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tinystruct-patterns

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Expert guidance for developing with the tinystruct Java framework. Use when working on the tinystruct codebase or any project built on tinystruct — including generating the bin/dispatcher and bin/dispatcher.cmd launcher scripts when a project lacks them, creating Application classes, @Action-mapped routes, unit tests, ActionRegistry, HTTP/CLI dual-mode handling, the built-in HTTP server, the event system, JSON with Builder/Builders, database persistence with AbstractData, POJO generation, Server-Sent Events (SSE), file uploads, and outbound HTTP networking.

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# tinystruct Development Patterns

Architecture and implementation patterns for building modules with the **tinystruct** Java framework – a lightweight, high-performance framework that treats CLI and HTTP as equal citizens, requiring no `main()` method and minimal configuration.

## Core Principle

**CLI and HTTP are equal citizens.** A transport-neutral `@Action` uses `Mode.DEFAULT` (or omits `mode`) and has no HTTP-only dependencies. Such an action can run from both a terminal and a web browser. `Mode.DEFAULT` removes the transport restriction; it does not make an HTTP-dependent method CLI-compatible. `Request` and `Response` parameters come from HTTP context attributes and remain null when those attributes are absent, as in an ordinary CLI invocation. Keep shared logic independent of HTTP objects, sessions, and uploads, and call it from transport-specific entry points when needed. This "dual-mode" capability is the core design philosophy of tinystruct. An action with a transport-specific mode (`Mode.CLI`, `Mode.HTTP_GET`, `Mode.HTTP_POST`, ...) is deliberately bound to that transport: the framework rejects it from the other one with "The action is not allowed to be executed."

## Primary Development Tool: `bin/dispatcher`

**`bin/dispatcher` is the default, highest-priority tool for developing, running, testing, and debugging a tinystruct application — reach for it before an IDE run configuration, a hand-written `main()`, curl, or a browser.** Because transport-neutral `@Action` methods are dual-mode by design, `bin/dispatcher` lets you exercise routing, argument binding, and business logic directly from the terminal, with the fastest possible feedback loop and no server/browser required. Actions bound to an HTTP method (`Mode.HTTP_POST`, `Mode.HTTP_GET`, ...) cannot be reached from `bin/dispatcher`; test those through an HTTP client against the running server.

```bash
# Run a CLI-compatible @Action directly to verify a new action
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