Wire Reference — Modules, Imports, and File Returns

The normative grammar lives in grammar.md. This page summarizes the module-facing rules.

File Shape

A .wire file is a sequence of top-level forms: contract, use, kind, form, node, let/export let, and import.

contract EvidenceSet;
export let acceptedItem = item: item.score >= 0.7;

node classify
  <- evidence: EvidenceSet;
  -> accepted: AcceptedSet = evidence.items |> filter acceptedItem;

classify

The last expression without a trailing semicolon is the file-return value. If there is no file-return expression, the file is declaration-only.

The CLI can compile a named graph-valued binding instead of the default file-return:

wire build --return exported_planner ./pipeline.wire

This is useful for files that serve as a catalog of exported graph values while still having a default executable file-return.

Imports

Registry namespace imports use use:

use std.io.{@stdin, @stdout, @command, @readFile, @writeFile, CommandSpec, CommandResult};
use std.io.{@command as @shell, CommandSpec as Spec};

use brings selected registry-catalog names into source scope. Executor selectors carry @; contract selectors do not. Imported aliases lower to canonical executor and contract IDs in compiled metadata.

use is source-local and explicit. It does not propagate across file imports, and wildcard imports such as use std.io.*; are not part of v1.

File imports use import:

import pipeline from "./pipeline.wire";
import { acceptedItem, analyst } from "./helpers.wire";

The named file import form imports another file’s file-return value. The explicit file import form imports named let bindings. export let marks the intended importable surface; until import visibility is fully enforced, it is documentation plus a forward-compatible commitment.

Contracts are ambient once a file is loaded. Node declarations are not directly importable; expose a node by binding it:

node planner
  -> plan: PlannerOutput = @review.planner ({});

export let exported_planner = planner;

Declaration-Only Files

Declaration-only files contribute:

• ambient contract assertions;
• source-local kind and form declarations used by bindings in the same file;
• importable let bindings.

They do not leak node names or ordinary local names into importing files.