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fix: require a compiled artifact for entrypoints.jobs
Module discovery gated the compiled-ESM rule on an allowlist,
`["schema", "server", "ui"]`, so `entrypoints.jobs` accepted
`./src/jobs/index.ts`. Every other executable entrypoint required a built
`.js` or `.mjs`; `jobs` did not, purely because it was never added to
that list. It is the second entrypoint to slip through the same way —
`ui` did too, until Phase 6A added it explicitly — which is the argument
against the allowlist rather than against `jobs`.

The rule is now expressed as "every entrypoint except a directory
entrypoint", with `migrations` the only member of that set. A new
manifest entrypoint therefore defaults to the stricter validation instead
of silently escaping it. The same constant replaces the two existing
`=== "migrations"` special cases for the file/directory kind check and
its message, so the one thing that distinguishes `migrations` is stated
once. The directory message is now templated and produces byte-identical
text.

Every other entrypoint guarantee is untouched: package-relative paths,
no traversal, inside-package before and after symlink resolution, the
artifact must exist, and it must be a file.

No runtime was added. `entrypoints.jobs` still has no consumer — it is
declared, validated, and never executed — exactly as it has been since
ADR 0006, and as `ui` was before its host loader existed. The manifest
schema is unchanged and this stays within v4: the field, its type, and
its optionality are all the same, and only discovery's validation of the
declared path tightened.

Compatibility impact is nil in first-party code: no module, template, or
fixture declares a `jobs` entrypoint at all. A third-party module
declaring a source-TypeScript path would now fail discovery, which is the
intended correction.

Tests cover accepted `.js` and `.mjs`, rejected `.ts`/`.tsx`/`.cjs`, a
missing artifact, a directory, a symlink escaping the package, and that
discovery still never evaluates the artifact. The three rejection cases
were confirmed to fail against the previous implementation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
2026-08-21 22:07:54 -05:00

207 lines
13 KiB
Markdown

# 0023: Module UI build pipeline
- Status: Accepted
- Date: 2026-08-21
- Extends: [0022](0022-module-ui-authoring-and-host-contract.md)
## Context
ADR 0022 defined what a module UI is — a compiled artifact default-exporting
`defineModuleUi({ id, version, mount })` — and selected React and TypeScript as the supported
authoring model. It closed by recording that the contract was not yet buildable end to end:
`browser.json` sets `"jsx": "preserve"`, which needs a bundler that no module had, `.css` and
bundler plugins were denied, and nothing turned a module's `.tsx` into the artifact its manifest
declares.
So a module author could read the contract but not satisfy it. This ADR closes exactly that gap and
nothing else.
## Decision
### esbuild is the module UI bundler
esbuild produces the compiled artifact. It was already the right answer before it was chosen: the
repository resolves esbuild 0.28.1 today through Vite/Vitest, and `pnpm-workspace.yaml` already
carries `allowBuilds: esbuild: true`, so its native binary is an accepted, reviewed part of this
workspace. It is pinned to that same 0.28.1 rather than a floating range, so no second copy enters
the store.
It is also the smallest tool that satisfies every requirement: TSX transformation, ESM output,
browser platform, bundling, source maps, and a define-time constant, with no plugin ecosystem and no
application framework. Vite library mode was rejected because it would pull a Rollup build plus
`@vitejs/plugin-react` — a package the module boundary deliberately denies — for output this does
not need. tsup was rejected as an esbuild wrapper that adds a dependency and no capability. Plain
`tsc` cannot do it at all: it transpiles TSX but cannot bundle, so its output would carry bare
`react/jsx-runtime` and `react-dom/client` imports that no browser can resolve without an import map
the platform does not define.
### React and ReactDOM are bundled, never externalized
Every dependency, React included, is bundled into the artifact. Nothing is external, so a host
provides no modules, no globals, and no import map.
This follows directly from ADR 0022. That ADR made `mount()` the ABI *specifically* so React would
not be part of the host contract. Externalizing React would reverse that decision through the build
system: the host would have to supply a React runtime, module and host would be locked to compatible
majors, and a standalone host — or any host not written in React — could not load a module at all.
Host independence is the property this platform is trying to keep; bundle size is not.
The accepted cost is duplication: a page hosting several module UIs may load several React copies,
and the template's artifact is roughly 570 KB unminified. That is a real cost and it is deliberate.
Sharing one runtime later through peer dependencies, bundler externals, or an import map is a
build-pipeline optimization that **does not change the public contract**, because the contract is a
mount function rather than a component. It can be revisited when a real host exists to measure.
### Output is unminified browser ESM at the path the manifest declares
`format: "esm"`, `platform: "browser"`, `target: "es2022"` (matching `browser.json`), with source
maps, and `process.env.NODE_ENV` replaced at build time — React reads that at module scope, and
without substitution the artifact would reference a Node global that does not exist in a browser.
Output is **not** minified. Nothing else in this repository minifies, and
[the security model](../../development/security.md) asks an operator to review the artifact they
install; a minified bundle is materially harder to review.
The artifact path is not a build convention — it is read from the module's own manifest
`entrypoints.ui`, and the source is `src/ui/index.tsx` by convention. Deriving the output from the
manifest means the declared artifact and the produced artifact cannot drift, and the build validates
that path with `packageRelativePathSchema` from `@ekklesia/contracts`, the same grammar module
discovery enforces, so a build can never write somewhere discovery would later reject.
### `@ekklesia/module-ui-build` owns the configuration; modules own none
The bundler configuration lives in one shared package with the existing `tooling` role — a role
modules were already permitted to depend on, so **this pass required no boundary relaxation at
all**. A module author writes no bundler configuration; they place UI at `src/ui/index.tsx`, declare
`entrypoints.ui`, and run their normal build.
The package ships a committed launcher at `bin/ekklesia-build-module-ui.mjs` rather than pointing its
`bin` straight at compiled output. pnpm creates `.bin` links during `pnpm install`, which runs before
Turborepo builds anything, so a `bin` targeting `dist/cli.js` fails to link on a fresh clone and
every module's UI build breaks in CI. The committed launcher always exists, so the link always
succeeds, and it defers to the compiled CLI at run time.
A module with no `entrypoints.ui` is not an error: the CLI reports that there is nothing to build and
exits successfully, so one build script serves backend-only and UI-bearing modules alike.
### Styling is inline style objects only, for now
Module UI styles with React inline `style` objects. Stylesheet imports remain unsupported, and the
build **fails** on one rather than quietly emitting a sidecar.
esbuild would happily bundle `import "./styles.css"` into an `index.css` next to the artifact. No
manifest field declares that file, no host loads it, and nothing in the runtime contract mentions it
— so it would appear to work in a local test and silently do nothing in a real host. Emitting an
undeclared asset is worse than refusing one. `scripts/check-boundaries.ts` already rejects a `.css`
file authored inside a module; the build additionally rejects a stylesheet reached through a
dependency, with an explanatory error.
This is deliberately the smallest viable styling story. A real stylesheet contract needs a manifest
field, a host loading mechanism, and a style-isolation decision, none of which exist — and inventing
them here would expand the manifest and runtime contract before a host can validate them.
### Browser TypeScript stays scoped to UI source
`@ekklesia/typescript-config/browser-react.json` extends the existing `browser.json` and sets
`"jsx": "react-jsx"`, matching esbuild's `jsx: "automatic"` so typing and emission agree.
A module keeps separate TypeScript projects: its Node project continues to include `src/**/*.ts`,
which does not match `.tsx`, and a UI project covers `src/ui/**` with `"types": []`. Backend module
code therefore never inherits DOM globals, and UI source is never compiled with Node settings.
The reverse direction is weaker than it looks, and is recorded here rather than overstated.
`"types": []` does keep `@types/node` out of the UI program — a file that references `process` in
isolation fails with TS2591 — but TypeScript still pulls global declarations in transitively through
a dependency's type graph. Measured on this branch: a UI file that imports
`@ekklesia/module-ui-sdk` reaches `@ekklesia/contracts`, and through its Zod and Drizzle types the
Node globals become visible again, so `process.env` typechecks. The separation is therefore a strong
convention, not an airtight guard, and nothing at build time closes it either: esbuild substitutes
only `process.env.NODE_ENV`, so any other Node global that slips through fails in the browser rather
than in CI. Closing this properly means giving the UI SDK a type surface that does not reach the
backend contracts barrel, which is an ADR 0022 contract question and is deferred.
### The build is an authoring step; discovery still only validates
Nothing here runs during discovery, startup, or install. The lifecycle is unchanged: an author
builds, the compiled artifact is packaged and installed, and Core discovery validates that artifact
without executing it (ADR 0021). Core does not build, does not import browser code, and gains no new
responsibility in this ADR.
### The pipeline is proven by the module template, in the repository's own verification
`templates/module` is the canonical example and now ships optional UI: `src/ui/index.tsx` and one
small React component. Its test suite builds the artifact from source, imports it, validates it with
`parseModuleUiExport`, mounts it into a real DOM, asserts the rendered output, and unmounts it.
The artifact is rebuilt in the test rather than read from a checked-in file, so the proof can never
pass against stale output — and `dist/` is gitignored, so nothing generated is committed. Because
`pnpm verify` runs both `pnpm test` and `pnpm build`, a module UI that cannot be produced fails CI
through two independent paths.
## Alternatives
- **Vite library mode.** Rejected: heavier than the job requires, and its React support routes
through `@vitejs/plugin-react`, which the module boundary denies precisely so module authors do not
acquire a plugin ecosystem.
- **tsup.** Rejected: a wrapper around the esbuild this repository already resolves, adding a
dependency and no capability.
- **`tsc` alone.** Rejected: it cannot bundle. Its output would carry unresolvable bare imports and
would require the platform to define an import map — which would make React part of the host ABI
by another route.
- **Externalizing React.** Rejected as the default, in detail above: it undoes ADR 0022's central
decision and makes standalone hosting impractical. Revisit as an optimization when a real host can
measure the cost.
- **Minified output.** Rejected: nothing else here minifies, and the trusted-module model asks
operators to review what they install.
- **A build convention instead of reading the manifest.** Rejected: two independent statements of
where the artifact lives can disagree, and the failure would surface as a discovery error long
after the build "succeeded".
- **Emitting a CSS sidecar.** Rejected: an asset nothing declares and no host loads is a silent
failure, and adding the manifest and runtime contract to support one belongs with a host that can
validate it.
- **CSS Modules or a CSS-in-JS library.** Rejected for this pass: both are larger commitments than
the smallest viable styling story, and one would add a runtime dependency to every module.
- **A separate UI fixture instead of the template.** Rejected: the template is what an author copies,
so proving the pipeline anywhere else would leave the canonical example unproven. Optionality is
preserved instead — a backend-only module deletes the UI directory, its two UI TypeScript projects,
and the `ui` entrypoint, and everything else still works.
- **A `bin` pointing directly at compiled output.** Rejected: it cannot link on a fresh clone,
because installation precedes the build.
## Consequences
> **Cross-reference — see [ADR 0024](0024-browser-safe-ui-sdk-and-host-loader.md).**
> The Node-globals leak this ADR recorded under "Browser TypeScript stays scoped to UI source" is
> now diagnosed and closed: it was a single type-only import of `@ekklesia/contracts` in the UI SDK,
> whose barrel reached Drizzle's types. The SDK now has no dependencies, and a compile test proves a
> module UI file importing it cannot use `process`. Everything else in this ADR is unchanged.
A module author can now write React and TypeScript, run their normal build, and get exactly the
artifact their manifest declares — with no bundler configuration of their own. The end-to-end path
from ADR 0021's static field through ADR 0022's contract to a mounted, unmountable UI is closed and
tested.
The costs are explicit: bundled React means duplicate runtimes and large artifacts until a sharing
strategy is measured against a real host; inline styles are the only styling available; and a module
that wants a stylesheet, a router, or a component library has none of them yet. Module UI also still
has no production host — the Dashboard does not exist, so a built artifact is proven by tests rather
than served to anyone.
## Deferred
Not implemented or promised here: the Dashboard application shell, navigation, or grouping; a design
system, component library, or theme/design-token contract; a stylesheet or asset loading contract and
the manifest field it would need; React runtime sharing between host and modules; minified or
production-optimized output; a standalone application host; module installation, marketplace, or hot
loading; and every real feature module. `entrypoints.jobs` still accepts source TypeScript where
other executable entrypoints require compiled output; this pass reused the *path* grammar from
`@ekklesia/contracts` but did not centralize the *extension* rule, so that inconsistency is
unchanged and still open.
> **Correction — this deferred item is closed.** `entrypoints.jobs` now requires a compiled `.js` or
> `.mjs` artifact, exactly like `server`, `schema`, and `ui`. Module discovery expresses the rule as
> "every entrypoint except the directory entrypoint (`migrations`)", so the omission that let `jobs`
> escape it cannot recur. No jobs runtime was added: the entrypoint is still declared, validated, and
> never executed. Every other item in this list remains deferred.