Pointcuts

The Data block ships twelve pointcut interface declarations. Each names a point in an entity’s lifecycle and fixes the method names and argument list an implementation must provide. They ship in the block’s own binary, one YAML file per interface; the data.svc binary neither serves nor reads them, and no route serves them (meta serves products, not a block’s own definitions). The catalogue below is the reference.

Pointcut, hook, and the schema-declared block

Three things in this block are easy to confuse.

Surface	Lives in	Addressed by	Authored by
Pointcut interface (this page)	The block’s source tree, embedded in its binary	Interface name + method name	The block; a product implements against it
Hook	The engine’s execution chain	Phase + priority	Go code compiled into the binary
Entity pointcuts: block	A product’s entity YAML	Canonical method name + order:	The schema author

A hook is a Go implementation on the request pipeline, the access gate, computed fields, entity validation, the stateflow guard. Hooks are chosen and ordered by the process that builds the engine; you cannot add one from YAML.

A pointcut interface is the opposite: the block publishes a contract and the implementation lives outside the binary, in a product repository, written in a script language. Nothing about it is negotiated at build time.

The pointcuts: block on an entity is a third thing that shares the word. It is dispatched in process by the hook chain, uses its own canonical method vocabulary, and is declared inside the entity YAML rather than in a separate plugin folder, the interface catalogue below does not apply to it.

These interfaces are published, but no deployed service executes an implementation

A product’s plugin declarations are files meta serves by path like any other, but the deployed data.svc binary registers no plugin engine: no code path in it resolves a plugin, and no code path calls ValidateBeforeCreate, ExecuteOnCreateSuccess, or any other method named here. Declaring a plugin has no effect on a request today.

For interception that runs on every request now, use the entity’s pointcuts: block, its triggers:, or a scripted endpoint, those dispatchers are wired into the hook chain the service builds at boot.

Where the templates live

The twelve interfaces are one YAML file each in the block’s embedded pointcuts folder. meta.svc used to compile every block’s definitions into its own binary and serve them back (/service/data/type/pointcut); it no longer does: meta serves products. No route serves the templates now.

The twelve interfaces

File	Interface	Methods	Covers
on_create.yaml	OnCreate	4	Row create
on_update.yaml	OnUpdate	4	Row update
on_delete.yaml	OnDelete	3	Row delete
on_read.yaml	OnRead	5	Row read, plus mask and decrypt passes
on_child_create.yaml	OnChildCreate	4	Child-row mirror of OnCreate
on_child_update.yaml	OnChildUpdate	4	Child-row mirror of OnUpdate
on_child_delete.yaml	OnChildDelete	3	Child-row mirror of OnDelete
on_child_read.yaml	OnChildRead	5	Child-row mirror of OnRead
on_import.yaml	OnImport	3	Bulk import, including the raw-bytes parse step
on_export.yaml	OnExport	4	Export
on_entity_field_create.yaml	OnEntityFieldCreate	1	Field tokenization on create
on_entity_field_update.yaml	OnEntityFieldUpdate	1	Field tokenization on update

Method catalogue

Forty-one methods across the twelve interfaces. Names are case-sensitive.

Interface	Method	Signature
OnCreate	ValidateBeforeCreate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnCreate	AugmentBeforeCreate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnCreate	ExecuteOnCreateSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnCreate	ExecuteOnCreateFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnUpdate	ValidateBeforeUpdate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnUpdate	AugmentBeforeUpdate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnUpdate	ExecuteOnUpdateSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnUpdate	ExecuteOnUpdateFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnDelete	ExecuteBeforeDelete	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnDelete	ExecuteOnDeleteSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnDelete	ExecuteOnDeleteFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnRead	ExecuteBeforeRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnRead	MaskAfterRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnRead	DecryptAfterRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnRead	ExecuteOnReadSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnRead	ExecuteOnReadFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildCreate	ValidateBeforeChildCreate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildCreate	AugmentBeforeChildCreate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildCreate	ExecuteOnChildCreateSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildCreate	ExecuteOnChildCreateFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildUpdate	ValidateBeforeChildUpdate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildUpdate	AugmentBeforeChildUpdate	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildUpdate	ExecuteOnChildUpdateSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildUpdate	ExecuteOnChildUpdateFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildDelete	ExecuteBeforeChildDelete	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildDelete	ExecuteOnChildDeleteSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildDelete	ExecuteOnChildDeleteFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildRead	ExecuteBeforeChildRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildRead	MaskAfterChildRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildRead	DecryptAfterChildRead	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnChildRead	ExecuteOnChildReadSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnChildRead	ExecuteOnChildReadFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnImport	ParseBeforeImport	(ctx, type, payload, params): payload is bytes
OnImport	ExecuteOnImportSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnImport	ExecuteOnImportFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnExport	ValidateBeforeExport	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnExport	AugmentBeforeExport	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnExport	ExecuteOnExportSuccess	(ctx, payload, params)
OnExport	ExecuteOnExportFailure	(ctx, payload, params)
OnEntityFieldCreate	Tokenize	(ctx, entity, payload, params)
OnEntityFieldUpdate	Tokenize	(ctx, entity, payload, params)

Arguments

Argument	Declared type	Present on
ctx	map of string	Every method
entity	string	Every method except Execute*Success / Execute*Failure and ParseBeforeImport
type	string	ParseBeforeImport only, in the slot entity occupies elsewhere
payload	map of any: bytes on ParseBeforeImport	Every method
params	array of any	Every method

The success and failure methods take three arguments, not four

Execute*Success and Execute*Failure drop entity; their signature is (ctx, payload, params). Writing them with four parameters shifts payload into the entity slot.

Template file format

Each file declares one interface name and its method list. Arguments are ordered, and each carries a type with an optional subtype for the element or value type, the shipped Data templates use four types: map (with subtype string or any), string, array (subtype any) and bytes.

---
name: OnCreate
methods:
- name: ValidateBeforeCreate
  arguments:
  - name: ctx
    type: map
    subtype: string
  - name: entity
    type: string
  - name: payload
    type: map
    subtype: any
  - name: params
    type: array
    subtype: any
- name: ExecuteOnCreateSuccess
  arguments:
  - name: ctx
    type: map
    subtype: string
  - name: payload
    type: map
    subtype: any
  - name: params
    type: array
    subtype: any

A product cannot add an interface or a method: the catalogue is fixed by the Data block’s build.

Implementing one in a product

A product implements a pointcut as a plugin under data/plugins/. The directory scan is one level deep and the manifest file name is fixed: data/plugins/<name>/plugin.yaml. Nested directories and any other file name are ignored.

data/
  plugins/
    dummyplugin/
      plugin.yaml
      plugin.js

---
name: dummyplugin
meta:
  entities:
  - product
  - bug
service: data
active: true
category:
- compute
implements:
- name: OnCreate
  priority: 100
  methods:
  - ExecuteOnCreateSuccess
  - ExecuteOnCreateFailure
language: js
capabilities:
- network:
  - public
- memory:
    max: 5M
tags:
- compute
- operations
arguments:
- name: params
  value: ~
config:
  type: stdout

The script file exports one function per declared method, with the signature the template fixes:

function ExecuteOnCreateSuccess(ctx, payload, params) {
  console.log("dummyplugin: create succeeded", ctx, payload, params);
}

function ExecuteOnCreateFailure(ctx, payload, params) {
  console.log("dummyplugin: create failed", ctx, payload, params);
}

Declaration keys

The platform’s plugin engine (the one a block registers to run plugins) reads a declaration from <plugins folder>/<name>/plugin.yaml. It reads two keys, sets a third, and hands everything else to the block. meta reads none of it: it serves the file as it is.

Key	Read by the plugin engine	Meaning
name	Yes. The key	Plugin name. The implementation is recorded under it, so it is required
language	Yes. Required	Script runtime; the implementation is plugin.<language> beside the declaration (plugin.js for any js*). A declaration without it is skipped
path	Set	The plugin’s folder
service	No	The folder is the block’s own, so nothing filters on it
implements[].name	No	Interface name from the catalogue above
implements[].methods	No	The subset of that interface’s methods this plugin provides
implements[].priority	No	Ordering among plugins bound to the same interface
meta.entities	No	Entities the plugin is scoped to
active	No	Author’s enable flag
category, tags	No	Catalogue labels
capabilities	No	Declared resource and network needs
arguments	No	Declared argument defaults, merged with call arguments by the consuming block
config	No	Free-form plugin configuration

Reading a product’s declarations

Method	Path	Returns
GET	/product/{id}/files?path=data/plugins&depth=2	The plugin folders and their files
GET	/product/{id}/file/data/plugins/<name>/plugin.yaml	One declaration, as it is
POST	/product/{id}/batch	Several declarations and implementations in one round trip

These are meta’s ordinary file routes: the files come back as they are, with no filtering on service: and nothing appended.

Related

Concern	Page
Where product definitions live on disk	Schema sources
The hook chain, and the entity pointcuts: block that runs on it	Hooks and the execution pipeline
Guards that do run on every request	Access rules
Masking and classification, and what is enforced	Field protection
Serving, versioning and authenticating definitions	meta.svc
Endpoint-level HTTP reference	Data API reference