Retained Application Manifest V5 reference

Exact retained release

This reference covers RC sha256:549272988045e9357c4945850706569ed8dc7f0c6f419b7cf5c57d54b294bb10. Capabilities and limits owns current availability. Existing Application Manifest V4 Applications keep running until they are retired; new publication is V5.

For a guided path, see Author a retained Application Manifest V5.

Contract identity

Artifact	Exact identity
RC domain	proof.liskov.policy-v5-rc.v1
RC digest	sha256:549272988045e9357c4945850706569ed8dc7f0c6f419b7cf5c57d54b294bb10
Manifest schema	sha256:38ca88eefe599d9a13b0906fb7ae86be002fb7aa15767925a2fe11908fec95da
Effective-policy schema	sha256:5907054022521f9926164d1e899fa89ecf931ea916da5d7989a6c58015053c30
Retained corpus	25 manifests from liskov-examples@880ea6d8b6fb3bb9d0ff7b70cb6cd2c0cc6a0451
Implementation closeout	31 retained rows, implemented dark
Production registration	v4_and_v5 (handler generation 96, verified 2026-09-04)
Activation authorized	true

The generated authored schema is served read-only at:

GET /api/application-manifest/v5/schema

The route is available to authoring tools. A schema response describes the exact document shape; publication and execution still apply capability, entitlement, evidence, and spend gates.

Conventions

• Fields marked required must be present. Unknown fields fail closed.
• JSON and YAML are accepted. Duplicate keys fail in either form. YAML anchors, aliases, merge keys, explicit tags, and multiple documents fail.
• Durations are one integer plus ms, s, m, h, or d.
• Byte sizes are one integer plus B, KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, KB, MB, GB, or TB.
• Money values are decimal strings matching 0|[1-9][0-9]{0,24}.
• UTC bounds use exactly YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ and must be real dates.
• Tagged unions are closed; a discriminator never permits fields from another arm.

Root document

Field	Required	Type and rule
schema	yes	proof.liskov.application-manifest
schemaVersion	yes	integer 5
applicationId	yes	organization-local slug, 1–63 lowercase letters/digits/hyphens
metadata	no	authored-only description and labels
release	yes	source or pinned artifact
runtime	yes	JavaScript or curated native image
execution	yes	once, continuous, or interval
deployment	yes	jobs, paid window, placement, lifecycle, spend
access	no	retained managed Runtime SSH only
configuration	no	variables and secrets
observability	no	managed logging
state	yes	exactly { "mode": "off" }
debug	no	diagnostic hold, fixtures only

metadata.description is at most 500 characters. metadata.labels has at most 32 values matching [a-z0-9][a-z0-9._-]{0,62}. Metadata does not enter the effective policy digest and cannot re-run a one-shot application.

release

mode	Required fields	Meaning
source	none	Build from exact server-bound GitHub evidence
pinned	artifact.digest	Use one artifact by sha256:<64 lowercase hex>

Source builder repository, ref, workflow, and manifest path are server-side authority. A pinned artifact contains only its digest; CID, encryption mode, and artifact kind are resolved evidence.

runtime

JavaScript

{
  "kind": "javascript",
  "engine": "nodejs",
  "entrypoint": {"file": "bundle.js"}
}

engine defaults to nodejs. The entrypoint is relative to the immutable artifact root, cannot begin with /, and cannot contain a .. segment.

Native image

{
  "kind": "native_image",
  "image": {
    "catalog": "liskov-runtime-images",
    "name": "debian-trixie",
    "version": "0.1"
  },
  "entrypoint": {
    "executable": "/bin/sh",
    "args": ["/app/start.sh"]
  }
}

image.catalog defaults to liskov-runtime-images. Catalogue and image names are 1–63 lowercase letters/digits/hyphens and are checked server-side. Version is a one- to three-part numeric floor, resolved to an exact digest. Entrypoint arguments have at most 64 items. No shell string or inline program is parsed.

execution

mode	Fields	Meaning
once	none	One occurrence, then terminal
continuous	optional until	Successive paid windows until the bound or indefinitely
interval	required every, optional until	New occurrence on a cadence

A settled once application does not run again on its own, and Liskov never re-runs it as a recovery retry. The supported way to run the same document again today is a new Application, which counts against your organization's job slots; an explicit re-arm of the same Application is release-gated, and Capabilities and limits owns its current boundary.

interval

Fixed-interval execution is release-gated: the schema accepts it, but Liskov does not launch an interval Application yet. Check Capabilities and limits before relying on it.

every is a duration, such as 1h. until is an optional UTC bound; no occurrence starts at or after it. Boundaries are fixed durations in UTC, so there is no time zone, daylight-saving, or calendar arithmetic. The accepted behavior is:

• at most one occurrence, and one Service Credit reserve, for each boundary, across restarts and concurrent Liskov workers;
• no overlap: a boundary that arrives while the previous occurrence is still active is skipped and recorded, with no reserve and no job;
• a boundary that cannot start in time is recorded as missed rather than run late; and
• no catch-up burst: after a pause or a Liskov outage, the schedule resumes at the next future boundary.

A due boundary is not spend authority. Placement, balance, spend limits, and retirement still apply to each occurrence. Cron expressions, calendar rules, catch-up queues, overlap modes, and manual runs of an interval Application are not part of V5.

deployment

Field	Required	Type, default, and bound
jobs	no	integer 1–256, default 1; first-public admission maximum 2
schedule.duration	yes	duration of one paid job window
schedule.phasing	no	simultaneous or evenly_spaced; default behavior is simultaneous
placement	no	capability minimums and/or an exact processor pool
lifecycle	no	renewal and update policy
spend	yes	managed Service Credit authority

For evenly_spaced, jobsPerPhase defaults to 1, must not exceed jobs, and must divide it exactly. simultaneous accepts no jobsPerPhase.

placement

minimums contains at least one of:

Field	Meaning
memory	total device RAM floor as a byte size
storage	available storage floor as a byte size
cpuSingleCoreScore	integer benchmark floor, 1–9,007,199,254,740,991
cpuMultiCoreScore	integer benchmark floor, 1–9,007,199,254,740,991

processorSelection has mode: exact and 1–64 processorIds. Omitting it uses open-market selection. Authored evidence profiles, allow/exclude rules, spread, distribution, topology, and manager/static selectors are absent.

An exact processorIds list is the allowed pool for each job. The length of the list is independent of deployment.jobs: one job may name several processors, and a list longer than the job count stays valid. The list and the job count do not have to match, and the order of the ids is not placement priority. Extra ids are further candidates. They are not discarded, and they are not a separate placement mode.

Release-gated

Choosing an eligible processor from that whole pool is release-gated. The manifest accepts the list. Do not rely on a later id being selected when an earlier one is unavailable until that serving behavior is released. Capabilities and limits records the exact selection you can use today, including warmup.

When that selection is released, Liskov chooses one eligible processor from the complete list for each initial launch, renewal, and permitted recovery. One job can allow three processors. If the first has a stale heartbeat and the second fails a hard gate, such as attestation, version, schedule, or price, Liskov can select the third when that processor is eligible. A processor that fails a capacity minimum is skipped the same way. Missing current evidence fails closed. When no listed processor is eligible, Liskov does not fall back to the open market and does not admit the job on a processor outside the list.

Once a job has been admitted, that selection stays fixed for the occurrence. A cheaper processor that becomes eligible later does not replace it. The next choice is made when the job's normal lifecycle admits a new occurrence.

An exact processor ID can be assigned directly while Acurast reports WarmupUntil; this does not make it eligible for open-market selection. Liskov still checks the selected processor's attestation, version, modules, heartbeat, schedule, consumer access, and price before registration.

lifecycle

Field	Values and default
renewal.leadTime	automatic (default) or fixed with required duration
update.timing	immediate (default): the successor starts at the next executor pass; next_renewal: one renewal lead before the running job's scheduled end
update.existingJobs.mode	stop_when_successor_ready (default) stops the old job once the new runtime is ready; run_until_scheduled_end lets it run until its scheduled end

An executor pass is the next time Liskov checks the Application and starts work that is due. A renewal lead is how long before the scheduled end Liskov starts the successor when timing is next_renewal. The scheduled end is the end time registered for the current job's window. A job that has failed, or that Liskov has lost contact with, is not waited for in either mode when timing is immediate.

Renewal is valid only for continuous execution. If existingJobs is present, its mode is required; an empty object fails.

spend

Field	Required	Rule
unit	yes	exactly service_credit_micros
perJob	yes	total exposure for one delivered occurrence
rate.amount	for recurring execution	lifetime ceiling expressed over a window
rate.window	no	duration; defaults to 30d

continuous and interval require rate. The organization guard is not a fallback for an omitted authored rate.

access

The only retained access arm is:

{
  "ssh": {
    "provider": {"kind": "liskov_managed"}
  }
}

It is valid only with runtime.kind: native_image and requires both the Runtime SSH capability and a Developer-or-above entitlement. No authorized keys, port, mode, or alternate provider is authored. Organization operator keys are snapshotted into an exact job attachment by the server.

configuration

variables and secrets each contain at most 64 entries.

Variable source	Required fields	Optional fields
literal	name, value	none
managed	name	required (default true), default

Environment names match [A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]{0,127}.

Secret field	Rule
secretId	1–127 letters/digits/dot/underscore/hyphen
required	defaults to true
destination	environment with name, or file with absolute path

An environment name may be claimed only once across variables and secret destinations.

observability, state, and debug

• observability.logs.enabled is the only authored logging field.
• state is required and has only mode: off. This opts out of durable storage; it does not pause the Application or disable continuous execution. Pause is a separate Application lifecycle action.
• debug.holdOnFailure defaults to false and is reserved for diagnostic fixtures, not ordinary customer operation.

Deferred to a future policy version

The following are not gated V5 features; they are absent from the exact schema:

• public or provider-owned ingress;
• provider integration blocks;
• cohort membership and discovery;
• join/drain hooks and health probes;
• durable volumes, snapshot, or restore;
• placement allow/exclude, diversity, spread, or distribution;
• Tailscale, tunnel, or other SSH providers; and
• acu_planck or other self-custody spend.

Their old draft spellings are rejected as unknown fields or closed-union arms.

Registered publication setup hold

The registered POST /api/applications/{id}/policy-versions request accepts dryRun: true to compile and resolve the submitted document and release evidence, then roll back without committing policy, pointer or wakeup. Its response adds dryRun: true; an ordinary committed response remains unchanged. This does not authorize a schema pair that the server's current generation has not enabled.

postPublishStatus: "paused" plus a trimmed 1–500-character reason commits a paused Application in the same transaction as publication. The reason and actor are retained, and the setup hold appears in Application activity. The fields must be provided together; active is not an accepted post-publication option. Omitting them preserves normal publication, including activation of a previously disabled Application and preservation of an existing pause.

expectedActivePointerVersion remains the optimistic concurrency fence. Use it for both preview and confirmation. invalid_publication_pause is a 400 response for an invalid reason/pair; active_pointer_version_conflict requires fresh review. CLI application policy publish --dry-run and --paused --reason TEXT expose these fields from version 0.13.0.