# Worker Frame Protocol

The gateway uses the worker frame protocol to move `WorkerEnvelope` protobuf
messages over a bidirectional named pipe. The frame layer is deliberately small:
it handles message boundaries, size limits, protobuf parsing, and envelope
validation before higher-level worker client code routes commands, replies,
events, and faults.

## Frame Format

Each frame starts with a four-byte little-endian unsigned payload length,
followed by the serialized `WorkerEnvelope` payload:

```text
uint32 little-endian payload_length
payload_length bytes protobuf WorkerEnvelope
```

The reader rejects zero-length payloads and payloads larger than the configured
maximum before allocating the payload buffer. The default maximum is 16 MiB,
matching the gateway process design.

## Envelope Validation

`WorkerFrameReader` and `WorkerFrameWriter` validate each envelope against the
owning session before returning or writing it:

- `protocol_version` must match the configured worker protocol version,
- `session_id` must match the owning gateway session,
- the envelope must contain one typed `body` value.

Protocol violations throw `WorkerFrameProtocolException` with a
`WorkerFrameProtocolErrorCode` so callers can distinguish malformed frames,
oversized frames, protocol version mismatches, and session mismatches.

## Verification

The frame protocol lives in `MxGateway.Worker.Ipc` (`WorkerFrameReader`,
`WorkerFrameWriter`, `WorkerFrameProtocolOptions`) and is covered by
`src/MxGateway.Worker.Tests/Ipc/WorkerFrameProtocolTests.cs`. The worker is an
x86 process, so build and test it with `-p:Platform=x86`.

Run the focused tests after changing the frame protocol:

```powershell
dotnet test src/MxGateway.Worker.Tests/MxGateway.Worker.Tests.csproj -p:Platform=x86 --filter WorkerFrameProtocolTests
```

Run the x86 worker build because the frame protocol is part of
`MxGateway.Worker`:

```powershell
dotnet build src/MxGateway.Worker/MxGateway.Worker.csproj -p:Platform=x86
```

## Related Documentation

- [Gateway Process Detailed Design](./GatewayProcessDesign.md)
- [Protobuf Contracts](./Contracts.md)
