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Bitcoin Kernel Binding Conformance Tests

This repository contains a language-agnostic conformance testing framework for Bitcoin Kernel bindings.

⚠️ Work in Progress

Overview

The framework ensures that all language bindings (Go, Python, Rust, etc.) behave identically by:

  • Defining a standard JSON protocol for testing
  • Providing shared test cases that work across all bindings
  • Enforcing consistent error handling and categorization

Architecture

┌─────────────┐         ┌───────────────────┐
│ Test Runner │────────▶│  Handler Binary** │
│  (Go CLI)   │ stdin   │  (Go/Rust/etc)    │
│             │◀────────│                   │
└─────────────┘ stdout  └───────────────────┘
       │                         │
       │                         │
       ▼                         ▼
  ┌─────────┐            ┌────────────────┐
  │ Test    │            │ Binding API    │
  │ Cases   │            └────────────────┘
  │ (JSON)  │
  └─────────┘

This repository contains:

  1. Specification: Defines the handler protocol and links to the generated Method Reference for method parameters, results, and errors
  2. Test Suites: JSON files defining requests and expected responses
  3. Test Runner: Runs suites against a handler by sending test requests via stdin, validating responses from stdout, and checking them against the expected results
  4. Schemas: Define the suite format and per-method request/response shapes, with tools in cmd/suite-validate and cmd/specgen for validation and documentation generation
  5. Mock Handler: Validates the runner by echoing expected responses from test cases

** Handler binaries are not hosted in this repository. They must be implemented separately following the Handler Specification and should:

  • Implement the JSON protocol for communication with the test runner
  • Call the binding API to execute operations
  • Pin to a specific version/tag of this test repository

Getting Started

Testing Your Binding (Custom Handler)

Test your handler implementation using the test runner.

You can download a prebuilt runner binary from the latest GitHub release. Tagged releases are published automatically by GoReleaser and include archives for supported platforms.

If you prefer to build the runner from source:

# Build the test runner
make runner

# Run the test runner against your handler binary
./build/runner --handler <path-to-your-handler>

# Configure timeouts (optional)
# Max wait per test case (default: 10s)
# Total execution limit (default: 30s)
./build/runner --handler <path-to-your-handler> \
  --handler-timeout 30s \
  --timeout 2m

The runner validates each handler response against the method's JSON schema before comparing it with the expected test outcome.

Timeout Flags

  • --handler-timeout (default: 10s): Maximum time to wait for handler response to each test case. Prevents hangs on unresponsive handlers.
  • --timeout (default: 30s): Total execution time limit across all test suites. Ensures bounded test runs.

The runner automatically detects and recovers from crashed/unresponsive handlers, allowing remaining tests to continue.

Verbose Flags

  • -v, --verbose: Shows request chains and responses for failed tests only
  • -vv: Shows request chains and responses for all tests (passed and failed)

The request chains printed by verbose mode can be directly piped to the handler binary for manual debugging:

# Example output from -vv mode:
# ✓ chain#4 (Get active chain reference from chainstate manager)
#
#       Request chain
#       ────────────────────────────────────────
# {"id":"chain#1","method":"btck_context_create","params":{"chain_parameters":{"chain_type":"btck_ChainType_REGTEST"}},"ref":"$context_ref"}
# {"id":"chain#2","method":"btck_chainstate_manager_create","params":{"context":"$context_ref"},"ref":"$chainstate_manager_ref"}
# {"id":"chain#4","method":"btck_chainstate_manager_get_active_chain","params":{"chainstate_manager":"$chainstate_manager_ref"},"ref":"$chain_ref"}
#
#       Response:
#       ────────────────────────────────────────
#       {"result":{"ref":"$chain_ref"}}

# Copy the request chain and pipe it to your handler for debugging:
echo '{"id":"chain#1","method":"btck_context_create","params":{"chain_parameters":{"chain_type":"btck_ChainType_REGTEST"}},"ref":"$context_ref"}
{"id":"chain#2","method":"btck_chainstate_manager_create","params":{"context":"$context_ref"},"ref":"$chainstate_manager_ref"}
{"id":"chain#4","method":"btck_chainstate_manager_get_active_chain","params":{"chainstate_manager":"$chainstate_manager_ref"},"ref":"$chain_ref"}' | ./path/to/your/handler

Testing the Runner

Build and test the runner:

# Build both runner and mock handler
make build

# Run runner unit tests and integration tests with mock handler
make test

# Validate all suite JSON files against the suite schema
make suite-validate

Updating Generated Documentation

When schema definitions change, regenerate the method reference:

make specgen

Do not edit docs/methods-spec.md manually. It is generated from the schema definitions in docs/schemas/, so schema changes should be followed by make specgen, and CI checks that the generated spec is up to date.