tenet
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JSON

Every JSON object Tenet prints carries a version. JSON goes to stdout, and with JSON requested, progress and warnings go to stderr. Each format numbers its versions independently:

CommandOutputVersion
check --json, check --reporter jsonlOne event per line4
check --dry-run --jsonOne event per line: selected, combined, then summary4
status --jsonOne object1
show NAME --json, show --pending --jsonOne object2
log --jsonOne review log entry per line2
exportOne evidence packet2
contracts list --jsonOne object1
contracts outdated --json, update --json, diff --jsonOne object1
skills outdated --json, update --json, diff --jsonOne object1

Compatibility

A format's version changes when a documented field is removed or renamed, when its type changes, or when an existing value starts to mean something else. A release can do the following without a new version:

  • Add a field to any object or event. A list that is usually empty, such as a scoped file's changed or excerpt lines, can be left out when empty; read a missing list as empty.
  • Add a check event type.
  • Add a value to a field that names a kind: a conclusion, a review state or pending reason, a reason_code, a failure kind, a file status, an omitted part, a log entry type, or an adoption state, change, or outcome.

Ignore fields and event types you do not know. An unknown kind means the result cannot be interpreted, not that it passed: treat an unknown conclusion or pending reason as pending, and an unknown file status as needing review. Decide the outcome from exit_code or the process exit code, which keep the meanings in Output.

Versions are not aligned across formats. Raising every format to one number would change versions that consumers of check events and status compare against today without changing a field.

Errors

When check, status, show, or log fails with JSON output requested, stdout ends with one check error event, stderr repeats its message, and the command exits 2. A check that stops partway, such as on rejected credentials, prints its earlier events first:

{
  "version": 4,
  "type": "error",
  "message": "logging is not part of the current review; see tenet status",
  "exit_code": 2
}

The event keeps check's version 4 for every command. Look for "type": "error" before reading a status or show object, which has no type. Other commands report errors on stderr only.

Check

Output describes check events. check --dry-run --json makes no model request and prints:

  • selected for each contract and file: contract, scope, path, a renamed file's previous_path, contract_hash, input_bytes, input_limit_bytes, omitted parts, and a status and reason for a file that would be skipped, incomplete, or an error.
  • combined for each contract: its repository context, or an error.
  • summary with dry_run: true, files, mode, assume_base_valid, deleted, requests, every request the check needs, cached, how many of them earlier answers would answer, max_requests, combined_over_limit, errors, the diff's coverage, and exit_code. A check sends requests minus cached.

A context lists excerpts when --context supplied only some lines of a file: each path maps to its supplied inclusive line ranges, as in {"src/storage/query.ts": [[40, 75]]}. A selected file is listed when its lines took the place of contents left out to fit.

Status

status --json prints the review label, the base commit, the latest revision, unchanged when the working tree matches the base, contracts, deleted_contracts, and exit_code. Each contract has:

FieldMeaning
statesettled, with conclusion and the deciding record (null when the model settled it), or pending, with a reason
contract, pathThe contract's name and document path
selectionThe check whose input this row reports: its revision rev and selected paths
inputThe hash of the contract's current input
assessed_inThe revision whose model assessment had this input, or null
model, model_violation, model_answerThat assessment's conclusion, violation probability, and raw answer
min_confidenceThe threshold that check used

When no check compares the working tree with the base, the object has revision: null, empty contracts, exit_code: 4, and a message.

Show

show NAME --json prints one contract:

FieldMeaning
contract, documentName, message, path, scope, and hash, and the complete document
state, selection, mode, scope, input, min_confidenceAs in status, plus the check's mode and requested scope
assessmentThe latest model assessment of this input: rev, input, scope, contract_hash, conclusion, carried_from, and file results
filesEvery scoped file: role, path, previous_path, before and after content hashes, error, the changed lines in a diff, the excerpt lines named with --context, and its patch
records, earlier, olderThe latest five records and earlier assessments, and counts of the older ones
changes_since_earlierWhat changed since the latest assessment of a different input
conclusionsThe conclusions record accepts for this mode and scope

show --pending --json prints contracts, each pending contract in that form without version or file patches, and changes, the path and patch of each changed file once.

Log

log --json prints each entry of .tenet/events.jsonl, oldest first, with version: 2 and a type of revision, assessment, or record. A revision's context repeats the --context arguments, including any line range, as in src/storage/query.ts:40-75.

Contracts

CommandFields
contracts list --jsoncontracts, each with name, path, scope, and message; contract_changes, the changed contract paths of a diff; and the diff's coverage, null without --base
contracts outdated --jsoncontracts, each with path, local name, source, contract, recorded ref, state of its CONTRACT.md (unchanged, adapted, edited, or missing), files, the state of each edited or missing asset, and newest (ref; change of the CONTRACT.md: current, changed, or removed; files, the change of each asset upstream changed, added, or removed; and majors, the highest release of each major crossed, oldest first, where update stops at the first; null offline)
contracts update --jsoncontracts, each with path, from, to, the outcome of its CONTRACT.md: unchanged, replaced, merged, conflict with regions, or removed, and files, an object with the outcome of each asset that did not stay unchanged: replaced, added, or removed
contracts diff PATH --jsoncontract, with path, the recorded base and the upstream release (each ref, commit, and text; upstream is null when removed), the local text, and files, each asset that differs, with its path and its base, upstream, and local text, each null when that version lacks it

skills outdated --json and skills update --json print the same objects under skills, and skills diff PATH --json under skill, with skill in place of contract. A skill's path is its installed folder, and its files cover every file but SKILL.md; an edited Markdown file can also be merged or a conflict. files paths are relative to the copy's folder, and files is left out when empty. diff reads a file that is not UTF-8 with replacement characters.