Kernel Wire Protocol (KWP)

The Kernel Wire Protocol is the IPC format used between the kernel daemon and its clients.

Transports

Transport	Default	Use case
Unix domain socket	/tmp/designlint-kernel.sock	Primary; same-host Node.js clients
HTTP + SSE	Port 7341	Browser clients; cross-machine access

Frame format (Unix socket)

Frames over the Unix socket are length-prefixed MessagePack:

[ 4-byte uint32BE length ][ MessagePack-encoded KWPFrame ]

The length field counts only the MessagePack payload bytes, not itself.

Frame format (HTTP)

• POST /kwp — request/response for DSQL queries and write operations
• GET /kwp/events — SSE stream for kernel push events
• GET /kwp/status — kernel status endpoint (plain JSON)

HTTP frames are JSON-encoded KWPFrame objects.

KWPFrame

interface KWPFrame {
  readonly type: 'request' | 'response' | 'event' | 'error';
  readonly id: string;           // UUID v4
  readonly method?: string;      // e.g. 'dsql.tokens.closest'
  readonly payload?: unknown;    // method params or response data
  readonly error?: {
    readonly code: string;
    readonly message: string;
  };
}

Methods

DSQL queries (read-only)

Method	Parameters	Returns
dsql.tokens.closest	rawValue, property, type?	RankedToken[]
dsql.tokens.forProperty	cssProperty, type?	DtifFlattenedToken[]
dsql.tokens.byPointer	pointer	DtifFlattenedToken | null
dsql.tokens.deprecated	type?	DeprecatedToken[]
dsql.tokens.withReplacement	pointer	string | null
dsql.rules.all	category?	RuleDefinition[]
dsql.rules.enabled	category?	RuleDefinition[]
dsql.rules.byId	ruleId	RuleDefinition | null
dsql.rules.categories	—	string[]
dsql.rules.fixable	category?	RuleDefinition[]
dsql.components.all	—	ComponentDefinition[]
dsql.components.byName	name	ComponentDefinition | null
dsql.components.byPackage	packageName	ComponentDefinition[]
dsql.components.deprecated	—	ComponentDefinition[]
dsql.entropy	—	EntropyState

Write operations

Method	Parameters
write.addToken	pointer, token
write.deprecateToken	pointer, replacement?
write.removeToken	pointer
write.configureRule	ruleId, partial
write.registerComponent	name, definition
write.loadPlugin	manifest
write.recordDeprecationEntry	entry
write.updateEntropy	score
kernel.snapshot	path
kernel.status	—

Error codes

Code	Description
UNKNOWN_METHOD	The requested method is not recognised by the kernel