iso-contract

@agent-pattern-labs/iso-contract

Deterministic artifact contracts for agent workflows.

Agents are good at prose and weak at remembering exact artifact formats. iso-contract moves those formats into local JSON contracts that scripts and agents can validate, parse, and render without model calls.

It is local-only, dependency-free, and MCP-free. Use it for records such as tracker rows, batch outcomes, report headers, scan candidates, or any other workflow artifact that must remain machine-readable.

Install

npm install -D @agent-pattern-labs/iso-contract

CLI

iso-contract list --contracts contracts.json
iso-contract explain jobforge.tracker-row --contracts contracts.json

iso-contract validate jobforge.tracker-row \
  --contracts contracts.json \
  --input @tracker-row.json

iso-contract render jobforge.tracker-row \
  --contracts contracts.json \
  --input @tracker-row.json \
  --format tsv

iso-contract parse jobforge.tracker-row \
  --contracts contracts.json \
  --format tsv \
  --input "812	2026-04-26	Example Labs	Staff Agent Engineer	Applied	4.2/5	yes	[812](reports/812-example-labs-2026-04-26.md)	Submitted"

Every command accepts --json for machine-readable output.

Contract Shape

{
  "contracts": [
    {
      "name": "jobforge.tracker-row",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "fields": [
        { "name": "num", "type": "integer", "required": true },
        { "name": "date", "type": "date", "required": true },
        { "name": "status", "type": "enum", "values": ["Evaluated", "Applied"] },
        { "name": "score", "type": "score" }
      ],
      "formats": {
        "tsv": {
          "style": "delimited",
          "delimiter": "tab",
          "fields": ["num", "date", "status", "score"]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Supported field types:

• string
• integer
• number
• boolean
• enum
• date
• datetime
• url
• markdown-link
• score
• json

date uses strict YYYY-MM-DD calendar dates. datetime requires an extended ISO timestamp with seconds and an explicit Z or ±HH:MM offset; invalid calendar or time rollover is rejected.

Supported render/parse formats:

• json
• named delimited formats such as tsv
• named markdown-table-row formats

Library API

import {
  getContract,
  loadContractCatalog,
  renderRecord,
  validateRecord,
} from "@agent-pattern-labs/iso-contract";

const catalog = loadContractCatalog(JSON.parse(rawContracts));
const contract = getContract(catalog, "jobforge.tracker-row");
const validation = validateRecord(contract, record);
const tsv = renderRecord(contract, record, "tsv").text;

Fit With The iso Stack

• iso-contract defines artifact shape.
• iso-ledger records domain events about those artifacts.
• iso-orchestrator controls durable workflow execution.
• iso-guard audits whether workflow policy was followed.
• iso-trace observes what agents actually did.

For JobForge, contracts can replace repeated prompt prose for TSV rows, pipeline entries, scan candidates, report headers, and subagent outcomes.