What is NOT guaranteed

Strata is intentionally strict. That also means it is intentionally narrow.

This page defines what Strata does not promise, and why those omissions are deliberate.

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Schema evolution

Strata does not guarantee:

• Backward-compatible schema changes

• Forward-compatible decoding

• Optional fields

• Default values

• Field presence inference

There is no schema layer in core Strata.

If you need schema evolution, it must exist outside the format.

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Field compatibility

Strata does not guarantee:

• That a consumer understands new fields

• That missing fields can be inferred

• That renamed fields can be mapped automatically

Strata encodes values, not meaning.

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Floating-point behavior

Strata does not guarantee:

• IEEE 754 semantics

• Rounding behavior

• NaN propagation

• Cross-language float equality

Floating-point numbers are excluded from core precisely because they are not deterministic across environments.

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Numeric coercions

Strata does not guarantee:

• Automatic int ↔ float coercion

• Implicit narrowing or widening

• Numeric compatibility across types

Integers are integers. Nothing else is assumed.

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Performance characteristics

Strata does not guarantee:

• Encoding speed

• Decoding speed

• Memory allocation patterns

• Zero-copy behavior

• Streaming decode performance

Correctness comes first. Performance is implementation-specific.

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Memory layout

Strata does not guarantee:

• In-memory representation

• Object layout

• Struct alignment

• Allocation strategies

Only the wire format is defined.

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Error message text

Strata does not guarantee:

• Identical error strings

• Identical stack traces

• Identical exception types

It guarantees error classes, not wording.

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Ordering beyond maps

Strata does not guarantee ordering for:

• Map iteration after decoding

• Object field order in host languages

• JSON serialization output

Ordering is only guaranteed in the canonical byte encoding.

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Transport semantics

Strata does not guarantee:

• Delivery

• Reliability

• Ordering

• Security

• Authentication

Those belong to the transport layer.

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Compression and encryption

Strata does not guarantee:

• Compression

• Encryption

• Signatures

• Authentication tags

These must be layered externally.

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Cross-version compatibility

Strata does not guarantee:

• Compatibility across major versions

• Automatic migrations

• Silent upgrades

Each finalized version is frozen. New versions may add layers, but old rules do not change.

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Developer ergonomics

Strata does not guarantee:

• Easy debugging

• Human-readable binaries

• Friendly diffs

• Minimal boilerplate

Strata is optimized for correctness, not comfort.

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Summary

Strata does not try to be everything.

It intentionally does not promise:

• Schemas

• Floats

• Flexibility

• Convenience

• Evolution magic

What it promises instead is simpler:

If something works, it works everywhere. If something breaks, it breaks loudly.

Everything else is someone else’s job.