JavaScript Client

The JavaScript client (Node.js or modern browsers) talks to the Pie server over WebSocket. It mirrors the Python client surface, with camelCase method names.

Installation

npm install pie-client

Quick start

import { PieClient } from 'pie-client';

const client = new PieClient("ws://127.0.0.1:8080");
await client.connect();

// Internal-token auth (used between backend processes).
// For public-key auth, use the Python or Rust client today.
await client.authByToken(process.env.PIE_TOKEN);

const proc = await client.launchProcess(
  "text-completion@0.1.0",
  { prompt: "Hello", max_tokens: 64 },
);

while (true) {
  const { event, value } = await proc.recv();
  if (event === "stdout")  process.stdout.write(value);
  else if (event === "return") { console.log("\n[done]", value); break; }
  else if (event === "error")  { console.error("\n[error]", value); break; }
}

await client.close();

PieClient

const client = new PieClient(serverUri);
await client.connect();
await client.ping();
await client.close();

Method	Description
connect()	Open the WebSocket connection. Resolves once the socket is open.
close()	Close the connection.

Authentication

Method	Description
authByToken(token)	Authenticate with an internal token. The only auth mechanism currently exposed by the JS client.

If the server has [auth].enabled = false, you can skip authentication entirely.

Programs

Method	Description
resolveVersion(name, registryUrl)	Returns name@version; passes through if name already includes @.
checkProgram(inferlet)	Returns true if the server already has this name@version. (programExists is an alias.)
installProgram(wasmPath, manifestPath, forceOverwrite=false)	Node.js only. Reads the WASM and Pie.toml from disk and uploads them in chunks.

Processes

Method	Description
launchProcess(inferlet, input={}, captureOutputs=true, { tokenBudget=null }={})	Launch a name@version. input is JSON-stringified into the inferlet's typed input. (launchInstance is an alias.)
attachProcess(processId)	Reattach to an existing process by id.
signalProcess(processId, message)	Fire-and-forget string signal.
terminateProcess(processId)	Stop a process.
listProcesses()	Return active process ids.
launchDaemon(inferlet, port, input={})	Start a long-running daemon inferlet bound to port.
ping()	Round-trip a ping.
query(subject, record)	Generic key-value query passthrough.

launchProcess and attachProcess resolve to a Process.

MCP

Method	Description
registerMcpServer(name, { transport, command, args, url })	Spawn a local MCP server and announce it to the engine under name. Inferlets launched on this client see the server via mcp.availableServers(). Today only transport: 'stdio' is supported; pass command and args.

await client.registerMcpServer('fs', {
  transport: 'stdio',
  command: 'npx',
  args: ['-y', '@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem', '/tmp/sandbox'],
});

Process

interface Process {
  processId: string;

  signal(message: string): Promise<void>;
  transferFile(fileBytes: Uint8Array | Buffer): Promise<void>;
  recv(): Promise<{ event: string; value: string | Uint8Array }>;
  terminate(): Promise<void>;
}

Method	Description
recv()	Await the next event. Returns { event, value }.
signal(message)	Send a string signal to the running inferlet.
transferFile(bytes)	Send a binary file (chunked).
terminate()	Request termination.

Instance is exported as a backwards-compatible alias for Process.

Receive loop pattern

const proc = await client.launchProcess("my-inferlet@0.1.0", { prompt });

while (true) {
  const { event, value } = await proc.recv();
  switch (event) {
    case "stdout":  process.stdout.write(value); break;
    case "stderr":  process.stderr.write(value); break;
    case "message": handleMessage(value);        break;
    case "file":    saveBlob(value);             break;   // Uint8Array
    case "return":  return JSON.parse(value);              // typed Output
    case "error":   throw new Error(value);
  }
}

Events

Events are passed as plain strings (no enum):

Event	Payload	Description
"stdout"	string	Streamed stdout.
"stderr"	string	Streamed stderr.
"message"	string	Inferlet-emitted message.
"file"	Uint8Array	Inferlet-emitted file (reassembled from chunks).
"return"	string	Final JSON-encoded Output; the process exits cleanly after this.
"error"	string	The process aborted.

The event queue for a process is cleaned up automatically once return or error is delivered.

Detached / reattach

launchProcess returns a handle you can drop. Reconnect later, call attachProcess(processId), and resume reading. While disconnected, the server buffers events for you.

const c1 = new PieClient(uri); await c1.connect();
const proc = await c1.launchProcess("long-task@0.1.0", { topic: "KV cache reuse" });
const pid = proc.processId;
await c1.close();

// … later …
const c2 = new PieClient(uri); await c2.connect();
const resumed = await c2.attachProcess(pid);
const { event, value } = await resumed.recv();

Browser vs. Node.js

• installProgram requires fs and is Node.js-only.
• Everything else (authByToken, launchProcess, recv, file transfer with in-memory Uint8Array) works in modern browsers.