description: "Abstract code-execution seam (ctx.codeRuntime) for users and maintainers composing, consuming, or building a backend that runs one model-written program against host-provided bindings."
kind: "package-reference"
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Summary
dsh-code-runtime defines what a code runtime does: run one model-written program against a set of host-provided async functions and report { value, logs, error? } — without dictating how any backend implements it. Load it in a composition with a backend and the service is available as ctx.codeRuntime; PTC mode in dsh-tools then runs model-written programs that compose tools. Every request runs once with no state carried between runs, and every program outcome — including failures — resolves as a result field rather than a rejection. The runtime knows nothing about tools or sessions: it is handed a program and named bindings, and everything tool-shaped stays with the consumer.
Table of Contents
Use this package
Choose this package when you compose a deployment that executes model-written programs, consume ctx.codeRuntime directly, or build a backend that runs programs. In the shipped composition, PTC mode in dsh-tools is the consumer: only what the program printed and returned re-enters the conversation.
Run a program
Give the runtime a program source and one or more binding namespaces. Each namespace becomes one global object of async functions inside the program — PTC mode passes one under tools. The program runs as the body of an async function, so top-level await and return work; a lossless-JSON completion becomes result.value, each output channel preserves its own order in result.logs while cross-channel interleaving is backend-dependent, and any failure is reported in result.error with a kind you can branch on. The runtime never rejects for a program failure — rejection means you misused the seam, for example by submitting a run after disposal.
const result = await ctx.codeRuntime.run({
program: 'return await tools.add({ a: 1, b: 2 })',
bindings: [{ global: 'tools', functions: { add: async (args) => args.a + args.b } }],
})
// result.value === 3
Choose a backend
Backends declare two descriptors you can rely on: language — what the program must be written in, with 'typescript' and 'python' as the well-known values — and isolation — the execution substrate ('worker-thread', 'process', 'container'), a label for deployments and diagnostics, not a security claim. dsh-code-runtime-worker-thread executes TypeScript in a fresh Node worker thread; the private dsh-experimental-code-runtime-python package executes Python in a fresh CPython subprocess for opt-in compositions.
Name your bindings portably
Binding-global and error-class names are language-portable: they must match [A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*, avoid every portable target language's reserved words, and avoid backend-owned slots, so one namespace list is valid against every backend. A name like $tools, lambda, or console fails the run before it starts; the exact exclusion sets are part of the seam contract.
What can go wrong
Failures arrive as result.error with an orthogonal kind: the program threw or failed to parse (exception), a budget expired (timeout), the run was aborted (abort), the execution substrate died (worker-exit), the completion value was not lossless JSON (invalid-output), or the serialized output exceeded the cap (output-limit). Each kind carries a model-feedable message. run() rejects only for seam misuse, such as a run submitted after disposal or a binding name that fails the portable-identifier rules.
Understand the implementation
Implementation internals — click to expand
This section explains the design behind the seam; observable behavior is fully covered in [Use this package](#use-this-package).
### Design concept
The package is the Service Definition role of the code-execution capability seam ([capability seams](../../../.agents/notes/implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md)): an abstract `CodeRuntime extends Service` registered as `ctx.codeRuntime`, plus the vocabulary both backends and the consumer share. Providers subclass `CodeRuntime`, implement `run`, and register the service; the consumer (PTC mode in `dsh-tools`) generates the model-facing SDK and bridges tool dispatch. The runtime stays ignorant of tools and sessions by contract: it receives a program and named async bindings and returns `{ value, logs, error? }`.
### Service API
The contract is three members a backend implements: `run(request)` executes one program against the request's bindings and resolves every program outcome — parse/transform failure, thrown exception, invalid completion, output overflow, budget expiry, abort, or substrate death — as a result `error` field, with rejection reserved for caller misuse such as a run submitted after disposal; `language` and `isolation` are read-only descriptors labeling the source language and execution substrate for deployments and diagnostics.
The exhaustive semantics live in the [code runtime subsystem reference](../../../docs/subsystems/code-runtime.md); the exact signatures are in [`src/index.ts`](src/index.ts).
### Vocabulary
`CodeRunRequest` (`program`, `bindings`, `signal?`) carries everything the runtime acts on; defaulting (time budgets, output caps) is each provider's validated config, never a hidden `??` inside `run()`. `bindings` is a list of `CodeBindingNamespace`s (`global` + `functions` + optional `errorClass`), each exposed to the program as one global object of async callables returning `CodeJsonValue` — the seam's structural lossless-JSON type. An `errorClass` descriptor names a real program-global constructor and the own property that receives the rejected member name, so backends never learn consumer terms such as `ToolCallError`. `CodeRunResult` reports the lossless-JSON completion `value?`, per-channel-ordered `logs: string[]` with backend-dependent cross-channel interleaving, and `error?` (`CodeRunFailure`: orthogonal `kind` + model-feedable `message`). See `src/types.ts` for the full contracts.
### Portable identifiers
Binding-global and error-class names are language-portable: they must match the identifier subset `[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*` (no JS-only `$`) and clear the seam-exported exclusion sets, so one `bindings` list is valid against every backend. The package exports the contract every backend enforces — `PORTABLE_RESERVED_WORDS` (ECMAScript ∪ Python reserved words), `RESERVED_BINDING_GLOBALS` (backend-owned globals such as `console` and `__dsh_main__`), `RESERVED_ERROR_MEMBERS` and `DUNDER_MEMBER` (error-member exclusions) — so a name like `$tools`, `lambda`, or `__dsh_main__` makes `run()` reject as seam misuse on any backend. See `src/index.ts` for the exact sets.
### Source map
| File | Role |
|---|---|
| [`src/index.ts`](src/index.ts) | Plugin entry: abstract `CodeRuntime` service and the portable-identifier exclusion sets |
| [`src/types.ts`](src/types.ts) | Vocabulary: `CodeRunRequest`, `CodeBindingNamespace`, `CodeJsonValue`, `CodeRunResult`, `CodeRunFailure` |
| — | No runtime invariant companion is published; this package exposes no independent event sequence or mutable data relation beyond contracts enforced at its owning seam. |
Further Exploration
Read these when the package-level contract is not enough. They move from the PTC mode consumer to the backends and the capability-seam model.
Model Experience
Indirectly, through PTC mode in dsh-tools, which exposes run_code and returns program logs, values, or failures as retained tool-result tokens.
KV Cache effect
No direct invalidation; the named consumer owns any request-prefix changes.
Known Limitations and Deferred Work
These limits define what the seam cannot do; they are current package constraints, not a task backlog.
run() is one-shot — logs arrive only on the resolved CodeRunResult; the seam exposes no streaming-log or progress API for a live program's output.
- No state survives between runs — every request runs against a fresh world; a persistent REPL-style kernel is deferred until a backend brings its own logging story.
- The worker-thread backend ships; the Python process backend is private experimental;
'container' has no implementation — a hard security boundary awaits a container backend.
- Intermediate binding values have no byte cap — implementations remain subject to structured-clone cost and process memory, while a provider or executor may already have imposed its own acquisition bound.
Dev Note
Working context for maintainers — click to expand
This Dev Note is working context for maintainers: undecided directions and open questions. It is explicitly non-authoritative — shipped behavior and limits live in the sections above and the package code.
#### Future: persistent kernel backend
A REPL-style kernel that keeps state across `run_code` calls remains undecided; it would need its own logging story, because the no-state-between-runs contract is what keeps every request reconstructable from the session log alone.
#### Future: container backend
A container-class backend would provide a hard multi-tenant boundary for both code and shell execution; nothing is decided beyond the well-known `isolation` value.