amduat-api/notes/ENC-ASL-HOST.md

Good — this is the right thing to pin down next. Below is a precise, minimal, authority-aware but storage-agnostic ASL-HOST on-disk layout, designed to work on ZFS, btrfs, or plain POSIX, and to survive before ASL-STORE / ASL-CORE are fully implemented.

This layout defines where things live, not how bytes are encoded.

---

ASL-HOST On-Disk Layout — v0.1

---

1. Design Goals (Normative)

The on-disk layout MUST:

1. Enforce domain isolation
2. Separate authority, storage, and execution
3. Support append-only logs
4. Support snapshots as first-class
5. Allow courtesy leases and revocation
6. Remain forward-compatible with ASL-STORE and ENC specs

The layout MUST NOT:

• Encode artifact semantics
• Encode index formats
• Encode cryptographic algorithms

---

2. Root Layout

/asl-host/
├── host/
│   ├── host-id
│   ├── host-policy
│   └── trusted-roots/
│
├── domains/
│   ├── <domain-id>/
│   │   ├── domain.json
│   │   ├── admission/
│   │   ├── auth/
│   │   ├── store/
│   │   ├── index/
│   │   ├── log/
│   │   ├── snapshots/
│   │   ├── leases/
│   │   └── tmp/
│
├── federation/
│   ├── peers/
│   ├── exports/
│   └── imports/
│
└── quarantine/

Everything below this root is owned by ASL-HOST.

---

3. Host-Level Metadata

/asl-host/host/

host/
├── host-id              # stable ID for this machine
├── host-policy          # local admission & resource policy
└── trusted-roots/
    ├── root-A.pub
    ├── root-B.pub
    └── ...

Notes:

• Trusted roots are offline-established
• Used for admission verification
• Not domain-specific

---

4. Domain Directory (Authoritative Boundary)

Each domain has one directory, nothing crosses this boundary implicitly.

/domains/<domain-id>/

This directory MUST be the sole owner of:

• blocks
• logs
• snapshots
• indexes
• domain-local authority state

---

5. Domain Descriptor

/domains/<domain-id>/domain.json

This is host-owned metadata, not part of ASL-CORE.

{
  "domain_id": "...",
  "state": "COURTESY | FULL | SUSPENDED | REVOKED",
  "created_at": "...",
  "admitted_at": "...",
  "root_key_fingerprint": "...",
  "policy_hash": "...",
  "current_snapshot": "...",
  "current_logseq": 12345
}

This file is not signed — it is derived state.

---

6. Admission Records

/domains/<domain-id>/admission/

admission/
├── dam.cbor
├── dam.sig
├── admission-request.cbor
├── admission-decision.cbor
└── admission-decision.sig

This directory contains immutable records of how the domain was admitted.

---

7. Authority Material (Domain-Local)

/domains/<domain-id>/auth/

auth/
├── root.pub
├── operators/
│   ├── op1.pub
│   └── ...
├── device.pub
└── revocations/

Rules:

• Private keys MAY exist only temporarily (e.g. SystemRescue)
• ASL-HOST MUST NOT rely on private keys being present

---

8. Store Root (Blocks)

/domains/<domain-id>/store/

store/
├── blocks/
│   ├── open/
│   ├── sealed/
│   └── gc/
├── objects/          # optional future packing
└── encryption/

Notes:

• open/ blocks may be lost
• sealed/ blocks are immutable
• gc/ is host-managed
• Encryption metadata is opaque to ASL-STORE

---

9. Index Area (Semantic-Free)

/domains/<domain-id>/index/

index/
├── segments/
│   ├── seg-000001/
│   └── ...
├── bloom/            # optional
└── tmp/

ASL-HOST only guarantees:

• sealed segments are immutable
• segments become visible only after seal record

---

10. Append-Only Log

/domains/<domain-id>/log/

log/
├── append.log
├── checkpoints/
│   ├── chk-000001/
│   └── ...
└── seal.log

Rules:

• append-only
• monotonic
• replayable
• seal.log records segment seals

---

11. Snapshots

/domains/<domain-id>/snapshots/

snapshots/
├── snap-000001/
├── snap-000002/
└── pinned/
    ├── snap-000001

Host responsibility:

• mapping snapshots to log positions
• enforcing pinning
• enforcing courtesy limits

---

12. Courtesy Leases

/domains/<domain-id>/leases/

leases/
├── lease-001.json
├── lease-002.json
└── active

Each lease file:

{
  "lease_id": "...",
  "granted_by": "...",
  "storage_bytes": 1073741824,
  "expires_at": "..."
}

ASL-HOST enforces these.

---

13. Temporary / Execution Space

/domains/<domain-id>/tmp/

Used for:

• Sedelpress staging
• PEL execution scratch
• unsealed buffers

Never snapshot-pinned.

---

14. Federation Area

/asl-host/federation/

federation/
├── peers/
│   ├── <peer-domain-id>/
│   │   ├── pinned-roots/
│   │   ├── imported-snapshots/
│   │   └── replay-state.json
├── exports/
└── imports/

Federation is explicit and opt-in.

---

15. Quarantine

/asl-host/quarantine/

Used for:

• rejected domains
• policy violations
• forensic inspection

No domain in quarantine may execute or publish.

---

16. ZFS / Snapshot Mapping (Recommended)

If using ZFS:

Path	ZFS Dataset
/domains/<id>	dataset
/domains/<id>/store	child dataset
/domains/<id>/snapshots	ZFS snapshots
/domains/<id>/tmp	no-snapshot dataset

This gives real snapshot semantics aligned with ASL rules.

---

17. Invariants (Non-Negotiable)

1. No block crosses domain boundaries implicitly
2. No snapshot without log position
3. No sealed block mutation
4. No admission without DAM
5. No federation without ASL-HOST approval

---

18. Why This Works

✔ Clean separation of concerns ✔ Domain sovereignty enforced by path ✔ Admission-first architecture ✔ Rescue and sovereign flows unified ✔ ASL-STORE can drop in later

---

19. One-Sentence Summary

ASL-HOST’s on-disk layout is a constitutional map: it tells every byte who it belongs to, why it exists, and when it may be trusted.

If you want, next we can:

• write a reference filesystem implementation
• simulate a full rescue → admission → publish flow on disk
• define revocation propagation on disk
• or map this directly to ZFS commands

Just say where to push next.