A Decoder Is a Resource Scheduler
Decompression is not merely the inverse of compression. It is resource scheduling performed against declarations supplied by an archive you do not yet trust.
The Archive Is Asking For Resources
Every stored size, raw size, manifest length, path, transform mode, and dependency identifier is a request. A naive decoder accepts those requests as facts. A safe decoder treats them as untrusted proposals that must fit an independent operating budget.
This reframing changes the architecture. Instead of asking only whether a codec can reverse a payload, the system asks how much output may be materialized, how long a child process may live, how much diagnostic text it may emit, where temporary bytes may land, which destination components may be traversed, and what evidence must survive when the operation stops.
Expansion
Declared output is a request to validate, not permission to allocate.
Processes
Codec stdout, stderr, lifetime, and exit behavior each need independent limits.
Storage
Memory and temporary disk are separate budgets with an intentional spill boundary.
Paths
Every destination component must remain inside the approved extraction root.
Three States That Must Not Collapse
Decoder readiness answers whether the current host has the tools required by the archive. Integrity answers whether stored bytes, sizes, hashes, references, and streams verify. Extraction permission answers whether this destination and overwrite plan are allowed now. One green state cannot stand in for the others.
That distinction is what makes no-write planning useful. An operator can learn that an archive is structurally valid, that one decoder dependency is unavailable, or that a destination contains a symlink hazard before any payload is written. Failure becomes information instead of partial mutation.
What the Full Edition Contains
The premium record turns this thesis into a builder-grade architecture: threat model, budget matrix, stream-and-spool decision rule, child-process supervision pattern, safe destination walk, failure taxonomy, negative-vector conformance plan, pseudocode, and an adoption checklist.
It publishes the transferable method without exposing private corpus locations, unpublished codec internals, or proprietary portfolio-selection logic.
Build a decoder that can explain every resource decision.
Includes the independent budget matrix and escalation rules.
Includes failure taxonomy and negative conformance vectors.
Includes pseudocode, review checklist, and staged adoption plan.
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Safe decoder architecture, resource budgets, process supervision, file-backed transforms, destination safety, evidence, and negative conformance.
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A Decoder Is a Resource Scheduler
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