{id} first, then opens the replayable event stream with since_seq=latest_seq; reconnection advances from the newest accepted sequence and drops duplicates or events from a stale selection. The thread detail snapshot includes pending_approvals, pending_user_inputs, and pending_dynamic_tool_calls; clients must hydrate those fields before subscribing so a reload cannot strand work whose request event is at or before latest_seq. Resolution is also published as approval.decided, user_input.answered, user_input.canceled, tool_call.resolved, tool_call.canceled, or tool_call.timeout for already-connected clients.

Model, mode, permission posture, workspace, and branch are display-only in this client. Files/Changes, PTY/terminal, preview, artifacts, provider login/model selection, Fleet creation, and undo/retry/restore controls are intentionally absent until the Runtime publishes explicit contracts for them.

Mobile control page

codewhale serve --mobile starts the same HTTP/SSE runtime API and serves a phone-friendly control page at /mobile. When the bind host is left at the default, mobile mode binds to 0.0.0.0, prints a warning, and prints local/LAN URLs. Pass --host 127.0.0.1 to keep the mobile page loopback-only. The static HTML page contains no secrets and is not itself token-gated. Its calls to /v1/* are authenticated: for LAN use, start with an explicit Runtime token and enter it in the page. Generated Runtime tokens are deliberately unprinted, so they cannot be copied into another device.

The mobile page can list/create threads, send prompts, follow live SSE events, steer or interrupt an active turn, and resolve normal tool approvals through POST /v1/approvals/{approval_id}. It is still a local/LAN convenience surface: do not expose it directly to the public internet without TLS and a trusted fronting layer.

Endpoints

Health

  • GET /health

Sessions (durable session manager)

  • GET /v1/sessions?limit=50&search=<fuzzy>&include_archived=false&archived_only=false&workspace=<path>&sort=recent|name|size
  • GET /v1/sessions/summary?… (same query params; projected row shape)
  • GET /v1/sessions/{id} (add ?peek=true&entries=12 for a bounded, redacted read-only peek instead of the full transcript)
  • PATCH /v1/sessions/{id} ({ "title"?: string, "archived"?: bool })
  • DELETE /v1/sessions/{id}
  • POST /v1/sessions/{id}/resume-thread

Sessions and threads answer the same include_archived / archived_only pair with the same meaning, and search is the same fuzzy match (title, id, workspace — substring, then subsequence) the TUI session picker and the sidebar Sessions rail use. All three surfaces run one projection (crates/tui/src/session_projection.rs), so a listing cannot differ between the terminal and the dashboard.

GET /v1/sessions/summary returns rows that are field-compatible with GET /v1/threads/summary — id, title, preview, model, mode, workspace, archived, updated_at — plus message_count, total_tokens, created_at, parent_session_id, and is_current. One caveat stated plainly: preview is the session's recorded title, not its last message. Session metadata does not store a last message, and reading every transcript to synthesise one would make a list view an unbounded read. Full transcript preview lives in the TUI session picker, which reads one selected session.

PATCH /v1/sessions/{id} renames and/or archives a saved session and returns a lifecycle receipt shaped like the thread patch receipt:

{
  "session": { "id": "…", "title": "Renamed", "archived": true, "…": "…" },
  "changes": { "title": "Renamed", "archived": true }
}

changes lists only what actually moved, so a no-op patch is distinguishable from an applied one. Archiving is durable and reversible: an archived session stays on disk and stays loadable, disappears from default listings, and is never chosen by --continue or by auto-resume. The route is the same writer the TUI picker (e) and /sessions archive <id> use — there is no second archive notion.

While a session is open in an interactive Codewhale process, that process holds the authoritative copy in memory and rewrites the whole document on its next autosave. PATCH therefore fails closed on it with 409 Conflict rather than writing something that would be silently reverted. Change it in the terminal instead. A standalone codewhale web holds nothing open and is never blocked.

GET /v1/sessions/{id}?peek=true returns a bounded, redacted, read-only view instead of the transcript: at most 12 entries of at most 400 characters each (&entries=N lowers the budget, never raises it past the cap), tool calls and results summarised to a name and a size rather than inlined, and credential-shaped substrings masked. omitted_before reports how many earlier messages were dropped. The payload carries "live": false and deliberately has no turn status, running, or active field — a saved session is a recording, and live state comes only from a resumed thread's SSE stream.

Threads (durable runtime data model)

  • GET /v1/threads?limit=50&include_archived=false&archived_only=false
  • GET /v1/threads/summary?limit=50&search=<optional>&include_archived=false&archived_only=false
  • POST /v1/threads
  • GET /v1/threads/{id}
  • PATCH /v1/threads/{id} (see body shape below)
  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/resume
  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/fork

GET /v1/threads/summary is the read-only summary surface used by the VS Code Agent View. Each item includes id, title, preview, model, mode, archived, updated_at, latest_turn_id, latest_turn_status, plus workspace metadata:

{
  "id": "thread_...",
  "title": "Implement MCP status count",
  "preview": "The TUI footer should count project MCP servers...",
  "model": "deepseek-v4-pro",
  "mode": "agent",
  "branch": "feature/runtime-api",
  "head": "abc1234",
  "dirty": false,
  "workspace": "/Users/you/projects/codewhale",
  "archived": false,
  "updated_at": "2026-06-06T05:43:00Z",
  "latest_turn_id": "turn_...",
  "latest_turn_status": "completed"
}

branch is resolved from the thread workspace at request time and may be null when the workspace is not a Git repository or the branch cannot be read. head is the current short Git commit for that workspace when available. dirty is true when the workspace has staged, unstaged, or untracked changes. workspace is included so editor clients can show when an agent lane is working outside the current VS Code folder.

Thread forks are sibling runtime threads, not an in-place tree projection. thread.forked events include source_thread_id; internal backtrack-aware forks may also include backtrack_depth_from_tail and dropped_turn_id. Thread list and summary responses remain flat in v0.8.40, so clients that need a graph should reconstruct it from events instead of assuming list order is a complete tree.

archived_only=true returns archived threads only (mutually overrides include_archived). Default behavior is unchanged: include_archived=false and archived_only=false returns active threads. Added in v0.8.10 (#563).

PATCH /v1/threads/{id} body — every field is optional, missing means "no change". At least one field must be present. title and system_prompt accept an empty string to clear a previously-set value. Added in v0.8.10 (#562):

{
  "archived": true,
  "allow_shell": false,
  "trust_mode": false,
  "auto_approve": false,
  "model": "deepseek-v4-pro",
  "mode": "agent",
  "title": "User-set thread title",
  "system_prompt": "You are a useful assistant."
}

Turns (within a thread)

  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns
  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/steer
  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/interrupt
  • POST /v1/threads/{id}/compact (manual compaction)

Approvals

  • POST /v1/approvals/{approval_id} with body { "decision": "allow" | "deny", "remember": false }

User input

  • POST /v1/user-input/{thread_id}/{input_id} with body { "answers": [{ "id": "question-id", "label": "Choice", "value": "Choice" }] }

Submitted values are delivered to the active model turn but are deliberately excluded from durable Runtime items and events. The settled tool item contains only a neutral receipt and a machine-readable response_redacted marker. The Runtime accepts only an exact pending (thread_id, input_id) request; an unknown, concurrently settling, or already settled id returns 404 and is never placed in the engine mailbox. It commits the secret-free user_input.answered receipt before removing the snapshot-authoritative prompt or delivering the answer to the engine. That settlement runs independently of the HTTP connection, so disconnecting after submission cannot leave a prompt half accepted. Terminal-turn cancellation follows the same receipt-before- removal ordering through user_input.canceled.

Client-executed dynamic tools

  • POST /v1/threads/{thread_id}/turns/{turn_id}/tool-calls/{call_id}/result

The thread and turn in the result route must match the pending call. A call is settled at most once; wrong-route and duplicate results return 404. Terminal lifecycle events carry identifiers and status only, never tool result content. The Runtime commits the terminal lifecycle event before making a submitted result available to the model. Result delivery, timeout, and terminal-turn cancellation race through one settlement owner, so exactly one of these events is durable for a call:

  • tool_call.requested — the typed client-executed call became pending;
  • tool_call.resolved — a result was durably accepted by the Runtime (result_accepted: true; success is result metadata, but result content is excluded);
  • tool_call.timeout — no result won before the bounded wait expired;
  • tool_call.canceled — the turn terminated before a submitted result won.

HTTP 202 Accepted and tool_call.resolved share that durable-acceptance meaning. Neither claims that the model consumed the result: a concurrent turn shutdown may close the model receiver after acceptance. Once the Runtime has accepted the result, that call is terminal and a duplicate result returns 404.

Events (SSE replay + live stream)

  • GET /v1/threads/{id}/events?since_seq=<u64>

Durable history parsing runs off the async server workers and reaches SSE in bounded batches of at most 256 events through a backpressured channel. Broadcast delivery is only a wake-up optimization: a lagged receiver opens the same bounded durable replay from its last accepted cursor. Optional replay_limit returns the newest requested tail and may not exceed 4096; previous_seq on the first returned event advances past exactly the omitted history.

Snapshots (read-only side-git restore point listing)

  • GET /v1/snapshots?limit=20

/v1/snapshots lists recent side-git restore points for the runtime workspace. It is read-only and does not restore files. limit defaults to 20 and must be between 1 and 100.

[
  {
    "id": "snap_...",
    "label": "post-turn:1",
    "timestamp": 1780730580
  }
]

Runtime API restore/retry/undo/editor-apply mutation endpoints are intentionally deferred. GUI clients should treat thread summaries and snapshots as inspection surfaces until atomic filesystem + conversation-state mutation semantics are specified and tested.

Receipts (future read-only audit export)

  • Proposed only: GET /v1/threads/{thread_id}/turns/{turn_id}/receipt

Compatibility stream (one-shot, backwards-compatible)

  • POST /v1/stream

Tasks (durable background work)

  • GET /v1/tasks
  • POST /v1/tasks
  • GET /v1/tasks/{id}
  • POST /v1/tasks/{id}/cancel

Automations (scheduled recurring work)

  • GET /v1/automations
  • POST /v1/automations
  • GET /v1/automations/{id}
  • PATCH /v1/automations/{id}
  • DELETE /v1/automations/{id}
  • POST /v1/automations/{id}/run
  • POST /v1/automations/{id}/pause
  • POST /v1/automations/{id}/resume
  • GET /v1/automations/{id}/runs?limit=20

Introspection

  • GET /v1/workspace/status
  • GET /v1/skills
  • GET /v1/apps/mcp/servers
  • GET /v1/apps/mcp/tools?server=<optional>

Skill activation toggles are persisted under a cross-process transaction lock. Each mutation reloads and merges the latest exact-name state before an atomic write, and GET /v1/skills refreshes that shared state so another Codewhale process's successful toggle is visible without restarting the Runtime API.

Usage (token/cost aggregation across threads)

  • GET /v1/usage?since=<rfc3339>&until=<rfc3339>&group_by=<day|model|provider|thread>

since / until are inclusive RFC 3339 timestamps and may be omitted (no bound). group_by defaults to day. Buckets are sorted by ascending key. Empty time ranges produce empty buckets (never a 404). Cost is computed via the model→pricing map; turns whose model has no pricing entry contribute tokens but 0.0 cost. Added in v0.8.10 (#564).

{
  "since": "2026-04-01T00:00:00Z",
  "until": "2026-04-30T23:59:59Z",
  "group_by": "day",
  "totals": {
    "input_tokens": 12345,
    "output_tokens": 6789,
    "cached_tokens": 0,
    "reasoning_tokens": 0,
    "cost_usd": 0.012,
    "turns": 42
  },
  "buckets": [
    {
      "key": "2026-04-30",
      "input_tokens": 1234,
      "output_tokens": 678,
      "cached_tokens": 0,
      "reasoning_tokens": 0,
      "cost_usd": 0.001,
      "turns": 3
    }
  ]
}

Provider and model selection

These three routes are how a GUI renders a model picker whose contents are true for this runtime instead of guessed from a version snapshot. They were undocumented until 2026-08-04, which cost a desktop integration a day: the client probed /v1/models, /v1/runtime/models, and /v1/runtime/providers (all correctly 404) and concluded the capability did not exist.

GET /v1/providers

{
  "current": "modelstudio-token-plan",
  "providers": [
    {
      "id": "modelstudio-token-plan",
      "display_name": "Alibaba Cloud Model Studio",
      "default_base_url": "https://…/compatible-mode/v1",
      "default_model": "qwen3.8-max",
      "has_model_catalog": true,
      "env_vars": ["MODELSTUDIO_API_KEY", "DASHSCOPE_API_KEY"]
    }
  ]
}

current is the active provider id. Treat default_base_url and env_vars as runtime-local detail: they are endpoint and credential names, and a browser layer has no use for either. Project only id, display_name, default_model, and has_model_catalog across a UI bridge.

There is deliberately no credential-presence field yet — this route reports what the runtime can represent, not what it can currently serve. A client that needs "is this route usable here" can call the models route below and treat an empty list as unusable, at the cost of one request per provider.

GET /v1/providers/{id}/models

{ "provider": "modelstudio-token-plan", "models": [{ "id": "qwen3.8-max" }] }

The catalog for one provider. Returns 400 for an unknown id, and for the legacy deepseek-cn alias, which has no provider metadata — use deepseek. An empty models array means the provider is not configured on this machine (no credential), not that the provider has no models.

The ids returned here are exactly the values accepted by POST /v1/threads's model field and by the switch route below.

POST /v1/providers/{id}/switch

// request  (model is optional; omit to take the provider default)
{ "model": "qwen3.8-max" }

// response
{ "provider": "modelstudio-token-plan", "model": "qwen3.8-max",
  "message": "…", "persisted": true }

Use this rather than simulating a switch with repeated POST /v1/config writes plus a reload. Provider and model move together here, the change is validated against the provider's catalog before it is applied, and persisted reports whether it was written to config or applied to the live session only. Rejects an unknown provider id and the deepseek-cn alias with 400.

Runtime data model

The runtime uses a durable Thread/Turn/Item lifecycle.

  • ThreadRecord — id, created_at, updated_at, model, workspace, mode, task_id, system_prompt, latest_turn_id, latest_response_bookmark, archived
  • TurnRecord — id, thread_id, status (queued|in_progress|completed| failed|interrupted|canceled), effective_provider, effective_model, effective_billing_surface, timestamps, duration, usage, error summary
  • TurnItemRecord — id, turn_id, kind (user_message|agent_message| tool_call|file_change|command_execution|context_compaction|status|error), lifecycle status, metadata

Events are append-only with a global monotonic seq for replay/resume.

effective_billing_surface is a non-secret classification derived from the endpoint that served the turn. Recognized StepFun routes use stepfun-payg or stepfun-plan; unknown and custom endpoints leave it unset. The raw base URL is not persisted in TurnRecord.

Restart semantics

  • If the process restarts while a turn or item is queued or in_progress, the recovered record is marked interrupted with an "Interrupted by process restart" error.
  • The trailing newline is an event append's commit marker. On startup, a final JSONL fragment without that delimiter is truncated and fsynced even when its bytes form valid JSON; it is an uncommitted append, and its already-reserved sequence number is not reused. Newline-terminated malformed records are not identifiable crash debris and continue to fail closed during replay.
  • If a terminal turn record reached disk but its terminal event sequence did not, the first async read reconciles any unresolved dynamic calls as tool_call.canceled and then emits one turn.completed. Existing terminal call and turn receipts are detected and never duplicated.
  • Task execution performs its own recovery on top of the same persisted thread/turn store.

Approval model

  • The auto_approve flag applies to the runtime approval bridge and engine tool context. When enabled for a thread/turn/task, approval-required tools are auto-approved in the non-interactive runtime path, shell safety checks run in auto-approved mode, and spawned sub-agents inherit that setting.
  • When omitted, auto_approve defaults to false.
  • Authorization order describes where typed rules, registered tool requirements, safety floors, repository law, approval transport, and sandbox enforcement sit relative to one another.

SSE event stream

The SSE event payload shape for /v1/threads/{id}/events:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "seq": 42,
  "previous_seq": 38,
  "event": "item.delta",
  "kind": "item.delta",
  "thread_id": "thr_1234abcd",
  "turn_id": "turn_5678efgh",
  "item_id": "item_90ab12cd",
  "timestamp": "2026-02-11T20:18:49.123Z",
  "created_at": "2026-02-11T20:18:49.123Z",
  "payload": {
    "delta": "partial output",
    "kind": "agent_message"
  }
}

Compatibility notes:

  • schema_version is the HTTP/SSE envelope schema version. It is independent of the runtime store schema used for persisted thread/turn/event records.
  • event remains the SSE event name in existing clients; it is preserved as-is.
  • kind mirrors event in the stable envelope for typed clients.
  • seq is allocated globally across all Runtime threads. Consequently, gaps between a thread's events are normal when other threads interleave. On this per-thread SSE stream, previous_seq is the sequence of the last event delivered for this thread (or the requested replay cursor for the first event); clients detect loss by comparing it with their accepted per-thread cursor, not by requiring seq == previous_seq + 1. Sequence allocation is also not rewound after an append is transactionally rolled back, so a retry can intentionally skip an unused value without implying a missing event.
  • thread.started, turn.started, and turn.completed are emitted as SSE event names exactly as before.
  • timestamp remains the canonical event time for schema version 1. created_at is an equivalent alias for clients that use created_at naming elsewhere; do not require both fields to be present.

Common event names: thread.started, thread.forked, turn.started, turn.lifecycle, turn.steered, turn.interrupt_requested, turn.completed, item.started, item.delta, item.completed, item.failed, item.interrupted, approval.required, approval.decided, approval.timeout, user_input.required, user_input.answered, user_input.canceled, tool_call.requested, tool_call.resolved, tool_call.timeout, tool_call.canceled, sandbox.denied.

Agent-message and reasoning deltas are materialized into the item projection before their corresponding item.delta event is sequenced. To avoid an fsync for every provider fragment, adjacent deltas are coalesced to configured bounds of at most 32 ms or approximately 16 KiB before publication (an indivisible upstream chunk can itself exceed the byte target). A process crash inside that unpublished window can lose the recent suffix; no durable event claims that suffix existed. Once an item.delta is durable, snapshots at or beyond its cursor include the same materialized prefix.

approval.required events may include a matched_rule string when an execution-policy rule caused the prompt. This field is explanatory metadata for clients and does not grant or persist permissions.

Security boundary

  • Localhost by default. The server binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. --mobile binds to 0.0.0.0 when no host is supplied so phones on the same LAN can reach it, and the CLI prints a warning for that rebind. Pass --host 127.0.0.1 for a loopback-only mobile page. Set a non-loopback host only when you trust the network path or have a reverse-proxy / VPN that authenticates. The runtime does not provide user isolation or TLS.
  • Optional token guard. --auth-token or DEEPSEEK_RUNTIME_TOKEN requires a matching bearer token for /v1/* routes. This is a local convenience guard, not a replacement for TLS, VPN, or a trusted reverse proxy on public networks.
  • No provider-token custody. The server never returns the API key. The api_key.source capability field reports env, config, or missing — never the key itself.
  • No hosted relay. The app-server is a local process under the user's control. There is no cloud component.
  • Capability responses never leak secrets, file contents, or session message bodies. They report metadata: presence, counts, status flags.

CORS allow-list

The runtime API ships with a built-in dev-origin allow-list: http://localhost:3000, http://127.0.0.1:3000, http://localhost:1420, http://127.0.0.1:1420, tauri://localhost. To add additional origins (e.g. when developing a UI on Vite's default :5173), use any of:

  • CLI flag (repeatable): codewhale serve --http --cors-origin http://localhost:5173
  • Env var (comma-separated): DEEPSEEK_CORS_ORIGINS="http://localhost:5173,http://localhost:8080"
  • Config (~/.codewhale/config.toml): 
    [runtime_api]
cors_origins = ["http://localhost:5173"]

User-supplied origins stack on top of the built-in defaults; they do not replace them. Wildcard origins are not supported — the explicit allow-list model is preserved. Cross-origin preflights advertise only Authorization, Content-Type, Accept, X-Codewhale-Runtime-Token, and the compatibility X-DeepSeek-Runtime-Token request header; custom request headers are not allowed. Added in v0.8.10 (#561), tightened in v0.9.1 (#4454).

Managed Fleet Runtime and SDK helpers

The Runtime SDK lives in npm/runtime-sdk and is exposed as the @codewhale/runtime-sdk workspace package. It is deliberately thin: every helper calls the local Rust Runtime API and therefore cannot bypass Codewhale's sandbox, approval prompts, provider configuration, or fleet ledger authority.

import { createRuntimeClient } from "@codewhale/runtime-sdk";

const client = createRuntimeClient({
  baseUrl: "http://127.0.0.1:7878",
  token: process.env.CODEWHALE_RUNTIME_TOKEN,
});

const created = await client.createFleetRun({
  target: "this_computer",
  roles: [{ name: "reviewer" }, { name: "verifier" }],
  workflow: {
    id: "release-check",
    kind: "parallel",
    tasks: [
      { id: "review", name: "Review", instructions: "Review locally.", worker: { role: "reviewer" } },
      { id: "verify", name: "Verify", instructions: "Verify locally.", worker: { role: "verifier" } },
    ],
  },
});

// POST /runs only prepares durable work. This call crosses the launch gate.
await client.startFleetRun(created.run.id);

let cursor;
for await (const event of client.fleetEvents(created.run.id, { after: cursor })) {
  if (event.cursor) cursor = event.cursor;
  if (event.event === "fleet.replay.cursor_unavailable") {
    // Reload getFleetRun(created.run.id), then reconnect without the old cursor.
  }
}

The managed path is deliberately two-step. POST /v1/fleet/runs validates and persists the run and queue without starting a worker. A separate authenticated POST /start activates it and schedules the executor driver; its 202 response reports leased: 0 because the driver performs all leasing after it owns the run. Creation requires named roles, one task owner per role, a parallel Workflow, and an explicit Runtime target. v0.9.4 executes only this_computer; another_computer and cloud return 501 rather than silently executing locally. Worker IDs are generated per run; caller-assigned worker_specs return 501 until custom workers can be given collision-free managed identities. Parallel tasks with overlapping effective write roots are rejected before the run is journaled. Managed security_policy overrides also fail closed until that document can be enforced end to end; executable authority comes from each named role's tool posture and bounded task workspace scope.

Fleet helpers cover this HTTP surface:

Helper Runtime API route
createFleetRun(spec) POST /v1/fleet/runs
startFleetRun(runId) POST /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}/start
listFleetRuns() GET /v1/fleet/runs
getFleetRun(runId) GET /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}
listFleetWorkers(runId) GET /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}/workers
getFleetWorker(workerId) GET /v1/fleet/workers/{worker_id}
interruptWorker(workerId) POST /v1/fleet/workers/{worker_id}/interrupt
stopWorker(workerId) POST /v1/fleet/workers/{worker_id}/stop
restartWorker(workerId) POST /v1/fleet/workers/{worker_id}/restart
stopFleetRun(runId) POST /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}/stop
replayFleetEvents(runId, options) GET /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}/events/replay
fleetEvents(runId, options) GET /v1/fleet/runs/{run_id}/events (SSE)

stopWorker durably cancels that worker's active task and leaves the rest of the Fleet running. interruptWorker is the compatibility name for the same attempt-fenced cancellation transition. stopFleetRun cancels every queued or active task and marks the whole run cancelled.

Replay covers aggregate run/task transitions and privacy-bounded individual worker transitions. Event bodies omit prompts, tool call IDs, completion text, artifact paths/checksums, and cancellation identities; bounded failure reasons pass through secret redaction. cursor is opaque and stable across ordinary appends and Runtime restarts. Clients reconnect with after=<cursor>. A fresh request returns a bounded newest tail and marks history_truncated when older history exists. Ledger compaction can remove an old cursor; the JSON endpoint then returns 409, while the SSE endpoint emits fleet.replay.cursor_unavailable, so the client reloads the current run projection instead of accepting a silent gap.

GET /v1/runtime/info advertises fleet_run_create, fleet_run_start, fleet_event_replay, fleet_event_stream, and fleet_local_target. Older runtimes without a requested route still produce a typed SDK RuntimeCapabilityError.

Verification:

npm test --workspace @codewhale/runtime-sdk

Agent Run Receipts

Sub-agent lanes persist compact run receipts in .codewhale/state/subagents.v1.json. The Runtime API exposes those receipts as a read-only inspection surface:

Operation Endpoint
List persisted agent runs GET /v1/agent-runs
Inspect one run GET /v1/agent-runs/{run_id}

The response is the same worker-record shape surfaced by agent receipts: spec.run_id, actor_kind, lifecycle status, bounded events, follow_up, takeover, artifacts, usage, and verification. run_id falls back to the worker id for older records, and {run_id} may be either the run id or the worker id.

These endpoints do not start, cancel, or steer sub-agents. The API surface exists so app/editor/headless clients can inspect the same handoff receipts that the TUI and parent model see.

Session lifecycle (native UI supervision)

Operation Endpoint
List sessions GET /v1/sessions
List session summaries GET /v1/sessions/summary
Get session GET /v1/sessions/{id}
Rename / archive session PATCH /v1/sessions/{id}
Delete session DELETE /v1/sessions/{id}
Resume into thread POST /v1/sessions/{id}/resume-thread
Create thread POST /v1/threads
List threads GET /v1/threads
Attach to events GET /v1/threads/{id}/events?since_seq=0
Send message POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns
Steer POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/steer
Interrupt POST /v1/threads/{id}/turns/{turn_id}/interrupt
Compact POST /v1/threads/{id}/compact

Compatibility tests

Contract snapshots live in crates/protocol/tests/. Run:

cargo test -p codewhale-protocol --test parity_protocol --locked

This validates that the app-server's event schema hasn't drifted from the documented contract. CI runs this on every push to main and on release tags.

The app-server stdio control surface has its own drift guard — the advertised capabilities method set is pinned in crates/app-server/src/lib.rs:

cargo test -p codewhale-app-server capabilities

Before a release, run the headless smoke (stdio probe + optional provider matrix, no secrets leaked):

scripts/release/app-server-smoke.sh --matrix        # dry-run plan
bash scripts/release/app-server-smoke.test.sh       # parser self-test (fake binary)