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All JSON API endpoints in World Monitor must use sebuf. Do not create standalone api/*.js or api/*.ts files for new data APIs — the legacy pattern is deprecated and being removed. This guide walks through adding a new RPC to an existing service and adding an entirely new service.
Enforcement: npm run lint:api-contract runs in CI (see .github/workflows/lint-code.yml). It walks every file under api/, pairs each sebuf gateway (api/<domain>/v<N>/[rpc].ts) with a generated service under src/generated/server/worldmonitor/, and rejects any file that is neither a gateway nor listed in api/api-route-exceptions.json. The manifest is the only escape hatch for endpoints that genuinely cannot be proto — OAuth callbacks, binary responses, upstream proxies, operator plumbing — and every entry is pinned to @SebastienMelki via .github/CODEOWNERS. Expect reviewer pushback on new entries. Generation freshness: After modifying any .proto file, run make generate before pushing. The generated TypeScript in src/generated/ is checked in and must stay in sync; .github/workflows/proto-check.yml fails the PR if it drifts.

Prerequisites

You need Go 1.21+ and Node.js 18+ installed. Everything else is installed automatically:
This installs:
  • buf — proto linting, dependency management, and code generation orchestrator
  • protoc-gen-ts-client — generates TypeScript client classes (from sebuf)
  • protoc-gen-ts-server — generates TypeScript server handler interfaces (from sebuf)
  • protoc-gen-openapiv3 — generates OpenAPI v3 specs (from sebuf)
  • npm dependencies — all Node.js packages
Run code generation from the repo root:
This produces three outputs per service:
  • src/generated/client/{domain}/v1/service_client.ts — typed fetch client for the frontend
  • src/generated/server/{domain}/v1/service_server.ts — handler interface + route factory for the backend
  • docs/api/{Domain}Service.openapi.yaml + .json — OpenAPI v3 documentation

Adding an RPC to an existing service

Example: adding GetEarthquakeDetails to SeismologyService.

1. Define the request/response messages

Create proto/worldmonitor/seismology/v1/get_earthquake_details.proto:

2. Add the RPC to the service definition

Edit proto/worldmonitor/seismology/v1/service.proto:

3. Lint and generate

At this point, npx tsc --noEmit will fail because the handler doesn’t implement the new method yet. This is by design — the compiler enforces the contract.

4. Implement the handler

Create server/worldmonitor/seismology/v1/get-earthquake-details.ts:

5. Wire it into the handler re-export

Edit server/worldmonitor/seismology/v1/handler.ts:

6. Verify

The route is already live through the domain gateway in api/seismology/v1/[rpc].ts. createSeismologyServiceRoutes() picks up the new RPC automatically — no route-table or vite.config.ts edits are needed.

7. Check the generated docs

Open docs/api/SeismologyService.openapi.yaml — the new endpoint should appear with all validation constraints from your proto annotations.

Adding a new service

Example: adding a hypothetical WeatherService. (No weather domain exists in this repo — the example below is purely illustrative; copy-pasting any path from this section will hit a 404.)

1. Create the proto directory

2. Define entity messages

Create proto/worldmonitor/weather/v1/weather_station.proto:

3. Define request/response messages

Create proto/worldmonitor/weather/v1/list_weather_stations.proto:

4. Define the service

Create proto/worldmonitor/weather/v1/service.proto:

5. Generate

6. Implement the handler

Create the handler directory and files:
server/worldmonitor/weather/v1/list-weather-stations.ts:
server/worldmonitor/weather/v1/handler.ts:

7. Add the per-domain edge gateway

Create api/weather/v1/[rpc].ts as the thin Edge entry point for this service:
There is no repository-wide catch-all gateway file or shared route array to edit. Each service owns its api/<domain>/v1/[rpc].ts gateway, and the generated create<Service>Routes(...) function enforces the RPC path names and HTTP annotations for that domain.

8. Register in the Vite dev server

Edit vite.config.ts — add the lazy import and route mount inside the sebufApiPlugin() function. Follow the existing pattern (search for any other service to see the exact locations).

9. Create the frontend service wrapper

Create src/services/weather.ts:

10. Verify

MCP exposure decision

Every new public OpenAPI operation needs an explicit MCP decision before review. MCP is a curated agent surface, not a 1:1 mirror of REST: expose operations that are safe, predictable, and useful as tools; keep REST-only operations documented when they mutate state, spend per-call LLM or upstream budget, or need manual cache-key review. Use this checklist for each new or changed RPC:
  • Decide whether this operation should be exposed to MCP.
  • If yes, identify the owning MCP tool and add the exact METHOD /api/... entry to that tool’s _apiPaths.
  • If cache-backed, confirm the tool has the right _cacheKeys / _coverageKeys, freshness metadata, and seed-meta:<key> health coverage.
  • If no, add or update the tests/mcp-api-parity.test.mjs exclusion with the matching category prefix and a concrete reason.
  • If fetch-on-miss, include one enforced secondary signal (high-cardinality-input, paid-upstream, or llm-cost) and name the upstream cost, cardinality, and tier policy that makes open MCP exposure unsafe for now.
  • If mutating or llm-passthrough, document the separate threat/cost model before proposing an MCP wrapper. For mutating, answer every question in Mutating MCP tools.
  • Run ./node_modules/.bin/tsx --test tests/mcp-api-parity.test.mjs and include the result in the PR.
A covered operation is declared in a tool _apiPaths entry. For REST-only operations, the parity test accepts these exclusion categories: The MCP reference docs render the current _apiPaths coverage table in MCP Overview. The parity test is canonical for the current covered/excluded split, so do not rely on stale counts in a PR description.

Mutating MCP tools

Every MCP tool is read-only today. The agent feedback channel (#8721) plans the first one that writes. A tool that writes state is a new kind of surface: any agent can call it, often without an account, and its input reaches people and systems we own. Before a mutating operation gets an MCP wrapper, write a decision record in docs/architecture/ that answers each question below with a concrete value, and link it from the PR.
  1. Abuse. Can an anonymous caller trigger the write? What are the per-IP, per-principal, and global limits, and which code enforces each one on each entry path? The MCP door does not pass through the gateway’s endpoint limiter. Are they all fail-closed, including when Redis is degraded? A global bucket is required whenever anonymous writes are allowed, because IP rotation defeats per-IP limits. Define which callers count as keyed; free accounts and anonymous sessions cost nothing to create.
  2. Idempotency. What happens when the same call arrives twice? Name the key that identifies a retry. Keep retry handling separate from any content deduplication, which can silently drop a later caller’s evidence. Set idempotentHint from the answer, not by default.
  3. Injection. Who or what reads the stored text: email, terminal, GitHub, an LLM? How is the text escaped for each of them? Does any automation act on it?
  4. Privacy. What identity is stored, and is it derived from authentication or from the body? Which credential shapes are redacted at ingest? How long is each state retained?
  5. Cost. What is the daily ceiling for writes, storage, email, LLM spend, and upstream fetches at the configured limits?
  6. Tool contract. State the access class and all four annotations (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint). Name the downstream path. A free-tier tool must reach no credentialed downstream, so any exception has to be stated and pinned by test. Say how the tool obtains the caller’s IP, user agent, and request id, because _execute does not receive the request.
  7. Re-open conditions. Which future changes invalidate the record?
agent-feedback-threat-model.md is the first such record and a worked example. A second mutating tool needs its own record; it does not inherit an existing one or its exceptions.

Proto conventions

These conventions are enforced across the codebase. Follow them for consistency.

File naming

  • One file per message type: earthquake.proto, weather_station.proto
  • One file per RPC pair: list_earthquakes.proto, get_earthquake_details.proto
  • Service definition: service.proto
  • Use snake_case for file names and field names

Time fields

Always use int64 with Unix epoch milliseconds. Never use google.protobuf.Timestamp. Always add the INT64_ENCODING_NUMBER annotation so TypeScript gets number instead of string:

Validation annotations

Import buf/validate/validate.proto and annotate fields at the proto level. These constraints flow through to the generated OpenAPI spec automatically. Common patterns:

Shared core types

Reuse these instead of redefining:

Comments

buf lint enforces comments on all messages, fields, services, RPCs, and enum values. Every proto element must have a // comment. This is not optional — buf lint will fail without them.

Route paths

  • Service base path: /api/{domain}/v1
  • RPC path: /{verb}-{noun} in kebab-case (e.g., /list-earthquakes, /get-vessel-snapshot)

Handler typing

Always type the handler function against the generated interface using indexed access:
This ensures the compiler catches any mismatch between your implementation and the proto contract.

Client construction

Always pass { fetch: (...args) => globalThis.fetch(...args) } when creating clients:
The empty string base URL works because both Vite dev server and Vercel serve the API on the same origin. The arrow-function wrapper around globalThis.fetch is required for Tauri compatibility AND for the runtime fetch interceptor — fetch.bind(globalThis) is banned because it freezes a reference to the global fetch at module-init time, which bypasses any later interceptor (auth headers, request logging, retry shims) installed on globalThis.fetch. The arrow-function wrapper resolves globalThis.fetch on every call.

Generated documentation

Every time you run make generate, OpenAPI v3 specs are generated for each service:
  • docs/api/{Domain}Service.openapi.yaml — human-readable YAML
  • docs/api/{Domain}Service.openapi.json — machine-readable JSON
These specs include:
  • All endpoints with request/response schemas
  • Validation constraints from buf.validate annotations (min/max, required fields, ranges)
  • Field descriptions from proto comments
  • Error response schemas (400 validation errors, 500 server errors)
You do not need to write or maintain OpenAPI specs by hand. They are generated artifacts. If you need to change the API documentation, change the proto and regenerate.