soma.cell

Soma 2.8.9 — 2026-09-20

This page describes Soma as of release 2.8.9. Some of it may have changed since: the current release is 3.2.4, and the current language is in the guide.

Storage reads, legacy lists and provider failures

  • SQLite read failures are distinct from missing keys and empty collections. Unreadable rows and refused queries propagate errors instead of disappearing, returning fabricated defaults or panicking. Bare and indexed slot reads stop the invocation and roll back earlier local writes. An unreadable previous value cannot become a compensating delete in the undo journal.

  • Appending to a legacy list preserves its keyed values in their existing sorted order. Replacing or deleting its last item cannot resurrect the old values. Memory and JSON backends replace legacy lists directly; the generic provider fallback detects a non-progressing removal instead of looping indefinitely.

  • The JSON file backend refuses malformed files, invalid map/log shapes and unreadable paths. Mutations publish a uniquely named temporary file before changing the in-memory state; a refused write or rename preserves the old state. Keys and values have matching deterministic order.

  • The HTTP storage adapter checks status codes, acknowledgements, typed values and collection shapes. Failures are reported instead of becoming success, absence, false or zero. Responses are bounded to 16 MiB and requests time out after 30 seconds. Typed non-finite Floats preserve NaN and both infinities; legacy integer replies outside signed 64-bit range retain their precision.

  • soma test-provider fails when its CRUD sequence reports a storage error. Both provider demos preserve typed envelopes and isolate cell/slot names; their list removal and collection endpoints follow the adapter protocol.

  • Add 21 isolated backend unit tests, 13 CLI storage regressions and two provider demo integration checks (including three Python HTTP scenarios). Thirty new storage regressions were reproduced on 2.8.8; both old demos also fail the new protocol checks.

Compatibility: a storage read failure aborts the invocation, including inside try, because its value cannot safely drive further writes or rollback. Write refusals still report kind storage when the transaction remains usable. The legacy JSON backend supports per-file replacement, not SQLite multi-slot transactions or cross-process isolation. HTTP providers have no transaction or exactly-once protocol: a transport failure can leave a remote write's outcome unknown. These adapter fixes do not add HTTP provider wiring to run/serve. Cluster replication remains experimental and eventual.