nucleic-windows/spikes/README.md

# M1 spikes (docs/WINDOWS_PORT.md §13)

Programs that answer questions the port is currently *guessing* at. They are checked in and
runnable on purpose: a spike whose answer nobody can reproduce six months later is a rumour.

They are deliberately **not** in `windows/Nucleic.sln`. The solution's broker contract tests must
keep running on any machine against `FakeWslc`; these need the `Microsoft.WSL.Containers` preview
NuGet and a real WSL stack, so they are built by path.

---

## `WslcApiDump` — what does the wslc API actually look like?

**Status: it has served its original purpose (docs/WINDOWS_PORT.md §13.1).** The real API is
known, and it was obtained without a Windows machine at all — the package is public, so the
`.nupkg` was downloaded, its projection assembly extracted, and its metadata read with
`MetadataLoadContext`. What this tool is *for* has therefore changed: its assumption list now
describes the surface actually observed in 2.9.3, so running it says **what the next package
version moved**, not what we guessed wrong.

**Why it is still reflection.** Same reason as before: a typed check fails to compile on the
first rename and reports one problem, where this reports all of them at once. That property is
worth keeping for a preview API whose next version can break anything.

Two facts it discovered that anything referencing this package needs:

- the assembly is **`wslcsdkcs.dll`**, not `Microsoft.WSL.Containers.dll` — loading it by package
  name fails;
- the only published version is **2.9.3**, targeting `net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0`. The
  `0.1.0-preview.1` pin this repo carried could never have restored.

```powershell
cd windows/spikes/WslcApiDump
dotnet run                      # dump the API + check every facade assumption
dotnet run -- --probe           # + call the two read-only statics (service version, missing components)
dotnet run -- --session         # + create a real session and print its live property VALUES
```

It writes the full public object model to `wslc-api-dump.txt` (`--out` to relocate) and prints an
`ok` / `MISSING` line per assumption, each with *why that member matters* and a nearest-name hint.
It exits 0 even when assumptions fail — a mismatch is the product, not an error. Only a genuinely
broken run (the assembly won't load) exits non-zero.

**What to send back:** the console output, and `wslc-api-dump.txt` if anything is MISSING —
which now means the package moved under us, not that we guessed wrong.

### Why `--session` earns its risk

`--session` creates a real wslc session named `nucleic-spike` under
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Nucleic\spike\wslc` and leaves it running. It exists for one question that type
metadata cannot answer: **where does the WSL-facing host gateway address come from?** §5 makes
gateway TCP the primary control-plane transport, `WslcContainerEngine.ensureRunning` returns that
address to the Swift side, and `control-bridge.js` dials it. The facade guesses
`Session.HostGatewayAddress`. Dumping the live *values* of every session property lets us
recognise a gateway IP whatever it is called — and if nothing on the session looks like one,
that is itself the finding, and §5's hvsocket fallback gets promoted from upside to dependency.

Leaving the session running is also the cheap version of a §2.3 question: broker supervision
assumes wslc state is **service-backed**, so that a crashed `nucleic-brokerd` can reattach and
re-enumerate rather than orphaning containers. If `wslc session ls` still shows `nucleic-spike`
after this process exits, that assumption holds. Tear it down with `wslc` when you're done.

### The three answers that change the design

Most mismatches are a one-line edit in `WslcFacade.cs` — that is exactly what the `IWslc` seam is
for, and nothing above it should move. These three are different:

| Finding | Consequence |
| --- | --- |
| No container enumeration, stats, or pty in the SDK | **Not fatal** — `wslc.exe` has all three and addresses containers by name, so `WslcFacade` becomes a hybrid (SDK hot path + CLI cold paths). Confirmed by the native header and the API reference, and publicly reported in [microsoft/WSL#41024](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/discussions/41024), which Microsoft has not answered. |
| No create-or-attach on `Session` | Still open. The native-only `WSLC_CONTAINER_START_FLAG_ATTACH` may be it; the C# `Start()` takes no flags. Needs a live answer before item 11. |
| No gateway address anywhere on the API | §5's primary transport must source it from `GetAdaptersAddresses` over the `vEthernet (WSL)` adapter instead. If a `Bridged` container can't reach the host there, promote the AF_HYPERV/AF_VSOCK fallback. |
| No uid on `ProcessSettings` | Recoverable, and already planned for: exec wraps argv in `setpriv`/`su agent -c`. Interceptors and nash don't care about the numeric uid (§3.2). |

---

## Not yet written

- **`WslcSpike`** — the typed happy path: session → GHCR pull of `naros-agent` → container with an
  NTFS `ContainerVolume` → `exec git status` in the bind-mounted worktree → stdio round-trip →
  SIGTERM, plus the 9P latency numbers §15 wants (`git status` and `npm install` on a real repo,
  mounted vs. in-VM). Deliberately held back until `WslcApiDump` has run: written now, against
  guessed names, it would not compile, and fixing it blind is the mistake this whole approach
  exists to avoid.
- **`HvSocketSpike`** — M1 (b): AF_HYPERV host listener ↔ AF_VSOCK dial from inside a wslc
  container, plus gateway-TCP reachability and default-firewall behaviour in NAT and mirrored
  modes. Only worth building once a container can be started at all.