Strata 0.1.0 - Deterministic Core

Strata 0.1.0 — Northstar MVP

This is the first complete, end-to-end implementation of Strata:
a deterministic data language with canonical binary encoding and stable hashing.

Northstar 0.1 defines the minimum viable contract for Strata.
Breaking changes are allowed in future 0.x releases.

---

What’s included:

Strata Text (.st)

• Human-friendly syntax
• Maps, lists, literals, bytes
• Shorthand maps (name { ... })
• Comments and flexible whitespace
• Deterministic parsing

Canonical Value Model

• Null, Bool, Int, String, Bytes, List, Map
• UTF-8 strings (no normalization)
• Signed 64-bit integers
• Canonical map key ordering

Strata Core Binary (.scb)

• Deterministic binary encoding
• ULEB128 / SLEB128 varints
• Stable type tags
• Optional framing support

Hashing

• BLAKE3-256 over canonical bytes
• Identical input → identical hash
• Hash is content-addressable and stable

CLI

• strata compile
• strata hash
• strata fmt
• End-to-end usable workflow

Golden & Semantic Tests

• Golden vector verification
• Canonical ordering tests
• BigInt boundary coverage
• Byte-for-byte correctness enforced

---

Quality bar

• 100% deterministic behavior
• Extensive unit + integration tests
• Golden vectors are enforced
• CLI smoke-tested
• No hidden behavior

---

Stability notice

• This is v0.1
• APIs and encoding may change before 1.0
• Hashes are stable within this version
• Do not rely on long-term compatibility yet

---

🚧 What’s next (0.2+)

• Binary decoding
• Improved error handling
• Stronger diagnostics
• JavaScript implementation
• Spec hardening toward 1.0

---

Strata 0.1 proves the concept works.
Everything after this is refinement.