Registry-wide guards

The guards are pytest tests that walk the whole registry rather than one core. They run with python -m pytest dau_core/tests; none of them needs Vivado, and only the elaboration guard needs verilator.

Four of them compare an exact set rather than a predicate. Those are scoped to source_package == "dau_core.hdl" so that an installed third-party tile does not read as drift in this package’s palette.

test_cores.py

Registry shape, declaration completeness, and the resource-pricing contract.

Guard	Fails on
test_every_hdl_file_belongs_to_exactly_one_core	An .sv/.v file in dau_core/hdl/ with no entry, an entry with no file, a duplicated source, or rendered output shadowing a generated core.
test_all_source_paths_exist	An entry whose source_path() does not resolve. Generated cores are skipped.
test_goldens_resolve_to_callables	A golden string naming a module or attribute that does not import, or that is not callable.
test_benches_are_importable_modules	A bench string naming a module that fails to import.
test_every_operator_has_a_golden	An operator tile with no reference semantics.
test_every_selectable_operator_declares_its_ingest_rate	A missing ingest, an unproven faster-than-1-row-per-cycle claim, or a scales_with_param naming an undeclared parameter.
test_every_selectable_operator_declares_its_contract_kind	An operator with no contract_kind, or a non-operator that declares one.
test_every_selectable_operator_declares_its_record_words	An operator declaring neither or both of record_words and record_words_param, or resolving below 1.
test_parameterized_record_words_resolve_from_defaults_and_overrides	effective_record_words drifting for the parameterized cores.
test_only_combinational_per_beat_cores_support_pipeline_depth	A stateful or multi-word tile claiming the generic elastic-depth axis.
test_wide_combinational_tiles_declare_pipeline_depth_without_changing_ingest	The wide combinational tiles silently moving their depth bounds or their per-slot rate.
test_sources_for_closes_dependencies_in_order	A dependency closure that emits a package after its consumer, or duplicates a source.
test_lookup_errors_are_typed	core() or core_for_module() raising a bare KeyError.
test_synthesizable_cores_carry_measured_envelopes	A synthesizable operator or stream-infra tile with no envelope, an unmeasured estimate, or a zero-LUT point.
test_exact_resource_measurement_resolves_with_parameter_defaults	Coordinate lookup ignoring a declared parameter default.
test_resource_measurement_refuses_an_unmeasured_part	One part’s number pricing another part’s build.
test_every_registered_core_with_resources_carries_measurement_points	A resource record that is not a list of measurement points.
test_an_unclocked_measurement_answers_for_any_clock_and_records_no_timing	A combinational core’s point recording a timing status it never had, or failing to price a clock.
test_violated_measurement_is_retrievable_but_not_a_usable_envelope	A timing-failed build being consumed as a smaller budget.
test_a_measured_point_matches_a_derived_clock_period	A period derived as 1000 / job_clock_mhz failing float equality against its measured point.
test_registry_is_hydra_composition_not_a_python_literal	A parallel Python-literal core list reappearing, and the registry-path view drifting from the accessor view.
test_accessors_defer_to_a_composed_registry	A default reload clobbering a consumer’s composed overrides.
test_silent_on_success_operator_set_is_pinned	A core changing its status class (silent mid-chain or a per-batch close-out) without the change being stated.
test_dispatcher_rate_still_needs_record_aware_modeling	The known record-width-blind dispatcher rate gap being treated as closed.
test_authoritative_models_reject_impossible_values	Negative resource counts, empty part strings, or non-positive clock periods entering the registry.
test_parameter_spec_rejects_incoherent_constraints	A spec that would reject every override, including its own default.
test_parameter_spec_violation_is_the_single_constraint_source	The override rule being re-implemented outside ParameterSpec.violation().
test_storage_intent_prices_against_declared_parameters	Storage cost ignoring a parameter override.
test_storage_intent_refuses_an_undeclared_scale_parameter	An intent scaling by a parameter the core does not declare.
test_storage_intent_without_scale_is_a_fixed_cost	A scale-free intent being mispriced.
test_storage_bytes_refuses_illegal_scale_overrides	Pricing an override that no buildable design could use.
test_a_core_resolves_hdl_from_the_package_that_declares_it	A third-party tile being forced to vendor its SystemVerilog into dau_core.hdl.
test_a_well_formed_vendor_tile_does_not_trip_our_palette_guards	An installed third-party tile failing this package’s exact-set guards.
test_a_core_naming_an_uninstalled_hdl_package_refuses_clearly	A raw ImportError where the message should name the missing distribution.
test_an_unresolvable_hdl_source_says_so	A resource path that formats correctly and does not exist, discovered at synthesis.

test_core_contract.py

Guard	Fails on
test_every_operator_conforms_to_the_stream_tile_contract	A row-stream operator whose real SystemVerilog port list drifts from the stream and status contract. Ports are parsed from the source rather than assumed.

The check runs through dau_build.sv_contract.validate_stream_tile. In CI a missing dau_build fails the guard; anywhere else it skips.

test_measured_from_matches_the_hdl.py

Guard	Fails on
test_every_stamped_envelope_matches_its_hdl_closure	An edit to a tile’s source, or to a package it imports or a header it includes, without re-measuring and re-stamping its measured_from.
test_the_unstamped_envelopes_are_exactly_the_declared_ones	A measured core without a measured_from, beyond the pinned unstamped set, which can only shrink.
test_every_core_has_a_computable_hdl_closure	A core whose HDL closure cannot be digested.
test_a_stamp_without_a_measurement_is_refused	A measured_from on an entry that records no resources.

test_hdl_elaboration.py

Guard	Fails on
test_every_declared_parameterization_elaborates	The registry advertising a parameter value the RTL’s own elaboration guard rejects. Parametrized per operator; a lint-only Verilator run over the declared parameter space, capped at 24 combinations per core.

test_parameter_bounds_match_the_hdl.py

Guard	Fails on
test_declared_bounds_match_the_tiles_elaboration_guard	A registry minimum, maximum, or choices that disagrees with the bound stated in the tile’s own $error text.
test_unparsed_guards_are_declared_and_still_exist	The unparsed-guard holdout list outliving its holdouts, in either direction.
test_the_python_mirror_of_the_top_k_bound_matches_the_registry	dau_core.operators.TOP_K_MAX drifting from the registry’s declared K maximum.

Because the bound is parsed out of the $error string, that string is machine-readable text, not a comment. The recognized forms are X must be in [a, b], X must be between a and b, X must divide N and lie in [a, b], X must be a/b/c, and X must be a, b, or c.

test_hdl_parameter_bindings_resolve.py

Guard	Fails on
test_every_parameter_binding_names_a_declared_parameter	A .NAME() binding in a dau_* instantiation naming a parameter the target module no longer declares.
test_the_identity_wrapper_forwards_every_capability_parameter	The identity wrapper failing to forward a capability parameter, which would advertise it as zero.

test_capability_contract.py

Guard	Fails on
test_registry_declares_hardware_opcodes_only_for_opcode_driven_tiles	A tile declaring an opcode it cannot execute, or declaring a host-computed operation as hardware.

test_public_tile_surface.py

Guard	Fails on
test_the_authoring_surface_stays_extractable	cores, design, generators, or stream growing an import into this package’s private side.
test_the_surface_declares_its_third_party_dependencies	The declaration surface acquiring a runtime dependency beyond ccflow and pydantic.
test_the_extraction_debt_does_not_grow	The declared debt list growing, and separately, going stale.

Imports are read statically rather than by importing the modules, because an import-time check passes on a dependency reached only inside a function.

test_benches_can_fail.py

Guard	Fails on
test_a_bench_fails_when_its_tile_is_made_wrong	A bench that always passes. Each mutation edits a copy of the HDL and asserts the bench fails, and that it failed in the run rather than at compile time.

test_generated_cores.py

Guard	Fails on
test_a_generated_core_refuses_its_source_until_rendered	A generated core silently resolving to a stale or absent file.
test_rendering_writes_the_source_the_entry_names	Rendered output landing somewhere the registry entry does not name.
test_a_checked_in_core_refuses_to_be_rendered	A checked-in source being overwritten by a render.
test_the_operating_point_comes_from_configuration	A generator’s operating point being fixed in Python rather than composed.
test_each_operating_point_renders_a_different_source	Two operating points collapsing to one source.
test_the_rendered_source_carries_the_parameters_that_made_it	An untraceable generated file.

dau_core/tests/conftest.py renders the generated cores once per session in an autouse fixture, so registry-walking guards see real files.

See also

• How to test a core: the order to run these in while developing a tile.

• How to add an operator tile: the steps these guards check.

• CoreDefinition fields: the declarations most of these guards read.