Functions are the only named read/computation boundary in the platform.
Everything that presents data — a dashboard panel, a Workshop block, an
assistant answer — reads through one.
The rules that follow from that
- A dashboard panel reads exactly one governed function. A panel never owns
object querying, sorting, grouping, aggregation, or row limits. If the panel
needs a different shape, that is a different function.
- Reads resolve at a basis. Source-only governed reads compile to the
temporal engine and execute at an exact basis. Reads use the latest
transaction or an explicit historical id; they never see a half-published
capture.
- Results are bounded. A function that would return an unbounded or
unselective result is refused, not truncated silently.
Running one
For analytics as code, the same governed table is available in an explicit Arrow
representation without adding a second query doorway:
JSON remains the inspectable command contract.
Inference-backed functions
A function may declare one inference terminal. Its code authors ordered
messages: one leading developer message followed by one or more user
messages. There are no system, assistant, or tool messages.
- Developer instructions are literal text.
- Runtime scalar data is serialized canonically into user messages.
returns() is the exact structured-output contract.- One deterministic query result may feed the inference terminal only through
function.value, which requires one complete row, one authored column, and one
non-null scalar.
Execution evaluates query terminals first, resolves immutable media inside the
request-local source transaction, fingerprints the fully resolved typed input,
closes that transaction, and only then makes one synchronous provider call —
one choice, no tools, store=false.
It rejects refusals, truncation, tool calls, configured model-revision drift, and
schema-invalid output, and returns typed provider, request, and response
evidence.
Model functions are explicitly invoked only. Dashboards and boot validation never
spend nondeterministically.
