writeonce/docs/stories/language-runtime-database/00-story.md

Story — one language, one runtime, one database, one binary

Format: fiberloom product/story-template (tech-unit standard artifact). Sources consulted: fiberloom tech-unit/framework, product/story-template, product/story-iteration-template.

AS a developer building and operating my own products end to end

I WANT a new programming language — with arithmetic, ownership-based memory safety, and garbage collection applied automatically wherever ownership alone cannot express the shape — whose compiler, runtime, and database ship as a single never-stopping Linux binary that can update its own code in place

TO write an application once and run it forever: no external stack to assemble, no database server to operate, and deployments that swap code inside the running process with instant rollback.

User Value

• One artifact is the whole system: the language's runtime owns the data, serves the API, and carries its own source — the "which commit is prod running?" class of questions disappears.
• Memory safety without a GC tax: Rust-shaped borrowing (single owner, second-class borrows) checked mostly at compile time, and where ownership cannot express the shape the compiler decides — no annotation to write, and collection stays per-shard so no global pause exists by construction (iteration 7b; iterations 1–7 shipped a per-class @gc opt-in instead).
• Updates are blue-green inside the runtime: propose, approve, compile in-process, atomic switch, previous version resident for instant rollback.
• The runtime is a recipe box: once language + runtime + database exist, a web framework arrives as a .wo library composing runtime capabilities — the recorded next story.

Background & Constraints

writeonce today is a declarative Rust-based runtime (Stage 2). This story evolves it into an object-oriented language (woc OCaml compiler, wovm C VM) per the approved specs: C as the runtime's basis (libc only), no inheritance ever, mutable value semantics for borrowing, shard-per-core concurrency with ownership-moving messages, RAM-authoritative data under a WAL, and the blue-green VM pair for in-runtime deployment. Target OS is Linux; kernel primitives are the framework. The Rust runtime retires only at parity. Constraints: OCaml stdlib only, C libc only; docs live under docs/; prose-only planning artifacts (no implementation code in stories or iterations); no commits by agents — drafts go to .dev/commit.md.

Iterations (rows in dependency order — # is an immutable ID, not a rank)

RENUMBERED 2026-08-20 (developer directive): pending iterations carry fresh IDs in priority order; LANDED iterations keep their historical numbers (code comments and commit history cite them — records, not a queue). Mapping: 19←20(scalars), 20←9c, 21←9d, 22←9e, 23←9f, 24←19(chat), 25←10, 26←12, 27←9g, 28←14, 29←13; 8, 11, 17, 18 unchanged. Re-sequenced from the edges in docs/00-dependency-graph.md: landed rows in landing order, then the pending rows in implementation order. File names keep their IDs — every board, spec, and plan references iterations by number, so numbers never renumber.

RE-SEQUENCED 2026-08-20 (second pass) against the verified findings in docs/00-code-review.md. Seq changed; no # changed and no file moved — that is what an immutable ID is for. The rule applied: measure before optimizing, close correctness holes before adding surface, and stop stacking features on unmeasured ground.

• 22 → first. It has never run. bench/baseline.json does not exist, there is no just db-bench, and runtime/bench/ is the retired C prototype's harness plus a Go reference. Until 22 runs, no performance statement about this project is sourced.
• The arc's stage 3 → second, reframed as correctness. wo_engine_start zero-initializes worker VMs, so rt.db is NULL off the primary and any DB statement there traps WO_T_DB "database engine not initialized". A multi-shard program that touches the database is broken today.
• New 30 (observability, CI, fuzz) and new 31 (actor lifecycle). The review's two largest gaps had no iteration at all: nothing to run the proof automatically, and no request/response, backpressure, supervision, or timers behind spawn/send.
• 18, 20, 21 demoted. All three add surface; none answer a named gap.

RE-SEQUENCED 2026-08-21 (third pass — the concurrency chain). Everything still pending IS the runtime-concurrency chain; order: stage 3 → 22 → 31 → 24 → 23. Changes from the second pass:

• The arc's stage 3 moves ahead of 22 — correctness before measurement: a multi-shard program touching the database traps WO_T_DB today, and fixing that first lets one benchmark campaign cover single- and multi-shard honestly.
• 31 has its story file (refine/31-actor-lifecycle.md); 30 stays a row until it is scheduled.
• Holds landed (developer decision, 2026-08-21): 18, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29 moved to hold/; 25's story file removed (its plan doc remains in superpowers). 19 landed 2026-08-20.

Seq	#	Iteration	Delivers
1	1	Principles doc	docs/00-principles.md — the doctrine page every later slice links back to
2	2	VM core	wovm: .wob loader, register interpreter, arena, borrow word, @gc collector
3	3	Compiler front	woc: lexer → parser → typechecker → ownership pass, diagnostics
4	4	Single binary end-to-end	emitter + conformance corpus + woc build self-contained binary
5	5	Language surface	Haxe-parity adoptions, grammar + strictness halves (landed in waves through 2026-08-20)
6	6	Program mode + stdlib	fn main, exit codes, fs/proc/net/time/json builtins
7	7	log-watcher proof	the driving workload compiled, executable, soak-proven (landed 2026-08-15)
8	7b	Inferred GC + mark-sweep	@gc removed; GC-ness inferred; RC replaced by incremental per-shard tri-color mark-sweep
9	9	Database engine	class-shaped tables, typed WAL + recovery, insert/select execute
10	9b	@table, relations, query	@table real storage; ref/backlink/multi; compiler-checked queries
11	15	deps: wo.toml [deps]	exact-rev git deps + wo.lock + .wo-deps; flat-only, offline once locked
12	16	web framework	the .wo framework v1 (router, middleware, auth, all three body hooks) consumed via [deps]
13	8+11	Shard-actor runtime · Fibers	THE ARC (stages 1+2 landed 2026-08-20: fibers/budget/actors/io_uring plane; pinned shards, envelope sends, home-routed frees, WO-E222); stage 3 = transparent DB RPC. Promoted above 22 (2026-08-21): stage 3 is a correctness hole, not an optimization — worker shards are zero-initialized, so a DB statement off the primary traps WO_T_DB.
14	22	Durability, throughput, scale	restart-persistence proof, benchmarks, ~1M rows — the baseline the arc and 23 sign against. It has never run, so every performance claim on this project is currently unsourced; runs after stage 3 so one campaign covers single- and multi-shard, plus the stage-2 mutex-inbox number. (was 9e)
15	30	Observability, CI, fuzz (no story file yet)	NEW — runtime counters + a profiler hook, 22's harness wired to run per change instead of by hand, and a fuzz target on the parser and .wob loader. The whole proof-maturity gap had no iteration to point at.
16	19	Float + Bytes	LANDED 2026-08-20 — .wob v5; the full stack: IEEE-quiet f64 through literals/VM/@table/WAL/json + Bytes as the binary carrier, no implicit mixing, total-order indexes. Unblocks 24 (WS frames) and the crypto fork (digests). (was 20)
17	31	Actor lifecycle	request/response (today send is one-way and callers sleep to await), bounded mailboxes with backpressure (today the FIFO just grows), actor death/supervision, and timers beyond time.sleep. 24 cannot be written honestly without these. (story written 2026-08-21)
18	24	chat: WebSocket workload	the arc's acceptance: WS upgrade + frames (SHA-1 via crypto fork, Bytes via 19), rooms/broadcast, 1k clients, drain-clean. (was 19)
19	23	io_uring group-commit	WAL WRITE+FSYNC chains on the arc's per-shard rings; fsync fallback kept (after 22 + the arc). (was 9f)
20	25	HTTP service layer	service blocks lower onto the framework (after 9b + 20 by their own precedence notes). HELD 2026-08-21 — story file removed; the plan doc remains. (was 10)
21	18	framework v2: memory-rich features	spec+plan approved: TTL cache, @table flags, durable job queue, transaction { } over the WAL's staged batch. Demoted from seq 14: more surface on a framework with one consumer, and the cache still stores Text because there are no generics
22	27	Query grammar corpus	grow the query grammar from real corpora; likely collapses to "confirm len(query) + add exists"; precedes 28. (was 9g)
23	26	Blue-green deploy	two VM slots, in-runtime compile, atomic switch, resident rollback (plan authored after 9 + 25). (was 12)
24	20	Cross-program tables	attach to a running program's database over local IPC; owner stays the single writer (channel half-built). Demoted from seq 16: new distribution surface while there is no TLS, no crypto, and the multi-shard DB still traps. (was 9c)
25	21	Keypair attach auth	program identity is a keypair; mutual challenge–response at attach (crypto half-built; plan folds into 20's). Demoted with 20 — and it needs crypto primitives that do not exist. (was 9d)
26	28	skillhost host workload	host-shaped driving workload naming runtime gaps — demoted with the framework goal. (was 14)
27	29	Compile-time metaprogramming	@derive(...) from class-table metadata; held with the parked drain by the 2026-08-08 scope directive. (was 13)
✅	17	library projects + internal/	LANDED 2026-08-20 — kind = "library" + entry-less check mode (retires the --emit workaround) and Go's internal/ rule as WO-E108 at the consumer's use; driver-only, VM/GC untouched. just web-app 26/0

Review protocol: the developer reads one iteration, approves or amends; the next starts only after approval. Each iteration is an unsplittable value slice with its own acceptance criteria (Given/When/Then), out-of-scope list, and a pointer to the plan document that already sequences its tasks.

Related Links

• OOP core spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-01-oop-compiler-vm-design.md
• Systems track spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-01-systems-track-design.md
• Blue-green spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-03-blue-green-vm-design.md
• Sample+principles spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-07-logwatcher-sample-and-principles-design.md
• Plan documents: docs/superpowers/plans/ (plans 1–10), compiler/plan/ (2, 3, 8 + architecture)
• Roadmap map: docs/08-project-structure.md (build sequence)
• Behavioral reference workload: ~/projects/log-watcher (Haxe daemon)

Notes

• Acceptance criteria live in each iteration file; this story frames the outcome.
• Critical path (locked 2026-08-08): compile and run log-watcher. Iterations 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 are the committed line; nothing off that line lands before iteration 7's acceptance. Then 7b, then 8–12 (with 9b after the database engine).
• Goal shifted 2026-08-20: log-watcher (iteration 7, landed 2026-08-15) to the web framework. Same day, refined by directive: the framework stays a polished MICRO-framework (routing, middleware, Req/Resp) — nothing MVC-scale — and iteration 17 (library kind + internal/) is parked with spec + plan ready on branch library-internal. The v1 slices landed 2026-08-20 (just web-app 21/0 after polish, auth, form, multipart). The implementation-order list this note once carried is superseded — the iterations table above is the authority (re-sequenced 2026-08-20 twice, then 2026-08-21); edges live in docs/00-dependency-graph.md.
• Iteration 7b (inserted 2026-08-11) sits after the critical path deliberately: it delays nothing on the log-watcher line, and it must precede iteration 8 because the collector should be settled before shards multiply. It also closes iteration 4's one open gate clause and supersedes part of iteration 2's memory model — neither is renumbered; both point here.
• Future iterations, after iteration 11 (parked 2026-08-08 — recorded, not scheduled):
  • WO-W201 @gc-suggestion diagnostic refinement — superseded by iteration 7b: the diagnostic is retired outright, because inference replaces the suggestion it existed to make.
  • WO-E225 unknown-type validation broadened to ref/multi/map element types and method/fn signatures.
  • ADT container roster adoption (Stack, Queue, Set, Tree, Graph, … — see the roster section in docs/plan/compiler/nullable-types-implementation.md); log-watcher needs only multi/map, so no ADT lands before iteration 7.
• Recorded future stories, deliberately outside this one: the web framework as a .wo library over the recipe-box runtime; UI (##ui SSR + live patches); script-based destructive schema migrations; MCP/agent wrapper over the management plane.