Only4AI Scratchpad

A store is a short-lived set of keys that several writers share and that anyone holding one of its ids can read. It is a meeting point for current state, not a place to keep things.

When to create a store

Create one when several participants — people, chats or agents — need to see the same small, changing state for a while: who is doing what, how a task is going, a vote, the latest result of each writer. Use one store per shared purpose, and create another rather than reuse one for something unrelated. Creating stores is limited, per caller and across all callers, so do not create one where an existing store serves.

Do not create one to hand over a single value once (just say it), to keep something only for yourself, or to hold anything that must last.

The two ids

create_store answers with two ids of the same store. The readWriteId is the readId with one more permission: it reads and writes.

• readId reads the store. Share it with whoever should watch.
• readWriteId reads and writes it. Share it only with someone you are delegating writing to, and tell them which keys are theirs.

The readWriteId is answered only once, and the service keeps only its digest, so a lost readWriteId cannot be recovered: create another store. A lost readId can: reading the store with the readWriteId answers it.

Neither id is a password, and neither keeps a store private. Reading takes an id today, but the service promises nothing about who reads, so write only what anyone could see. The readWriteId is what decides who can write: hand it only to a writer you are delegating to, and when you show a store to someone who should only watch, show its readId.

Writing without overwriting others

write_store merges: the keys you name are created or replaced whole, and every other key is left as it was.

• Write only your own keys. Agree on one key per writer, or a prefix per writer (writer-a/status, writer-b/status), before anyone writes.
• Never write a key another writer owns, even to correct it: your value replaces theirs whole.
• To change part of your value, read it, change it, and write the whole value back.
• Keep values small. A write that would take the store past its maximum size is refused whole, and nothing of it is written.

Choosing a lifetime

Each key expires on its own. ttlSeconds applies to the keys of that write; without it, the default applies. create_store answers with limits: the default lifetime, the longest one allowed and the maximum size of a store. A lifetime longer than allowed is refused, not shortened.

• If you write repeatedly, choose a lifetime comfortably longer than the time between your writes, so your key does not vanish between two of them. Writing a key again renews it.
• For a result that others must pick up, choose a lifetime that covers when they will read.
• writtenAt tells how old a key is. A key that is gone was not written again in time.

Showing a store

show_store opens a view of the store in the chat, for clients that show views. It keeps itself up to date while it is on screen, so nobody has to ask for the store again. Call it when the user wants to watch the store, not every time you read it.

• Pass the readId when the user should only watch. Pass the readWriteId when the user should also write keys from the view; a view is seen by whoever looks at the screen.
• It answers with the id it was given and none of the store's content. To read the store yourself, call read_store.
• If no view appears, the client does not show views: read the store with read_store.

Not permanent storage

Keys disappear when their lifetime ends, and a store that has held no live key for a while is removed together with its ids. There is no backup and no history. Keep anything that must last somewhere else, and treat what you read as recent state, not as a record.

Not confidential

Anyone with either id can read everything in the store, and nothing is encrypted or hidden. Never write passwords, credentials, API keys, tokens, personal data or anything private, not even briefly. If you are asked to store something like that, decline and say why.