Make IPC fully type-safe: contract + typed wrappers + frame validation

[skalkii]

Make IPC fully type-safe — contract, typed wrappers, frame validation

Summary

focusd's IPC has partial type-safety today: a typed renderer surface (FocusdAPI) and a global Window augmentation, but the actual IPC boundary is stringly-typed and the main side has no contract enforcement. This proposal adds a single source of truth for channels, typed wrapper helpers on both sides of the bridge, and a best-effort sender-frame validation hook — without changing any runtime behavior or removing existing code.

Current state

What's already good

• FocusdAPI interface in src/shared/types.ts:203-248 — encodes args + return + nested namespaces.
• Preload binds against the contract: const api: FocusdAPI = { ... } in src/preload/index.ts.
• Renderer Window is augmented in src/renderer/src/env.d.ts:

  declare global { interface Window { api: FocusdAPI } }

• strict: true in tsconfig.node.json and tsconfig.web.json.

What's missing

1. Channel names are stringly-typed at the boundary. ipcMain.handle('app:info', ...) and ipcRenderer.invoke('app:info') are decoupled string literals. A typo or rename touches three places without TS catching the drift.
2. Main-side handlers don't link to FocusdAPI types. ipcMain.handle('app:info', () => 'wrong return') would compile.
3. sendToRenderer is fully untyped. src/main/ipc-handlers.ts:38 is (channel: string, ...args: unknown[]) => void — channel and payload unchecked.
4. No contract for push channels. recording-state, idle-state, tray-action, new-summary have no central type definition.
5. No sender-frame validation. No origin or senderFrame.url check at any IPC entry point.
6. Audit notes (typed in this proposal but not feature-wired here):

   Channel	Where	Coverage
   app:logDir	registered in main, no preload entry	invokable from main only
   idle-state	pushed from main, no preload listener	reaches no renderer
   tray-action	pushed from main, no preload listener	reaches no renderer
   new-summary	preload listener exists, no main emission	listener never fires

Proposal

1. New file — src/shared/ipc-contract.ts

Single source of truth for both directions: an IpcInvokeChannels map (channel → { args, return }) and an IpcSendChannels map (channel → payload). Includes a small TrayAction = 'start' | 'stop' union for the tray push payload.

2. New file — src/main/ipc-utils.ts

Three exports:

• validateEventFrame(frame) — best-effort sender-frame validation. In dev, allows the electron-vite renderer URL and any localhost frame; in production, allows file:// URLs. Currently logs unexpected origins via warn(...) instead of throwing, so flipping the hook on is non-breaking. Future hardening can convert the warning into a thrown error once expected origins are confirmed in the field.
• ipcMainHandle<K extends keyof IpcInvokeChannels>(channel, handler) — generic wrapper that enforces the channel name, the handler's args tuple, and its return type via the contract. Calls validateEventFrame on every invoke.
• ipcWebContentsSend<K extends keyof IpcSendChannels>(channel, webContents, payload) — typed wrapper for webContents.send.

3. New file — src/preload/ipc-utils.ts

Two exports:

• ipcInvoke<K extends keyof IpcInvokeChannels>(channel, ...args) — typed wrapper around ipcRenderer.invoke. Args spread from the contract; return type is Promise<IpcInvokeChannels[K]['return']>.
• ipcOn<K extends keyof IpcSendChannels>(channel, cb) — typed wrapper around ipcRenderer.on that returns an unsubscribe function. Callback parameter is typed automatically.

4. Migrate src/main/ipc-handlers.ts

• Drop the ipcMain import; add import { ipcMainHandle, ipcWebContentsSend } from './ipc-utils'; and import type { IpcSendChannels } from '../shared/ipc-contract';.
• Replace every ipcMain.handle('foo', (_e, ...) => ...) with ipcMainHandle('foo', (...) => ...). The _e parameter is dropped because the wrapper does not pass the event through; handler bodies do not currently use it.
• Make the local sendToRenderer generic over IpcSendChannels so payload + channel are statically checked. Existing call sites (sendToRenderer('recording-state', 'starting'), sendToRenderer('idle-state', idle)) keep working unchanged.

5. Migrate src/preload/index.ts

• Drop the raw ipcRenderer import in favor of import { ipcInvoke, ipcOn } from './ipc-utils';.
• Replace every ipcRenderer.invoke('foo', ...) with ipcInvoke('foo', ...).
• Replace each manual ipcRenderer.on(...) listener with ipcOn(...). Each listener becomes one line.
• Drop imports that were only used to type the local listener callbacks (RecordingState, MicroSummary, Settings) — types now flow from the contract.

6. Migrate src/main/index.ts

• Add import { ipcWebContentsSend } from './ipc-utils';.
• Replace the two mainWindow?.webContents.send('tray-action', ...) calls with ipcWebContentsSend('tray-action', mainWindow.webContents, ...) guarded by a mainWindow null-check.

Net file impact

File	Status
src/shared/ipc-contract.ts	new
src/main/ipc-utils.ts	new
src/preload/ipc-utils.ts	new
src/main/ipc-handlers.ts	modified — handler signatures + sendToRenderer
src/preload/index.ts	rewritten in same shape, shorter
src/main/index.ts	modified — tray-action sends

No existing files are deleted. Runtime behavior is unchanged.

Verification

1. Type check — npx tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.node.json and -p tsconfig.web.json produce no new errors. The two pre-existing TS errors (src/main/services/capture.ts:308, src/main/services/config.ts:54) are unrelated and predate this change.
2. Smoke test (npm run dev) —
   • Onboarding: API key validate + save, permission cards, "Open Settings" buttons.
   • Capture: list screens, start, stop. Verify recording-state push reaches the renderer.
   • Settings: each toggle and numeric input round-trips through settings:get / settings:update.
   • Summaries: today view loads, daily refresh works.
3. Build (npm run build / npm run package:mac) — succeeds without changes to electron-vite or electron-builder config.
4. Frame validation telemetry — open logs during dev/smoke testing; confirm no [IPC-UTIL] Unexpected frame URL: ... warnings during normal use. Any warning indicates a frame the validator should be taught to recognize before a future PR flips the hook to throw.

Out of scope (explicitly deferred)

• Auto-deriving the contract from FocusdAPI via mapped/recursive types. The two are kept parallel and consistent by hand for now.
• Wiring up or removing the four audit findings (app:logDir, idle-state, tray-action, new-summary). They're typed in the contract so call sites compile; no exposure or feature change is in scope here.
• Renderer-side ergonomic helpers (e.g., a React hook around ipcOn).
• Flipping validateEventFrame to throw on unexpected origins. The hook ships in warn-only mode for non-breaking adoption; hardening is a separate follow-up after the field shows no false positives.