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akua CLI contract

Every verb honors this contract. No exceptions. No verb exempts itself from any clause.

This document specifies the universal invariants every akua subcommand must satisfy. It is the foundation for agent-friendly operation. A verb that violates this contract is a bug, not a feature.

1. Output

1.1 --json is universal

Every verb accepts --json and emits a single, parseable JSON document (or JSON-lines stream for long-running commands) to stdout. No exceptions.

akua render --json
akua diff a b --json
akua deploy status --handle=r-4f2 --json

Without --json, verbs emit human-readable text to stdout. With --json, they emit structured data agents can parse.

1.2 Structured errors on stderr

Errors always go to stderr. With --json, errors are JSON-lines (one error per line). Without --json, errors are human-readable but still prefixed with a stable error code.

{"level":"error","code":"E_SCHEMA_INVALID","path":"apps/api/inputs.yaml","field":"replicas","message":"expected integer, got string","suggestion":"remove quotes around 3","docs":"https://akua.dev/errors/E_SCHEMA_INVALID"}

Every error has:

  • code — stable, machine-readable identifier (SHOUTY_SNAKE_CASE)
  • message — human-readable summary
  • path — file, resource, or field that caused the error (if applicable)
  • suggestion — actionable fix (if known)
  • docs — URL to documentation (if available)

1.3 Determinism

Same inputs produce byte-identical output. Includes:

  • JSON output key ordering (alphabetical by default; override with --preserve-order where meaningful)
  • YAML output: fields sorted per the YAML style guide
  • Rendered manifests: stable ordering by kind/name
  • No timestamps in output unless explicitly requested (--timestamps)
  • No non-deterministic IDs, random suffixes, or time-dependent values

1.4 Quiet by default under --json

Human-facing progress (spinners, color, banners) is suppressed when --json is set. Logs go to stderr as JSON-lines if --log=json. A --verbose flag may add more detail; it must not change the output format.

1.5 Agent context auto-detection

When akua is invoked inside an AI-agent session, it detects this from the environment and implicitly enables agent-friendly output defaults. The user never has to remember --json when an agent runs the command.

Detection sources, checked at process start in this order:

env var set agent
AGENT=<name> emerging standard — Goose, Amp, Codex, Cline, OpenCode
CLAUDECODE=1 Claude Code
GEMINI_CLI=1 Gemini CLI
CURSOR_CLI=1 Cursor CLI
AKUA_AGENT=<name> akua-specific fallback for agents we haven't yet matched

If any of these are set, the invocation is considered to be running in an agent context. Individual agents may set additional identifier variables (GOOSE_TERMINAL, AMP_THREAD_ID, CODEX_SANDBOX, CLINE_ACTIVE); we key off the primary marker above and record the secondary ones as context.

What auto-enables when an agent is detected:

  • --json output (equivalent to passing the flag explicitly)
  • --log=json (structured logs to stderr)
  • --no-color (colors off; implicit under --json anyway)
  • --no-progress (no spinners, no animated output)
  • --no-interactive (prompts fail fast with exit code 1 and a clear error instead of blocking on stdin)

Override semantics (explicit always wins):

invocation result
akua render --json in a human shell JSON — flag wins
akua render --no-json in an agent context text — explicit opt-out wins
akua render --format=text in an agent context text — explicit override wins
akua render in a human shell text — default
akua render in an agent context JSON — auto-detected

No signal, by design.

When detection activates, akua adapts behavior silently. No banner. No stderr announcement. No prelude on stdout. The behavior change is observable from the output itself (JSON vs text); agents that set CLAUDECODE=1 or AGENT=goose already know they're in an agent context — akua repeating it back is noise.

Detection is introspectable when needed:

  • akua whoami --json includes an agent_context field with the detected agent name and source env var.
  • --log-level=debug emits a single agent_context_detected event in debug logs — useful for post-hoc diagnosis, silent in normal operation.

Otherwise: invisible by default, discoverable on demand. That's the discipline.

Opt-out:

  • AKUA_NO_AGENT_DETECT=1 — disable detection globally (useful for testing human-like output in an agent context, or for CI systems that happen to set agent env vars).
  • --no-agent-mode — per-invocation override.

Telemetry (when opted in):

The detected agent name is included as an anonymized aggregate in telemetry records (akua telemetry show reveals the exact data). Never includes user data, prompts, or file contents — only the agent identifier string. Helps us see which agents are adopting akua and where to invest in compatibility.

Why this is in the contract:

The contract's goal is that agents drive akua reliably with minimal ceremony. Requiring --json on every invocation is ceremony. Detecting the context and doing the right thing is not. Same discipline as §4 (plan mode), §3 (idempotency keys), §6 (stable IDs) — default-on behaviors that make agent operation pleasant without requiring the agent to remember boilerplate.

Humans running akua in a terminal never notice the detection; their env vars don't match, and the CLI behaves as it always has.

2. Exit codes

Typed. Seven stable codes. Verbs do not invent their own.

code name meaning
0 success operation completed as requested
1 user error invalid inputs, bad flags, missing required arguments
2 system error unexpected failure (disk, network, bug)
3 policy deny policy engine rejected the operation
4 rate limited registry / API rate limits
5 needs approval operation is allowed but requires human approval
6 timeout operation did not complete within --timeout

Any other exit code is a bug. Agents branch on these codes.

3. Writes are idempotent

Every verb that modifies state accepts --idempotency-key=<uuid>. If the same key is seen twice on the same resource with the same intent, the second call is a no-op and returns the original result.

  • akua deploy --idempotency-key=<k> — safe to retry
  • akua publish --idempotency-key=<k> — duplicate publish returns the original digest
  • akua secret rotate --idempotency-key=<k> — rotating with the same key is idempotent

Agents generate fresh UUIDs per logical operation and retry on network errors without risk.

4. Plan mode

Every verb that modifies state accepts --plan. With --plan, the verb computes what it would do and emits the plan to stdout (JSON when --json, text otherwise) — but performs no writes.

akua deploy --plan
# → [JSON describing the manifests that would be applied,
#    owners, policy verdicts, diff vs current state]

Agents use --plan to reason about impact before committing. Plan output is deterministic.

5. Time bounds

Every verb that blocks on network or reconciliation accepts --timeout=<duration> (Go duration format: 30s, 5m, 1h, 250ms). Verbs never hang indefinitely.

  • Default timeout is verb-specific but never more than 5 minutes.
  • --timeout=0 means "return immediately with current state" (for status-read ops).
  • Timeouts exit with code 6.
  • Invalid duration strings (5min, 2 hours, raw integers) fail at parse time with code=E_INVALID_FLAG. Accepted units: ns, us / µs, ms, s, m, h.

akua render additionally honors --max-depth=<N> to cap the pkg.render composition chain (default 16). Hitting the cap fails with E_RENDER_BUDGET_DEPTH. Pair with --timeout for hardened CI / agent runs.

Async operations (deploy, rollout, long-running renders) return an opaque handle immediately; use akua … wait --handle=<h> to block.

6. Stable identifiers

Every resource has two identifiers:

  • Human name — readable, mutable, scoped to namespace/environment.
  • Content-addressable ID — sha256:… digest, immutable, globally unique.

Agents track by content-addressable ID. Humans read names. Both are always present in JSON output.

7. Discoverability

7.1 akua help --json

Returns a machine-readable tree of all verbs and subcommands with their flags, argument signatures, and one-line descriptions.

akua help --json
# → {"verbs":[{"name":"render","flags":[...],"subcommands":[...]},...]}

Agents parse this to discover capabilities without scraping man pages or markdown.

7.2 akua <verb> --help

Human-readable help for a single verb. Includes synopsis, flags, examples, links to docs.

7.3 akua <verb> --describe --json

Same data as akua help --json filtered to one verb. Useful for targeted introspection.

8. Authentication

  • akua login <registry> authenticates to an OCI registry. Credentials are stored in the system credential store (Keychain on macOS, libsecret on Linux, Credential Manager on Windows).
  • No plaintext credentials in config files.
  • akua whoami returns the current identity, scopes, and registry logins.
  • Tokens can be scoped per-registry; agents receive per-task scoped tokens that expire automatically.

9. Logging

  • Default: human-readable text to stderr.
  • --log=json — JSON-lines to stderr; auto-enabled in agent context.
  • --log-level=<debug|info|warn|error> — filter; only applies to akua targets, transitive crates stay at warn.
  • -v / --verbose — shorthand for --log-level=debug.
  • Logs are separate from output. Output is the return value of the command; logs are observability.

Log lines under --log=json are JSON objects with level, target, message, fields, and an optional parent span block. The target field is dotted: akua, akua::worker, akua::bridge. Timestamps are omitted in JSON / agent mode so byte-deterministic golden tests can diff stderr; under text mode timestamps are included for human readability.

Structured errors (§1.2) remain a single terminal JSON object on stderr — distinguishable from log lines by the absence of a level field and the presence of a code.

RUST_LOG is the escape hatch. When set, it overrides the resolved filter directive entirely (full EnvFilter syntax). AKUA_BRIDGE_TRACE=1 is a back-compat shortcut that ORs akua::bridge=debug into the filter.

9.1 OpenTelemetry export

OTLP export is enabled when OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT (or OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT) is set in the environment. No CLI flag — the OTel spec defines a standard env-var surface and akua honors it directly:

  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT / OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL (gRPC over tonic; HTTP not yet wired)
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT
  • OTEL_SERVICE_NAME
  • OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES

A single OTel trace covers worker.invoke → worker.render_request → kcl eval; bridge calls (bridge.call, bridge.response) appear as child events. Worker-side spans flow through the host's stderr-replay path so the entire pipeline shares one trace context.

Build the CLI without --features otel (off by default in the napi distribution) to drop the OTel + tokio runtime dependency; the rest of the logging contract is unaffected.

10. Stability

  • Flags added after v1.0 are backward-compatible.
  • Removing a flag requires deprecation cycle of at least 6 months.
  • JSON output keys that appear in --json output are part of the stability contract.
  • Exit codes never change meaning.
  • Adding new exit codes is a breaking change requiring a major version bump.

11. No hidden state

  • No ambient reads (environment variables, ~/.config/*, /etc/*) unless the flag explicitly references them.
  • Every input to a verb is discoverable via --describe or --dry-run.
  • A verb's behavior is fully determined by its arguments + the files it operates on.

Exception: auth tokens from akua login are read from the credential store. This is the only ambient state.

12. Policy gating

Every write verb invokes the policy engine before acting. The result of the policy check is always present in output:

{
  "policy": {
    "tier": "tier/production",
    "verdict": "allow" | "deny" | "needs-approval",
    "reason": "...",
    "suggested_fix": "...",
    "approvers": ["@team/platform"]
  }
}

When verdict=deny, the verb exits with code 3 and does not write. When verdict=needs-approval, the verb exits with code 5 and does not write; it emits an approval URL.

13. Telemetry

  • Off by default.
  • Opt-in via akua telemetry enable.
  • Anonymized, aggregated, documented.
  • Includes exit codes, verb latencies, and feature usage. Never includes user data, file contents, or secrets.
  • Can be audited: akua telemetry show prints the last 100 records that would have been sent.

14. What the contract is NOT

  • Not a style guide. Individual verbs can choose between get/describe/list freely.
  • Not a feature matrix. Verbs differ in what they do; they don't differ in how they behave.
  • Not a Swagger replacement. akua help --json is for discovery; it's not an OpenAPI spec.

15. Enforcement

Every PR adding a verb or flag is reviewed against this contract. The CI lint step includes:

  • akua lint-cli — checks every verb emits --json, has typed exit codes, accepts --timeout, passes --describe --json round-trip.
  • Contract violations block merge.
  • Contract amendments require RFC.

This contract is the single thing that makes akua agent-friendly. The narrow verb surface, the typed exits, the structured JSON, the idempotency keys, the plan mode — each is a deliberate choice, each is load-bearing, each must hold for every verb.

When in doubt: obey the contract first, add the feature second. A feature that requires violating the contract is either a missing primitive (add it generically to the contract) or not worth shipping.