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Asset Management

Domain: asset runtime surface Function: normative

This chapter defines the runtime-facing asset model of PROMETEU.

1 Scope

PROMETEU asset management is bank-centric.

Assets are:

cold bytes stored in the cartridge;
described by cartridge metadata;
materialized into host-managed banks;
separate from VM heap ownership.

This chapter describes the runtime contract currently visible in the codebase. It is not a full tooling pipeline specification.

2 Core Principles

asset residency is explicit;
asset memory belongs to the machine, not to the VM heap;
banks and slots are hardware/runtime concepts;
loading and activation are explicit operations;
asset memory does not participate in GC.

3 Cartridge Asset Artifact

The runtime currently consumes one primary cartridge asset artifact:

assets.pa: autocontained asset artifact.

assets.pa carries, inside the same binary:

fixed binary prelude;
JSON header;
payload bytes.

The JSON header carries:

asset_table: metadata entries describing asset content;
preload: optional initial residency requests consumed during cartridge initialization.

This chapter describes the runtime-facing asset contract. It does not define the Studio packer workflow or the shipper pipeline that publishes the cartridge.

3.1 `assets.pa` v1 envelope

assets.pa v1 is structured as:

[fixed binary prelude]
[json header]
[binary payload region]

The fixed binary prelude contains, at minimum:

magic
schema_version
header_len
payload_offset

It may additionally include:

flags
reserved
header_checksum

3.2 Header and payload contract

The runtime loads:

asset_table from the JSON header and keeps it live during cartridge execution;
preload from the JSON header and consumes it only during boot.

Payload bytes are addressed from the payload region using offsets relative to payload_offset, not relative to the start of the whole file.

4 Asset Table

Current runtime-facing asset metadata includes:

AssetEntry {
  asset_id
  asset_name
  bank_type
  offset
  size
  decoded_size
  codec
  metadata
}

This table describes content identity and storage layout, not live residency.

asset_id is the stable runtime-facing asset identity and uses 32-bit signed integer semantics compatible with Java int.

offset is relative to the start of the payload region inside assets.pa.

size is the serialized byte count stored in the payload region.

decoded_size is the byte count of the materialized runtime bank after decode, not necessarily the same as the serialized payload size.

codec identifies the generic transformation pipeline applied to the serialized payload slice before the asset becomes a resident bank.

codec does not define the bank-specific serialized layout itself. Specialized banks may still have normative decode rules even when codec = NONE.

4.1 `TILES` asset contract in v1

Para BankType::TILES, o contrato v1 voltado para o runtime é:

codec = NONE
pixels serializados usam índices de paleta u4 empacotados
paletas serializadas usam RGB565 (u16, little-endian)
palette_count = 64
a materialização em runtime pode expandir índices de pixel para um u8 por pixel

NONE para TILES significa que não há camada de codec genérica adicional além do próprio contrato do banco.

Para a janela de transição atual:

RAW é um alias legado e depreciado de NONE
novos materiais publicados devem usar NONE como valor canônico

Mesmo com codec = NONE, TILES ainda requer decode específico de banco a partir de seu payload serializado. O layout de bytes serializados não precisa, portanto, ser idêntico ao layout em memória.

4.1.1 Metadata Normalization

Seguindo a DEC-0004, o campo AssetEntry.metadata deve ser estruturado de forma segmentada para evitar ambiguidades.

Campos de metadados obrigatórios (efetivos) para TILES no nível raiz:

tile_size: aresta do tile em pixels; valores válidos são 8, 16, ou 32
width: largura total da folha do banco em pixels
height: altura total da folha do banco em pixels
palette_count: número de paletas serializadas para o banco

Subárvores opcionais e informativas:

metadata.codec: Configuração específica do codec/compressor (ex: dicionários, flags de compressão).
metadata.pipeline: Metadados informativos do processo de build do Studio (ex: source hashes, timestamps, tool versions).

Regras de validação para TILES v1:

palette_count deve ser 64
width * height define o número de pixels indexados lógicos na folha decodificada
metadados adicionais podem existir, mas o contrato do runtime não deve depender deles para reconstruir o banco em memória (exceto se definidos na raiz como campos efetivos).

4.1.2 Payload Layout

packed indexed pixels for the full sheet, using ceil(width * height / 2) bytes;
palette table, using palette_count * 16 * 2 bytes.

The tile-bank payload therefore separates serialized storage form from runtime memory form:

serialized pixel plane: packed 4bpp
decoded pixel plane: expanded u8 indices, one entry per pixel
palette table: 64 * 16 colors in RGB565

For TILES v1:

size must match ceil(width * height / 2) + (palette_count * 16 * 2)
decoded_size must match (width * height) + (palette_count * 16 * 2)

5 Banks and Slots

The current runtime exposes bank types:

GLYPH
SOUNDS

Assets are loaded into explicit slots identified by slot index at the public ABI boundary.

The runtime resolves bank context from asset_table using asset_id.

Internally, the runtime may still use a bank-qualified slot reference such as:

SlotRef { bank_type, index }

That internal representation is derived from the resolved AssetEntry, not supplied by the caller.

5.1 Canonical Bank Telemetry

The canonical visible bank telemetry contract is exposed by AssetManager.

The per-bank summary is slot-first and uses this shape:

BankTelemetry {
  bank_type
  used_slots
  total_slots
}

Rules:

the visible contract MUST NOT expose byte-oriented bank occupancy as the canonical summary;
canonical bank names are GLYPH and SOUNDS;
detailed occupancy inspection remains slot-based through slot references, not bank byte totals;
any residual byte accounting MAY exist internally, but it is not part of the visible bank telemetry contract.

6 Load Lifecycle

The runtime asset manager exposes a staged lifecycle:

PENDING
LOADING
READY
COMMITTED
CANCELED
ERROR

High-level flow:

request load of an asset into a slot;
resolve the asset entry from live asset_table;
open the payload slice in assets.pa;
perform read/decode/materialization work;
mark the load READY;
explicitly commit;
activate the resident asset in the slot.

The canonical payload paths are:

ROM -> open_slice -> CODEX/decode -> Bank
ROM -> open_slice -> temporary in-memory blob -> CODEX/decode -> Bank

open_slice is the runtime-facing concept for opening a limited view over a payload slice. The runtime must not require the whole assets.pa payload to remain resident in RAM as its baseline operating mode.

OP_MODE selects between direct slice consumption and temporary materialization in memory.

For v1:

OP_MODE is derived from codec/CODEX;
explicit per-asset hinting is not part of the baseline contract.
TILES with codec = NONE may still stage in memory before bank installation because bank-specific decode expands packed pixel indices into the resident representation.
during the migration window, runtime may accept legacy RAW as an alias of NONE.

The runtime does not treat asset installation as implicit side effect.

7 Residency and Ownership

Asset banks are host/runtime-owned memory.

Therefore:

VM heap does not own asset residency;
GC does not scan asset bank memory;
shutting down a cartridge can release bank residency independently of VM heap behavior.
the runtime must not keep the full assets.pa payload resident in RAM as a baseline requirement.

8 Bank Telemetry

The runtime surfaces bank and slot statistics such as:

total bytes;
used bytes;
free bytes;
inflight bytes;
slot occupancy;
resident asset identity per slot.

These metrics support debugging, telemetry, and certification-oriented inspection.

9 Preload

preload is stored in the JSON header of assets.pa.

The normative preload shape is:

PreloadEntry {
  asset_id
  slot
}

These preload entries are consumed during cartridge initialization so the asset manager can establish initial residency before normal execution flow.

Validation rules:

preload is resolved by asset_id, not by asset_name;
every preload.asset_id must exist in the same asset_table;
no two preload entries may resolve to the same (bank_type, slot) pair;
legacy preload keyed by asset_name is invalid for the current contract.

Lifecycle rule:

preload is boot-time input only;
it does not need to remain live after initialization completes.

Bootstrap rule:

invalid preload is a structural cartridge error and must fail cartridge bootstrap before normal execution begins.

10 Relationship to Other Specs

13-cartridge.md defines the cartridge package and the requirement that assets.pa carries its own asset header.
16-host-abi-and-syscalls.md defines the syscall boundary used to manipulate assets.
03-memory-stack-heap-and-allocation.md defines the distinction between VM heap memory and host-owned memory.

11 Syscall Surface and Status Policy

asset follows status-first policy.

Fault boundary:

Trap: structural ABI misuse (type/arity/capability/shape mismatch);
status: operational failure;
Panic: internal invariant break only.

11.1 MVP syscall shape

asset.load(asset_id, slot) -> (status:int, handle:int)
asset.status(handle) -> status:int
asset.commit(handle) -> status:int
asset.cancel(handle) -> status:int