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TCP Transport Adapter

Documentation status: architecture — see Maturity and evidence.

Purpose

A TCP adapter provides a low-level stream transport for integrations that cannot use a higher-level service protocol.

Important distinction

TCP is a byte stream, not a message protocol. Before using a TCP boundary, define:

  • framing;
  • message size limits;
  • request/response or duplex semantics;
  • authentication and encryption strategy;
  • timeout and reconnect behavior;
  • backpressure and queue bounds;
  • compatibility/version negotiation.

Prefer higher-level contracts when possible

For application APIs, RPC, messaging, or real-time interaction, prefer the corresponding higher-level Runtime/service abstraction when it satisfies the use case. Raw TCP should remain an integration transport, not leak into domain models.

Security

Do not expose an unauthenticated raw TCP listener on an untrusted network. Apply transport encryption and authentication appropriate to the deployment, or place the adapter behind a protected boundary.

Status

Exact listener classes and configuration tags are implementation/module details and are intentionally omitted from the public contract.