# MTConnect Driver Getting-started guide for the MTConnect Agent driver (P1 Agent MVP). This is the short path — for the full design rationale read [`docs/plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md`](../plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md) and the build-vs-plan record in [`docs/plans/2026-07-24-mtconnect-driver.md`](../plans/2026-07-24-mtconnect-driver.md); for the fixture recipe read [`tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.IntegrationTests/Docker/README.md`](../../tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.IntegrationTests/Docker/README.md) (not duplicated here). > **Live gate:** see the LIVE-GATE RESULT note in the plan's Task 21 > (`docs/plans/2026-07-24-mtconnect-driver.md`) for the docker-dev `/run` verification outcome > (browse picker / typed editor / deploy / read / subscribe against the real Agent fixture). ## What it talks to A **MTConnect Agent** — the vendor-neutral telemetry endpoint that front-ends a machine tool (or fronts an adapter that itself talks to the machine over SHDR). The driver speaks plain HTTP + XML against the Agent's three standard REST paths: - `/probe` — the static device model (Device → Component → DataItem tree) - `/current` — a snapshot of every DataItem's latest observation - `/sample` — a `multipart/x-mixed-replace` long-poll stream of observation deltas, keyed by a monotonic sequence number Those three are the whole data plane: **agent-first** — Discover + Read + Subscribe. There is a fourth path, and it is not part of the data plane: the Agent's optional **`AllowPut`** surface, off by default in `agent.cfg`, which this driver's `IWritable` uses (`b29623cf`, 2026-08-05). It sets what the Agent *reports* for a DataItem; nothing reaches the machine. Read [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default) before enabling it. ## Built vs. planned — read this before trusting the design doc's §2 The design doc ([`2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md`](../plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md)) picked the **TrakHound `MTConnect.NET-Common` / `-HTTP`** NuGet packages (MIT, `netstandard2.0`) as the primary path, with a hand-rolled fallback. **The hand-rolled fallback is what shipped.** Task 6/7 of the implementation plan found by reflection + live invocation that the pinned TrakHound packages ship **no XML formatter** (`Document Formatter Not found for "xml"` — the formatter lives in a separate `MTConnect.NET-XML` package the design didn't pin) and that `MTConnectHttpClientStream` exposes no injectable `HttpClient` handler, so it cannot be unit-tested behind the driver's `IMTConnectAgentClient` seam. Both package references were dropped. There is **no TrakHound dependency anywhere in the shipped driver** — probe/current/sample parsing is hand-rolled `System.Xml.Linq` plus a multipart boundary reader, entirely behind `IMTConnectAgentClient`. See the CORRECTION block under Task 0 of the implementation plan for the full record. **Namespace-agnostic parsing.** Every parser matches XML elements on `LocalName` only, ignoring the document's XML namespace entirely, so MTConnect 1.3 through 2.x documents all parse without a schema-version branch. This is deliberate, not sloppy: a real Agent injects vendor-extension `Component`s in a foreign namespace whose child `DataItems` elements inherit the *default* namespace, and namespace-strict matching would silently drop the whole vendor component (and every DataItem beneath it) rather than fail loudly. Attributes are read **unqualified** for the same reason — so an `xsi:type` attribute is never mistaken for a DataItem's own `type`. ## Project split | Project | Target | Role | |---------|--------|------| | `src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect/` | net10.0 | In-process driver — `MTConnectDriver`, the hand-rolled `IMTConnectAgentClient` (probe/current/sample), the observation index, the factory | | `src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.Contracts/` | net10.0 | `MTConnectDriverOptions`, `MTConnectTagDefinition`, and the pure `MTConnectDataTypeInference` table shared by the driver, browse-commit, and the AdminUI typed editor | No `.Browser` project — browse comes free from the Wave-0 universal discovery browser (see [Browse](#browse--free-via-the-universal-browser) below). ## Capability surface `MTConnectDriver : IDriver, IReadable, IWritable, ISubscribable, ITagDiscovery, IHostConnectivityProbe, IRediscoverable, IDriverDiagnostics` (`src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect/MTConnectDriver.cs`). `IWritable` landed 2026-08-05 (`b29623cf`), against the Agent's `AllowPut` surface rather than MTConnect *Interfaces*. It is **observation injection, not machine command**, and is off at two independent gates by default — read [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default) before authoring a writable MTConnect tag. *Interfaces* itself — the protocol's own request/response handshake — is a different mechanism and remains deferred; see [Deferred](#deferred-not-in-this-build). | Capability | Path | Notes | |------------|------|-------| | `ITagDiscovery` | `DiscoverAsync` — streams `/probe`'s Device→Component→DataItem tree into the address-space builder | `SupportsOnlineDiscovery = true`, `RediscoverPolicy = Once` | | `IReadable` | `ReadAsync` → the live `/sample` pump's index while it is delivering and healthy, else one `/current` per call | **Not the production data path** — see below | | `IWritable` | `WriteAsync` → `POST {agent}/{device}?{dataItemId}={value}` on the Agent's `AllowPut` surface | **Off by default** — needs `Write.Enabled` **and** the Agent's `AllowPut`; CONDITION items are refused | | `ISubscribable` | `SubscribeAsync`/`OnDataChange` — the shared `/sample` long-poll pump | **The production data path** | | `IHostConnectivityProbe` | periodic headers-only `/probe` ping under `Probe.*` — the status is read, the device model is neither downloaded in full nor parsed (review 2026-10-21 T-7; it used to parse the whole model every tick). Trade-off: a 200 from something that is not an Agent (a proxy's HTML page) now reads as reachable; the data paths still fail on it | Consumed — feeds `/hosts` (see [Known limitations](#known-limitations)) | | `IRediscoverable` | watches the Agent's `Header.instanceId` | No consumer wires it today — see [Known limitations](#known-limitations) | | `IDriverDiagnostics` | `GetDiagnostics()` — `/sample` effective count, lag, saturated chunks, count raises | Shown on `/hosts` (review 2026-10-21 T-5) | | `IAlarmSource` | CONDITION observations off the same `/sample` pump → Part 9 transitions keyed by the alarm tag's RawPath | Opt-in per raw tag (`alarm` object) — see [CONDITION alarms](#condition-alarms-626) | ### Feature status at a glance (#613) | Feature | Status | Detail | |---------|--------|--------| | SAMPLE / EVENT / CONDITION values | **Supported** | EVENT values are Strings carrying the Agent's own word | | CONDITION as native Part 9 alarms (#626) | **Supported, opt-in** per raw tag via the `alarm` object | [CONDITION alarms](#condition-alarms-626) | | `TIME_SERIES` arrays (#627) | **Supported** as variable-length `double[]` (Float64 tags only) | [TIME_SERIES arrays](#time_series-arrays-627) | | One Agent client per driver, one `/raw` Device (#628) | **Enforced** (`MTConnectMultipleDevices` deploy error); multi-device Agents use several driver instances | [Known limitations](#known-limitations) | | Write-back (`IWritable`) | **Supported, off by default** (`Write.Enabled` + Agent `AllowPut`) | [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default) | | EVENT controlled vocabularies as OPC UA enumerations | **Parked / won't fix** (stay String) - see rationale | [EVENT enumerations](#event-enumerations-650-parked--wont-fix) | | `DATA_SET` / `TABLE` representations (#650) | **Supported** as a String carrying compact JSON | [DATA_SET / TABLE](#data_set--table-650) | | MTConnect Interfaces, SHDR ingest | Not built | [Deferred](#deferred-not-in-this-build) | **`IReadable.ReadAsync` is never called by the running server.** The production data plane is entirely `ISubscribable` — `DriverInstanceActor` subscribes once and lives off `OnDataChange`. `ReadAsync` exists for the Client CLI (`... read -n ...`) and for the unit/integration suites; it is correct and tested, just not on the hot path. **Read path (review 2026-10-21 T-4 / T-2).** While the current-generation `/sample` pump is running, has delivered since it started (a chunk, heartbeat or re-baseline) and its stream is not degraded, a read is answered from the pump's observation index — **read only**; the pump stays its single writer — with no Agent round trip. Otherwise (no subscription, a pump still catching up after a resubscribe, a degraded stream) it falls back to one `/current`, whose per-batch index is now built over a tag map frozen once per binding. **Stale window:** a stream that stalls without failing (no chunk, no heartbeat) still serves Good reads from the index until the client's idle watchdog fires (2 × `HeartbeatMs` + `RequestTimeoutMs`) — the same bounded window subscriptions already have. During an Agent-restart re-baseline reads fall back to `/current`. A served read also clears a read-path degradation an earlier failed `/current` left (the read path is answering). The `/current` fallback now checks the answer's `instanceId`: a changed one (an Agent restart seen by a browse-only driver with no pump) drops the cached `/probe` model and raises `OnRediscoveryNeeded` once per distinct id — it used to be detected only by the pump. **An Agent refusal is a reply (health contract).** An `MTConnectError` document answering `/current` (e.g. `NO_DEVICE` for a wrong `DeviceName` scope) still fails the batch (`BadCommunicationError` per ref), but it is the Agent answering, not a comms fault: the read path is not degraded by it (that would let the comms-loss watchdog reconnect-loop the driver over a configuration problem), `LastSuccessfulRead` advances, a prior read degradation clears, and the Agent's text is logged once per distinct refusal. An answer that is not an MTConnect document at all (a proxy's HTML page, truncated XML) stays a comms fault. ## Minimum deployment ```jsonc "Drivers": { "mtconnect-1": { "Type": "MTConnect", "Config": { "AgentUri": "http://10.100.0.35:5000", "DeviceName": null, "RequestTimeoutMs": 5000, "SampleIntervalMs": 1000, "SampleCount": 1000, "HeartbeatMs": 10000, "Probe": { "Enabled": true, "IntervalMs": 5000, "TimeoutMs": 2000 }, "Reconnect": { "MinBackoffMs": 0, "MaxBackoffMs": 30000, "BackoffMultiplier": 2.0 }, "Write": { "Enabled": false }, "Tags": [] } } } ``` `RawTags[]` is not authored by hand — `DriverDeviceConfigMerger` injects it at deploy time from the tags authored on the `/raw` tree. ### Config keys Read off `MTConnectDriverOptions` / `MTConnectDriverConfigDto` (`src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.Contracts/MTConnectDriverOptions.cs`, `src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect/MTConnectDriver.cs`): | Key | Default | Notes | |---|---|---| | `AgentUri` | — (required) | Agent base URI; the driver appends `/probe`, `/current`, `/sample`. Any `user:pass@` (and query) is **redacted** from `HostName` (the `/hosts` key), every log line and every exception / health message (review 2026-10-21 T-8); a URI without credentials is shown unchanged | | `DeviceName` | `null` | **Double duty.** (1) Scopes requests to `{AgentUri}/{DeviceName}/...`; `null` = whole Agent. (2) The write path's fallback device — the device a write is addressed to when the probe model does not say which device declared the DataItem (see [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default)) | | `RequestTimeoutMs` | `5000` | Per-call deadline for `/probe` and `/current` | | `SampleIntervalMs` | `1000` | The Agent's `/sample?interval=` query param | | `SampleCount` | `1000` | The Agent's `/sample?count=` query param. **Caps subscription throughput** at `SampleCount / SampleIntervalMs` — see [Subscribe](#subscribe--the-sample-pump) for the adaptive raise | | `HeartbeatMs` | `10000` | The Agent's `/sample?heartbeat=` query param — also the watchdog's liveness window | | `Probe.Enabled` / `Probe.IntervalMs` / `Probe.TimeoutMs` | `true` / `5000` / `2000` | Background connectivity-probe knobs (mirrors `ModbusProbeOptions`) | | `Reconnect.MinBackoffMs` / `MaxBackoffMs` / `BackoffMultiplier` | `0` / `30000` / `2.0` | Geometric backoff after a failed request or a dropped `/sample` stream | | `Write.Enabled` | `false` | The driver-side half of the write-back opt-in. An absent block means disabled — see [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default) | | `Tags[]` | `[]` | Pre-v3 / CLI authoring surface — one `MTConnectTagDefinition` per DataItem `id` | | `RawTags[]` | `[]` (deploy-injected) | The v3 data-plane binding — see below | **All timing knobs are validated strictly positive** at `InitializeAsync` (`RequirePositive`, mirroring the arch-review 01/S-6 lesson: a `0` timeout does not mean "wait forever," it faults the driver). This applies to `RequestTimeoutMs`, `HeartbeatMs`, `SampleIntervalMs`, `SampleCount`, and (when the probe is enabled) `Probe.Interval` / `Probe.Timeout`. **No save-time gate on a blank `AgentUri` in the AdminUI.** The driver form renders an inline validation notice (`_form.Validate()`), but `DriverConfigModal.SaveAsync` has no per-form validation seam to block the Save button on it — no sibling driver form has one either. A blank `AgentUri` saves cleanly and fails at deploy with the driver's own error message, not at authoring time. ## Data plane ### FullName == DataItem `id` `FullName` (both `MTConnectTagDefinition.FullName` and every `RawTags[]` blob's identifier) is the MTConnect `DataItem@id` attribute — the value the universal browser commits and the key the driver resolves reads/subscribes against. `MTConnectTagConfigModel.FromJson` (the AdminUI typed editor) tries three spellings in order — `fullName` → `dataItemId` → `address` — and takes the first non-blank one, normalising onto `fullName` on save. `address` is accepted because that is the field name `RawBrowseCommitMapper` writes for a driver with no typed-editor branch of its own — MTConnect has had such a branch since Gitea #536 and now commits under `fullName`, but blobs committed before it, and hand-authored/CSV/API blobs, still carry `address` and must stay readable. ### Coercion-type precedence The driver keys its data plane by **RawPath** (the v3 raw-tag identity), not by DataItem id directly, resolving RawPath → dataItemId internally. Each raw tag's coercion type (the `DriverDataType` its Agent observation is parsed into) is resolved in this order, first non-null wins: 1. The `RawTags[]` blob's `driverDataType` or `dataType` field (both spellings accepted — the typed editor writes `dataType`, the driver's own `tags[]` shape uses `driverDataType`). **`driverDataType` wins when it is non-blank**, and a present-but-invalid one rejects the tag rather than falling through to `dataType`. The AdminUI's typed editor mirrors that precedence on load and **normalises onto `dataType`, dropping the alias, on save** (Gitea #550) — so a tag edited through the editor keeps the type the driver read for it, and an unreadable spelling is refused at authoring instead of dying at the driver. 2. A matching `Tags[]` entry naming the same DataItem id. 3. The Agent's own `/probe` declaration, via `MTConnectDataTypeInference.Infer` (category/type/units/representation → `DriverDataType`). 4. `DriverDataType.String` — the coercion that cannot fail. > **A browse-committed tag resolves at step 1, carrying the step-3 answer.** `RawBrowseCommitMapper`'s > MTConnect branch emits a whole `MTConnectTagConfigModel`, whose `ToJson()` always writes `dataType` > — so a committed blob always states a non-blank type and step 1 always wins. Since Gitea **#560** > that stated type is the **browsed leaf's own inferred `DriverDataType`**, the very value step 3 > would compute, forwarded by `MapLeaf` into `BuildTagConfig` exactly as the AbCip / TwinCAT / FOCAS > branches forward their browsed native type (Gitea #536). It therefore agrees by construction with > the raw tag row's OPC UA `DataType`, which `MapLeaf` → `MapDataType` takes from the same inference. > > Before #560 the branch stamped the model's `String` default instead, so a browsed `SAMPLE` landed > as a `Double` node whose driver coerced the observation to text — recorded as `Driver.MTConnect-003` > in [`code-reviews/Driver.MTConnect/findings.md`](../../code-reviews/Driver.MTConnect/findings.md). > A leaf the browser reports **no** type for still commits `String`, and a leaf legitimately inferred > as `String` (an `EVENT` item) commits `String` too — in both cases the type the driver would have > reached anyway. > > **Step 3 remains the rescue for a blob that states no type at all** — hand-authored, CSV-imported, > or API-posted `RawTags[]` entries carrying only an id, which is the shape it was written for. ### Quality mapping `UNAVAILABLE` — MTConnect's one explicit "I have no value" sentinel — maps to **`BadNoCommunication`** (`0x80310000`). This is deliberately distinct from the fleet-standard `BadCommunicationError` (`0x80050000`, used elsewhere for the driver's *own* transport failure to the Agent): `UNAVAILABLE` means the Agent is reachable and answered, it just has no device-backed value for that item. A `CONDITION` observation's value is taken from its **element name** (`` → the string `"Normal"`, `` → `"Fault"`); a `` condition element normalises onto the same `UNAVAILABLE` sentinel as every other category so one comparison covers all three. Other status codes an observation can surface: | Code | Meaning | |---|---| | `BadTypeMismatch` (`0x80740000`) | The Agent's text isn't a value of the tag's coerced type at all | | `BadOutOfRange` (`0x803C0000`) | The Agent reported a number the coerced type can't represent | | `BadDecodingError` (`0x80070000`) | A `TIME_SERIES` vector whose element count disagrees with the observation's own `sampleCount` (or the tag's fixed `ArrayDim`) — see [TIME_SERIES](#time_series-arrays-627) | | `BadNotSupported` (`0x803D0000`) | A shape this build doesn't materialize — a `DATA_SET`/`TABLE` observation whose children are not `` elements (a well-formed one is served as JSON since #650), or an array tag declared as anything other than Float64 | | `BadWaitingForInitialData` | Tag is authored but the Agent hasn't reported it yet | | `BadNodeIdUnknown` | DataItem id is neither authored nor ever observed | ### TIME_SERIES arrays (#627) A `SAMPLE` DataItem with `representation="TIME_SERIES"` is served as a **variable-length `double[]`** (`ValueRank = 1`, no fixed `ArrayDimensions` — a live Agent never declares `sampleCount` on the DataItem, see Known limitations 4; a probe that does declare one yields a fixed `ArrayDim`). Parsing: the observation text is split on any whitespace, each token parsed invariant-culture. The result is **all-or-nothing** — one non-numeric / non-finite token is `BadTypeMismatch`, a literal `UNAVAILABLE` token or an empty body is `BadNoCommunication`, and a count that disagrees with the observation's own `sampleCount` attribute (or a fixed `ArrayDim`) is `BadDecodingError`. A partial vector is never served as Good. Only a **Float64** array tag is served; any other declared element type stays `BadNotSupported`. An authored tag needs `"isArray": true` and `"dataType": "Float64"` in its TagConfig (the AdminUI editor shows an advisory for any other array type; a browse-commit does not stamp `isArray`, so set it in the Tag modal's array section). **Sample rate is not exposed on the served node.** The observation's `sampleRate` and `sampleCount` attributes are parsed (`MTConnectObservation`) but the OPC UA node has no description/property slot through `DriverAttributeInfo`, and a sibling property node would need a new address-space mechanism. Decision: document it — the rate is a property of the Agent's DataItem (`sampleRate` in `/probe`), read it there. ### DATA_SET / TABLE (#650) `DATA_SET` and `TABLE` observations carry their content in `` children (a `TABLE` entry holds `` children). They are served as a **String carrying compact, deterministic JSON** (OPC UA type String, never an array or structure - no new node shape, history/ACL/alarm paths unchanged; discovery and type inference already type these items String): - `DATA_SET` -> `{"offsetX":1.25,"toolNumber":7}`; `TABLE` -> `{"G54":{"X":1.0,"Y":2},"G55":{"X":3}}`. - Keys are ordinal-sorted at every level, no whitespace - the same content always serialises to the same bytes, so value-dedup works. Values that are *strict JSON numbers* are emitted as numbers with their original token (lossless: `1.0` stays `1.0`); anything else (`007`, `+5`, `on`) is a string. - **Merge semantics follow MTConnect 2.x.** A `/current` document states the *whole* set and **replaces** it; a `/sample` chunk carries *deltas* that **merge** by key (a `TABLE` row is replaced as a unit by a later entry for the same row key). An observation with `resetTriggered` replaces the accumulated set, and a `resetTriggered` observation with no entries is the empty set `{}`. Several observations of one item in one document fold in document order. The accumulated set is dropped on an Agent restart (`instanceId` change). - `removed="true"` deletes the key (or row): it is **absent** from the JSON, never `null`. - **Empty set is Good `{}`**: a data-set-shaped observation (it carries the `count` attribute, which only DATA_SET/TABLE have) with no entries - `count="0"` in a `/current`, or `resetTriggered` - is the empty set, `{}`, never an absence; an all-removed set renders the same. `resetTriggered` on any other observation (e.g. an accumulating `PartCount`) is ignored. - `UNAVAILABLE` is `BadNoCommunication` as for any observation, and also drops the accumulated set, so a later delta cannot resurrect pre-outage entries. - An observation whose children are not `` elements stays `BadNotSupported`. Writes to these items stay refused (`WriteAsync` excludes them). ### Subscribe — the `/sample` pump One shared `/sample` long-poll stream per driver instance (the Agent streams the whole device model regardless of which subset is subscribed, so per-tag streams would be wasted round-trips), run under a heartbeat watchdog — `HttpClient.Timeout` cannot bound a long-lived stream, so a missing chunk **and** missing keep-alive heartbeat within `HeartbeatMs × N` is what detects a frozen peer. Ring-buffer overflow (the Agent's circular observation buffer wrapped past what the driver's cursor expects) is detected **two ways**, both triggering a `/current` re-baseline before the stream resumes: 1. `IMTConnectAgentClient.IsSequenceGap` — the next chunk's `firstSequence` is newer than the driver's expected cursor. 2. An `MTConnectError` document reporting `OUT_OF_RANGE` — real Agents return this both under HTTP 200 (a normal MTConnect error document) and as a bare HTTP 400, and the client handles both. **An Agent `instanceId` change means the Agent restarted**, and is checked **before** the sequence-gap check (a restart also usually trips the gap, so the two need disambiguating, not just OR-ing together). On a changed `instanceId` the driver clears its cached probe model and raises `OnRediscoveryNeeded`, which surfaces a **re-browse prompt** on the AdminUI `/hosts` page — see [Known limitations](#known-limitations) for what that does and does not do. **Lag measurement and the adaptive `count` (review 2026-10-21 T-5).** Throughput is capped at `SampleCount` observations per chunk, one chunk per `SampleIntervalMs`; a machine producing more used to fall behind the ring buffer forever, re-baselining every buffer-length (dropping intermediate transitions) with nothing surfacing it. Each chunk is now measured: `lag = lastSequence + 1 − nextSequence` (unknown when the Agent omits `lastSequence`) and whether it was **saturated** (carried the full `count`). Three consecutive saturated chunks with a positive (or unknown) lag reopen the stream at the cursor reached with `count` doubled, up to 16× `SampleCount` (max 65 536). A raised stream that delivers nothing (an Agent refusing the larger count) steps back to the last count that delivered and stops raising; at the ceiling a still-behind stream logs one Warning per pump. Every new pump starts from the configured `SampleCount`. An Agent that refuses the raised count with an `MTConnectError` under HTTP 200 goes through the ordinary unusable-answer path first — one transient Degraded blip and a backoff — before the step-back. The driver now implements `IDriverDiagnostics`: `sampleCount` (effective), `sampleLag`, `sampleSaturatedChunks` and `sampleCountRaises` ride the `/hosts` diagnostics bag. **A pump carries the session generation it was started against (review 2026-10-21 T-1).** A lifecycle restart retires the running pump (or abandons it after its bounded teardown wait); if that pump finishes after the new session is installed, its cursor publish, a late chunk and a late re-baseline are all dropped — checked under the same lock the new session is installed and the generation bumped under. It used to land the OLD Agent's `instanceId` + sequence on the new session, so the next pump read its first chunk as an Agent restart (index cleared, one Bad flicker on every subscribed tag, a needless re-baseline). ## Write-back — observation injection, off by default > ⚠️ **A write sets what the Agent *reports*, not what the machine does.** The value > lands in the Agent's observation buffer exactly as if an adapter had reported it — > visible to **every** consumer of that Agent, and **overwritten by the next > adapter/SHDR update for that DataItem**. Nothing reaches the CNC. Never document, > script, or operate this as a machine command. It is genuinely useful for > operator-set EVENT values, for external systems feeding DataItems the adapter does > not own, and for test rigs — and nothing else. The mechanism is the Agent's **`AllowPut`** surface (`POST {agent}/{device}?{dataItemId}={value}`), a standard cppagent feature that is **off by default**. It is not MTConnect *Interfaces* — see [Deferred](#deferred-not-in-this-build) for why Interfaces was rejected as the write-back shape. Design record: [`2026-08-05-mtconnect-writeback-design.md`](../plans/2026-08-05-mtconnect-writeback-design.md) §2.2; implementation `b29623cf`. ### Two independent gates, both off by default 1. **The Agent** — `AllowPut = true` in `agent.cfg`. Optionally scope it with `AllowPutFrom = ` so only named hosts may write; that list is the Agent's own access control and this driver neither reads nor influences it. 2. **The driver** — `"Write": { "Enabled": true }` in the driver config (default `false`; an absent block is disabled). Authored in the AdminUI on the `/raw` driver config modal's **Write-back** section (`MTConnectDriverForm`), which writes the block explicitly in both states — so turning the switch back off clears a previously authored `true` rather than leaving it standing. Either gate alone leaves the shipped read-only behaviour unchanged: with `Write.Enabled` off every slot is refused `BadNotWritable` without an Agent being touched, and with `AllowPut` off the Agent refuses and the driver reports `BadCommunicationError`. ### The OPC UA write bit is authored, not derived — read this before filing a bug **Enabling write-back does not make any existing node writable over OPC UA.** The `CurrentWrite` access bit is composed from the **authored `Tag.AccessLevel`** alone (`AddressSpaceComposer` → `AddressSpaceApplier`, which additionally requires a non-array tag → `OtOpcUaNodeManager.ComposeAccessLevel`); driver capability is never consulted at compose time. An operator must set the raw tag to **ReadWrite** — a browse-committed tag is created `Read` (`RawBrowseCommitMapper.MapLeaf`) whatever the browse said. Browse *does* stamp writable leaves `SecurityClassification.Operate` when `Write.Enabled` is on (and `ViewOnly` otherwise, CONDITION always `ViewOnly`), on the same "a node cannot advertise writability the driver would refuse" principle MQTT pinned. But that stamp is **honest labelling, not the access bit**: nothing persists `SecurityClass` — `Tag` has no such column — so it reaches the browse session's attribute side-panel and stops there. ### What a write does, slot by slot `WriteAsync` never throws and one bad slot never fails the batch (matching `ReadAsync`); even cancellation returns a full-length result set. The refusal order is fixed, and each step answers a different operator question: | Condition | Status | Meaning | |---|---|---| | `Write.Enabled` off, **or** the DataItem is CONDITION-category | `BadNotWritable` (`0x803B0000`) | Nothing was attempted; no Agent was involved | | No live Agent client (pre-`InitializeAsync`, faulted initialize, post-shutdown) | `BadNotConnected` (`0x808A0000`) | This driver is not running | | The reference resolves to no DataItem, or to one whose owning device cannot be named | `BadNodeIdUnknown` (`0x80340000`) | There is no Agent URL the write could be addressed to | | The value has no invariant string form — `null`, or non-scalar | `BadTypeMismatch` (`0x80740000`) | Arrays are refused rather than rendered (`Convert.ToString` would emit the literal `System.Double[]`, which the Agent stores happily) | | The Agent refused, or could not be reached | `BadCommunicationError` (`0x80050000`) | Includes an `MTConnectError` document returned under HTTP 200 | **CONDITION DataItems are excluded deliberately** — they carry alarm semantics and a different `level|text` wire format, and are out of scope for v1. **The Agent's refusal text is logged at Warning and never stored.** It stays out of `DriverHealth.LastError`, which is type-only by repo-wide discipline. A refused write is not evidence the read path degraded, but it **is** the Agent answering: any answer — accepted or refused — advances `LastSuccessfulRead`, with the state following the read / `/sample` flags (a write cannot clear either of those paths' degradation). A write that got **no** answer (transport failure, deadline) sets **Degraded** with the stamp preserved and a type-only `LastError` (review 2026-10-21 I-3, coordinator ruling). One success writer is shared: that degradation is cleared by the next answered **write**, the next answered **`/current` read**, or the next **`/sample` chunk** the current session's pump delivers (review r2 N-5: a delivered chunk proves the Agent is alive — the analogue of OpcUaClient's good keep-alive — so it cannot stick on a subscription-only driver). A read served from the live pump index does not clear it by itself; the chunks behind that index do. **One request per device (review 2026-10-21 T-6).** The slots that survive the refusals above go out as one `POST {agent}/{device}?id1=v1&id2=v2…` per device (the Agent's PUT surface takes several pairs) instead of one POST per slot. A batch closes at a slot naming another device or repeating a DataItem already in it, so two writes to one DataItem still land in request order. An Agent refusal of a multi-slot request is retried slot by slot, so a refused DataItem costs only its own slot (`BadCommunicationError`); a transport failure fails that request's slots. An Agent may apply some pairs of a multi-pair PUT before refusing it, so the per-slot retry can re-send a pair that already landed — harmless for value-setting (the Agent drops an identical repeat). **Device resolution needs no extra config.** `TagBinding.WriteTargetsByDataItemId`, built at bind time from a walk of the cached probe model, remembers which device declared each DataItem, so a multi-device Agent is addressed correctly; the fallback is the configured `DeviceName`, and an unresolvable device is `BadNodeIdUnknown` rather than a guess. **Values are rendered with `CultureInfo.InvariantCulture`.** A Boolean therefore writes the invariant string `"True"`/`"False"`, **not** `"1"`/`"0"` — if the consuming adapter or Agent vocabulary expects something else, author the tag as a `String` and write the exact token. ## Browse — free via the universal browser MTConnect ships **no bespoke browser project**. Setting `ITagDiscovery.SupportsOnlineDiscovery => true` is the entire integration: the Wave-0 `DiscoveryDriverBrowser` sees a driver whose `TryCreate` succeeds and whose instance reports online discovery, renders the AdminUI **Browse** button, constructs the driver, runs `InitializeAsync` (the `/probe` connect) + `DiscoverAsync` into a `CapturingAddressSpaceBuilder`, then tears the throwaway instance down. Each captured leaf's NodeId is the DataItem `id`, committed directly as `TagConfig.FullName` on pick. See [`docs/plans/2026-07-15-universal-discovery-browser-design.md`](../plans/2026-07-15-universal-discovery-browser-design.md). ## CONDITION alarms (#626) A `CONDITION` DataItem can be served two ways, and the choice is **per raw tag**: - **As a String value** (the default — every existing CONDITION tag, and every browse-committed one). The value is the current state word — `Normal` / `Warning` / `Fault` / `UNAVAILABLE` (`UNAVAILABLE` → `BadNoCommunication`). Unchanged by #626. - **As a native OPC UA Part 9 alarm**, by adding the cross-driver `alarm` object to the raw tag's `TagConfig` — exactly how a Galaxy alarm tag is made alarm-bearing (the `/raw` tag modal's native alarm section, or JSON): ```json { "address": "dev1_system_cond", "alarm": { "alarmType": "AlarmCondition", "severity": 800 } } ``` The server then materialises **one Part 9 condition at the tag's RawPath** (ConditionId = RawPath), fanned to the raw device folder and every referencing equipment folder, and the driver feeds it through `IAlarmSource`. An alarm-bearing tag is a condition, not a value variable (the host excludes alarm tags from the value subscription), so to keep the String as well, author a second raw tag on the same DataItem without the `alarm` object — one DataItem may back several raw tags. It is deliberately **not automatic** for `category=CONDITION`: that would silently turn every existing CONDITION String tag into a condition node on upgrade. **State mapping.** | Agent level | Part 9 | Severity | Quality | |---|---|---|---| | `Normal` | inactive (return to normal) | — | Good | | `Warning` | active, unacknowledged | 500 | Good | | `Fault` | active, unacknowledged | 800 | Good | | `Unavailable` | **unchanged** (an active condition stays active and acknowledged) | — | `BadNoCommunication` | **`Unavailable` is comms loss one hop further out, not a return to normal.** A cppagent marks every DataItem of an adapter UNAVAILABLE when the adapter socket drops, so it is treated exactly like the host's own transport loss (#477/#481): the condition keeps its Active/Acked state and only its `Quality` goes `BadNoCommunication`, as a **quality-only annotation** (no `/alerts` row, written through the host's Quality-only node path — it can never rewrite message/severity or acknowledge anything). When data returns: the **same** statement ⇒ quality-only Good (an ack survives an adapter blip); `Normal` ⇒ Clear; a **different** active statement ⇒ Retrigger. An inactive condition going Unavailable is likewise a quality-only Bad. Severity is the exact Part 9 value (`AlarmEventArgs.OpcUaSeverity`, #626), not one of the four buckets. A clear keeps the severity of the alarm it clears. **Message** = the condition's text content; without text, `"{type} {level}"` (e.g. `SYSTEM Fault`). Whichever of `nativeCode` / `nativeSeverity` / `qualifier` the Agent supplied is appended — `Spindle overtemperature [nativeCode=E17, nativeSeverity=2, qualifier=HIGH]` — because the Part 9 event model has no slot for them. `AlarmType` is the condition's `type`; `SourceNodeId` the DataItem id. **Several simultaneous conditions.** MTConnect can hold several active conditions on one DataItem (distinct `nativeCode`s). The OPC UA condition shows **the most severe active one**; equal levels tie-break deterministically (ordinal `nativeCode`, then `type`), never by Agent document order, so a re-baseline that lists them differently cannot re-raise. The driver tracks them with MTConnect's own rules (`MTConnectConditionTracker`): `Warning`/`Fault` activates its `nativeCode`; `Normal` with a `nativeCode` clears only that code, `Normal` without one clears all; `Unavailable` clears all; a `/current` re-baseline replaces the DataItem's set. So a `/sample` chunk clearing code A while code B is active is **not** a return to normal. An escalation (Warning → Fault) or a different winning code is a **Retrigger** — active and unacknowledged again with the new severity/message. By design that includes **clearing the worst of several codes**: the next one down is re-raised un-acked, because it is a statement the operator has not seen. A **text-only change** on the same level + `nativeCode` (an adapter embedding a live value in the text) updates nothing — no retrigger, no un-ack — and the message shown stays the statement's first text. (The String value surface still reconciles per document, so on a delta it shows the state word of that chunk; the alarm is the authoritative view.) **Acknowledge.** MTConnect has no acknowledgement upstream. Native conditions support Acknowledge and AddComment only; the ack is applied server-side and the driver's `AcknowledgeAsync` is a no-op success (nothing is sent to the Agent). Off-Primary acks are refused by `NativeAlarmAckPrimaryGate` as for every native source. **Restart / reconnect / comms loss.** The driver diffs each condition against what the server was last **told** — dedup on level + `nativeCode` + `nativeSeverity` + `qualifier` (not text, never the value) — and records a state only when an alarm handler was attached to receive it. Consequences: - A replayed `/current` (reconnect, re-initialize, Agent restart, ring-buffer re-baseline) re-raises nothing that is unchanged — re-raising would un-acknowledge an operator's ack. - A transition that happened while the host was detached (it detaches while it reconnects) is delivered on the re-subscribe that follows; a fault cleared during an outage is cleared on recovery. - Comms loss emits nothing from the driver, matching every native source: the host annotates every condition the driver owns `BadNoCommunication` on the connectivity edge (#477) and keeps its Active state; the reconnect edge re-annotates Good, after which the driver re-asserts any still-`Unavailable` condition's Bad quality on its re-subscribe. - A re-subscribe with a **changed** alarm set drops the told record of only the conditions that **left** the set. The server carries every native condition's state (acknowledgement included) across a full rebuild itself (Gitea #641 — see `docs/AlarmTracking.md`), so re-raising a surviving condition would only un-acknowledge it; a condition that left and later comes back was materialised fresh and is told again. The **same** set (a reconnect) keeps the whole record. A rebuild that leaves the alarm set unchanged triggers no re-subscribe, and needs none — the server-side carry-over covers it. - An alarm-only driver (no value tags) still runs the `/sample` pump. ### EVENT enumerations (#650): parked / won't fix EVENT values (`Execution`, `ControllerMode`, …) stay Strings carrying the Agent's own word. Modelling them as OPC UA enumerations was considered and **declined**: the vocabulary is vendor-extensible, so it needs a per-type table plus an unknown-value fallback, a per-type enum node shape through discovery and raw-tag type inference, and it would break every consumer that reads these items as String (ScadaBridge) for little gain. Reopen only with an opt-in, tag-level `enumValues` design. ## Known limitations These are real, not placeholders — read them before relying on the driver for anything beyond values-and-conditions. 1. **A restarted Agent prompts an operator; it does not re-shape the address space.** `DriverInstanceActor` now consumes `OnRediscoveryNeeded` (2026-07-27), so a changed `instanceId` raises a "re-browse" chip against this driver on `/hosts` carrying the reason. It is **advisory**: v3 authors raw tags through the `/raw` browse-commit flow, so until an operator re-browses the Agent and commits, any DataItem that appeared or vanished is not reflected in the served tree. A runtime graft was deliberately rejected — it would materialise nodes nobody approved and no deployment artifact records. **`IHostConnectivityProbe` is consumed** (Gitea #521, closed) — `DriverInstanceActor` subscribes `OnHostStatusChanged`, pulls `GetHostStatuses()` fresh, and the result rides `DriverHealthChanged` to the AdminUI `/hosts` page (no SQL; the `DriverHostStatus` table was dropped). See `docs/Telemetry.md`. 2. **One MTConnect driver instance = one Agent client = at most one `/raw` Device (#628, decision (b)).** The driver never reads `RawTagEntry.DeviceName`; every raw tag binds through the single Agent client scoped by `MTConnectDriverOptions.DeviceName`. The v3 raw tree always has a Device level (a new driver auto-creates `Device1`), and that single-Device layout is the normal, valid shape — its `DeviceConfig` is merged up into the driver config by `DriverDeviceConfigMerger` (this is how the endpoint lands). With **two or more** Devices under one MTConnect driver there is no merge-up and no routing, so which Device supplies the endpoint is ambiguous. That is now a **deploy-time `DraftValidator` error** (`MTConnectMultipleDevices`), and the AdminUI refuses to *create* the second Device (`RawTreeService.CreateDeviceAsync`, same message): "MTConnect binds all tags through one agent client per driver instance; author one MTConnect driver per agent device." Option (a), a client per Device, was rejected as a design change with no demand. A multi-device Agent is served by several driver instances, each with its own `DeviceName` scope. The driver's init-time Warning for differing `RawTagEntry.DeviceName` values stays as defence in depth for configs that predate the rule. ⚠️ **Upgrade note:** an MTConnect driver that *already* has two or more Device rows fails its next deploy with `MTConnectMultipleDevices` (the rule counts every Device row, enabled or not, because nothing at runtime reads `Device.Enabled`). Before upgrading, move each extra Device's tags under its own MTConnect driver and delete the extra Device rows. **The write path is the one place a device name is resolved per DataItem**, and it does not use `RawTagEntry.DeviceName` either: it reads the owning device out of the cached probe model and falls back to the top-level `DeviceName` (see [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default)). So `MTConnectDriverOptions.DeviceName` does double duty — request scope for reads/browse, fallback write target for writes. 3. **Authoring only *warns* when a declared coercion type cannot hold the inferred one (#613).** The AdminUI tag editor (`MTConnectTagConfigModel.Warnings()`) compares the declared type with `MTConnectDataTypeInference` over the `/probe` metadata a browse-commit stamped (`mtCategory`/`mtType`), and shows an advisory line — it never blocks a save (the deploy gate does not refuse it) and is a no-op for hand-authored blobs with no stamped metadata. `representation` is not on the model; TIME_SERIES arrays get their own `isArray` advisory (declare Float64). Beyond that, nothing validates a raw tag's declared OPC UA `DataType` against the blob's coercion type. The `/probe`-sourced inference (`MTConnectDataTypeInference`) narrows how often an author picks a wrong type, but it doesn't close the gap — an authored `DataType` mismatched against the actual Agent observation still surfaces as `BadTypeMismatch` /`BadOutOfRange` at runtime rather than at authoring time. 4. **`sampleCount` is not a legal `DataItem` attribute.** It belongs on a `TIME_SERIES` *observation*, not the device-model declaration. A real Agent that meets `sampleCount` on a `DataItem` declaration logs `The following keys were present and not expected: sampleCount` and **drops the entire data item** from the served model. A live TIME_SERIES tag therefore always resolves to `ArrayDim = null` (variable-length array) in practice — the fixture's canned `probe.xml`/`Devices.xml`, which does declare a `sampleCount`, is unrealistic on this point and exists only to pin the parsing rule itself. 5. **A CONDITION alarm shows one condition per DataItem** — the most severe active `nativeCode`, not one Part 9 condition per code (see [CONDITION alarms](#condition-alarms-626)). 6. **`DATA_SET`/`TABLE` observations are JSON Strings** (#650, see [DATA_SET / TABLE](#data_set--table-650)); `TIME_SERIES` is served as `double[]` (#627, see [TIME_SERIES arrays](#time_series-arrays-627)); the sample rate is not surfaced on the node. ## Deferred (not in this build) - **MTConnect *Interfaces*.** Still deferred, and for the reason design [§3.6](../plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md#36-iwritable--not-implemented-v1) gave: it is a rare, optional request/response **state-machine handshake** requiring adapter-side cooperation, not a "set value" operation, and would mislead if modelled as `IWritable`. **Write-back itself is no longer deferred** — `b29623cf` shipped `IWritable` over the Agent's `AllowPut` observation-injection surface instead, a different mechanism entirely. See [Write-back](#write-back--observation-injection-off-by-default) and [`2026-08-05-mtconnect-writeback-design.md`](../plans/2026-08-05-mtconnect-writeback-design.md) §2.1. - **P1.5 fast-follow** (design [§9](../plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md#9-phasing--effort)): CONDITION → native Part 9 alarms **shipped** (#626, see [CONDITION alarms](#condition-alarms-626)); EVENT controlled-vocabulary values → OPC UA enumerations is **parked / won't fix** (EVENTs stay Strings, #650); `DATA_SET`/`TABLE` are served as JSON Strings (#650). - **P2 (on demand): SHDR adapter ingest.** A `SourceMode: "Agent" | "Shdr"` switch that opens the raw pipe-delimited SHDR TCP socket directly. Loses auto-discovery (no device model without an Agent in front, so `SupportsOnlineDiscovery` would have to report `false` and tags would be authored by hand, like Modbus). Niche; not built. ## Testing - **Unit tests** — `tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.Tests/` (canned-XML fixtures, no network) — 491/491 at time of writing. Covers discovery tree shape, `MTConnectDataTypeInference`, observation indexing, `UNAVAILABLE` → `BadNoCommunication`, CONDITION state-word mapping, multipart chunk framing, and ring-buffer re-baseline paging (both the sequence-gap and the `OUT_OF_RANGE` legs). The write path adds `MTConnectAgentClientWriteTests` (`9f17d7ef` — verb, URL, agent-error-in-200 detection) and `MTConnectWriteTests` (`b29623cf` — every refusal leg, the batch shape, the browse-stamping flip). - **Integration tests** — `tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.IntegrationTests/` — env-gated on `MTCONNECT_AGENT_ENDPOINT` (default `http://10.100.0.35:5000`), skips cleanly (12 Skipped) when the fixture is unreachable, 12/12 against a real Agent. Read the fixture's own [`Docker/README.md`](../../tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.IntegrationTests/Docker/README.md) for the full recipe — summary only, here: - Image is **`mtconnect/agent:2.7.0.12`** — not `mtconnect/cppagent`, which does not exist on Docker Hub (the design's original assumption). - The stack is **two services**: the Agent plus a stdlib-only SHDR adapter (`Docker/adapter.py`, on `python:3.13-alpine`). An Agent with no adapter reports every observation `UNAVAILABLE` forever, which proves nothing. - Deployed at `/opt/otopcua-mtconnect/` on the shared docker host (`10.100.0.35`, `project=lmxopcua` label). Endpoint `http://10.100.0.35:5000`. - `agent.cfg` must be **pure ASCII** — one non-ASCII byte anywhere, including a comment, makes the config parser reject the whole file with a bare `Failed / Stopped at line: N`. - Bring-up: `lmxopcua-fix sync mtconnect` then `lmxopcua-fix up mtconnect` (PowerShell helper, Windows-only) — or, directly on the docker host, `rsync` the repo's `Docker/` dir to `/opt/otopcua-mtconnect/` and run `docker compose up -d --wait`. - **CONDITION alarms (#626)** — `MTConnectConditionAlarmMappingTests` (tracker semantics + state mapping/sequencing), `MTConnectAlarmSourceTests` (driver wiring: Normal→Fault→Normal, escalation, several `nativeCode`s, Unavailable, replay after re-subscribe/re-initialize/Agent restart with no duplicate, the missed-while-detached delivery, comms loss), `MTConnectConditionAlarmWireTests` in `OpcUaServer.IntegrationTests` (a scripted Agent's Fault/Normal reaching a client's event subscription on the raw device folder). **Live check:** the fixture's adapter only ever writes `normal` for its two CONDITION items (`fixture_x_travel` / SHDR key `Xtravel`, `fixture_logic` / `Plogic`, see `Docker/Devices.xml`). To see a transition, make `send_conditions()` in `Docker/adapter.py` alternate `Xtravel|fault|1001|2|HIGH|X overtravel` with `Xtravel|normal||||` every few ticks, sync + restart the adapter, author a raw tag `{"address":"fixture_x_travel","alarm":{"alarmType":"AlarmCondition"}}` on an MTConnect driver, deploy, and subscribe events on its raw device folder (Client CLI `alarms`): expect a Fault event (severity 800, message `X overtravel [nativeCode=1001, nativeSeverity=2, qualifier=HIGH]`), then a return-to-normal event, repeating. ## Further reading - [`docs/plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md`](../plans/2026-07-15-mtconnect-driver-design.md) — full design: capability wiring, browse reconciliation, typed-editor spec, resilience/timeout rules, phasing - [`docs/plans/2026-07-24-mtconnect-driver.md`](../plans/2026-07-24-mtconnect-driver.md) — the executable implementation plan and the task-by-task build record, including where it diverged from the design (TrakHound → hand-rolled) - [`docs/plans/2026-07-24-driver-expansion-tracking.md`](../plans/2026-07-24-driver-expansion-tracking.md) — Wave-2 program tracking - [Docker fixture README](../../tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.MTConnect.IntegrationTests/Docker/README.md) — the authoritative fixture recipe (seeded device model, endpoint, Mac AirPlay port-5000 gotcha)