@zap-proto/web

Browser-frontend RPC over ZAP — a drop-in tRPC replacement for Next.js / Remix / SvelteKit. Native ZAP envelopes over WebSocket binary frames, layered cleanly on @zap-proto/zap (the ZAP wire runtime). v0.1.0 — pre-1.0 by policy; no version tags until the full chain works end-to-end.

Note on naming. The foundation runtime is @zap-proto/zap (the canonical TypeScript ZAP runtime, repo zap-proto/ts). This package — the WebSocket frontend layer — is @zap-proto/web, repo zap-proto/web. It is not Cap'n Proto; ZAP is a zero-copy, zero-dependency binary format byte-compatible with the Go runtime github.com/zap-proto/go and github.com/luxfi/zap.

What @zap-proto/web IS

• A drop-in replacement for tRPC across Hanzo's TS apps (esign, console, platform), using native ZAP RPC over WebSocket instead of JSON-over-HTTP.
• An isomorphic transport — the same WsTransport works in Node (post HTTP-upgrade, over the ws package) and in the browser (native WebSocket).
• A Node serve(httpServer, opts) harness that attaches to an existing http.Server, so Next.js (app.getRequestHandler()) or a Remix Node server share one port — integration is one line.
• A browser connect(url, opts) that opens the WS, waits for open, and returns the bootstrap call surface typed by your generated bindings.
• A mintCap boundary hook at the WS upgrade so apps plug their own bearer→context minting logic.

What @zap-proto/web is NOT

• ❌ Not a Zod/procedure DSL like tRPC. Service shape comes from .zap schemas (structs + method ordinals), codegen'd via zapgen --target=ts from zap-proto/ts.
• ❌ Not a JSON wrapper. Wire format is ZAP envelopes over WS binary messages. Text frames are a protocol violation and close the socket with WS code 1003.
• ❌ Not Cap'n Proto. ZAP is its own zero-copy format. The bootstrap is the connection's call surface (bootstrap.call(method, { payload })), not a Cap'n Proto capability object.
• ❌ Not a bearer-JWT framework. mintCap is a slot — apps provide a fn (upgradeReq) => Promise<Ctx | null>. v0 ships the slot; the canonical ML-DSA-65 signed Capability mint (per zap-spec/capabilities.zap — the 3408-byte signature footer, BLAKE3 identity, attenuable/revocable authority) lands in a later version. Until then, whatever non-null value mintCap returns becomes the per-connection ctx.

Install

pnpm i @zap-proto/web @zap-proto/zap

@zap-proto/zap is not yet published to npm. The dependencies entry already ships plain semver (^0.1.0); until it lands on npm, local tests resolve the specifier to the sibling source tree (../ts, the zap-proto/ts repo) via the vitest.config.ts alias and the tsconfig.json path. No change needed once @zap-proto/zap ships — just drop the alias.

Quick start — Next.js (≈30 lines)

// server.ts
import http from "node:http";
import next from "next";
import { serve } from "@zap-proto/web/server";
import { newGreeting, HelloArgs } from "./gen/hello_zap.js"; // zapgen --target=ts

const app = next({ dev: process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production" });
const handle = app.getRequestHandler();

await app.prepare();
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => handle(req, res));

serve(server, {
  path: "/zap",
  // mintCap SLOT: turn a bearer into your app's ctx. Return null → HTTP 401.
  mintCap: async (req) => {
    const auth = req.headers.authorization;
    return auth ? { org: await orgFromBearer(auth) } : null;
  },
  // rootCap(ctx): dispatch every decoded ZAP Call for this connection.
  rootCap: (ctx) => (call) => {
    const args = HelloArgs.wrap(call.payload);
    return {
      status: 200,
      promiseID: call.promiseID,
      body: newGreeting({ text: `hi ${args.name} @ ${ctx.org}` }),
    };
  },
});

server.listen(3000);

// client.ts (browser)
import { connect } from "@zap-proto/web/client";
import { newHelloArgs, Greeting } from "./gen/hello_zap.js";

const { bootstrap, close } = await connect("wss://app.hanzo.ai/zap", {
  bearer: sessionToken, // forwarded as Authorization on the upgrade (Node ws)
});

const resp = await bootstrap.call(/* method */ 0, {
  payload: newHelloArgs({ name: "ada" }),
});
console.log(Greeting.wrap(resp.body).text); // "hi ada @ acme"
close();

Browser bearer caveat. The browser's native WebSocket cannot set an Authorization header. In the browser, connect({ bearer }) falls back to a ?authorization=Bearer%20… query param the server can read; prefer a cookie sent automatically on the upgrade for production. The header path applies to a header-capable WebSocketImpl (the ws package, used in Node/SSR/tests).

Schema → code

Service shape is .zap schemas compiled with the ZAP compiler from zap-proto/ts:

zapgen --target=ts -single hello.zap   # → hello_zap.ts (views + builders)

Method ordinals (the interface method @n) are the integers you pass to bootstrap.call(method, …) and match in your rootCap dispatch.

Entry points

The root entry (@zap-proto/web) is browser-safe — it imports no Node built-ins and exposes only the client surface (connect, browserWsTransport, Conn, errors). The Node server (serve, nodeWsTransport, the MintCap auth slot) reaches node:module (createRequire) / node:http / node:net and lives behind @zap-proto/web/server, so it never enters a browser bundle.

// Browser — the client connection.
import { connect } from "@zap-proto/web/client";

// Node — attach the RPC endpoint to an http.Server.
import { serve } from "@zap-proto/web/server";

API

Export	Entry	Purpose
connect(url, opts?)	@zap-proto/web/client (or root)	Open a ZAP RPC WebSocket; returns { bootstrap, close }.
browserWsTransport(ws)	@zap-proto/web/transport (or root)	Wrap a native WebSocket as a WsTransport.
Conn, WebRpcError	@zap-proto/web (root, browser-safe)	Duplex RPC connection; transport-level RPC failure.
serve(httpServer, opts)	@zap-proto/web/server	Node only. Attach a ZAP RPC endpoint to a Node http.Server.
nodeWsTransport(ws)	@zap-proto/web/server (or /transport)	Node only. Wrap a ws WebSocket as a WsTransport.
MintCap<Ctx>	@zap-proto/web/server (or /auth)	Node only. The bearer→ctx slot.

License

MIT © Lux Industries Inc.