turnstone/docs/sdk.md

Turnstone Client SDK

See also: API Reference | Architecture | SDK Class Diagram

Typed HTTP client libraries for programmatic access to the turnstone server and console APIs. Available in Python (sync + async) and TypeScript.

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Python SDK

The Python SDK is included in the turnstone package — no extra install required. It wraps the REST and SSE endpoints with typed methods that return Pydantic models directly.

Quick Start

from turnstone.sdk import TurnstoneServer

# Synchronous client — login with username/password
with TurnstoneServer("http://localhost:8080") as client:
    client.login(username="alice", password="s3cret")

    # Create a workstream
    ws = client.create_workstream(name="Analysis")

    # Send a message and wait for the full response
    result = client.send_and_wait("Summarize this codebase.", ws.ws_id)
    print(result.content)

    # Stream events in real time
    for event in client.stream_events(ws.ws_id):
        if event.type == "content":
            print(event.text, end="", flush=True)

    # Close when done
    client.close_workstream(ws.ws_id)

Alternatively, authenticate with an API token:

with TurnstoneServer("http://localhost:8080") as client:
    client.login(token="ts_abc123...")
    ws = client.create_workstream(name="CI run")
    result = client.send_and_wait("Run the test suite.", ws.ws_id)

Async Client

import asyncio
from turnstone.sdk import AsyncTurnstoneServer


async def main():
    async with AsyncTurnstoneServer("http://localhost:8080") as client:
        await client.login(username="alice", password="s3cret")
        ws = await client.create_workstream(name="demo")
        async for event in client.stream_events(ws.ws_id):
            if event.type == "content":
                print(event.text, end="", flush=True)


asyncio.run(main())

Server Client API

Both TurnstoneServer (sync) and AsyncTurnstoneServer (async) expose:

Category	Method	Returns
Workstreams	list_workstreams()	ListWorkstreamsResponse
	dashboard()	DashboardResponse
	create_workstream(*, name, model, auto_approve, resume_ws, skill, persona, initial_message, project_id, attachments, ...)	CreateWorkstreamResponse
	close_workstream(ws_id)	StatusResponse
Attachments	upload_attachment(ws_id, filename, data, *, mime_type=...)	UploadAttachmentResponse
	list_attachments(ws_id)	ListAttachmentsResponse
	get_attachment_content(ws_id, attachment_id)	bytes
	delete_attachment(ws_id, attachment_id)	StatusResponse
Chat	send(message, ws_id)	SendResponse
	approve(*, ws_id, approved, feedback, always, cycle_id, call_id)	ApproveResponse
	command(*, ws_id, command)	StatusResponse
	cancel(ws_id, *, force=False)	CancelResponse
Streaming	stream_events(ws_id)	Iterator[ServerEvent]
	stream_global_events()	Iterator[ServerEvent]
High-level	send_and_wait(message, ws_id, *, timeout, on_event)	TurnResult
Saved	list_saved_workstreams()	ListSavedWorkstreamsResponse
Auth	login(username=..., password=...)	AuthLoginResponse
	login(token="ts_xxx")	AuthLoginResponse
	logout()	StatusResponse
	auth_status()	AuthStatusResponse
Health	health()	HealthResponse

Console Client API

Both TurnstoneConsole (sync) and AsyncTurnstoneConsole (async) expose:

Category	Method	Returns
Cluster	overview()	ClusterOverviewResponse
	nodes(*, sort, limit, offset)	ClusterNodesResponse
	workstreams(*, state, node, search, sort, page, per_page)	ClusterWorkstreamsResponse
	node_detail(node_id)	NodeDetailResponse
	snapshot()	ClusterSnapshotResponse
	create_workstream(*, node_id, name, model, initial_message, skill, persona, resume_ws)	ConsoleCreateWsResponse
Schedules	list_schedules()	ListSchedulesResponse
	create_schedule(*, name, schedule_type, initial_message, ...)	ScheduleInfo
	get_schedule(task_id)	ScheduleInfo
	update_schedule(task_id, *, name=..., enabled=..., ...)	ScheduleInfo
	delete_schedule(task_id)	StatusResponse
	list_schedule_runs(task_id, *, limit=50)	ListScheduleRunsResponse
MCP Registry	search_mcp_registry(q="", *, limit=20, cursor=None)	RegistrySearchResponse
	install_from_registry(registry_name, source, *, index=0, name="", variables=None, env=None, headers=None)	McpServerDetail
Skill Discovery	discover_skills(q="", *, limit=20)	SkillDiscoverResponse
	install_skill(source, *, skill_id="", url="")	dict
Streaming	stream_cluster_events()	Iterator[ClusterEvent]
Auth	login(username=..., password=...) / login(token="ts_xxx")	AuthLoginResponse
	logout()	StatusResponse
Health	health()	ConsoleHealthResponse

Event Types

SSE events are deserialized into typed dataclasses. Use event.type to discriminate.

Per-workstream events (from stream_events(ws_id)):

Type	Class	Key Fields
connected	ConnectedEvent	model, model_alias, skip_permissions
content	ContentEvent	text
reasoning	ReasoningEvent	text
tool_info	ToolInfoEvent	items
approve_request	ApproveRequestEvent	cycle_id, items
tool_result	ToolResultEvent	call_id, name, output, is_error
tool_output_chunk	ToolOutputChunkEvent	call_id, chunk
status	StatusEvent	prompt_tokens, total_tokens, pct, effort, cache_creation_tokens, cache_read_tokens
error	ErrorEvent	message
info	InfoEvent	message
stream_end	StreamEndEvent	—
state_change	StateChangeEvent	state ∈ running/thinking/attention/idle/error
in_progress_snapshot	InProgressSnapshotEvent	content, reasoning (one-shot mid-stream refresh resume)
approval_resolved	ApprovalResolvedEvent	cycle_id, call_ids, approved, feedback, always
cancelled	CancelledEvent	—

Current servers bootstrap conversation history through GET /v1/api/workstreams/{ws_id}/history before the SSE stream; they do not emit a history event. HistoryEvent remains deserializable only for compatibility with older servers. The Python client does not yet expose a typed helper for this bootstrap endpoint.

Global events (from stream_global_events()):

Type	Class	Key Fields
ws_state	WsStateEvent	ws_id, state, tokens, activity
ws_activity	WsActivityEvent	ws_id, activity, activity_state
ws_rename	WsRenameEvent	ws_id, name
ws_closed	WsClosedEvent	ws_id

Cluster events (from stream_cluster_events()):

Type	Class	Key Fields
node_joined	NodeJoinedEvent	node_id
node_lost	NodeLostEvent	node_id
cluster_state	ClusterStateEvent	ws_id, node_id, state, tokens
ws_created	ClusterWsCreatedEvent	ws_id, node_id, name
ws_closed	ClusterWsClosedEvent	ws_id
ws_rename	ClusterWsRenameEvent	ws_id, name
snapshot	ClusterSnapshotEvent	nodes, overview, timestamp

TurnResult

The send_and_wait() method returns a TurnResult that aggregates the full response:

result = client.send_and_wait("Hello", ws_id, timeout=60)
result.content  # Full text response
result.reasoning  # Chain-of-thought (if shown)
result.tool_results  # List of (tool_name, output) tuples
result.errors  # Any error messages
result.ok  # True if no errors and not timed out
result.timed_out  # True if timeout expired

Attachments

Upload files to a workstream and attach them to the next user turn:

# Upload separately, then send a message — attachments auto-attach
with open("screenshot.png", "rb") as f:
    att = client.upload_attachment(ws.ws_id, "screenshot.png", f.read(), mime_type="image/png")
client.send("What's wrong in this screenshot?", ws.ws_id)

# Or attach at workstream-creation time (multipart upload)
from turnstone.sdk import AttachmentUpload

with open("notes.txt", "rb") as f:
    ws = client.create_workstream(
        name="triage",
        initial_message="Summarize the notes",
        attachments=[AttachmentUpload(data=f.read(), filename="notes.txt", mime_type="text/plain")],
    )

Limits: images ≤ 4 MiB (png/jpeg/gif/webp), text ≤ 512 KiB (UTF-8), 10 pending per (workstream, user). The SDK auto-generates ws_id on the client so cluster-routed callers bind attachments to the owning node before the request lands.

Forking a workstream

resume_ws is the API's compatibility name for an atomic fork. It creates a new workstream ID while the source remains unchanged:

fork = client.create_workstream(
    resume_ws=ws.ws_id,
    name="analysis-branch",
    initial_message="Try the alternative plan.",
)
assert fork.resumed

The server transaction clones the source's checkpoint-bounded history, saved session configuration, persona, project, and attachment references. Do not combine resume_ws with attachments; fork first, then upload to the new ID. To rehydrate the original ID rather than branch it, call the server's POST /v1/api/workstreams/{ws_id}/open endpoint.

Error Handling

Non-2xx responses raise TurnstoneAPIError:

from turnstone.sdk import TurnstoneServer, TurnstoneAPIError

try:
    client.send("hi", "bad_ws_id")
except TurnstoneAPIError as e:
    print(e.status_code)  # 404
    print(e.message)  # "Unknown workstream"

---

TypeScript SDK

Located at sdk/typescript/. Zero runtime dependencies for browsers; uses native fetch and ReadableStream for SSE parsing.

Quick Start

import { TurnstoneServer } from "@turnstone/sdk";

const client = new TurnstoneServer({ baseUrl: "http://localhost:8080" });

// Login with username/password or API token
await client.login({ username: "alice", password: "s3cret" });
// or: await client.login({ token: "ts_abc123..." });

// Create workstream and send message
const ws = await client.createWorkstream({ name: "demo" });
const result = await client.sendAndWait("Hello!", ws.ws_id);
console.log(result.content);

// Stream events
for await (const event of client.streamEvents(ws.ws_id)) {
  if (event.type === "content") {
    process.stdout.write(event.text);
  }
}

Console Client

import { TurnstoneConsole } from "@turnstone/sdk";

const client = new TurnstoneConsole({ baseUrl: "http://localhost:8090" });
await client.login({ username: "alice", password: "s3cret" });

const overview = await client.overview();
console.log(`Nodes: ${overview.nodes}, Workstreams: ${overview.workstreams}`);

// Search and install from the MCP Registry
const results = await client.searchMcpRegistry({ q: "github", limit: 10 });
const server = await client.installFromRegistry({
  registry_name: results.servers[0].name,
  source: "remote",
});

// Search and install skills from external registries
const skills = await client.discoverSkills({ q: "code review" });
const skill = await client.installSkill({
  source: "github",
  url: "https://github.com/owner/skill-repo",
});

// Stream cluster events
for await (const event of client.clusterEvents()) {
  console.log(event.type, event);
}

Type Safety

All event types are modeled as a discriminated union:

import { isContentEvent, isErrorEvent } from "@turnstone/sdk";
import type { ServerEvent } from "@turnstone/sdk";

function handleEvent(event: ServerEvent) {
  if (isContentEvent(event)) {
    // event is narrowed to ContentEvent
    console.log(event.text);
  } else if (isErrorEvent(event)) {
    console.error(event.message);
  }
}

Custom Fetch

The client accepts a custom fetch implementation for testing or Node.js environments:

const client = new TurnstoneServer({
  baseUrl: "http://localhost:8080",
  fetch: myCustomFetch,
});

---

Architecture

turnstone/sdk/               Python SDK (sub-package)
  _base.py                   Shared httpx async client, auth, error handling
  _sync.py                   Background event loop for sync wrappers
  _types.py                  TurnResult + TurnstoneAPIError
  events.py                  38 SSE event dataclasses with type registry
  server.py                  AsyncTurnstoneServer + TurnstoneServer
  console.py                 AsyncTurnstoneConsole + TurnstoneConsole

sdk/typescript/              TypeScript SDK (npm package)
  src/base.ts                fetch wrapper, auth, SSE streaming
  src/server.ts              TurnstoneServer class
  src/console.ts             TurnstoneConsole class
  src/events.ts              Discriminated union events + type guards
  src/sse.ts                 ReadableStream SSE parser
  src/types.ts               Request/response interfaces

The Python SDK reuses Pydantic models from turnstone/api/ directly — no schema duplication. The TypeScript SDK has hand-written interfaces matching those models.

Both SDKs follow the same design: typed methods for REST endpoints, async iterators for SSE streams, and a high-level send_and_wait method for simple request-response patterns.

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Authentication

When auth is enabled on the server, the SDK handles JWT-based authentication automatically.

Login Flow

There are two ways to authenticate:

1. Username + password — calls POST /v1/api/auth/login with credentials. The server validates against the user database and returns a JWT.

2. API token — calls POST /v1/api/auth/login with a ts_-prefixed token string. The server looks up the token, resolves the associated user, and returns a JWT.

In both cases the server returns the JWT in the response body and as a Set-Cookie header. The SDK extracts the JWT and includes it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header on all subsequent requests.

# Username + password
client.login(username="alice", password="s3cret")

# API token (created via admin API or turnstone-admin CLI)
client.login(token="ts_abc123...")

Token Lifecycle

• JWTs have a configurable expiry (default: 24 hours).
• client.auth_status() returns the current user identity and scopes without refreshing the token.
• client.logout() clears the stored JWT from the client.
• If a request returns 401, the SDK raises TurnstoneAPIError — the caller is responsible for re-authenticating.

Token Types

The SDK accepts any Bearer token — JWTs (from ServiceTokenManager or login) and API tokens (ts_ prefix) are both supported. Use token_factory for auto-rotating JWTs or a static token for API tokens.