Connector Lab

Connector Lab is the native development harness shipped with the standalone connector project. It launches the actual sidecar under the real supervisor and sandbox boundary.

What it proves

• valid handshake and identity;
• rejection of malformed or oversized messages;
• requested capabilities match the authoring brief;
• configuration and source discovery;
• start, health, observation, stop, and shutdown lifecycle;
• stable event identity across replay and restart;
• reconnect/backoff behavior;
• prompt termination after revocation;
• bounded redacted diagnostics;
• exact observation compatibility with a target package.

Deterministic fixture mode

Every connector should have a deterministic fixture source that produces the same raw source sequence without a real account, game, or device. Fixture mode is how CI and independent review reproduce behavior.

It must pass through the same translation code as the live source. Do not make a second “test observation” implementation that bypasses parsing, identity, or health behavior.

Workbench loopback

Connector Lab can forward emitted observations into the real Workbench activity runtime. The combined journey proves:

raw fixture
 → real connector translator
 → real supervisor/sandbox
 → exact observation envelope
 → real package reducer
 → terminal Attempt result

This is stronger than validating the connector and package against two unrelated sample files.

Review handoff

The connector skill produces binary digest, platform/architecture, protocol and SDK versions, requested capabilities, fixture digest, lifecycle evidence, sandbox results, diagnostics summary, and known limitations. It does not sign or publicly approve its own binary.