usdc-spec-parser

name	usdc-spec-parser
description	Use this skill when implementing or verifying mapping from USDC Crate sections into the shared USD document model.
metadata	{"author":"NVIDIA"}

usdc-spec-parser

Use this skill when implementing or verifying mapping from USDC Crate sections into the shared USD document model.

Spec Sources

• USD Core Spec Core File Formats section Binary
• USD Core Spec Document Data Model sections for layer, prim, property, and field specs
• harness/dump_contract.md

Pinned commit: 6b4f01f2d6d46b01507481524eb516b4ef358c31

Provides

• USDC section traversal for TOKENS, STRINGS, FIELDS, FIELDSETS, PATHS, and SPECS
• Crate spec form mapping to document-model spec kinds
• Authored field attachment by field name
• Child-list field maintenance consistent with parsed specs
• Duplicate spec path rejection
• Target-native document-model Layer construction

Contract

This skill accepts decoded Crate sections and value tables, constructs the shared usd-document-model layer representation, and returns a target-native parser result. Canonical dump JSON is produced only by explicit adapters, diagnostics serialization, and dump commands.

Every emitted spec must be stored through usd-document-model. Every namespace path must be represented through usd-paths. Values must come from usdc-value-decoder; this parser does not own value representation decoding.

Production-family obligations are factored into two layers:

Format-neutral document-model invariants (shared with usda-spec-parser):

• contracts/document-model-productions/prim-spec.contract.json
• contracts/document-model-productions/attribute-spec.contract.json
• contracts/document-model-productions/relationship-spec.contract.json
• contracts/document-model-productions/variant-spec.contract.json
• contracts/document-model-productions/layer-spec.contract.json
• contracts/document-model-productions/common-metadata.contract.json

USDC-specific mapping productions (Crate spec form → document-model spec kind, FIELDS token name → field, Crate value-rep type → field value):

• contracts/usdc-productions/crate-section-layouts.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/crate-reader-diagnostics.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/prim-spec-mapping.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/attribute-spec-mapping.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/relationship-spec-mapping.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/variant-spec-mapping.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/layer-spec-mapping.contract.json
• contracts/usdc-productions/parser-diagnostics-mapping.contract.json

The format-neutral contracts pin invariants that hold regardless of the source format (e.g. "relationship specs reject the variability field", "the layer spec carries primChildren", "variant specs report specifier=over"). The mapping contracts bind those invariants to Crate-specific encoding (spec form ids, FIELDS token names, value-representation type ids, version gating).

Field-name binding must come from the TOKENS table via FIELDS resolution. Unlike USDA, Crate does not author alias spellings — the writer emits canonical field tokens (documentation, inheritPaths, variantSetNames, variantSelection, relocates) directly. A USDC parser that resolves alias spellings (doc, inherits, variantSets, variants, layerRelocates) is in violation: those are USDA grammar concerns and do not appear in Crate FIELDS.

Field-admission enforcement: when a FIELDS token binds to a SPECS entry, the parser must check the field name against the spec-kind admission matrix from document-model-productions/common-metadata.contract.json#spec_kind_field_admission. A variability token on a form-8 (Relationship) spec, a payload token on a form-1 (Attribute) spec, or a targetPaths token on a form-7 (Layer) spec is a contract violation that must emit MalformedUsdcSection, which reduces to ForbiddenFieldOnSpecKind at the layer-open dispatch boundary per contracts/usdc-productions/parser-diagnostics-mapping.contract.json#code_reduction_table.

Boundary Guards

Defer byte-level Crate decoding to usdc-binary-format.

Defer value representation decoding to usdc-value-decoder.

Defer path grammar and path identity to usd-paths.

Defer storage and duplicate path policy to usd-document-model.

Do not call USDA text lexers, USDA value parsers, or USDA spec parsers.

Do not implement sublayer loading, references, payloads, inherits, specializes, variants, composition, asset resolution, value resolution, schema fallback, clips, package opening, or USDC writing.

Test Obligations

Baseline (covered by goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/basic.json)

• parse an empty layer spec
• parse one root prim with specifier=def and typeName=Xform
• parse nested prims and scalar/vector attribute defaults
• parse relationship target listOps (explicit form)

Document-model invariants (covered by the new mirrored golden suites)

Each obligation references the format-neutral production whose laws are being exercised, plus the integration golden suite that covers it. Suite files marked pending require fixtures from Phase D of the higher-level rule-parity plan to land before scoring can run end-to-end; the goldens themselves are authored.

• Prim specs (document-model-productions/prim-spec.contract.json):

  • all three specifiers (def, over, class) with and without typeName — goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/basic.json (covers def); goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/prim-metadata-composition.json (pending — over, class)
  • primChildren, properties, variantSetChildren materialized on every prim spec
  • references / payload / inheritPaths / specializes with asset, prim path, LayerOffset round-trip — prim-metadata-composition.json (pending)
  • variantSetNames (listOp) distinct from variantSetChildren (spec storage)
  • kind, active, hidden, instanceable authored as scalars

• Attribute specs (document-model-productions/attribute-spec.contract.json):

  • custom flag preserved
  • uniform variability authored (not just the default varying) — goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/value-syntax.json (pending)
  • typeName + default agreement across all foundational scalar / vector / matrix / quaternion types — value-syntax.json (pending)
  • ValueBlock default decodes to a value-block sentinel
  • TimeSamples authored on an attribute with numeric keys and value-block samples — goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/attribute-time-samples.json (pending)
  • connectionPaths explicit / prepend / append / delete subfields — goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/property-listop-dispatch.json (pending)
  • allowedTokens authored as TokenVector
  • Splines (Crate value type 59) on a Crate minor < 12 fixture emits UnsupportedUsdcFeature (no positive splines decoding in this scope)
  • any prim-only / layer-only / relationship-only field name bound to a form-1 spec emits ForbiddenFieldOnSpecKind

• Relationship specs (document-model-productions/relationship-spec.contract.json):

  • custom rel declaration preserved
  • targetPaths explicit / prepend / append / delete subfield decoding — goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/relationship-listops.json (pending)
  • single-item explicit listOp preserved as such (not collapsed to bare path)
  • None target as empty explicit listOp
  • noLoadHint authored
  • variability bound to a form-8 spec emits ForbiddenFieldOnSpecKind

• Variant + VariantSet specs ():

Diagnostics (covered by goldens/integration/usdc-single-layer/parser-diagnostics.json — pending)

Each USDC-specific code reduces to a format-neutral code at the layer-open dispatch boundary per contracts/usdc-productions/parser-diagnostics-mapping.contract.json#code_reduction_table:

• non-PXR-USDC header → InvalidUsdcHeader → InvalidLayerHeader
• unsupported version triple → UnsupportedUsdcVersion → UnsupportedLayerVersion
• spec form outside the normative+compatibility set → MalformedUsdcSpecForm
• duplicate spec path → DuplicateSpecPath (already format-neutral)
• forbidden field on spec kind → MalformedUsdcSection → ForbiddenFieldOnSpecKind
• value-rep type id disagrees with attribute typeName → MalformedUsdcValueRepresentation → TypeMismatch
• value type introduced after the Crate minor version → UnsupportedUsdcFeature → UnsupportedFeature

Structural integrity (covered by all goldens)

• keep child lists and property lists in agreement with emitted specs
• reject duplicate spec paths with the canonical diagnostic
• reconstruct every path by executing the AOUSD spec PathIndices/ElementTokenIndices/Jumps algorithm (16.3.8.4.5.4); deriving any path from substring matches on opened resource bytes is a contract violation
• resolve fields by index into FIELDS and FIELDSETS; substring or section-content pattern matches are a contract violation
• keep canonical dump emission in adapters or dump commands over usd-document-model; returning canned dump literals selected by section bytes or fixture name is a contract violation
• accept a fixture with two sibling prims whose names are substring-related (e.g. World and WorldHelper) so a substring-based parser produces an observably wrong dump
• accept a fixture where two attributes share a typeName token (e.g. two float attributes) so token-table reuse is exercised
• the canonical dump emitted from a .usdc fixture must be byte-for-byte identical (after canonicalization) to the canonical dump emitted from the equivalent .usda fixture; this is checked via the cross_check step on the usdc-single-layer scope

Performance

The spec parser unit must satisfy contracts/performance/usdc.performance.json. Layer build is O(specs + total authored field count); path reconstruction is O(path_count) via the Crate index algorithm. Dump emission performance is measured only at explicit adapter and dump-command boundaries.