The jsii kernel API

This document describes the API for the @jsii/kernel module, which is to be used by all host libraries. It provides the fundamental features necessary for host processes to interact with the original module's code.

Note

Currently, @jsii/kernel contains the bulk of the logic, however a separate @jsii/runtime package owns the dialogue between the host and kernel processes. The @jsii/runtime is a very thin glue layer and it will eventually be merged into @jsii/kernel.

Errors

Most of the calls described in this document may result in an error being raised. It is the responsibility of the host runtime library to deal with such errors correctly: action retries, propagate the error to the host app's code, and so on.

Error responses are signaled by the error key:

export interface ErrorResponse {
  /** A simple message describing what happened. */
  message: string;
  /** Whenever possible, the stack trace of the error. */
  stack?: string;
}

Where possible, the host runtime libraries should make sure to affix their own stack trace information where relevant to the kernel process's stack trace when such errors are propagated to host app's code, in order to offer as much relevant context information as possible.

Initialization - the `hello` message

The host library is responsible for spawning the node process that will run the original module's code. This node process runs the @jsii/kernel application, and API messages are exchanged via the node processes' standard input and output pipes.

Upon initialization, the @jsii/kernel process introduces itself to the host application by emitting a single JSON message:

{
  "hello": "@jsii/runtime@0.21.1"
}

Any additional key present on the hello message will be silently ignored by a host library that does not know how to process it, ensuring forward compatibility of this message, if and when new attributes are added.

Note

In the future, this message may be augmented with additional keys to enable feature negotiation between the host application and the @jsii/kernel.

Teardown - the `exit` message

The host library should send the exit message when it no longer needs the @jsii/kernel. This message enables the @jsii/kernel to trigger clean-up operations, such as getting rid of temporary directories, in order to avoid littering the temporary directory with leftover files.

The exit message has the following schema:

interface Exit {
  /** The exit code the `@jsii/kernel` process should return. Typically `0`. */
  readonly exit: number;
}

Important

Once the exit message has been sent, no more data should be sent through to the @jsii/kernel process. The request stream should be closed as soon as the exit message was sent. Additional data may however be received from the @jsii/kernel that is intended to the STDOUT or STDERR console streams.

General Kernel API

Once the hello handshake is complete, a sequence of request and responses are exchanged with the @jsii/kernel. Requests take the form of JSON-encoded messages that all follow the following pattern:

interface Request {
  /**
   * This field discriminates the various request types.
   */
  api:
    | 'load' // Loading jsii assemblies into the Kernel
    | 'naming' // Obtaining naming information for loaded assemblies
    | 'stats' // Obtaining statistics about the Kernel usage
    | 'create' // Creating objects
    | 'del' // Destroying objects
    | 'invoke'
    | 'sinvoke' // Invoking methods (and static methods)
    | 'get'
    | 'sget' // Invoking getters (and static getters)
    | 'set'
    | 'sset' // Invoking setters (and static setters)
    | 'begin'
    | 'end'; // Asynchronous method invocation

  // ... request-type specific fields ...
}

Loading jsii assemblies into the Kernel

Before any jsii type can be used, the assembly that provides it must be loaded into the kernel. Similarly, all dependencies of a given jsii module must have been loaded into the kernel before the module itself can be loaded (the @jsii/kernel does not perform any kind of dependency resolution).

Loading new assemblies into the @jsii/kernel is done using the load API:

interface LoadRequest {
  /** The name of the assembly being loaded */
  name: string;
  /** The version of the assembly being loaded */
  version: string;
  /** The local path to the npm package for the assembly */
  tarball: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'load';
}

The response to the load call provides some high-level information pertaining to the loaded assembly, which may be used by the host app to validate the result of the operation:

interface LoadResponse {
  /** The name of the assembly that was just loaded */
  assembly: string;
  /** The number of types the assembly declared */
  types: number;
}

Once a module is loaded, all the types it declares immediately become available.

Obtaining naming information for loaded assemblies

In certain cases, host runtime libraries may need to obtain naming information from assemblies in order to determine the translation table from a jsii fully-qualified name to a host-native name. This can be retrieved using the naming call:

export interface NamingRequest {
  /** The name of the assembly for which naming is requested */
  assembly: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'naming';
}

In response to the naming call, the @jsii/kernel returns the configuration block for each language supported by the named assembly:

export interface NamingResponse {
  /** The naming information for the requested assembly. */
  naming: {
    /**
     * For each language, provides the jsii configuration block. The content of
     * this configuration block is specified by each language implementation.
     */
    [language: string]: { [key: string]: any };
  };
}

Obtaining statistics about the Kernel usage

The stats call can be used to obtain information about the current Kernel instance, which can be leveraged by unit tests or in order to produce metrics for tracking the health of a long-running jsii app.

export interface StatsRequest {
  // The discriminator
  api: 'stats';
}

The response to the stats call contains synthetic information about the current state of the Kernel:

export interface StatsResponse {
  /** The number of object reference currently tracked by the Kernel */
  objectCount: number;
}

Creating objects

Most jsii workflows start with creating instances of objects. This can mean creating a pure JavaScript object, instantiating a sub-class of some JavaScript class, or even creating a pure-host instance that implements a collection of behavioral interfaces.

Creating objects is achieved using the create API, which accepts the following parameters:

interface CreateRequest {
  /** The jsii fully qualified name of the class */
  fqn: string;
  /** Any arguments to provide to the constructor */
  args?: any[];
  /** Additional interfaces implemented in the host app */
  interfaces?: string[];
  /** Any methods or property overridden in the host app */
  overrides?: Override[];

  // The discriminator
  api: 'create';
}

The response to the object call is a decorated ObjectReference object (which is a common parameter to other calls in the @jsii/kernel API, used to refer to a particular instance):

interface ObjectReference {
  /** A handle that uniquely idenfies an instance */
  '$jsii.byref': string;
}

interface CreateResponse extends ObjectReference {
  /** The list of interfaces implemented by the instance */
  '$jsii.interfaces'?: string[];
}

The value of the '$jsii.byref' field of the ObjectReference type is formatted in the following way:

@aws-cdk/core.Stack@10003
└────────┬────────┘ └─┬─┘
         │            └─ Opaque numeric identifier
         └─ Object instance's base class' jsii fully qualified name

The first part of the reference identifier can have the special un-qualified value Object to denote the absence of a jsii-known base class (for example when the object only implements a jsii interface).

Additional Interfaces

Sometimes, the host app will extend a jsii class and implement new jsii interfaces that were not present on the original type. Such interfaces must be declared by providing their jsii fully qualified name as an entry in the interfaces list.

Providing interfaces in this list that are implicitly present from another declaration (either because they are already implemented by the class denoted by the fqn field, or because another entry in the interfaces list extends it) is valid, but not necessary. The @jsii/kernel is responsible for correctly handling redundant declarations.

Danger

While declared interfaces may contain redundant declarations of members already declared by other interfaces or by the type denoted by fqn, undefined behavior results if any such declaration is not identical to the others (e.g: property foo declared with type boolean on one of the interfaces, and with type string on another).

Overrides

For any method that is implemented or overridden from the host app, the create call must specify an override entry. This will inform the Kernel that calls to these methods must be relayed to the host app for execution, instead of executing the original library's version.

An optional cookie string can be provided. This string will be recorded on the Javascript proxying implementation, and will be provided to the host app with any callback request. This information can be used, for example, to improve the performance of implementation lookups in the host app, where the necessary reflection calls would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.

Override declarations adhere to the following schema:

interface MethodOverride {
  /** The name of the overridden method */
  method: string;
  /** An arbitrary override cookie string */
  cookie?: string;
}

interface PropertyOverride {
  /** The name of the overridden property */
  property: string;
  /** An arbitrary override cookie string */
  cookie?: string;
}

type Override = MethodOverride | PropertyOverride;

A note about callbacks

All @jsii/runtime calls that interact with object instances (that is, any call except for load, naming and stats; as well as the del call since jsii does not support customized destructors or finalizers) may result in the need to execute code that is defined in the host app, when the code path traverses a method or property that was implemented or overridden in the host app.

Such cases will result in a callback request substituting itself to the response of the original call being made; execution of which will resume once the callback response is provided.

A callback request is sent from the @jsii/kernel's node process to the host app and has the following schema:

interface CallbackRequest {
  /** Callback requests are identified by the presence of the `callback` key */
  callback: Callback;
}

interface CallbackBase {
  /** A unique identifier for this callback request */
  cbid: string;
  /** The object on which the callback must be executed */
  objref: ObjectReference;
  /** The callback cookie, if one was specified */
  cookie?: string;
}

interface InvokeCallback extends CallbackBase {
  /** The name of the host method to be invoked */
  method: string;
}

interface GetCallback extends CallbackBase {
  /** The name of the property to be read */
  property: string;
}

interface SetCallback extends CallbackBase {
  /** The name of the property to be written to */
  property: string;
  /** The value to be set */
  value: any;
}

type Callback = InvokeCallback | GetCallback | SetCallback;

In order to fulfill the callback request, the host app may need to perform futher API calls (loading new assemblies, creating new instances, invoking methods - including delegating to the super implementation, ...). Such calls will behave as they otherwise would (including the possible introduction of further callback requests).

Once the host app has fulfilled the request, it must signal the result of that execution back to the @jsii/kernel process by using the complete call:

interface CompleteBase {
  /** The callback ID from the corresponding request */
  cbid: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: `complete`;
}

interface CallbackSuccess extends CompleteBase {
  /** The result of the execution (`undefined` if void) */
  result: any;
}

interface CallbackFailure extends CompleteBase {
  /** The error that was raised during fulfillment */
  err: string;
}

type CompleteRequest = CallbackSuccess | CallbackFailure;

As discussed earlier, the response to the complete call is the result of resuming execution of the code path that triggered the callback request. This may be another callback request, or the final result of that call.

The callbacks call may be used to determine the list of all outstanding callback requests:

interface CallbacksRequest {
  // The discriminator
  api: 'callbacks';
}

This call results in a list of outstanding callbacks:

interface CallbacksResponse {
  /** The list of outstanding callback requests */
  callbacks: Callback[];
}

Destroying Objects

Once the host app no longer needs a particular object, it can be discarded. This can happen for example when the host reference to an object is garbage collected or freed. In order to allow the JavaScript process to also reclaim the associated memory footprint, the del API must be used:

interface DelRequest {
  /** The object reference that can be released */
  objref: ObjectReference;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'del';
}

Danger

Failure to use the del API will result in memory leakage as the JavaScript process accumulates garbage in its Kernel instance. This can eventually result in a Javascript heap out of memory error, and the abnormal termination of the node process, and consequently of the host app.

Unimplemented

The existing host runtime libraries do not implement this behavior!

Question

There is currently no provision for the node process to inform the host app about object references it dropped. This mechanism is necessary in order to support garbage collection of resources that involve host-implemented code (in such cases, the host app must hold on to any instance it passed to JavaScript until it is no longer reachable from there).

Upon successfully deleting an object reference, the @jsii/kernel will return an empty response object:

export interface DelResponse {}

Invoking methods (and static methods)

Invoking methods is done via the invoke call:

interface InvokeRequest {
  /** The object reference on which a method is invoked */
  objref: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the method being invoked */
  method: string;
  /** Any arguments passed to the method invocation */
  args?: any[];

  // The discriminator
  api: 'invoke';
}

Static method invocations do not have a receiving instance, and instead are implemented by way of the sinvoke call:

interface StaticInvokeRequest {
  /** The jsii fully qualified name of the declaring type */
  fqn: string;
  /** The name of the static method being invoked */
  method: string;
  /** Any arguments passed to the method invocation */
  args?: any[];

  // The discriminator
  api: 'sinvoke';
}

Note that, unlike in certain programming languages such as Java, it is illegal to attempt invoking a static method on the static type of some instance using the invoke call. All static invocations must be done using sinvoke.

Both the invoke and sinvoke calls result in the same response:

interface InvokeResponse {
  /** The result of the method invocation. */
  result: any;
}

When the method's return type is void, the result value should typically be undefined, however it may not be ?? (TypeScript may in certain circumstances allow returning a value from a void method): the host app should ignore such values.

Asynchronous method invocation

Largely un-tested

Asynchronous operations are only partially supported in the various target languages, and is currently not widely used. As such, support is not as "battle-tested" as the rest of the jsii interoperability features, and customers may run into usability issues, unexpected bugs, or surprising behaviors when using async.

In particular, outstanding Promises may not be able to make progress as expected due to specific implementation details of the @jsii/runtime event loop, which can result in deadlock situations.

The invoke call can only be used to invoke synchronous methods. In order to invoke asynchronous methods, the begin and end calls must be used instead. Once the host app has entered a synchronous workflow (after it makes an invoke call), and until it has completed that synchronous operation (after all callbacks have been handled and the InvokeResponse has been received), no asynchronous operation may be initiated by the host app.

interface BeginRequest {
  /** The object reference on which an asynchronous method is invoked */
  objref: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the method being invoked */
  method: string;
  /** Any arguments passed to the method invocation */
  args?: any[];

  // The discriminator
  api: 'begin';
}

Question

There is no static form of this call. Should there be one?

The begin call results in a promise being made:

interface BeginResponse {
  /**
   * An opaque string that uniquely idenfies the promised result of this
   * invocation.
   */
  promiseid: string;
}

Whenever the host app needs to obtain the promised value (possibly in a blocking way), it makes the corresponding end call:

interface EndRequest {
  /** The promiseid that was returned from the corresponding `begin` call. */
  promiseid: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'end';
}

This will result in the promise being awaited and then resolved:

interface EndResponse {
  /** The resolved value of the promise */
  result: any;
}

Danger

All begin calls must be matched with an end call. Failure to do so may result in unhandled promise rejections that might cause the application to terminate in certain environments.

Invoking getters (and static getters)

In order to obtain the value of properties, the get call is used:

interface GetRequest {
  /** The object reference on which a poperty is read */
  objref: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the property being read */
  property: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'get';
}

When operating on static properties, or in order to obtain the value of enum constants, the sget API must be used instead:

interface StaticGetRequest {
  /** The jsii fully qualified name of the declaring type */
  fqn: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the property being read */
  property: string;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'sget';
}

Both the get and sget calls result in the same response:

interface GetResponse {
  /** The value of the property. */
  result: any;
}

Invoking setters (and static setters)

In order to change the value of a property, the set call is used:

interface SetRequest {
  /** The object reference on which a poperty is written to */
  objref: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the property being written to */
  property: string;
  /** The value that is written to the property */
  value: any;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'set';
}

When operating on static properties, the sset API must be used instead:

interface StaticSetRequest {
  /** The jsii fully qualified name of the declaring type */
  fqn: ObjectReference;
  /** The name of the property being written to */
  property: string;
  /** The value that is written to the property */
  value: any;

  // The discriminator
  api: 'sset';
}

Both the set and sset calls result in the same response, which is an empty object:

interface SetResponse {}

The jsii kernel API

Errors

Initialization - the hello message

Teardown - the exit message

General Kernel API

Loading jsii assemblies into the Kernel

Obtaining naming information for loaded assemblies

Obtaining statistics about the Kernel usage

Creating objects

Additional Interfaces

Overrides

A note about callbacks

Destroying Objects

Invoking methods (and static methods)

Asynchronous method invocation

Invoking getters (and static getters)

Invoking setters (and static setters)

Initialization - the `hello` message

Teardown - the `exit` message