@endo/syrup-frame

@endo/syrup-frame implements an async-iterator protocol for framing binary messages as a length-prefix followed by a payload, with no trailing separator.

It is a sibling of @endo/netstring whose only difference is the absence of the trailing , separator. The grammar is:

frame   = length ":" payload
length  = 1*DIGIT
payload = length * OCTET

A framed message on the wire is therefore literally a Syrup byte-string record: identical to Syrup's <length>:<bytes> grammar. This is the whole motivation for the package. OCapN transports that carry Syrup-encoded messages can share a single length-prefixed primitive with the payload format itself, eliminating a redundant delimiter byte per message and giving "a frame" and "a Syrup byte string" the same on-the-wire encoding.

Why not @endo/netstring?

DJB's netstring specification is explicit that a netstring carries a trailing ,. A netstring without the separator is not a netstring; conflating the two by adding an option to @endo/netstring would blur the identity of that package. @endo/syrup-frame is a deliberate departure, named for its purpose.

Scope

This package exists to test interoperability with the OCapN TCP-for-testing protocol, which has moved to adopt this framing. That framing is among the protocols under consideration in the OCapN pre-standards group at time of writing. The existing @endo/netstring package remains the canonical netstring implementation and continues to serve the Endo daemon's tcp+netstring+json+captp0 transport and any other caller that wants strict netstring compliance.

API

import {
  makeSyrupReader,
  makeSyrupWriter,
} from '@endo/syrup-frame';

makeSyrupReader(input, opts?) -> Reader<Uint8Array, undefined>

Wraps an iterable/async-iterable of byte chunks into an async iterator of whole frames. Handles arbitrary chunk boundaries (length prefix split across chunks, payload split across chunks).

Options:

• name: identifier embedded in error messages.
• maxMessageLength: upper bound on any single payload, default 999_999_999 (same as @endo/netstring).

makeSyrupWriter(output, opts?) -> Writer<Uint8Array | Uint8Array[]>

Wraps an output byte writer into a frame writer.

Options:

• chunked: when true, emit the prefix and each payload chunk as separate writes. Required for zero-copy writers. Identical to @endo/netstring's chunked option minus the separator write.

Design

See designs/ocapn-tcp-syrup-framing.md in the repository root.