Move philosophy into README

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Silas Brack 2026-03-07 16:16:35 +01:00
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# Project Philosophy
## Principles
1. **Explicit over clever** — no magic helpers, no macros that hide control
flow, no trait gymnastics. Code reads top-to-bottom. A new reader should
understand what a function does without chasing through layers of
indirection.
2. **Pure functions** — isolate decision logic from IO. A function that takes
data and returns data is testable, composable, and easy to reason about.
Keep it that way. Don't sneak in network calls or logging.
3. **Linear flow** — avoid callbacks, deep nesting, and async gymnastics where
possible. A handler should read like a sequence of steps: look up the
record, pick a volume, build the response.
4. **Minimize shared state** — pass values explicitly. Don't hold locks across
IO. Don't reach into globals.
5. **Minimize indirection** — don't hide logic behind abstractions that exist
"in case we need to swap the implementation later." We won't. A three-line
function inline is better than a trait with one implementor.
## Applying the principles: separate decisions from execution
Every request handler does two things: **decides** what should happen, then
**executes** IO to make it happen. These should be separate functions.
A decision is a pure function. It takes data in, returns a description of what
to do. It doesn't call the network, doesn't touch the database, doesn't log.
It can be tested with `assert_eq!` and nothing else.
Execution is the messy part — HTTP calls, SQLite writes, error recovery. It
reads the decision and carries it out. It's tested with integration tests.
## Where this applies today
### Already pure
**`hasher.rs`** — the entire module is pure. `volumes_for_key` is a
deterministic function of its inputs. No IO, no state mutation. This is the
gold standard for the project.
**`rebalance.rs::plan_rebalance`** — takes a slice of records and returns a
list of moves. Pure decision logic, tested with unit tests.
**`db.rs` encode/parse** — `parse_volumes` and `encode_volumes` are pure
transformations between JSON strings and `Vec<String>`.
### Mixed (decision + execution interleaved)
**`server.rs::put_key`** — this handler does three things in one function:
1. *Decide* which volumes to write to (pure — `volumes_for_key`)
2. *Execute* fan-out PUTs to nginx (IO)
3. *Decide* whether to rollback based on results (pure — check which succeeded)
4. *Execute* rollback DELETEs and/or index write (IO)
Steps 1 and 3 could be extracted as pure functions if they grow more complex.
### Intentionally impure
**`rebuild.rs`** — walks nginx autoindex and bulk-inserts into SQLite. The IO
is the whole point; there's no decision logic worth extracting.
**`db.rs`** — wraps SQLite behind `Arc<Mutex<Connection>>` with
`spawn_blocking` to avoid blocking the tokio runtime. The mutex serializes all
access; `SQLITE_OPEN_NO_MUTEX` disables SQLite's internal locking since the
application mutex handles it.
## Guidelines
1. **If a function takes only data and returns only data, it's pure.** Keep it
that way. Don't sneak in logging, metrics, or "just one network call."
2. **If a handler has an `if` or `match` that decides between outcomes, that
decision can probably be a pure function.** Extract it. Name it. Test it.
3. **IO boundaries should be thin.** Format URL, make request, check status,
return bytes. No business logic.
4. **Don't over-abstract.** A three-line pure function inline in a handler is
fine. Extract it when it gets complex enough to need its own tests, or when
the same decision appears in multiple places (e.g., rebuild and rebalance
both use `volumes_for_key`).
5. **Errors are data.** `AppError` is a value, not an exception. Functions
return `Result`, handlers pattern-match on it. The `IntoResponse` impl is
the only place where errors become HTTP responses — one place, one mapping.
## Anti-patterns to avoid
- **God handler** — a 100-line async fn that reads the DB, calls volumes, makes
decisions, handles errors, and formats the response. Break it up.
- **Hidden state reads** — if a function needs data, pass it in. Don't reach
into a global or lock a mutex inside a "pure" function.
- **Testing IO to test logic** — if you need a Docker container running to test
whether volume selection works correctly, the logic isn't separated from the
IO.

105
README.md
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@ -150,3 +150,108 @@ Volume servers should be on a private network that clients cannot reach directly
- Data at rest (blobs are plain files on disk) - Data at rest (blobs are plain files on disk)
- Malicious keys (no input sanitization beyond what nginx enforces on paths) - Malicious keys (no input sanitization beyond what nginx enforces on paths)
- Index tampering (SQLite file has no integrity protection) - Index tampering (SQLite file has no integrity protection)
# Development
## Principles
1. **Explicit over clever** — no magic helpers, no macros that hide control
flow, no trait gymnastics. Code reads top-to-bottom. A new reader should
understand what a function does without chasing through layers of
indirection.
2. **Pure functions** — isolate decision logic from IO. A function that takes
data and returns data is testable, composable, and easy to reason about.
Keep it that way. Don't sneak in network calls or logging.
3. **Linear flow** — avoid callbacks, deep nesting, and async gymnastics where
possible. A handler should read like a sequence of steps: look up the
record, pick a volume, build the response.
4. **Minimize shared state** — pass values explicitly. Don't hold locks across
IO. Don't reach into globals.
5. **Minimize indirection** — don't hide logic behind abstractions that exist
"in case we need to swap the implementation later." We won't. A three-line
function inline is better than a trait with one implementor.
## Applying the principles: separate decisions from execution
Every request handler does two things: **decides** what should happen, then
**executes** IO to make it happen. These should be separate functions.
A decision is a pure function. It takes data in, returns a description of what
to do. It doesn't call the network, doesn't touch the database, doesn't log.
It can be tested with `assert_eq!` and nothing else.
Execution is the messy part — HTTP calls, SQLite writes, error recovery. It
reads the decision and carries it out. It's tested with integration tests.
## Where this applies today
### Already pure
**`hasher.rs`** — the entire module is pure. `volumes_for_key` is a
deterministic function of its inputs. No IO, no state mutation. This is the
gold standard for the project.
**`rebalance.rs::plan_rebalance`** — takes a slice of records and returns a
list of moves. Pure decision logic, tested with unit tests.
**`db.rs` encode/parse** — `parse_volumes` and `encode_volumes` are pure
transformations between JSON strings and `Vec<String>`.
### Mixed (decision + execution interleaved)
**`server.rs::put_key`** — this handler does three things in one function:
1. *Decide* which volumes to write to (pure — `volumes_for_key`)
2. *Execute* fan-out PUTs to nginx (IO)
3. *Decide* whether to rollback based on results (pure — check which succeeded)
4. *Execute* rollback DELETEs and/or index write (IO)
Steps 1 and 3 could be extracted as pure functions if they grow more complex.
### Intentionally impure
**`rebuild.rs`** — walks nginx autoindex and bulk-inserts into SQLite. The IO
is the whole point; there's no decision logic worth extracting.
**`db.rs`** — wraps SQLite behind `Arc<Mutex<Connection>>` with
`spawn_blocking` to avoid blocking the tokio runtime. The mutex serializes all
access; `SQLITE_OPEN_NO_MUTEX` disables SQLite's internal locking since the
application mutex handles it.
## Guidelines
1. **If a function takes only data and returns only data, it's pure.** Keep it
that way. Don't sneak in logging, metrics, or "just one network call."
2. **If a handler has an `if` or `match` that decides between outcomes, that
decision can probably be a pure function.** Extract it. Name it. Test it.
3. **IO boundaries should be thin.** Format URL, make request, check status,
return bytes. No business logic.
4. **Don't over-abstract.** A three-line pure function inline in a handler is
fine. Extract it when it gets complex enough to need its own tests, or when
the same decision appears in multiple places (e.g., rebuild and rebalance
both use `volumes_for_key`).
5. **Errors are data.** `AppError` is a value, not an exception. Functions
return `Result`, handlers pattern-match on it. The `IntoResponse` impl is
the only place where errors become HTTP responses — one place, one mapping.
## Anti-patterns to avoid
- **God handler** — a 100-line async fn that reads the DB, calls volumes, makes
decisions, handles errors, and formats the response. Break it up.
- **Hidden state reads** — if a function needs data, pass it in. Don't reach
into a global or lock a mutex inside a "pure" function.
- **Testing IO to test logic** — if you need a Docker container running to test
whether volume selection works correctly, the logic isn't separated from the
IO.