Files
mizan/docs/MWT_SPEC.md
Ryth Azhur 6eca514777 Restore documentation layer — match current substrate
ROADMAP: done items moved out of "Next" (codegen rewrite, SSR bridge,
edge manifest, X-Mizan-Invalidate, return-type branching, affects_params,
kernel extraction, two-stage codegen, mizan-ts). Real "Next" in:
framework-adapter wrapper layer (MizanContext + useMizan + DjangoError
on top of the kernel) for React/Vue/Svelte; A1–A4 from ISSUES.md.

CLAUDE: 4-package layout replaced with the actual 7-package layered
architecture (backend protocol adapters + frontend kernel + framework
adapters + SSR worker). "STALE codegen" section rewritten to describe
what's emitted vs. the wrapper layer that isn't yet.

docs/ now tracked (6 files). AFI_ARCHITECTURE rewritten — replaced
the speculative `mizan-ast`/`mizan-csr`/`mizan-rpc`/`mizan-schema`
package names with the real layout, dropped KDL-schema language for
the actual schema-export format. The other 5 docs/ files were already
current and are tracked as-is.

ARCHITECTURE-REWORK.md deleted — same expert review is re-tracked in
the fresher ISSUES.md, two parallel trackers was sediment.

README.md deleted — drift was beyond surgical fixes (`mizan_clients.py`
convention, `<DjangoContext>` provider, removed `@compose` and
`context='local'`, wrong codegen output filenames, 3-package structure
vs. 7). Rewrite waits for the wrapper-layer codegen to land so
user-facing examples reflect reality.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-05 20:10:12 -04:00

1.9 KiB

MWT — Mizan Web Token

Decided 2026-04-06.

MWT is a standard JWT (RFC 7519, HMAC-SHA256) with Mizan-specific claims, traveling on the X-Mizan-Token header. It is the protocol's identity layer for cache keying and permission staleness detection.

Claims

Claim Purpose
sub User ID — goes into HMAC cache key derivation
pkey Deterministic hash of user's permission state at issuance
exp Configurable short TTL — controls permission staleness window (Django setting)
iat Issued at
kid Key ID — for secret rotation
aud Audience binding — prevents cross-tenant replay

Key decisions

  • Standard JWT envelope, not proprietary. Uses standard libraries for signing and validation.
  • X-Mizan-Token header, not Authorization: Bearer. Avoids collision with DRF, allauth, and existing JWT systems. Cloudflare WAF/Access do not inspect custom headers.
  • Replaces JWTUser + _try_jwt_auth entirely. Old approach is deleted.
  • App handles authentication (session, social, etc.). Mizan issues MWT from the authenticated identity.
  • Edge Worker validates MWT, extracts sub for HMAC cache key, checks exp.
  • pkey computation must be deterministic: sorted(user.get_all_permissions()) then hash.
  • Client-side: proactive refresh before expiry. Check TTL before dispatch, not reactively after a 401.
  • Header-based, not cookie-based. A cookie would force Vary: Cookie, destroying PSR cache.

HMAC canonical form

JSON with sorted keys:

HMAC(secret, JSON.stringify({"c": context, "p": sorted_params, "u": user_id}))

What this solves

  • DRF token collision
  • JWTUser-too-thin problem
  • Permission staleness race condition
  • Single validation path across Python and TypeScript Edge

Usage rule

All cache-layer auth code uses MWT, not Django session or raw JWT. The @client(auth=...) parameter gates on MWT validity.