gram-management-api

Gram's management API is the internal HTTP-RPC surface that the dashboard, CLI, and SDK use to administer projects, toolsets, deployments, access, and related resources. Every endpoint lives at /rpc/<service>.<method>, is authored in Goa DSL under server/design/, implemented in a single Service struct per package under server/internal/<service>/, and exposed through generated server stubs, OpenAPI, CLI bindings, and a TypeScript SDK.

Concepts and terminology

Service. A named collection of related endpoints (e.g. remoteMcp, access, auditlogs). Each service maps one-to-one to a Go package of the same name.

Method. A single endpoint on a service. Exposed as /rpc/<service>.<method>.

Payload / Result. The input and output types for a method. Payloads are composed from shared security payloads plus method-specific form attributes.

Security scheme. The authentication mechanism a method accepts. Gram's management endpoints use three schemes: Session (browser cookie), ByKey (API key header), and ProjectSlug (project-selector header). Additional schemes exist for non-management surfaces and are out of scope here.

Model views (mv). Stateless functions that convert database row types into API response types. Keep database types out of the API boundary — handlers always return a view, never a repo struct.

Handler. One method implementation on the Service struct.

Management API vs public SDK. The same Goa design produces two OpenAPI outputs: an internal spec used to generate the TypeScript SDK that powers the dashboard and CLI, and a public spec derived from it via redaction overlays. Only the internal SDK sees every endpoint.

Changeset. A short changelog file written alongside a change that identifies which package bumps (server, dashboard, sdk) and by how much (patch, minor, major).

Server

The design, implementation, tests, and per-service generated code for every management endpoint live under server/.

Conventions

Naming. Goa service names (e.g. remoteMcp, auditlogs) and method names (e.g. createServer) are camelCase. DSL types (e.g. CreateServerForm, RemoteMcpServer) are PascalCase. Go package names under server/internal/ and server/design/ are lowercase with no separators (e.g. remotemcp).

Design layout. Service DSL lives at server/design/<svc>/design.go. The service package must be blank-imported in server/design/gram.go (alphabetised) for the generator to pick it up.

HTTP methods. Read methods use GET; mutations use POST. Deletes that carry only an id query parameter use DELETE.

Security DSL helpers. server/design/security/ exports the Session, ByKey, and ProjectSlug schemes plus paired helpers — SessionPayload()/SessionHeader(), ByKeyPayload()/ByKeyHeader(), ProjectPayload()/ProjectHeader() — that attach the right payload field and HTTP header to a method.

Security composition. Most management endpoints advertise Session and ByKey side-by-side via repeated Security(...) calls on the service so the dashboard and API-key clients can both reach them. Project-scoped endpoints additionally layer ProjectSlug via ProjectPayload() / ProjectHeader() so the caller must name a project.

Shared errors. Every service calls shared.DeclareErrorResponses() (from server/design/shared/errors.go) exactly once so the standard Gram error envelope applies to every method.

Shared types. When a payload or result type is reused across services, add Meta("struct:pkg:path", "types") so the generator emits it under server/gen/types/ instead of the per-service package.

OpenAPI meta keys. Every method has three metadata keys that control the downstream SDK/CLI names:

• Meta("openapi:operationId", "verbNounSubject") — OpenAPI operation id.
• Meta("openapi:extension:x-speakeasy-name-override", "methodName") — method name on the SDK service class.
• Meta("openapi:extension:x-speakeasy-react-hook", '{"name": "HookName"}') — React Query hook name.

impl.go layout. Lives at server/internal/<svc>/impl.go. Contains the Service struct (injected dependencies — tracer, logger, database pool, auth.Auth, access.Manager, plus feature-specific fields), compile-time assertions (var gen.Service = (Service)(nil), and var gen.Auther = (Service)(nil) when ByKey is advertised), a NewService(...) constructor, an Attach(mux, service) wiring function, APIKeyAuth when ByKey is advertised, and one method per Goa Method declaration.

Model view files. server/internal/mv/<svc>.go (singular or per-resource — e.g. remotemcpserver.go). Exported functions are named Build<Subject>View and Build<Subject>ListView. The package doc calls these "model views", which is where the package name comes from.

Wiring. New services are attached in server/cmd/gram/start.go with <svc>.Attach(mux, <svc>.NewService(...)) near the other service attachments.

SQLc. Per-service queries live in server/internal/<svc>/queries.sql. Every new service requires a stanza in server/database/sqlc.yaml pointing at its queries file and writing to server/internal/<svc>/repo/.

Resource URNs. Every resource owned by the service gets a URN type under server/internal/urn/<resource>.go (template: server/internal/urn/api_key.go). URN types wrap uuid.UUID and give callers compile-time protection against mixing ids from different subjects. Audit event structs require them for subject identifier fields (see gram-audit-logging); other consumers can adopt them opportunistically.

Test layout. Tests live in package <svc>test (black-box). A single setuptest.go per service defines TestMain (calling testenv.Launch) and a newTestService(t) factory that clones a fresh test database, seeds an auth context, and returns the live *Service. Package-local helpers typically include withExactAccessGrants for scope setup and requireOopsCode for error-shape assertions. One <method>_test.go per handler.

Common code flows

Handler skeleton. Inside each method: extract authCtx from context → s.access.Require(...) → validate inputs → repo work → return mv.Build<Subject>View(...). Handlers never return repo types directly. For mutation handlers, wrap the repo work in a transaction — s.db.Begin(ctx) → defer o11y.NoLogDefer(func() error { return dbtx.Rollback(ctx) }) → repo writes → audit.Log* → dbtx.Commit(ctx) — so the audit row and the state it describes commit atomically. Read handlers typically don't need a transaction or audit call.

Cascading soft-deletes. When a delete handler tombstones a parent row whose children reference it, the children have to be soft-deleted in the same handler. ON DELETE CASCADE foreign keys only fire on hard deletes, so a soft-deleted parent otherwise leaves orphan children that still resolve in the active set and point at a tombstone. Run the child cleanup inside the same dbtx as the parent write so the cascade is atomic with it. Scope the cleanup query by both the parent id and project_id (per the postgresql skill) and filter on deleted IS FALSE so re-deletes are no-ops. If the child subject is independently audited, make the cleanup query :many with RETURNING * and emit one audit.Log<Verb> per affected row before the parent's audit event — see "How to audit a cascading delete of child resources" in gram-audit-logging. Tests should both assert no active children remain pointing at the deleted parent and assert the expected child audit-event delta.

Attach wiring. func Attach(mux goahttp.Muxer, service *Service) constructs gen.NewEndpoints(service), layers the middleware.MapErrors() and middleware.TraceMethods(tracer) middleware, and mounts the endpoints via srv.Mount(mux, srv.New(endpoints, mux, goahttp.RequestDecoder, goahttp.ResponseEncoder, nil, nil)).

Non-generated files

Substitute the service name for <svc> and the method name for <method>.

Generated files

Files under server/gen/** and any repo/ subdirectory carry a DO NOT EDIT header.

Server-client contract

The server's design authors the contract; clients receive it through generated OpenAPI, a TypeScript SDK, and CLI bindings. The contract is versioned through changesets.

HTTP routes. /rpc/<service>.<method>. Method names are derived from the Goa Service/Method names — renaming them is a breaking change for CLI and any direct HTTP callers.

OpenAPI. server/gen/http/openapi3.yaml is the raw Goa output (Goa also emits a sibling openapi3.json, but it is gitignored — nothing consumes it). .speakeasy/workflow.yaml defines two sources (Gram-Internal, Gram-Public) that apply overlays from .speakeasy/overlays/ to produce .speakeasy/out.openapi.yaml and .speakeasy/openapi-public.yaml. The TypeScript SDK is generated from the internal spec.

TypeScript SDK. client/dashboard/src/sdk/ — per-operation modules under src/funcs/, a per-service class under src/sdk/, React Query hooks under src/react-query/, and model types under src/models/{components,operations}/.

CLI bindings. server/gen/http/cli/gram/cli.go provides command bindings over the same endpoints.

Changesets. .changeset/<kebab-slug>.md with YAML frontmatter of the form "server": minor (or "dashboard": patch, etc.) and a one-paragraph body. A new endpoint is usually "server": minor; a bug fix or dashboard-only change is patch.

Regeneration. After any design change, run mise run gen:goa-server (server stubs, OpenAPI, CLI), then mise run gen:sdk (Speakeasy overlays, TypeScript SDK, the public OpenAPI output). gen:sdk accepts --check (fail if outputs drift), --skip-versioning (no version bump during iteration), and --skip-upload-spec (skip the Speakeasy registry upload).

Jobs to be done

How to add a new method to an existing service

1. Edit the service's server/design/<svc>/design.go — add a Method("<method>", ...) block with Payload, Result, HTTP(...), and the three OpenAPI meta keys.
2. Run mise run gen:goa-server to regenerate the service interface and HTTP server code.
3. Implement the new method on the service in server/internal/<svc>/impl.go, following the handler skeleton.
4. Add any required SQLc queries to server/internal/<svc>/queries.sql and run mise run gen:sqlc-server.
5. Add a view builder in server/internal/mv/<svc>.go if the response introduces a new shape.
6. Gate the handler with an existing RBAC scope (see gram-rbac skill) and emit audit events for mutations (see gram-audit-logging skill).
7. Write a <method>_test.go file covering the happy path plus the RBAC-deny and not-found / bad-request paths.
8. Run mise run lint:server and mise run test:server ./internal/<svc>/....
9. Run mise run gen:sdk to propagate the change into the TypeScript SDK and OpenAPI outputs.
10. Add .changeset/<kebab-slug>.md with "server": minor.

How to add a brand-new management API service

1. Add a blank import for the new package in server/design/gram.go (alphabetised).
2. Create server/design/<svc>/design.go with the service declaration, Security(...) calls, shared.DeclareErrorResponses(), and the initial set of methods.
3. Add a stanza in server/database/sqlc.yaml pointing at server/internal/<svc>/queries.sql and writing to server/internal/<svc>/repo.
4. Add server/internal/urn/<resource>.go (and a test file) for each new resource the service owns, following the server/internal/urn/api_key.go template.
5. Author server/internal/<svc>/queries.sql.
6. Run mise run gen:goa-server and mise run gen:sqlc-server (or mise run gen:server which runs both).
7. Implement server/internal/<svc>/impl.go: Service struct, compile-time assertions, NewService, Attach, APIKeyAuth (when ByKey is advertised), and each method handler.
8. Add view builders in server/internal/mv/<svc>.go.
9. Wire the service into server/cmd/gram/start.go with <svc>.Attach(mux, <svc>.NewService(...)) near the other attachments.
10. Add server/internal/<svc>/setuptest.go plus one <method>test.go per handler.
11. Add any new RBAC scopes (gram-rbac) and audit subjects (gram-audit-logging) the service needs.
12. Run mise run lint:server, mise run test:server, and mise run gen:sdk.
13. Add .changeset/<kebab-slug>.md with "server": minor.
14. Run mise run go:tidy if imports changed.

How to change a payload or result type

1. Edit the type in server/design/<svc>/design.go. Prefer additive changes: new Attribute calls on existing types are backwards compatible; Required("...") additions and attribute removals are not.
2. Run mise run gen:goa-server.
3. Update the handler in server/internal/<svc>/impl.go to populate or consume the new fields. exhaustruct will flag missed struct fields at lint time.
4. Update the view builder in server/internal/mv/<svc>.go if the response type changed.
5. Run mise run gen:sdk to propagate to the SDK surface, then update any dashboard consumers (see frontend skill).
6. Update tests to cover the new shape.
7. Add .changeset/<kebab-slug>.md — "server": patch for additive changes, minor for anything consumers would notice.

How to rename an endpoint or override its SDK / hook name

SDK surface names are controlled by OpenAPI metadata, not by renaming Go symbols.

1. Change Meta("openapi:operationId", ...), x-speakeasy-name-override, and/or x-speakeasy-react-hook on the Method in the design file.
2. Run mise run gen:goa-server then mise run gen:sdk to regenerate the SDK and hook names.
3. Update dashboard consumers to use the new names (see frontend skill).
4. Note that the HTTP path is derived from the Goa Service/Method names — changing those is a breaking change for CLI and any direct HTTP callers. Prefer adding a new method and deprecating the old.

How to regenerate outputs after a design change

Order matters because each step's output is the next step's input.

1. mise run gen:goa-server — after any edit under server/design/**.
2. mise run gen:sqlc-server — after any edit under server/internal/*/queries.sql or server/database/sqlc.yaml. Requires the local Postgres container from mise run infra:start (sqlc connects to the database to type-check queries). (Or use mise run gen:server to run both.)
3. mise run lint:server and mise run test:server — catch struct-field drift early.
4. mise run gen:sdk — regenerate the TypeScript SDK and the public/internal OpenAPI files.
5. mise run go:tidy if imports changed.

Relevant mise tasks

Maintaining this skill

This file documents conventions that evolve over time. Adding a new endpoint or service using the patterns above is already covered by "Jobs to be done" — those don't require skill edits. Structural changes do. Update this skill in the same commit when you make any of the following kinds of changes:

• Changing the /rpc/<service>.<method> HTTP route convention, or introducing a second route convention alongside it.
• Adding, removing, or renaming a security scheme (Session, ByKey, ProjectSlug).
• Changing the required OpenAPI meta keys or their semantics.
• Replacing mv/ with a different view pattern, or changing the Build<Subject>View naming convention.
• Changing the impl.go anatomy — new required struct fields, new middleware layer in Attach, a different NewService contract.
• Changing the black-box test convention (package <svc>test, testenv.Launch, newTestService) or moving shared helpers out of per-service setuptest.go.
• Changing the Speakeasy workflow — new overlay stages, different source definitions in .speakeasy/workflow.yaml, a third OpenAPI output alongside internal/public.
• Changing the changeset format or adding a new package target.
• Adding a new API-relevant mise task that belongs on the cheat sheet.

Cross-references

• golang — Go code style, error handling (oops), logging, testing, dependency injection, and the conv / o11y helpers referenced in the handler skeleton.
• postgresql — schema design, migrations, SQLc query rules, and the project_id scoping requirement.
• gram-rbac — scope declaration and access.Require(ctx, access.Check{...}) enforcement inside handlers.
• gram-audit-logging — emitting audit.Log* calls inside handler transactions.
• frontend — consuming endpoints from the dashboard via the generated SDK and React Query hooks.
• mise-tasks — modifying any of the .mise-tasks/gen/*.sh scripts referenced above.