Quick Reference Guide

Fast lookup for the ObjectStack protocols organized by category.

Reading the counts. Every heading below says (N of M schemas). N is how many protocols this table lists; M is how many reference pages the matching content/docs/references/<category>/ directory publishes. These tables are a curated fast lookup, not a mirror of the reference tree — N < M is normal and intended. Both numbers are checked by pnpm check:quick-reference-counts, so a category that gains or loses a page shows up here instead of drifting unnoticed. A row marked ↗ links outside its category's reference tree: it is one of the N rows, but it is not one of the M pages. Categories that have no section here at all are named under Categories Without a Section — that curation is stated, not left implicit.

Data Protocol (16 of 29 schemas)

Core business logic and data modeling schemas.

UI Protocol (11 of 16 schemas)

Presentation layer - views, forms, dashboards, and themes.

Kernel Protocol (17 of 31 schemas)

Plugin architecture, manifests, and kernel runtime.

System Protocol (17 of 36 schemas)

Runtime environment, logging, jobs, caching, and observability.

AI Protocol (11 of 11 schemas)

AI/ML capabilities - agents, skills, tools, MCP exposure, RAG, and cost tracking.

API Protocol (17 of 28 schemas)

REST/GraphQL endpoints, real-time subscriptions, and discovery.

Automation Protocol (4 of 13 schemas)

Flows, state machines, approvals, and integrations.

Security Protocol (3 of 5 schemas)

Access control, permissions, and row-level security.

Identity Protocol (4 of 5 schemas)

User identity, organizations, and position management.

Cloud Protocol (3 of 11 schemas)

Environments, marketplace, licensing, and multi-tenancy.

Integration Protocol (1 of 1 schema)

External system connectors — one protocol (ADR-0097): a connector entry is either a catalog descriptor or a provider-bound instance that a generic executor (connector-openapi / connector-mcp) materializes at boot. The per-provider schema "templates" (SaaS / database / file-storage / message-queue / GitHub / Vercel) were removed in #4480: provider shapes come from the provider itself, not from hand-written spec files.

Shared Protocol (5 of 8 schemas)

Common utilities used across all protocols.

QA Protocol (1 of 1 schema)

Testing and quality assurance.

Categories Without a Section

content/docs/references/ holds one more category directory that deliberately gets no section above. Curation happens at the category level as well as inside each table, and this is where it is stated. The same gate reads this table, so a new category directory — or a page landing in this one — goes red until this page is updated.

Common Patterns

Naming Conventions

// Property names in schemas: camelCase
{
  maxLength: 100,
  defaultValue: 'example',
  inlineHelpText: 'Enter a value'
}

Common Imports

// Data protocols
import { FieldSchema, ObjectSchema, QuerySchema } from '@objectstack/spec/data';

// UI protocols
import { ViewSchema, AppSchema, DashboardSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/ui';

// Kernel protocols
import { ManifestSchema, PluginSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/kernel';

// System protocols
import { LoggerConfigSchema, JobSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/system';

// AI protocols
import { AgentSchema, ModelRegistrySchema } from '@objectstack/spec/ai';

// Types (subpath imports — the root package does not export types)
import type { Field, ServiceObject, QueryAST } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
import type { View } from '@objectstack/spec/ui';

Declarative Endpoints (apis:)

Declared on the stack (defineStack({ apis })), live from protocol 17 — each entry is gated at publish and, once it passes, serves real traffic. Full contract: HTTP API → Declarative Endpoints.

import type { ApiEndpoint } from '@objectstack/spec/api';

// With `manifest: { namespace: 'acme', … }` on the same stack.
export const leadFeed: ApiEndpoint = {
  name: 'acme_lead_feed',
  path: '/api/v1/apps/acme/leads',   // /api/v1/apps/<namespace>/<subpath>
  method: 'GET',
  type: 'object_operation',
  target: 'acme_lead',
  objectParams: { object: 'acme_lead', operation: 'find' },
  // `authRequired` omitted → defaults to true (a session is required).
  cacheTtl: 30,
};

Search Tips

• By Feature: "How do I model relationships?" → Field Protocol → lookup or master_detail types
• By Use Case: "Build a dashboard" → Dashboard Protocol
• By Layer: Data → Data Protocol, UI → UI Protocol, Runtime → System Protocol

Next Steps

• Protocol Reference Index - Full protocol documentation
• Data Modeling - Deep dive into data modeling
• UI Engine - UI development guide
• Contributing Guide - How to contribute to protocols