[Draft] Add AI Capabilities to SpacetimeDB

[definenoob]

With this PR, STDB becomes the first AI-enabled database. Seeking feedback from CWL on this.

Summary

• Adds native ONNX inference as a host-side capability exposed to WASM modules via the SpacetimeDB ABI (spacetime_10.5)
• Models are loaded by name from {server_data_dir}/models/{name}.onnx on the host filesystem and cached after first use — model bytes never enter WASM memory, only input/output
  tensor data crosses the boundary
• Uses tract-onnx (pure Rust) for inference, no C++ dependencies or WASI required

Design

Single ABI call (spacetime_10.5):

• onnx_run(name_ptr, name_len, input_ptr, input_len, out) -> errno — loads/caches model by name, runs inference, returns output tensors via BytesSource

Crate changes:

• spacetimedb-lib — shared Tensor type (Vec shape + Vec data) with BSATN serialization
• spacetimedb-primitives — ONNX_ERROR errno code
• spacetimedb-bindings-sys — raw ABI declaration + safe wrapper
• spacetimedb-bindings — high-level OnnxClient with single run(name, inputs) method, exposed via ReducerContext::onnx and ProcedureContext::onnx
• spacetimedb-core — host-side OnnxModel using tract-onnx, per-instance model cache (HashMap<String, OnnxModel>) in WasmInstanceEnv, path traversal validation, models_dir wired
  from HostController.data_dir

Usage from a module:

let input = vec![Tensor { shape: vec![1, 10], data: vec![0.0; 10] }];
let output = ctx.onnx.run("bot_brain", &input)?;

Test plan

• Place a .onnx model file in {data_dir}/models/ and verify ctx.onnx.run("model_name", &input) succeeds
• Verify inference produces correct output tensors for known model inputs
• Verify second call to same model uses cache (no re-parse)
• Verify invalid model names (path traversal, empty) return errors
• Verify loading a nonexistent model returns a clear error
• Verify compilation on both native and wasm32-unknown-unknown targets

The onnx feature flag works across all three crates:

• spacetimedb (bindings): features = ["onnx"] — enables ctx.onnx.run(...) API
• spacetimedb-bindings-sys: features = ["onnx"] — enables raw ABI declaration
• spacetimedb-core: features = ["onnx"] — enables host-side inference + tract-onnx dependency

Without the feature, tract-onnx isn't compiled, no ONNX code exists in the binary, and the ABI function isn't registered.

This is ACID-compliant AI inference.

run the model inside the reducer to decide what to write. The inference result feeds directly into the transactional state change — no round-trip to an external service, no eventual consistency, just one atomic unit of "think and act."

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[cloutiertyler]

@definenoob have you tested this?

[definenoob]

@cloutiertyler Not yet, I was wondering if you thought it would be worth pursuing before diving too much deeper. Training a neural network to do something interesting in a whole game isn't exactly light work!

[definenoob]

Testing the ONNX feature

Unit tests

The host-side inference logic has unit tests that run without any external dependencies — models are built programmatically using tract_onnx::pb protobuf types:

cargo test -p spacetimedb-core --features onnx -- onnx::tests

This covers: model loading from bytes, loading from filesystem, Add/Relu inference, run_multi batching, invalid model handling, shape mismatch errors, and path traversal rejection.

Integration tests (smoketests)

End-to-end tests verify the full WASM module → FFI → host path. The server must be built with the onnx feature:

1. Build binaries with onnx support
   cargo build -p spacetimedb-cli -p spacetimedb-standalone --release \
   --features "spacetimedb-standalone/allow_loopback_http_for_tests,spacetimedb-standalone/onnx"

2. Run the ONNX smoketests
   cargo test -p spacetimedb-smoketests -- onnx

The smoketests compile a WASM module with onnx bindings at runtime, place a test .onnx model file in the server's data directory, then call reducers that invoke ctx.onnx.run() and ctx.onnx.run_multi() and verify the inference results in the
module logs.

What's tested across the two levels

Layer	Unit tests	Smoketests
OnnxModel load + inference (tract)	✅	✅
run_multi batching	✅	✅
BSATN tensor serialization across WASM boundary		✅
onnx_run / onnx_run_multi FFI host functions		✅
Model caching in WasmInstanceEnv		✅
Filesystem model loading (models_dir)	✅	✅
Error handling (bad bytes, shape mismatch)	✅
Path traversal validation	✅

[cloutiertyler]

@definenoob I'm probably going to close this and turn it into a feature request. It's a very useful/helpful POC in the future when we investigate adding these kinds of capabilities.

[clockwork-labs-bot]

Closing this stale PR and tracking the remaining work in #4910. The branch is too far out of date to merge directly; please reimplement on top of current master in a new PR if this should continue.