X7SL v1 — X07 Slice List (canonical bytes encoding)

X7SL is the canonical bytes encoding for a list of slices (start,len) into some base byte buffer (or bytes_view). It is designed to be:

• deterministic (stable across runs/platforms),
• compact (8 bytes per slice),
• and easy for agents to consume without manual offset math (via std.text.slices helpers).

This document is normative for X7SL v1.

Byte order and integer types

• All integers are u32 little-endian (u32_le) encoded as 4 bytes.
• start and len are interpreted as u32 offsets into a base buffer.

Encoding

An X7SL v1 blob is:

• Header (12 bytes)

  1. magic[4] = ASCII bytes X7SL (0x45 0x56 0x53 0x4C)
  2. version_u32_le = 1
  3. count_u32_le = number of rows

• Rows (count × 8 bytes)

  • start_u32_le
  • len_u32_le

Total length

The total byte length MUST be exactly:

12 + count*8

Trailing bytes are not allowed.

Semantics

• Each row describes a slice [start, start+len) into some base buffer.
• X7SL does not include the base buffer length. Bounds checks require the base length.

Canonical row order

Producers SHOULD emit rows in ascending start order. If multiple rows share the same start, they SHOULD be ordered by ascending len.

(Consumers may rely on this for binary-search-based lookups.)

Validation error codes (std.text.slices.validate_v1)

std.text.slices.validate_v1(x7sl) returns result_i32 with:

• OK(count) on success
• ERR(code) on failure, using these deterministic codes:

Code (hex)	Name	Meaning
0x7E510001	X7SL_ERR_TRUNCATED	bytes.len(x7sl) < 12
0x7E510002	X7SL_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_VER	version != 1
0x7E510003	X7SL_ERR_LEN_MISMATCH	bytes.len(x7sl) != 12 + count*8
0x7E510004	X7SL_ERR_BAD_MAGIC	first 4 bytes are not X7SL

Notes:

• v1 validation checks only the X7SL framing (magic/version/length). Checking whether (start+len) <= base_len is done by the caller (because base_len is not in X7SL).

Stdlib helpers

See stdlib/std/0.1.3/modules/std/text/slices.x07.json:

• Builder:

  • std.text.slices.builder_new_v1(cap_hint)
  • std.text.slices.builder_push_v1(out,start,len)
  • std.text.slices.builder_finish_v1(out,count) → bytes@std.text.slices.x7sl_v1
  • std.text.slices.cast_bytes_v1(b) → result_bytes@std.text.slices.x7sl_v1 (validated cast)

• Accessors:

  • std.text.slices.count_v1(x7sl) → i32 (count; requires branded X7SL)
  • std.text.slices.start_v1(x7sl,idx) → i32
  • std.text.slices.len_v1(x7sl,idx) → i32
  • std.text.slices.view_at_v1(base_view,x7sl,idx) → bytes_view
  • std.text.slices.copy_at_v1(base_view,x7sl,idx) → bytes (explicit copy)

Type system integration:

• The canonical X7SL brand id is std.text.slices.x7sl_v1.
• std.text.slices.validate_v1(x7sl: bytes_view) -> result_i32 is the validator used for safe casting and stream pipe item validation.