ADR 0004: Schema values are preserved by symbol reference

Status: accepted (2026-10-03)

ContextCopy Anchor Link

SchemaAST is a runtime tree with declarations, suspensions, transformations and annotations; it has no faithful pure-JSON form. Executing application modules at build time introduces side effects and ordering hazards.

DecisionCopy Anchor Link

IR refers to schemas as SchemaRef { module, export, symbolId } and to handlers/services as SymbolRef { module, export, member? }. Generated code imports the original value:

import { GetUserInput } from "../users/schemas"
Rpc.make("User.Get", { payload: GetUserInput, ... })

ConsequencesCopy Anchor Link

• Input/success/error schemas must be explicit symbol references in annotations.
• No duplicate handwritten DTOs; Effect performs encoding/decoding at runtime.
• Build-time module execution (schema introspection) is an explicit later feature.