FFI Interface

The FFI (Foreign Function Interface) layer enables communication between the Rust core (chameleon-core) and Go runtime (chameleon) via a stable C ABI. This boundary handles schema parsing, validation, SQL generation, and memory management across language boundaries.

Overview

The FFI bridge provides:

Schema parsing - .cham → JSON AST
Schema validation - Type checking with structured errors
SQL generation - Queries and migrations
Memory management - Safe allocation/deallocation across boundaries
Version checking - Ensure Rust/Go compatibility

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Go Application                                 │
│  (chameleon/pkg/engine)                         │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 │ Go FFI bindings (cgo)
                 │
┌────────────────▼────────────────────────────────┐
│  C ABI Boundary                                 │
│  - chameleon_parse_schema()                     │
│  - chameleon_validate_schema()                  │
│  - chameleon_generate_sql()                     │
│  - chameleon_generate_migration()               │
│  - chameleon_free_string()                      │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 │ unsafe extern "C"
                 │
┌────────────────▼────────────────────────────────┐
│  Rust Core Library                              │
│  (chameleon-core/src/ffi/mod.rs)                │
│  - Parser (LALRPOP)                             │
│  - Type Checker                                 │
│  - SQL Generator                                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Data flow:

Go calls C function via cgo
C function marshals to Rust (UTF-8 strings)
Rust processes and returns JSON (serialized via serde_json)
C function returns pointer to Go
Go deserializes JSON and frees Rust memory

C ABI Functions

Location: chameleon-core/src/ffi/mod.rs

Parse Schema

#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe extern "C" fn chameleon_parse_schema(
    input: *const c_char,
    error_out: *mut *mut c_char,
) -> *mut c_char

Parameters:

input - Null-terminated .cham source code
error_out - Output pointer for error JSON (if any)

Returns:

JSON AST on success (caller must free with chameleon_free_string)
NULL on failure (error_out contains error JSON)

Example:

char* error = NULL;
char* schema_json = chameleon_parse_schema(
    "entity User { id: uuid primary, }",
    &error
);

if (schema_json == NULL) {
    printf("Parse error: %s\n", error);
    chameleon_free_string(error);
} else {
    printf("Schema: %s\n", schema_json);
    chameleon_free_string(schema_json);
}

Validate Schema

#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe extern "C" fn chameleon_validate_schema(
    input: *const c_char,
    error_out: *mut *mut c_char,
) -> ChameleonResult

Parameters:

input - Null-terminated .cham source code
error_out - Output pointer for validation result JSON

Returns:

ChameleonResult::Ok - Schema is valid
ChameleonResult::ParseError - Syntax error
ChameleonResult::ValidationError - Type check failed
ChameleonResult::InternalError - Unexpected error

Result JSON (success):

{
  "valid": true,
  "errors": []
}

Result JSON (failure):

{
  "valid": false,
  "errors": [
    {
      "kind": "ValidationError",
      "message": "Entity 'User' has no primary key",
      "line": null,
      "column": null,
      "snippet": null,
      "suggestion": null
    }
  ]
}

Generate SQL

#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe extern "C" fn chameleon_generate_sql(
    query_json: *const c_char,
    schema_json: *const c_char,
    error_out: *mut *mut c_char,
) -> ChameleonResult

Parameters:

query_json - Query specification (JSON)
schema_json - Schema AST (JSON)
error_out - Output pointer for generated SQL (JSON)

Returns:

ChameleonResult::Ok - SQL generated (error_out contains result)
ChameleonResult::ValidationError - Invalid query
ChameleonResult::InternalError - Unexpected error

Generate Migration

#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe extern "C" fn chameleon_generate_migration(
    schema_json: *const c_char,
    error_out: *mut *mut c_char,
) -> ChameleonResult

Parameters:

schema_json - Schema AST (JSON)
error_out - Output pointer for migration SQL

Returns:

ChameleonResult::Ok - Migration SQL in error_out
ChameleonResult::ValidationError - Invalid schema
ChameleonResult::InternalError - Unexpected error

Free String

#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe extern "C" fn chameleon_free_string(s: *mut c_char)

Parameters:

s - String allocated by Rust (from any FFI function)

Safety:

Safe to call with NULL (no-op)
Must be called for every non-NULL pointer returned by Rust
Never call twice on the same pointer (double-free)

Version

#[no_mangle]
pub extern "C" fn chameleon_version() -> *const c_char

Returns:

Static string with Rust core version (e.g., “0.1.0-beta”)
Never needs to be freed (static lifetime)

Result Codes

#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
pub enum ChameleonResult {
    Ok = 0,
    ParseError = 1,
    ValidationError = 2,
    InternalError = 3,
}

Usage in Go:

const (
    ResultOk              = C.CHAMELEON_OK
    ResultParseError      = C.CHAMELEON_PARSE_ERROR
    ResultValidationError = C.CHAMELEON_VALIDATION_ERROR
    ResultInternalError   = C.CHAMELEON_INTERNAL_ERROR
)

Go Bindings

Location: chameleon/internal/ffi/bindings.go

CGO Setup

package ffi

/*
#cgo linux LDFLAGS: -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib -lchameleon
#cgo darwin LDFLAGS: -L/usr/local/lib -L/opt/homebrew/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath,/opt/homebrew/lib -lchameleon
#include <stdlib.h>

typedef enum {
    CHAMELEON_OK = 0,
    CHAMELEON_PARSE_ERROR = 1,
    CHAMELEON_VALIDATION_ERROR = 2,
    CHAMELEON_INTERNAL_ERROR = 3,
} ChameleonResult;

char* chameleon_parse_schema(const char* input, char** error_out);
ChameleonResult chameleon_validate_schema(const char* schema_json, char** error_out);
void chameleon_free_string(char* s);
const char* chameleon_version(void);
extern int chameleon_generate_sql(const char* query_json, const char* schema_json, char** error_out);
extern int chameleon_generate_migration(const char* schema_json, char** error_out);
*/
import "C"

LDFLAGS explanation:

-L/usr/local/lib - Library search path
-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib - Runtime library path (embeds path in binary)
-lchameleon - Link against libchameleon.so (Linux) or libchameleon.dylib (macOS)

ParseSchema

func ParseSchema(input string) (string, error) {
    cInput := C.CString(input)
    defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cInput))
    
    var cError *C.char
    defer func() {
        if cError != nil {
            C.chameleon_free_string(cError)
        }
    }()
    
    cResult := C.chameleon_parse_schema(cInput, &cError)
    
    if cResult == nil {
        if cError != nil {
            return "", errors.New(C.GoString(cError))
        }
        return "", errors.New("unknown parse error")
    }
    
    defer C.chameleon_free_string(cResult)
    return C.GoString(cResult), nil
}

Memory management:

C.CString(input) - Allocate C string (must free with C.free)
C.chameleon_parse_schema() - Call Rust (returns Rust-allocated string)
C.GoString(cResult) - Copy to Go string
C.chameleon_free_string(cResult) - Free Rust allocation

ValidateSchemaRaw

func ValidateSchemaRaw(schemaInput string) (string, error) {
    cInput := C.CString(schemaInput)
    defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cInput))
    
    var cError *C.char
    defer func() {
        if cError != nil {
            C.chameleon_free_string(cError)
        }
    }()
    
    result := C.chameleon_validate_schema(cInput, &cError)
    
    if cError != nil {
        errMsg := C.GoString(cError)
        if result == ResultOk {
            return errMsg, nil  // Success JSON
        }
        return errMsg, errors.New("validation failed")
    }
    
    return "", errors.New("unknown error")
}

Version

func Version() string {
    cVersion := C.chameleon_version()
    return C.GoString(cVersion)
}

Note: No need to free - static string in Rust

Building libchameleon.so

Prerequisites

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Install build dependencies
sudo apt-get install build-essential  # Linux
brew install llvm                      # macOS

Build Steps

cd chameleon-core

# Build shared library
cargo build --release

# Output: target/release/libchameleon.so (Linux)
#         target/release/libchameleon.dylib (macOS)
#         target/release/chameleon.dll (Windows)

Install System-Wide

Linux:

sudo cp target/release/libchameleon.so /usr/local/lib/
sudo ldconfig

macOS:

sudo cp target/release/libchameleon.dylib /usr/local/lib/
sudo update_dyld_shared_cache  # Optional, speeds up loading

Verify Installation

# Check library dependencies
ldd /usr/local/lib/libchameleon.so     # Linux
otool -L /usr/local/lib/libchameleon.dylib  # macOS

# Test from Go
cd ../chameleon
go test ./internal/ffi/...

Cargo Configuration

Location: chameleon-core/Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "chameleon"
version = "0.1.0-beta"
edition = "2021"

[lib]
name = "chameleon"
crate-type = ["rlib", "staticlib", "cdylib"]

[dependencies]
lalrpop-util = { version = "0.20", features = ["lexer"] }
regex = "1.10"
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = "1.0"
thiserror = "1.0"
lazy_static = "1.4"

[build-dependencies]
lalrpop = "0.20"
cbindgen = "0.27"

Crate types:

rlib - Rust static library (for Rust consumers)
staticlib - C-compatible static library (.a)
cdylib - C-compatible dynamic library (.so, .dylib, .dll)

C Header Generation

Location: chameleon-core/build.rs:22

cbindgen::Builder::new()
    .with_crate(crate_dir)
    .with_language(cbindgen::Language::C)
    .with_include_guard("CHAMELEON_H")
    .generate()
    .expect("Unable to generate bindings")
    .write_to_file("include/chameleon.h");

Generated header (include/chameleon.h):

#ifndef CHAMELEON_H
#define CHAMELEON_H

#include <stdint.h>

typedef enum {
    ChameleonResult_Ok = 0,
    ChameleonResult_ParseError = 1,
    ChameleonResult_ValidationError = 2,
    ChameleonResult_InternalError = 3,
} ChameleonResult;

char *chameleon_parse_schema(const char *input, char **error_out);

ChameleonResult chameleon_validate_schema(const char *input, char **error_out);

void chameleon_free_string(char *s);

const char *chameleon_version(void);

ChameleonResult chameleon_generate_sql(const char *query_json,
                                        const char *schema_json,
                                        char **error_out);

ChameleonResult chameleon_generate_migration(const char *schema_json,
                                              char **error_out);

#endif /* CHAMELEON_H */

Linking from Go

Development Build

# Build Rust library
cd chameleon-core
cargo build --release

# Set library path for Go
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/target/release:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH  # Linux
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/target/release:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH  # macOS

# Build Go application
cd ../chameleon
go build ./cmd/chameleon

Production Build

# Install library system-wide
sudo cp chameleon-core/target/release/libchameleon.so /usr/local/lib/
sudo ldconfig

# Go will find library via rpath (set in cgo LDFLAGS)
go build ./cmd/chameleon
./chameleon --version

Docker Build

FROM rust:1.75 AS rust-builder
WORKDIR /build
COPY chameleon-core .
RUN cargo build --release

FROM golang:1.21 AS go-builder
WORKDIR /build
COPY --from=rust-builder /build/target/release/libchameleon.so /usr/local/lib/
RUN ldconfig
COPY chameleon .
RUN go build -o chameleon ./cmd/chameleon

FROM ubuntu:22.04
COPY --from=rust-builder /build/target/release/libchameleon.so /usr/local/lib/
COPY --from=go-builder /build/chameleon /usr/local/bin/
RUN ldconfig
ENTRYPOINT ["chameleon"]

Memory Management

Ownership Rules

Allocator	Deallocator	Example
Go (`C.CString`)	Go (`C.free`)	Input strings to Rust
Rust (`CString::into_raw`)	Rust (`chameleon_free_string`)	Return values from Rust
Rust (static)	Never	`chameleon_version()`

Common Pitfalls

❌ Double-free:

result := C.chameleon_parse_schema(input, &err)
C.chameleon_free_string(result)
C.chameleon_free_string(result)  // CRASH!

❌ Memory leak:

result := C.chameleon_parse_schema(input, &err)
return C.GoString(result)  // Leak! Never freed

✅ Correct:

result := C.chameleon_parse_schema(input, &err)
defer C.chameleon_free_string(result)
return C.GoString(result)

Performance Characteristics

Operation	Overhead	Notes
FFI call	~100ns	Function call + argument marshaling
String copy (Go → C)	~50ns/KB	`C.CString()` allocation
String copy (C → Go)	~50ns/KB	`C.GoString()` allocation
JSON serialization	~1μs/entity	`serde_json::to_string()`
JSON deserialization	~2μs/entity	`json.Unmarshal()` in Go

Total parse overhead:

Small schema (5 entities): ~500μs
Medium schema (20 entities): ~2ms
Large schema (100 entities): ~10ms

Comparison to pure Go parser:

FFI overhead: +30% (but Rust parser is 3x faster)
Net result: 2x faster than pure Go

Testing

Location: chameleon-core/src/ffi/mod.rs:471

Rust Tests

#[test]
fn test_parse_schema_success() {
    let input = CString::new("entity User { id: uuid primary, }").unwrap();
    let mut error: *mut c_char = ptr::null_mut();
    
    unsafe {
        let result = chameleon_parse_schema(input.as_ptr(), &mut error);
        assert!(!result.is_null());
        assert!(error.is_null());
        
        let json_str = CStr::from_ptr(result).to_str().unwrap();
        assert!(json_str.contains("User"));
        
        chameleon_free_string(result);
    }
}

Go Tests

Location: chameleon/internal/ffi/bindings_test.go (hypothetical)

func TestParseSchema(t *testing.T) {
    input := `entity User { id: uuid primary, }`
    result, err := ParseSchema(input)
    
    require.NoError(t, err)
    assert.Contains(t, result, "User")
    
    var schema map[string]interface{}
    err = json.Unmarshal([]byte(result), &schema)
    require.NoError(t, err)
}

func TestVersion(t *testing.T) {
    version := Version()
    assert.NotEmpty(t, version)
    assert.Regexp(t, `^\d+\.\d+\.\d+`, version)
}

Troubleshooting

Library Not Found

Error:

error while loading shared libraries: libchameleon.so: cannot open shared object file

Solution:

# Add to LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

# Or install system-wide
sudo cp libchameleon.so /usr/local/lib/
sudo ldconfig

Symbol Not Found

Error:

undefined reference to `chameleon_parse_schema'

Causes:

Rust library not built with cdylib crate type
Function not marked #[no_mangle]
Header out of sync with implementation

Solution:

# Rebuild with correct crate type
cargo clean
cargo build --release

# Verify symbols
nm -D target/release/libchameleon.so | grep chameleon

Version Mismatch

Error:

FFI version mismatch: Go expects 0.1.0, Rust is 0.2.0

Solution:

# Check versions
go run ./cmd/chameleon version
cargo metadata --format-version 1 | jq -r '.packages[] | select(.name == "chameleon") | .version'

# Rebuild both
cd chameleon-core && cargo build --release
cd ../chameleon && go build ./cmd/chameleon

Go SDK

Rust Core

​FFI Interface

​Overview

​Architecture

​C ABI Functions

​Parse Schema

​Validate Schema

​Generate SQL

​Generate Migration

​Free String

​Version

​Result Codes

​Go Bindings

​CGO Setup

​ParseSchema

​ValidateSchemaRaw

​Version

​Building libchameleon.so

​Prerequisites

​Build Steps

​Install System-Wide

​Verify Installation

​Cargo Configuration

​C Header Generation

​Linking from Go

​Development Build

​Production Build

​Docker Build

​Memory Management

​Ownership Rules

​Common Pitfalls

​Performance Characteristics

​Testing

​Rust Tests

​Go Tests

​Troubleshooting

​Library Not Found

​Symbol Not Found

​Version Mismatch

​See Also

FFI Interface

Overview

Architecture

C ABI Functions

Parse Schema

Validate Schema

Generate SQL

Generate Migration

Free String

Version

Result Codes

Go Bindings

CGO Setup

ParseSchema

ValidateSchemaRaw

Version

Building libchameleon.so

Prerequisites

Build Steps

Install System-Wide

Verify Installation

Cargo Configuration

C Header Generation

Linking from Go

Development Build

Production Build

Docker Build

Memory Management

Ownership Rules

Common Pitfalls

Performance Characteristics

Testing

Rust Tests

Go Tests

Troubleshooting

Library Not Found

Symbol Not Found

Version Mismatch

See Also