---
id: MAN-5
family: GR-MAN
level: core
profiles: [storage-api]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-man/man-5
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# MAN-5 — The published contract carries structure and nothing else

*GR-MAN (Part I) · level: core · profiles: storage-api · added in 1.0*

What a caller is told about an input is built from the bound port's own schema, reduced to the keys that describe the value's shape. Annotations are re-attached when the contract is read, not stored in it.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. Each contract fragment is built from the schema of the port its entry binds, and reduced to exactly these keys: `type`, `enum`, `format`, `default`, `required`, `properties`, `items`, `minimum`, `maximum`, `minLength`, `maxLength` and `pattern`.
>
> 2. Every other key is dropped, at every depth, recursing into each declared property and into an item schema.
>
> 3. Annotations such as `title`, `description` and `examples`, and any extension key, therefore never reach the stored contract; annotations are re-attached only when the contract is read with annotation requested.


## What it means

A contract fragment is a reduction of the bound port's own schema down to a
fixed set of structural keys — the shape of the value, never the words around
it. The strip is not a top-level filter: it recurses into every declared
property and into an item schema, so an annotation or an extension key buried
two levels inside an object's own properties is dropped exactly as one sitting
at the top would be. A non-annotation key at that same depth — `maxLength`,
`pattern` — survives, because the rule drops a closed set of keys, not
"annotations" as a category.

Author-facing words are never baked into the stored snapshot, even when the
caller asks nothing special: they are re-attached only when the contract is
read with annotation explicitly requested (MAN-6). The stored contract itself
stays the same either way.

## Example

A port's own schema carries a title and two extension keys, one nested inside
`properties` and one inside `items`.

```json title="A port's declared schema, annotated at every depth"
{
  "type": "object",
  "title": "Payload",
  "x-exposed-by-default": false,
  "properties": {
    "inner": { "type": "string", "title": "Inner", "x-config-order": 3, "maxLength": 10 }
  },
  "items": { "type": "string", "description": "An item.", "x-port-order": 2, "pattern": "^a" }
}
```

```json title="What the published contract keeps"
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": { "inner": { "type": "string", "maxLength": 10 } },
  "items": { "type": "string", "pattern": "^a" },
  "x-data-type": "json"
}
```

Asking the same workflow for its contract with annotation requested fills the
words back in, without changing what is stored:

```http title="Fetching the contract as stored" verdict="200 unannotated"
GET /api/flowdrop/workflows/{workflow}/schema

{"parameter_schema": {"properties": {"name": {"type": "string"}}}}
```

```http title="Fetching the same contract with annotation requested" verdict="200 filled"
GET /api/flowdrop/workflows/{workflow}/schema?annotated=1

{"parameter_schema": {"properties": {"name": {"type": "string", "title": "Text value", "description": "A plain text field."}}}}
```

## Related rules

- Names: MAN-6, MAN-7, MAN-21
- Referenced by: MAN-6, MAN-7, MAN-16, MAN-18, MAN-21

---

Rule identifiers are permanent and are never renumbered. This specification carries
no implementation status: each implementation publishes its own standing against
these rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.