native/docs/device-sync.md

Device sync: contacts and calendars in Android's providers

Issue #34. Each signed-in account can opt in to device sync. Its address books then appear in Android's Contacts provider and its calendars in the Calendar provider, under an Android account of type "Bulwark". Google Contacts and Calendar, AOSP/Fossify Contacts, Etar, the dialer and Settings → Accounts all see them. Server changes reach the device, and creates, edits and deletes made in any Android app reach the server.

This document is for maintainers. It describes the design: the architecture, what every provider column holds, the mapping tables, the merge rules, the native API, the failure matrix and the known limitations. Behaviour it relies on was checked against Stalwart v0.16.23 (the server Bulwark targets) and AOSP's ContactsProvider, CalendarProvider and the calendar/contacts apps; the notable findings are quoted where they shape a rule.

Contents

1. Architecture
2. The Android shell
3. Device data model
4. A sync run
5. Change detection and merge rules
6. Uploads
7. Contacts mapping
8. Calendar mapping
9. Headless payload, report and SyncResult
10. Native module API
11. App integration
12. Failure matrix
13. Limits and performance
14. Testing
15. Decisions and limitations
16. Out of scope

Architecture

The Android sync framework drives everything. Kotlin is a thin shell; the sync engine is TypeScript that runs as a headless JS task and reaches the providers through a native module.

SyncManager ──onPerformSync──▶ DeviceSyncAdapter (Kotlin, SyncAdapterThread)
                                 │ posts to the main thread: start React Native if needed,
                                 │ start headless task BulwarkDeviceSync {runId, …}
                                 │ waits on a latch (≤ 9.5 min, 2.5 min for expedited jobs)
                                 ▼
                        runDeviceSync (TypeScript, JS thread)
                          │ JMAP: a detached JMAPClient per registry account
                          │ provider: NativeModules.BulwarkDeviceSync (query / applyBatch)
                          ▼
                        finishRun(runId, report) ──▶ latch released ──▶ SyncResult

Why this split:

• Auth, token refresh, mTLS, 429 back-off and session discovery stay in the existing JS client (src/api/jmap-client.ts). Refresh tokens rotate; a second owner outside JS's de-duplication could evict the account.
• Mappers and merge rules are pure TypeScript with no React Native import, so vitest covers them with golden fixtures and property tests. A test walks the import graph of src/device-sync/{contacts,calendar,engine} and fails on react-native, expo, stores or jmap-client: the global mocks in src/test-setup.ts would otherwise hide such an import.
• Kotlin only translates: URIs, ContentProviderOperations, SyncResult. Its logic has JVM unit tests (android/app/src/test).

A pure-Kotlin engine was rejected: it would have to redeem rotating refresh tokens outside JS's de-duplication, re-implement session discovery with its origin rewrite, mTLS, 429 handling and the first-touch gate, read expo-secure-store's internal format, and start from zero test infrastructure.

There is one ReactHost and one Hermes runtime per process. A sync that runs while the UI is open runs in the UI's runtime (the task is started with allowedInForeground = true), and a sync that cold-started the process leaves its runtime for the UI to attach to. So the engine never touches the UI's jmapClient singleton or zustand stores it does not own, and a module-level mutex coordinates runs with app-side operations.

Code map

Path	What it holds
android/app/src/main/java/com/anonymous/bulwarkmobile/HeadlessJs.kt	starting React Native and a headless task; shared with the push job
android/app/src/main/java/com/anonymous/bulwarkmobile/sync/	authenticator, sync adapters, run registry, report mapping, native module, provider op translation, push router
android/app/src/main/res/xml/{authenticator,sync_contacts,sync_calendar,contacts}.xml	framework metadata
android/app/src/debug/java/…/sync/DeviceSyncDebugReceiver.kt	adb hooks for device tests (debug builds only)
src/device-sync/types.ts, android-columns.ts	contracts: bridge API, row model, ops, payload, report; provider column names
src/device-sync/native.ts	typed wrapper around NativeModules.BulwarkDeviceSync
src/device-sync/common/	pure helpers: canonical JSON, hashing, JSON Pointer patches, zoned time, durations
src/device-sync/contacts/	JSContact ↔ contacts rows, row matching, contact merge rules (pure)
src/device-sync/calendar/	JSCalendar ↔ calendar rows, RRULE, exceptions, merge rules (pure)
src/device-sync/jmap/	the JMAP side on a detached client: /changes, full reconcile, /set, uid lookup
src/device-sync/engine/	orchestration: run entry, mutex, checkpoints, batches, SyncState, report
src/device-sync/task.ts	the headless task entry (registered in index.ts)
src/stores/device-sync-store.ts	per-account preferences and the last run status
src/components/settings/ContactsSettings.tsx, CalendarSettings.tsx	the "Sync to this device" sections

The Android shell

Account type and accounts

The account type is ${applicationId}.account, defined once in android/app/build.gradle with resValue and referenced as @string/device_sync_account_type from the XML and through R.string.device_sync_account_type from Kotlin. The package name may change before a store listing; nothing hard-codes it. The account label is "Bulwark" and its icon is the app icon.

One Android account exists per registry account (AccountEntry.id, username@hostname) that has device sync on for at least one authority. Its name is the account's login; when two registry accounts share a login on different servers, the second one is named after its registry id. The registry id is stored in the account's userData under registryId and is the only link back to the app: the name is for people. GET_ACCOUNTS is not needed: an authenticator always sees its own accounts, and addAccountExplicitly needs only a UID match on API 23+.

Other apps see the account (API 26+) when they hold READ_CONTACTS and we hold a granted WRITE_CONTACTS; Contacts apps that list accounts rely on that.

Authenticator

BulwarkAuthenticator and BulwarkAuthenticatorService:

• addAccount (Settings → Accounts → Add account) never creates an account without credentials. It returns an explicit Intent to MainActivity with bulwarkmobile://settings/contacts, where the user turns sync on. (The AccountManager only accepts an Intent that resolves inside our package.)
• getAccountRemovalAllowed allows removal. The providers then delete every row of the account and its SyncState; the app notices and turns device sync off for that account. It never recreates the account on its own.
• Everything else (getAuthToken, confirmCredentials, …) returns ERROR_CODE_UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION.

Sync adapters

Two AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter services (ContactsSyncService, CalendarSyncService), declared with supportsUploading="true", userVisible="true", allowParallelSyncs="false", and in the main process so they share the ReactHost with the UI. The contacts service also declares android.provider.CONTACTS_STRUCTURE → xml/contacts.xml, whose EditSchema lists exactly the data kinds in the contacts mapping. AOSP Contacts rejects the whole account type when that XML breaks its rules (every typed kind needs <Type> children, name needs all six supports* attributes, photo must be present, single-value kinds need maxOccurs="1"), and without an EditSchema it treats the account as read-only.

Exported services are safe: startSync/cancelSync ignore callers other than the system UID.

onPerformSync (see DeviceSyncAdapter.kt):

1. Reads registryId from the account's userData; a missing one is a hard error (databaseError).
2. Opens a run in DeviceSyncRuns: a random runId, a latch, a cancel flag. Headless task ids restart at 1 with every React context, so they never identify a run.
3. Posts to the main thread: HeadlessJs.withReadyReactContext starts React Native if needed (on the main thread only: the ReactHost is created lazily without a lock), then starts the headless task BulwarkDeviceSync with the payload and allowedInForeground = true. The task timeout is the adapter's deadline minus 20 s; the payload's deadline is 30 s earlier still.
4. Waits until the first of: finishRun, the headless task ending (JS settled without a report, timed out, or the context was reloaded), React refusing or failing to start (the boot task faults, e.g. a debug build without Metro), or the deadline: 9.5 minutes, or 2.5 minutes when the sync runs as an expedited job (schedule_as_expedited_job), inside JobScheduler's 10 and 3 minute guarantees.
5. Maps the report onto SyncResult; no report is a soft error.

onSyncCanceled interrupts the sync thread; the run is closed, and JS sees isRunCancelled(runId) == true (also for any run nobody waits for) at its next checkpoint. A run ends once: finishRun is accepted only while the run is still waiting, so a report that arrives after the deadline, a boot fault or the task's end is refused rather than half-applied. SyncManager holds a wake lock for as long as onPerformSync runs, so the adapter takes none.

SyncManager also cancels a sync that moves fewer than 10 bytes of network traffic in any 60-second window. The engine sends a Core/echo when a local phase has gone 40 s without a JMAP request.

Spike results

Checked before building anything else on it, on the API 34 and API 32 emulators with the debug build (commit ed2525e):

App state	Report received after
foreground (task runs next to the UI, AppState active)	319-334 ms
background (process alive)	320-327 ms
process killed (SyncManager starts it for the sync service; React starts headless, bundle from Metro)	16.2 s (API 34), 8.5 s (API 32)

An io report was retried with back-off, an auth report was not retried, too many deletions showed the system's "Attempted to delete too many Contacts." notification, and with Metro unreachable the adapter gave up after 2 s. Found on the way: SyncManager retries a failed sync at once when it made progress (madeSomeProgress), so hard errors are reported without progress; and without the runtime permission AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter fails the sync itself (databaseError) before onPerformSync runs, so the app must detect a revoked permission on its own.

Device data model

Identity

Row	Column	Value
raw contact	RawContacts.SOURCE_ID	<jmapAccountId>/<cardId>; null until created on the server
group	Groups.SOURCE_ID	<jmapAccountId>/<cardId> of a kind: "group" card
calendar	Calendars._SYNC_ID	<jmapAccountId>/<calendarId>
event (master or single)	Events._SYNC_ID	<jmapAccountId>/<eventId>, or ~pending/<uid> for a local event claimed for upload
event exception	Events._SYNC_ID + ORIGINAL_SYNC_ID	<jmapAccountId>/<eventId>#<recurrenceId> + the master's _SYNC_ID

JMAP ids use only [A-Za-z0-9_-] (RFC 8620 §1.2), so /, # and ~ never occur in them: ids stay unique across the JMAP accounts, shared ones included, that feed one Android account, and ~pending/… can never be a server id.

Identities are only unique for one server account's lifetime (Stalwart's ids come from small per-account counters). So the SyncState records which registry account and server origin the rows belong to, a run refuses to touch rows written for another one, and a merge treats a server object whose uid differs from its shadow's as a different object (delete and insert, never a patch).

Why a pending _SYNC_ID: CalendarProvider hard-deletes an app-deleted event that has no _SYNC_ID, so a local event deleted while its create was in flight would vanish without a trace and come back from the server. With a _SYNC_ID the delete is a soft delete (DELETED=1) the engine can act on. It also lets Etar create exceptions of a not-yet-uploaded series (it offers "this event" only when the master has a _SYNC_ID); the provider rewrites their ORIGINAL_SYNC_ID when the master's _SYNC_ID changes. Contacts need no such marker: raw contacts of a sync account are always soft-deleted.

A new local item is a raw contact without SOURCE_ID, or a master event (ORIGINAL_ID and ORIGINAL_SYNC_ID both null) whose _SYNC_ID is null or pending. DIRTY is not the test: a raw contact inserted without data rows is not dirty. A row with ORIGINAL_* set is always an exception of its master and never uploads as an event of its own.

Contacts columns

Column	Holds
RawContacts.SOURCE_ID	identity (above)
RawContacts.SYNC1	the card's collections: <jmapAccountId>/<addressBookId> joined by ,
RawContacts.SYNC2	the shadow: the last server card, wire format, with each data: photo URI replaced by sha256:<hex> of its bytes
RawContacts.SYNC3	the pending create: {"uid":…,"target":"<jmapAccountId>/<addressBookId>"}, written before the /set and kept until the identity is
RawContacts.SYNC4	poison marker {"fp":…,"type":…,"n":…,"until":…}
RawContacts.RAW_CONTACT_IS_READ_ONLY	1 when none of the card's address books grants mayWrite
Data.DATA_SYNC1	the entry key(s), e.g. emails:work1; see units
Data.DATA_SYNC2	photo rows: the hash of the server photo applied to the row
Data.DATA_SYNC3	the baseline: the row's mapped columns as the provider stored them after our last write (JSON; text over 1 KB as its hash)
Groups.SOURCE_ID, SYNC2, SYNC3, SYNC4	as for raw contacts, for group cards (SHOULD_SYNC is never written: an update carrying it makes ContactsProvider request a sync)
Settings	one row per account: UNGROUPED_VISIBLE=1, SHOULD_SYNC=1 (the default 0 hides every contact without a visible group)

Writing DIRTY=0, SOURCE_ID or SYNC1-4 does not bump RawContacts.VERSION; data-row inserts, updates and deletes do, whoever makes them. So VERSION is used only as an optimistic-lock token in asserts, and DIRTY for change detection. (A super-primary change in another account can bump our VERSION without DIRTY; the assert then fails once and the row is re-read.)

Calendar columns

Column	Holds
Calendars._SYNC_ID	identity
Calendars.CAL_SYNC1	unused: CalendarProvider sends it as the feed extra of the sync it requests whenever a calendar with SYNC_EVENTS=1 is inserted or changed, so anything there splits those requests apart
Calendars.CAL_SYNC2	the shadow: the last server Calendar object
Calendars.CAL_SYNC3	flags JSON: readOnly reason (rights, subscription), taskOnly
Events._SYNC_ID	identity
Events.SYNC_DATA1	masters and single events: the shadow, the full server event with its recurrenceOverrides
Events.SYNC_DATA2	exceptions: the recurrence id, exactly as the server's override key
Events.SYNC_DATA3	the pending create: {"uid":…,"target":"<jmapAccountId>/<calendarId>"}
Events.SYNC_DATA4	the baseline: mapped event columns, attendees and reminders as stored after our last write (JSON; text over 1 KB as its hash)
Events.SYNC_DATA5	poison marker
Events.UID_2445	the event's uid

Attendees and reminders have no sync columns, which is why their baseline sits on the event row. Events.MUTATORS (the packages that changed the event since our last write) tells which app made a device edit.

A description longer than 64 KB is written truncated, marked in the baseline, and never uploaded: an event row carries the description, the shadow and the baseline, and one Binder transaction holds 1 MB.

SyncState

ContactsContract.SyncState and CalendarContract.SyncState hold one blob per Android account (CalendarProvider requires sync-adapter URIs for it): UTF-8 JSON, versioned.

{
  "v": 1,
  "owner": { "registryId": "usera@example.org@mail.example.org", "origin": "https://mail.example.org" },
  "accounts": {
    "c": {
      "collectionsState": "s12eq",
      "itemsState": "syufa",
      "selected": ["c/b"],
      "stale": [],
      "reconcile": null,
      "groups": ["c/e12"],
      "taskOnly": []
    }
  },
  "deviceZone": "Europe/Berlin",
  "deviceZonePending": null
}

• owner: the registry account and the server origin the rows were written for. A run for another owner stops with internal and the app offers to start over (after uploading what it can).
• itemsState is the ContactCard or CalendarEvent state the rows describe. It is written in the same applyBatch as the last item group of a /changes page: the syncState op is the last op of that batch, is never yieldAllowed, and the native side refuses a batch that breaks either rule, so a provider yield can never commit the state ahead of its rows.
• No stored itemsState is newer than the shadow of an object changed before it: an object whose rows could not be written (an item error) goes on stale in the same batch, is fetched again at the start of every run, and uploads nothing until it has been.
• reconcile marks a full reconcile in progress: { "from": <state taken first>, "phase": "ids" | "objects", "position": n }, written with every chunk. The next run continues it; its deletions are applied only when the complete id list is known, and itemsState becomes from when it ends.
• selected is the selection the rows were written for; a collection is added in the batch with its last loaded chunk, and removed with its last deleted row.
• groups (contacts): the group cards present on the device, so a group an app hard-deleted (Fossify does) is recognised by its absence.
• taskOnly lists calendars found to hold only tasks.
• deviceZone (calendar) is the zone floating events were written in; deviceZonePending is set while a zone-change pass runs and cleared, with deviceZone updated, in the batch of its last chunk.
• The providers delete the row with the account.

A sync run

One run handles one Android account and one authority. A module-level mutex per (registry account, authority) serialises it with other runs and with app-side operations such as turning sync off.

1. Preflight.
   • Permissions for the authority (a revoked one → permission).
   • The Android account and that the authority is still enabled (getSyncAutomatically) → otherwise disabled.
   • The SyncState's owner matches this registry account and server origin (see Identity).
   • new JMAPClient().loadAccount(registryId): false or AuthenticationError → rebuild once (another client may have rotated the refresh token); still failing → auth, plus one notification that deep-links to sign-in. Nothing local is touched.
   • The capability on at least one JMAP account → else unsupported.
   • An upload-only sync (extras.upload) with nothing dirty, deleted or new for our account ends here with ok: ContactsProvider and CalendarProvider schedule an upload sync for every account 30 s after any app write, other accounts' included.
2. Local checks. Calendar: two masters sharing a _SYNC_ID (a CONTENT_EXCEPTION_URI split, which also caps the old master's rule without DIRTY) are resolved before any merge or baseline heal: the newer row becomes a new event and the older master's rule is uploaded as it stands. Objects on stale are fetched again.
3. Collections. AddressBook/get or Calendar/get (explicit properties) for the primary JMAP account of the capability (primaryAccounts[capability]) and every shared account that advertises it; calendar rows are inserted and updated to match. Newly selected collections are loaded after step 4 has brought the account up to date, restricted to them, so the stored state never skips changes of the other collections. Deselected collections are dropped after step 5, and only their clean rows go: dirty items there are uploaded first (they are still valid objects on the server), and an item whose upload failed keeps its rows and is reported.
4. Download.
   • With a stored itemsState: /changes with maxChanges: 256 and a hasMoreChanges loop; each page's changed ids are fetched with explicit properties in batches of maxObjectsInGet.
   • Without a state, or on cannotCalculateChanges: a full reconcile, checkpointed in reconcile (see SyncState). The state is taken first (/get with ids: []), then every selected collection's ids (/query, inAddressBook/inCalendar, limit 5000 with position paging), then the objects in batches. Rows without an identity or with a pending one (and exceptions of pending masters) are never reconcile deletions. A reconcile that finds zero remote objects while the device holds more than 10 rows for that JMAP account stops with safetyAbort instead of wiping the device.
   • An object without rows first looks for a local item it may already be: a new row of the same JMAP account whose pending uid is the object's uid (our own create whose identity never got written) is adopted: it takes the identity and shadow and is merged as a dirty item.
   • Each object is merged into its rows. An object that left every selected collection loses its rows only when they are clean; dirty units are uploaded first.
   • Rows are written in chunks; the new state goes into the last chunk of each page, so every page is a checkpoint.
5. Upload, always after download so merges see the latest server truth; see Uploads.
6. Report counts, conflicts, per-item errors and duration; persist the status for the settings UI; call finishRun before the task's promise settles (JS timers stop once the task is over).

/get always lists properties explicitly: with properties: null Stalwart leaves out JMAP-only fields such as useDefaultAlerts, and ids: null returns at most 500 objects without saying so.

Checkpoints sit between chunks and phases. At each one the run checks isRunCancelled, its deadline and the time since the last JMAP request. When the deadline is near it stops cleanly and reports moreRecordsToGet, which the adapter turns into fullSyncRequested (SyncManager ignores moreRecordsToGet itself). The step from a create's /set to its identity write is not interruptible, and a create batch starts only while at least two request timeouts (60 s) of budget remain.

Invariants

Every reviewer checks against these.

1. No server data loss. Uploads are JMAP patches (RFC 8620 §5.3, JSON Pointer with ~0/~1 escaping) computed per mapped property against the baseline. A property Android can't represent is never sent. A full-object replace is never sent, and neither is a destroy + create for what was an edit or a move on the device. Where Stalwart needs a whole map resent (deleting a map entry, adding the first entry), the map is rebuilt from the fresh shadow, so its other entries go back unchanged, and the request carries ifInState so it cannot overwrite a server change the merge did not see. What an editor did not model (a row it re-inserted without some column, an entry it dropped) is never read as a deletion.
2. No silent device-edit loss. A dirty row is cleared only after the server accepted the change, and only if it wasn't edited again during the upload: the clearing batch asserts RawContacts.VERSION for contacts and the full read projection (event row, attendees, reminders) for events, so check and clear are one provider transaction. A row whose mapped projection equals its baseline (only STARRED changed, say) is cleared without uploading. No dirty, deleted or pending row is removed locally (deselection, move-away, disable, logout, account reconciliation) before its upload succeeded or the user confirmed losing it.
3. Crash-safe and idempotent. Every step can be re-run. The JMAP state is written in the same applyBatch as the last chunk of rows it describes, as that batch's last op. Creates carry a client-minted uid, written to the row with the create's target before the /set; a download adopts a pending row by uid, and an upload looks the uid up and adopts what it finds, so a retry never duplicates on either side.
4. No feedback loops. Adapter writes use CALLER_IS_SYNCADAPTER, which neither sets DIRTY nor schedules an upload sync, and never touch the columns that make a provider request a sync (CAL_SYNC1, Groups.SHOULD_SYNC). An echo of our own upload compares equal to the shadow and results in zero provider writes. A run that failed reports progress only for rows it actually wrote.
5. Scoped. Only rows of our own account type are read or written; the native side enforces it for every table.
6. Deletion safety. Local→server deletions above the threshold set tooManyDeletions; SYNC_EXTRAS_OVERRIDE_TOO_MANY_DELETIONS and SYNC_EXTRAS_DISCARD_LOCAL_DELETIONS are honoured. Deletions inferred from absence (groups) count toward the threshold. A full reconcile that returns zero remote objects while the device holds more than 10 aborts. Deleting a device item that belongs to several collections removes only the selected memberships.
7. Conflicts. See merge rules.
8. Limits respected: maxObjectsInGet/Set, maxCallsInRequest, one request in flight per run, /changes paging, provider batch sizes and yield points, the Binder budget, the headless timeout and the JS thread (yield between chunks).
9. iOS untouched. Everything is gated by Platform.OS === 'android' plus the presence of the native module.
10. No state ahead of a shadow. No stored itemsState is newer than the shadow of an object that changed before it (see stale).

Change detection and merge rules

Baselines

Mappings are lossy in both directions, and the providers normalise what they store: ContactsProvider splits a lone display name into components and fills a missing formatted address, CalendarProvider fills the organizer, zeroes all-day times and rewrites durations. Comparing rows against a fresh toDevice(shadow) would see edits nobody made.

So every row carries a baseline: its mapped columns exactly as the provider stored them after our last write, read back after each chunk (text over 1 KB as its hash). A column that differs from its baseline was written by someone else. A clean row's baseline is by definition its current content, so whenever the engine reads a clean row whose baseline differs, it rewrites the baseline; that also heals the crash window between a chunk and its read-back. Two exceptions:

• the read-back also reads DIRTY (and VERSION): a row that turned dirty in the meantime keeps its old baseline, so the user's edit still counts;
• timing and rule of a recurring master are never healed: a CONTENT_EXCEPTION_URI split changes them without DIRTY (see the local checks).

Units

Changes are detected, merged and uploaded per unit:

• contacts: the name (the StructuredName row), each entry of a map (one data row: emails:work1, phones:p-a, addresses:home, …), the note, the photo, and the card's group memberships;
• events: groups of related columns (title, description, location, timing, rule, status, availability, privacy, color, calendar), each attendee (by email), the reminder set, each EXDATE and each exception row (recursively, the same units).

A unit's upload is the set of patch paths for the sub-fields whose columns changed against the baseline; sub-fields Android can't hold are never in it.

Row matching (contacts)

Row keys are hints, not identity. Fossify Contacts deletes and re-inserts every data row but the name on each save, dropping DATA_SYNC*, the columns it does not model (DEPARTMENT, labels, a website's type), IS_PRIMARY, and every nickname and organization but one; AOSP Contacts updates rows in place. So, per data kind:

1. Empty rows (an editor's blank nickname or note) are ignored.
2. Rows whose DATA_SYNC1 key is in the shadow keep that key.
3. Rows without a usable key are matched to the shadow's unmatched entries by the kind's primary value (email address case-insensitively, phone digits, URL, date + type, …); then, only when the numbers of unmatched rows and entries are equal, pairwise in order.
4. Rows still unmatched are new entries and get fresh keys: b + 8 random base36 characters (Stalwart parses numeric keys as array indexes and generates k<n> itself, so neither is used).
5. Shadow entries still without a row count as deleted on the device only when the kind still has rows that carry keys (an in-place editor removed one). When every row of the kind is keyless, an editor rewrote them all, and a missing entry may just be one it could not show: it stays on the server.

A row matched by its key is compared column by column with its baseline; an emptied column is a real deletion. A row matched by value has no baseline: its primary value uploads when it differs from the shadow's projection, its TYPE and LABEL only for phones, emails, addresses and events (editors that re-insert rows write a constant type for websites), and never IS_PRIMARY; an empty column never clears anything.

The name: "" and NULL are the same. name/full uploads when DISPLAY_NAME changed against the baseline and is not simply the provider's join of the current components (a typed display name); when only components changed, name/full is re-derived with them only if the shadow's full was the derived one (Stalwart never re-derives it), and left alone when it was custom ("Müller, Hans").

Lossy calendar editors

Events.MUTATORS names the app that changed the event. Fossify Calendar re-inserts every attendee as a required attendee and rebuilds the RRULE from its own model (FREQ, INTERVAL, COUNT or UNTIL, one BYDAY or BYMONTHDAY=-1, BYMONTH). For an event it changed, attendee type and relationship changes are ignored, and a rule change is applied part by part onto the shadow's rule: parts Fossify models and changed are patched, parts it dropped stay.

Key reconciliation (downloads)

Stalwart keeps the keys a JMAP client wrote. Cards and events written over CardDAV/CalDAV, or received as invitations, have no stored keys, and Stalwart generates them on every read: k1…kN by position for card entries and alerts, uuid5 of the address/name/URL for participants, locations and links. Such keys shift when an entry is inserted before them. So before merging a new server version, the engine maps the shadow's keys to the new keys by content (equal entries first, then equal primary values) and renames the rows' keys; only the remainder counts as added or removed. The first JMAP write to such an object freezes its keys.

Merge rules

For a dirty row whose object also changed on the server (base = shadow, local = rows, remote = new server object), per unit:

Local changed?	Remote changed?	Result
no	no	nothing
no	yes	write remote, new baseline
yes	no	keep local, still dirty; uploads later against the new shadow
yes	yes, to the same value	converged; new baseline
yes	yes, differently	server wins: write remote, new baseline, conflicts += 1

"Remote changed" compares the mapped projection of base and remote, so a server change to a sub-field Android doesn't show is not a conflict: the upload patches only the paths the user changed and the server keeps its own.

Whole-object rules:

• Edit on the device + delete on the server → the server delete wins; the rows are deleted and counted as a conflict.
• Delete on the device + edit on the server → the device delete wins; the object is destroyed. A deletion is an explicit act; restoring the object would resurrect something the user removed.
• Delete on both → purge, no conflict.
• A server object whose uid differs from the shadow's is a different object: its rows are replaced, never patched.

Every download write into an existing item is guarded: the group asserts the DIRTY flag and VERSION (contacts) or projection (events) the plan was made from, and ops that address one row by id expect exactly one row. Exception rows are deleted by id only. A failed assert re-reads and re-plans the item (up to 3 times); after that the item goes on stale.

Uploads

Per JMAP account, in this order: pairs (below), creates, updates, deletions, then group memberships; in /set calls of at most maxObjectsInSet objects (creates: 50) and about 1 MB of JSON (Stalwart splits bigger calls into several commits, which can apply partially), one request in flight, and one sendSchedulingMessages value per call (it is a request-level flag).

• ifInState. Every /set carries ifInState = the item state the merge was based on (then the newState of our previous /set). A stateMismatch means the server changed since the download: the run downloads again and retries the upload, at most three times, then reports io without progress (SyncManager would otherwise retry at once, without back-off).
• Pairs. Some apps turn an edit into a delete plus an insert: Etar moves an event to another calendar that way, and turns a recurring series into a single event (or edits "this and following" from its first instance) the same way. A deleted row and a new row of the same run whose projections match apart from the calendar (or the rule) are uploaded as a patch of the existing object (calendarIds swapped; recurrenceRule: null with its overrides removed); the new row takes the identity and exceptions of the old one, which is purged. Across JMAP accounts a move is a create in the target account first, identity written, then a destroy in the source (the engine records its own destroys so the next download treats them as echoes). Unpaired rows are ordinary creates and deletions.
• New rows (see Identity for what counts as new):
  1. Claim: write the pending create (SYNC3 / SYNC_DATA3: the uid and the target collection; for events also UID_2445 and _SYNC_ID = ~pending/<uid>). A row keeps a uid it already carries unless another row, synced or pending, uses the same uid (a CONTENT_EXCEPTION_URI split clones UID_2445); a server object with that uid does not count, because it may be this row's own earlier create. The target is fixed at the claim: contacts go to the address book chosen in the settings if it is selected and writable, else the first selected writable book of the personal account (none → the item is poisoned with noWritableAddressBook); events go to the calendar of their row.
  2. Look the uid up: contacts in the target address book (card uids are unique per book), events in the whole account (event uids are unique per account). A hit is adopted: the row takes its identity and is merged as a dirty item.
  3. Otherwise create.
  4. invalidProperties on uid means the object exists: Stalwart's duplicate check is synchronous but the uid query reads an asynchronous search index, so a just-created object can be invisible to the query. The card error names the existing id; for events the lookup is retried with back-off and, failing that, left to the next run's download, which adopts the row by uid.
  5. From the /set to the identity write nothing is interruptible, and a create batch starts only with at least two request timeouts (60 s) of budget left.
• Exception rows (ORIGINAL_* set) upload only as recurrenceOverrides/<key> of their master, after the master's create when the master is new.
• Dirty rows: the patch from the changed units. An empty patch clears DIRTY without a request.
• Deleted rows (DELETED=1): an object that belongs to several collections loses only the selected memberships (addressBookIds/<id>: null / calendarIds/<id>: null) and is destroyed only when none would remain. Then the rows are purged with sync-adapter deletes (for events also their exceptions, by id: a sync-adapter delete removes only the row itself). notFound counts as done. A deleted row without identity but with a pending create is looked up first and destroyed if found.
• Afterwards: a /get of every touched id (a separate request for creates: Stalwart does not resolve result references to /set). The result becomes the new shadow, and the rows' baselines are refreshed from it, in one group per item that first asserts the VERSION/projection read before the upload and clears DIRTY. If the assert fails (edited again meanwhile), the shadow and identity are still written, the baselines of the uploaded units are set to the values that were uploaded, and DIRTY stays: the newer edit uploads next time, and so does a revert to the old value.
• SetErrors:
  • notFound on update → treated as a remote delete (the rows go);
  • forbidden in a call that asked for scheduling messages → the item is retried once without them and the report notes "invitations not sent" (Stalwart refuses scheduling when it is disabled, when the account has no calendar address, or without the scheduling permission); forbidden otherwise → the rows are rewritten from the shadow (read-only on the server after all);
  • stateMismatch → as above;
  • invalidProperties on uid → as above;
  • invalidProperties, invalidPatch, tooLarge, overQuota and the rest → the item is poisoned: its marker records a fingerprint of the patch and a back-off (1 h, doubling to 1 day). It is not retried until the back-off ends or the row changes, and the report lists it.

Deletion threshold

More than 50 local deletions of an authority in one run, and more than 20 % of that authority's synced objects, set tooManyDeletions unless the run carries overrideTooManyDeletions. Deletions inferred from absence (groups) count. No deletion of that run is uploaded; everything else proceeds. With discardLocalDeletions, the deleted rows are purged and, in the same batch, the affected JMAP accounts get a reconcile marker, so the next runs download the objects again whatever their extras.

Contacts mapping

JSContact (RFC 9553) as Stalwart stores it, to ContactsContract. Anything not listed is preserved through patching. Data rows are written with both the display name and the components (the provider recomputes whichever is missing), and every entry row stores its key(s) in DATA_SYNC1.

Name (StructuredName, one row, key name)

JSContact	Android
name.full	DISPLAY_NAME; when absent, deriveFullName(components) is written and full is not uploaded unless the user changes it
component title (also prefix)	PREFIX
component given	GIVEN_NAME
component given2 (also middle, additional)	MIDDLE_NAME
component surname (+ surname2, joined with a space)	FAMILY_NAME
component generation, credential (also suffix)	SUFFIX
component phonetic of given / given2 / surname	PHONETIC_GIVEN_NAME / PHONETIC_MIDDLE_NAME / PHONETIC_FAMILY_NAME

Upload: a changed column replaces the matching components (the first of their kind; surname2 is dropped only when FAMILY_NAME changed), keeps every other component (separators, repeats, unknown kinds) in place, and sends the whole name/components array (JSON Pointer can't address array elements). When name/full goes along is in row matching: a typed display name uploads; a recomputed one re-derives full only when the server's was derived too.

Entries

JSContact	Android kind	Columns
nicknames/<k>	Nickname	NAME, TYPE=DEFAULT
emails/<k>	Email	ADDRESS; TYPE from contexts: private→HOME, work→WORK, none→OTHER, label→CUSTOM+LABEL; pref=1→IS_PRIMARY
phones/<k>	Phone	NUMBER; TYPE from features + contexts (table below); label→CUSTOM+LABEL; pref=1→IS_PRIMARY
addresses/<k>	StructuredPostal	components → STREET, POBOX, NEIGHBORHOOD, CITY, REGION, POSTCODE, COUNTRY (table below), full→FORMATTED_ADDRESS; contexts → TYPE HOME/WORK/OTHER, label→CUSTOM
organizations/<k> + titles pointing at it	Organization	name→COMPANY, units joined with , →DEPARTMENT, title with kind: title→TITLE, title with kind: role→JOB_DESCRIPTION; key `organizations:
links/<k>	Website	URL ← uri; contexts private→HOME, work→WORK, else OTHER; label→CUSTOM
anniversaries/<k>	Event	START_DATE: YYYY-MM-DD, --MM-DD without year (partialDateToString); kind birth→BIRTHDAY, wedding→ANNIVERSARY, other→OTHER, anything else → CUSTOM + its kind as LABEL
relatedTo/<uri>	Relation	NAME ← the key (a urn:uuid: of a synced card shows that card's name), TYPE from the relation set (table below)
first entry of notes	Note	NOTE ← note
first media entry with kind: "photo"	Photo	full-size bytes into PHOTO; the provider scales them, stores the display photo and sets PHOTO_FILE_ID
group cards (kind: "group")	Groups	TITLE ← name.full; GROUP_VISIBLE=1; members keys are uids of the member cards
membership	GroupMembership	one row per group card whose members holds this card's uid (GROUP_SOURCE_ID)

Phone types (first match wins; reverse: the table read right to left, and TYPE_OTHER → no features):

Features / contexts	Phone.TYPE
mobile + work	WORK_MOBILE
mobile	MOBILE (read: also cell)
fax + work	FAX_WORK
fax + private	FAX_HOME
fax	OTHER_FAX
pager + work	WORK_PAGER
pager	PAGER
textphone	TTY_TDD
main-number	MAIN
work (voice)	WORK
private (voice)	HOME
anything else	OTHER

Postal components (reverse: an edited field replaces all components it was built from with one component of the first kind, keeps the rest):

Android	JSContact component kinds, joined in order
STREET	name (street), number, building, floor, apartment, room, block, direction, landmark (with separators)
POBOX	postOfficeBox
NEIGHBORHOOD	district, subdistrict
CITY	locality
REGION	region
POSTCODE	postcode
COUNTRY	country

Legacy flat address fields (street, locality, …) are read when there are no components and never written.

Relations: friend↔FRIEND, spouse↔SPOUSE, child↔CHILD, parent↔PARENT, sibling→RELATIVE, kin→RELATIVE, co-worker/colleague→CUSTOM with the type as label, agent→ASSISTANT, emergency→CUSTOM. Device types without an RFC 9553 equivalent (BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, FATHER, MANAGER, ASSISTANT, DOMESTIC_PARTNER, PARTNER, REFERRED_BY) upload as the nearest RFC type (sibling, parent, colleague, agent, spouse, spouse, contact) and are only sent when the user changed the type.

Deleting an entry resends its whole map (Stalwart turns map/key: null into a valueless vCard line or, for relatedTo, ignores it). Only addresses, members and keywords take a null delete cleanly.

Preserve-only (never written, never uploaded): speakToAs, preferredLanguages, cryptoKeys, directories, calendars, schedulingAddresses, onlineServices, keywords, personalInfo, localizations, language, notes after the first, media other than the first photo, and kind (an org card syncs like a person; group cards are groups). Device-only columns (STARRED, custom ringtone, send-to-voicemail, IS_SUPER_PRIMARY) never upload.

Photos: a data: URI is decoded; a blob-backed media entry is downloaded with the detached client. Upload: the display photo is read back, scaled to at most 512 px, JPEG, and sent as a data:image/jpeg;base64,… URI in media/<key>/uri, matching the app's picker. DATA_SYNC2 holds the hash of the server photo last applied, the baseline holds PHOTO_FILE_ID; a new file id means the user changed the photo. Photos travel in batches of their own (Binder budget).

Groups: created before memberships (a membership naming an unknown GROUP_SOURCE_ID makes the provider create an empty group). A group deleted on the device is found by DELETED, or by its absence from the rows while SyncState.groups still lists it (Fossify hard-deletes groups through a sync-adapter URI); both count toward the deletion threshold.

Calendar mapping

Calendar rows

JMAP Calendar	Android Calendars
id	_SYNC_ID = <jmapAccountId>/<id>
name	NAME, CALENDAR_DISPLAY_NAME (shared accounts append the account's name)
color	CALENDAR_COLOR (CSS color → ARGB; absent → the app's default palette colour)
myRights	CALENDAR_ACCESS_LEVEL: mayWriteAll → OWNER (700); mayWriteOwn → CONTRIBUTOR (500); mayRSVP → RESPOND (300); else READ (200); subscribed iCal feed → READ
the user's calendar address	OWNER_ACCOUNT (never null: Etar crashes on it)
timeZone	CALENDAR_TIME_ZONE (device zone when null)
—	SYNC_EVENTS=1 (the default 0 hides every instance), VISIBLE=1 on insert only (local afterwards), ALLOWED_REMINDERS="1,2", ALLOWED_AVAILABILITY="0,1", ALLOWED_ATTENDEE_TYPES="0,1,2,3", MAX_REMINDERS=5 (0 when Bulwark owns reminders), CAN_ORGANIZER_RESPOND=0, CAN_PARTIALLY_UPDATE=0

Not synced: the virtual birthday calendar (client-side only), calendars without mayReadItems, and task-only calendars: a calendar whose first 50 objects are all @type: "Task" (isTaskLikeObject), re-checked on each full reconcile.

Deleting a calendar row deletes its events (provider trigger); the engine first uploads the calendar's dirty events.

Timing

JSCalendar	Android
timed, timeZone set	DTSTART = instant of start in timeZone; EVENT_TIMEZONE = timeZone
floating (timeZone absent)	as timed, in the device zone; SyncState.deviceZone records it. When the device zone changes, clean floating events are rewritten so they keep their wall time
showWithoutTime	ALL_DAY=1, DTSTART = UTC midnight of the date, EVENT_TIMEZONE="UTC"
non-recurring	DTEND = start + duration (days nominal in the zone, the rest exact); DURATION null
recurring	DURATION = P<n>D (all-day) or P<seconds>S (timed), DTEND null
exception row	DTEND (the provider drops DURATION from exceptions)

Android's Duration parser takes [+-]P then <digits><W|D|H|M|S> (with M always minutes, no fractions, no Y); all-day durations must be P<n>D or the provider throws. Server durations are parsed in full (weeks included, P1W comes from CalDAV DTEND). A duration with a time part on an all-day event is rounded up to whole days on the device and never uploaded unless changed.

Upload of timing: only when a timing column differs from the baseline. The local start is recomputed in the event's zone (floating events stay floating, all-day events stay dates), and the duration from DTEND/DURATION with whole days nominal. EVENT_TIMEZONE must be an IANA id: an unknown id silently becomes GMT on Android, and makes the event floating on Stalwart; zones are validated with Intl before either write.

DST edges. Stalwart silently drops a start, an until or an override key whose local time falls in a DST gap or overlap of the zone. Checked on the local server: an event created at 2026-10-25T02:30 or 2026-03-29T02:30 Europe/Berlin comes back without start and timeZone, and a daily rule with until: 2026-10-25T02:30 comes back without until, i.e. unbounded. So before an upload:

• a local time in a gap moves forward by the gap (RFC 5545 semantics);
• a non-recurring event whose start falls in an overlap is sent in the fixed-offset zone of its instant (Etc/GMT-2 for 02:30 CEST; Etc/UTC when the offset is not a whole hour): same instant, same wall time, only the zone name changes;
• a recurring event whose start or an override key falls in an overlap is not uploaded: the item is poisoned with dstAmbiguous;
• an until in a gap or overlap moves one hour later.

Recurrence

JSCalendar	Android
recurrenceRule	RRULE: FREQ, INTERVAL (>1), COUNT, UNTIL (UTC …Z for timed events, YYYYMMDD for all-day), every BY* part, BYSETPOS, WKST (when not Monday)
rscale other than gregorian, skip, leap months (byMonth with L)	not representable: the rule is written without them, the event's timing and rule are never uploaded, and the item is marked ruleNotRepresentable
excludedRecurrenceRule	not supported by Stalwart; an EXRULE written by a device app is ignored
override {excluded: true}	EXDATE: comma list of UTC YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ, or YYYYMMDD for all-day (no prefix means UTC)
any other override, including {}	an exception row: master ⊕ override (applied as a PatchObject); ORIGINAL_SYNC_ID, ORIGINAL_INSTANCE_TIME = the key's instant in the master's zone, ORIGINAL_ALL_DAY; SYNC_DATA2 = the key
—	RDATE is never written

Why no RDATE: an infinite rule plus RDATE cannot be inserted (the provider tries to expand it to infinity), and RDATE-only events lose their DTSTART instance. An exception row whose original instance the rule does not generate simply shows as an extra event, which is what an extra JMAP instance is.

AOSP expands BYSETPOS only for monthly rules with BYDAY, and walks at most 2000 periods from DTSTART (a daily series older than about 5.5 years shows no instances); both are listed under limitations.

Device-side changes map back as follows:

On the device	Upload
exception row inserted (Etar "this event": ORIGINAL_SYNC_ID + ORIGINAL_INSTANCE_TIME, DIRTY=1) or edited	recurrenceOverrides/<key>; the key is ORIGINAL_INSTANCE_TIME in the master's zone (a date at midnight for all-day). A new override carries the master's title, locations, participants and sequence (Stalwart stores a bare override as a separate event otherwise); an existing one is patched one level deep (recurrenceOverrides/<key>/<property>), never deeper: Stalwart turns a deeper pointer into a partial override (other attendees vanish for that instance)
exception row with STATUS_CANCELED (Etar and Fossify "delete this event"), a deleted exception row, or an EXDATE added to the master	recurrenceOverrides/<key>: {excluded: true}
EXDATE removed	recurrenceOverrides/<key>: null
master RRULE capped with UNTIL/COUNT + a new event without identity (Etar "this and following")	recurrenceRule (whole object) with the new until/count, overrides after it removed (recurrenceOverrides/<key>: null), and the new event created with a fresh uid
master start moved (Etar "all events")	start/duration/timeZone, and every override key moved by the same local offset (overrides whose start equalled their old key move too), sent as the whole recurrenceOverrides map
two masters with the same _SYNC_ID (a CONTENT_EXCEPTION_URI split clones _SYNC_ID, SYNC_DATA* and UID_2445, and caps the old master's rule without DIRTY)	found before any merge or baseline heal: the newer row becomes a new event (fresh uid), the older master's current RRULE is uploaded
event moved to another calendar, or a series turned into a single event (Etar deletes and re-inserts both)	paired with the deleted row and uploaded as a patch of the same object (see Uploads)
an RSVP for one instance (Etar goes through CONTENT_EXCEPTION_URI)	the override's whole participants map with the user's new status

The first override of an event with none sends the whole recurrenceOverrides map (a patch below a missing property fails).

Other properties

JSCalendar	Android
title	TITLE (exception rows always carry the master's title: Fossify Calendar treats an exception with an empty title as deleted)
description	DESCRIPTION; descriptionContentType: text/html is written as plain text and uploaded only when edited, then as text/plain
first entry of locations (server order)	EVENT_LOCATION ← name; edit patches locations/<k>/name, a new one adds locations/<new>, clearing deletes the entry
status confirmed / tentative / cancelled	STATUS 1 / 0 / 2; absent → 1. Never NULL (the provider throws)
freeBusyStatus busy / free	AVAILABILITY 0 / 1; device TENTATIVE (2) uploads as busy
privacy absent / public / private / secret	ACCESS_LEVEL DEFAULT / PUBLIC / PRIVATE / CONFIDENTIAL
color	EVENT_COLOR (CSS name or #rrggbb → ARGB; upload #rrggbb); no Colors table in v1
participants with a mailto: calendarAddress	Attendees rows: ATTENDEE_EMAIL (the user's own address normalised to exactly OWNER_ACCOUNT: Android matches "me" case-sensitively), ATTENDEE_NAME, ATTENDEE_RELATIONSHIP (owner or organizer address → ORGANIZER, else ATTENDEE), ATTENDEE_TYPE (optional role → OPTIONAL, kind resource/location → RESOURCE, else REQUIRED), ATTENDEE_STATUS (accepted 1, declined 2, needs-action 3, tentative 4, delegated/other 0); participant ids stay in the shadow
organizerCalendarAddress	ORGANIZER when the event has participants; otherwise unset (the provider uses the owner, which keeps the event editable)
—	HAS_ATTENDEE_DATA=1; SELF_ATTENDEE_STATUS is never written (the provider derives it and throws on update)
alerts with an offset before start (relativeTo start or absent, offset ≤ 0)	Reminders: MINUTES = −offset, METHOD = EMAIL for action: email, else ALERT
alerts relative to the end, absolute alerts, offsets after the start	preserved, not shown
useDefaultAlerts: true	the calendar's defaultAlertsWithTime/WithoutTime become the reminders (as the app's own scheduler does); a device edit uploads useDefaultAlerts: false plus explicit alerts
uid	UID_2445
keywords, categories, priority, virtualLocations, links, relatedTo, sequence, locale, replyTo, locations after the first, participants without a mailto: address	preserved only

Attendees upload: the user's own RSVP (their attendee row's status) patches participants/<id>/participationStatus, with sendSchedulingMessages: true like the app's rsvpEvent; on an exception row it goes into the override's whole participants map. Added attendees get new participant keys with roles: {attendee: true}, participationStatus: needs-action and expectReply: true; removed ones are deleted (participants/<id>: null is clean on Stalwart).

Reminders upload: the representable alerts are replaced by the device's reminders, matched by (minutes, method) to keep existing alert keys; the others stay. Only when the reminder owner is the device calendar app (below).

Scheduling messages

Stalwart sends iTIP only when a /set asks for it (sendSchedulingMessages, default false), whereas CalDAV clients get implicit scheduling on every change. Device sync follows CalDAV's lead for changes a calendar app would notify about:

• the user is the organizer and the event has other participants: true when title, description, timing, rule, overrides, location, status or attendees changed, and on destroy (CANCEL); reminders, colour, availability and privacy alone send nothing;
• the user is an attendee: true for their own RSVP change and on destroy (Stalwart sends REPLY DECLINED); other edits are stored for the user only;
• events in the past: Stalwart sends nothing anyway.

Reminder owner

When calendar sync is turned on while calendarNotificationsEnabled is on, the app asks who should remind the user, per account:

• the calendar app (default when Bulwark's reminders are off): Reminders rows are written, and Bulwark's own scheduler skips events of the synced calendars of that account (tasks keep their reminders);
• Bulwark: no Reminders rows; MAX_REMINDERS=0 on the account's calendars so apps offer no reminder editor; reminder rows an app adds anyway are neither uploaded nor deleted.

Changing the choice first uploads pending reminder edits (a normal run), then rewrites the Reminders rows of that account's events together with their baselines, one group per event that asserts the projection it read; no server writes.

Headless payload, report and SyncResult

Payload (RunPayload in src/device-sync/types.ts): { runId, accountName, registryId, authority, extras: { manual, upload, expedited, ignoreBackoff, overrideTooManyDeletions, discardLocalDeletions }, deadline }; only booleans cross from the framework's extras.

Report (RunReport): { v: 1, runId, authority, outcome, message?, startedAt, durationMs, stats: { downloaded: {created, updated, deleted}, uploaded: {created, updated, deleted}, entries, skipped }, conflicts, itemErrors[], tooManyDeletions?: {count, threshold}, delayUntil?, moreRecordsToGet? }.

Outcome	Meaning	SyncResult (SyncReports.kt)
ok	synced; item errors may be listed	stats only
io	network or server trouble	numIoExceptions=1 (soft: back-off; at once if progress was made)
internal	an unexpected exception	as io
auth	credentials rejected after a rebuild	numAuthExceptions=1, no progress (hard)
permission	runtime permission missing	databaseError, no progress (hard)
unsupported	no capability	databaseError, no progress
safetyAbort	empty server, full device	databaseError, no progress
tooManyDeletions	above the threshold	tooManyDeletions=true, numDeletes = pending deletions (the system's notification offers "delete" and "undo")
cancelled	framework cancel or out of time	stats only
disabled	sync is off	nothing

delayUntil (a 429's Retry-After, epoch seconds) and moreRecordsToGet (→ fullSyncRequested) pass through. A run without a report is a soft error. The stats count only rows actually written and objects actually sent, so a run that repeated a page without writing anything is not "progress" to SyncManager. A change pushed while a run is active (SyncManager drops a requestSync that matches a running sync) flags the run; the adapter reads the flag after the run is closed and then sets fullSyncRequested.

Native module API

NativeModules.BulwarkDeviceSync (DeviceSyncNativeModule in types.ts). Large payloads cross as JSON strings, which the bridge moves far faster than nested maps. Every provider call is scoped to one account of our type.

Method	Does
getInfo()	{ accountType, sdkInt }
listAccounts()	our accounts with their registryId
ensureAccount(name, registryId)	adds the account (both authorities syncable, automatic off); true when created, false when it exists for the same registry id; rejects (conflict) when an account of that name belongs to another registry id
removeAccount(name)	removes it; the providers drop its rows
getSyncSettings(name)	master auto-sync, and per authority: syncable, automatic, periodic seconds, active, pending
setSyncEnabled(name, authority, on)	syncable = 1 and setSyncAutomatically
setPeriodicSync(name, authority, seconds)	replaces our periodic syncs (including the framework's default daily one); 0 removes them; the framework clamps to 15 min
requestSync(name, authority, optionsJson)	{manual, expedited, upload, overrideTooManyDeletions, discardLocalDeletions} as SYNC_EXTRAS_*; constant extras so repeated requests coalesce; flags an active run for fullSyncRequested
openAccountSettings(name)	the account's sync screen (android.settings.ACCOUNT_SYNC_SETTINGS with the Account), else SYNC_SETTINGS filtered to our type
finishRun(runId, reportJson) / isRunCancelled(runId)	the run handshake
setPushRoutes(json)	{ jmapAccountId: [{ accountName, authorities }] } for the push router, in SharedPreferences
showSyncProblem(name, title, text, uri, channelName) / clearSyncProblem(name)	the account's one sync-problem notification; a tap opens uri (bulwarkmobile:// only) in the app; channelName names the channel in the app's language
query(name, authority, queryJson)	ProviderQuery → ProviderRows
applyBatch(name, authority, opsJson)	ProviderOp[] → BatchResult; failures resolve as {ok: false, reason}
readSyncState(name, authority)	the SyncState blob as text
readPhoto(name, rawContactId, maxPx)	the display photo (or thumbnail), scaled, as JPEG base64 + file id

Provider calls run one at a time on a thread of the module's own (a batch can hold the provider for seconds at a contended yield point), through an unstable provider client, so a provider process that dies fails the call instead of this process. query, readSyncState and readPhoto reject with code scope, permission or provider.

Events: BulwarkDeviceSync:accountsChanged (an account of our type was added or removed; JS re-lists). Events without a JS listener are dropped, so they are hints; the UI re-reads state on mount and on foreground.

Scoping, enforced in Kotlin for every op (android/app/src/main/java/com/anonymous/bulwarkmobile/sync/ProviderScope.kt):

• URIs always carry caller_is_syncadapter=true, account_name, account_type (CalendarProvider accepts no other query parameters).
• Queries and updates/deletes by where get the account condition ANDed in:
  • account_name/account_type columns for raw_contacts, groups, settings, calendars and colors;
  • data rows are filtered by ContactsProvider itself through the account URI parameters (their account columns are never selected on: Android 17 drops them from the Data view for apps targeting API 37);
  • events get calendar_id IN the account's calendars (CalendarProvider updates events on the Events table, which has no account columns);
  • attendees, reminders and extended properties get event_id IN the account's events among those the op touches (resolved first; the providers may compile selections strictly, so no subqueries).
• Ops by id verify the row belongs to the account first (scope otherwise) and expect exactly one row unless they set expectCount, so a row that vanished fails with assert. id and where together address the id row if it matches. On attendees, reminders and extended properties the id column is table-qualified (Attendees._id), since CalendarProvider reads attendees through a join where a bare _id is ambiguous; the engine therefore never writes _id into a where there. Extended properties are updated through their item URI, so by id only.
• Inserts into data/attendees/reminders/extended_properties/events must name a parent (a back-reference to an insert of the same batch, or an id); an insert or update naming a parent, exception master (original_id) or group (data1 of a membership row) checks it: gone fails with assert (re-read and re-plan), another account's with scope. A back-reference must point to an earlier insert of the right table; settings inserts return no id.
• account_name/account_type/data_set may only be written to restate the account, on the tables that have them (scope otherwise).
• Tables are an enumerated set per authority; anything else is refused (scope).
• Blobs ({ b64 }) are only accepted for data.data15 (photos).
• A syncState op must be the last op of its batch and not yieldAllowed, so a provider yield never commits the state ahead of the rows (refused as scope otherwise).
• Batches: at most 499 ops up to and including each yield point (ContactsProvider counts an op before resetting at a yield point and throws at 500), about 300 KB per call; TransactionTooLargeException resolves as tooLarge so JS splits the batch. OperationApplicationException resolves as assert (except the provider's own "too many operations" and failed inserts, provider), SecurityException as permission. The whole batch is also refused (scope) once the Android account is gone, so no rows outlive it.

What the providers do with values, which the planners account for:

• contacts data1..data14 are TEXT columns: a number written there reads back as a string, so mappers normalise types before comparing;
• Events.dirty and Calendars.dirty are NULL after a sync-adapter insert: planners write dirty = 0 on every insert and select dirty rows with dirty = 1.

App integration

Store

src/stores/device-sync-store.ts, keyed by AccountEntry.id, persisted under device-sync:v1 with createPersistStorage({ writeDelayMs: 0 }) (not the 1-second delayed storage) and not part of the settings export. Per account: contactsSelection / calendarSelection (explicit choices only; unlisted collections follow the default: the personal account's on, shared accounts' off), newContactsAddressBook, reminderOwner, intervalSeconds per authority, the last RunStatus per authority, and removedInAndroidSettings. Whether sync is on is not stored: Android's getSyncAutomatically is the source of truth. Headless runs await hydration before any set() (zustand 5 writes on every set(), even before hydration, and would overwrite the stored preferences).

Settings sections

Android only (supportsDeviceSync in platform-capabilities.ts and the native module present). Settings → Contacts and Settings → Calendar each get a "Sync to this device" section with a row per signed-in account:

• an on/off switch (reflects getSyncAutomatically; "Paused in Android settings" when the account exists but the authority is off there; a hint when the device's master auto-sync is off);
• a chooser (sheet) for address books or calendars, with personal ones on and shared ones off by default, read-only ones marked, and a warning when another signed-in account already syncs the same shared collection;
• contacts: the address book for new contacts;
• calendar: who reminds you (calendar app or Bulwark);
• the interval: 15 min, 30 min, 1 h (default), 6 h, manual;
• "Sync now" (requestSync with manual + expedited);
• the last sync time and its result, or the error with an action ("Sign in again", "Grant access", "Review deletions");
• "Android account settings" (openAccountSettings).

Turning sync on asks for READ/WRITE_CONTACTS or READ/WRITE_CALENDAR after a rationale; denied → sync stays off and the section says why, with a link to the app's system settings when Android no longer asks.

Lifecycle

• Enable: permissions → ensureAccount → setSyncEnabled(true) → setPeriodicSync(interval) → requestSync(manual); push routes and push types are refreshed.
• Disable an authority: the engine's teardown runs under the run mutex: it uploads the authority's dirty, deleted and new items (bounded to 30 s; it is not a sync run, so the "disabled" preflight does not stop it), then deletes the authority's rows and SyncState. When items could not be uploaded (offline, errors), nothing is deleted and the app asks: "N changes made on this device haven't reached the server. Turn off anyway?" Only then setSyncEnabled(false); when both authorities are off the Android account is removed.
• Logout (auth-store.logout, logoutAll, removeAccount): the same as disabling both, before the credentials go, with the same question when changes would be lost.
• Registry evictions (the app drops an account on its own, e.g. after an AuthenticationError): reconciling Android accounts against the registry at every engine start and on foreground finds an Android account whose registry id is gone. It is not removed: automatic sync is turned off and one notification says how many device changes are waiting ("Sign in again"). Signing in again resumes it; removing it in the app or in Android Settings drops it. An empty or unreadable registry is never acted on.
• Account removed in Android Settings: detected by the accounts listener and on foreground; the store marks it, the switches show off, and the app does not recreate the account.
• Uninstall: Android removes the accounts of an uninstalled authenticator, and the providers delete their rows.
• Permission revoked: Android fails the sync before our code runs (databaseError), so the section checks the permission itself and shows "Grant access".

Triggers

• Periodic sync per the user's interval (default 1 h: push covers freshness).
• Device edits: the providers schedule upload syncs 30 s after any app write (supportsUploading).
• App running: SSE StateChange for AddressBook/ContactCard or Calendar/CalendarEvent on a synced account (onStateChangeType in state-change-bus.ts; the stream serves the active account), the app's own successful contact/calendar mutations (store actions), and returning to the foreground → requestSync for that authority, debounced 5 s. A StateChange whose state equals the one the engine last recorded is our own echo and is skipped.
• App closed: while an account has device sync on, its push subscription adds ContactCard, AddressBook (contacts) and CalendarEvent, Calendar (calendar) to EmailDelivery, per account. The relay forwards the StateChange's changed map verbatim (FCM data key changed; only its first account key is repeated as accountId). A native router in the FCM and UnifiedPush services walks every account key of changed, maps contact and calendar types to requestSync through the routes JS stored, and starts the mail push task only when some account's map has EmailDelivery. A guard at the top of pushBackgroundTask returns for StateChanges without EmailDelivery, so a contact change can never take the legacy "notify the newest unread mail" path.

Failure matrix

Failure	What happens	Recovery
No network	io → back-off (30 s ×2, max 1 h)	automatic
Network lost mid-upload	the /set may have applied: a create's row is adopted by uid on the next download or lookup, patches re-apply idempotently	automatic
Process killed mid-sync	no report: soft error; the state was only advanced with complete chunks	next run repeats the page; echo writes are no-ops
OAuth token expired	the client refreshes; a rotated token held by another client → rebuild once	automatic, else auth + notification
Password revoked	auth (hard, no retry) + "Sign in again"	user signs in; the next trigger syncs
Permission revoked	Android fails the sync (databaseError)	"Grant access" in settings
cannotCalculateChanges	full reconcile of that JMAP account	automatic
Server SetError on an item	notFound → local delete; forbidden with scheduling → retried without it ("invitations not sent"); forbidden → revert; others → poisoned with back-off, listed in the report	automatic / user fixes the item
stateMismatch	re-download, retry up to 3 times, then io without progress	automatic (back-off)
429	delayUntil = Retry-After	automatic
Too many local deletions	tooManyDeletions + system notification	user picks delete or undo
Empty server on a full reconcile	safetyAbort, device untouched	user checks the server; turning sync off and on starts over
Edit during an upload	clearing assert fails → DIRTY stays, shadow updated	next run uploads the newer edit
JS crash or reload mid-run	task ends without report → soft error	automatic
React fails to start (debug without Metro)	boot fault → soft error in ~2 s	automatic
Account removed in Settings	providers drop rows; app turns sync off	user turns it on again
Logout / turning sync off	pending changes uploaded first; if that fails the user is asked before anything is deleted	—
Provider refuses a batch (assert/tooLarge/provider)	per-item retry / split; an item that still fails goes on stale and blocks its uploads	automatic, or listed in the report
App drops the account from its registry (e.g. after an auth error)	Android account kept, sync off, notification with the number of waiting changes	user signs in again, or removes it
Rows written for another server or registry account (SyncState owner)	the run stops with internal	the app offers to start over after uploading what it can
DST-ambiguous start on a recurring event, unrepresentable rule	item poisoned with a reason; device shows it, never uploads its timing	limitation

Limits and performance

• JMAP: maxObjectsInGet/Set (500 on Stalwart), maxCallsInRequest (16), maxConcurrentRequests (4, shared with the UI: the engine keeps one request in flight), maxSizeRequest (10 MB; the engine targets 1 MB), queries of at most 5000 ids per call, /changes pages of 256 (Stalwart caps at 5000), cards and events of at most 512 KiB.
• Provider: ≤ 499 ops between yield points, ~300 KB per applyBatch, photos in their own batch; 50 raw contacts or 50 events per chunk.
• JS thread: a setTimeout(0) yield between chunks, so the UI keeps rendering when the app is open; JSON crosses the bridge as strings.
• Time: 9.5 min per run (2.5 min expedited), checkpoints between chunks, continuation through fullSyncRequested.

The 2,000 + 2,000 scale run is recorded in the parity notes when #34 closes.

Testing

• Pure units (vitest): mappers with golden fixtures, one field per test, and round-trip properties (server → rows → projection equals the server's mapped subset; unmapped data survives edits); RRULE, EXDATE, durations, time zones, floating, all-day, DST edges of rules, exceptions, splits, reminders, attendees; merge rules; the import-graph purity test.

• Engine (vitest): src/device-sync/__tests__/fakes/fake-provider.ts, an in-memory ProviderPort with DIRTY/DELETED/VERSION, soft/hard deletes, asserts, back-references, yield points and user-edit helpers (AOSP-style in-place edits and Fossify-style delete+reinsert); and a fake JMAP server for ContactCard/CalendarEvent/AddressBook/Calendar with /changes, cannotCalculateChanges, ifInState, SetError injection, the async uid index and Stalwart's key behaviour. Crash injection at every checkpoint; poison items; the deletion guards; echo suppression; an edit during upload.

• Kotlin (JUnit, gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest): report mapping, op and URI translation, scoping.

• Device (API 34 and 32 emulators, local Stalwart only): the scenario matrix in the #34 parity note, verified on three sides: the provider (adb shell content query …), the server (JMAP calls) and the apps' UI. Debug builds create accounts without UI:

  adb shell am broadcast -n com.anonymous.bulwarkmobile/.sync.DeviceSyncDebugReceiver \
    --es cmd ensure --es name <name> --es registry <AccountEntry.id> --es enable contacts,calendar
  adb shell requestsync -n <name> -t com.anonymous.bulwarkmobile.account -a com.android.contacts --manual
  

Decisions and limitations

Decisions made where the brief left a choice (safe defaults):

• Default reminder owner when Bulwark's reminders are off: the calendar app.
• Delete on the device + edit on the server: the delete wins.
• Deletion threshold: > 50 and > 20 % of the authority's objects.
• Full-reconcile safety: more than 10 device rows against an empty server.
• Turning a Contacts/Calendar toggle off in Android Settings pauses sync and keeps the data, like Google accounts; turning it off in the app also removes the data.
• Events that are only in unselected calendars, and cards only in unselected address books, are not on the device; an event in several calendars lives in the first selected one (by id), a move on the device patches only that membership, and a deletion removes only the selected memberships.
• A shared collection that another signed-in account already syncs gets a warning in the chooser, not a refusal.
• An app account dropped from the registry keeps its Android account (sync off) until the user signs in again or removes it: its device changes would otherwise be lost.
• The user's own address for "me" and OWNER_ACCOUNT: the session login when it is an email address, else the first identity's address; aliases from identities also count as "me".

Known limitations:

• Google Contacts may not show or edit third-party accounts (closed source; DAVx5 reports the same); AOSP-based and Fossify Contacts do.
• Fossify Contacts re-inserts rows on save: a field or entry it does not model (a second nickname or organization, a department, a label) is kept on the server, but an entry deleted or a field cleared in Fossify is not deleted or cleared on the server. Fossify Calendar's rule edits upload only in the parts its editor models.
• Android shows extra instances for BYSETPOS rules other than monthly-BYDAY, and none for a daily series older than about 5.5 years (AOSP's 2000-period expansion cap).
• Rules with rscale/skip/leap months: shown approximately, timing never uploaded. EXRULE is not supported by Stalwart.
• Recurring events whose start or override falls in a DST overlap cannot be uploaded (Stalwart drops ambiguous local times).
• A single occurrence that Stalwart holds only as an instance (no master) is shown but read-only.
• Moving an event to a calendar of another JMAP account uploads as a create in the target account and a destroy in the source (a new uid; participants are notified accordingly).
• Descriptions over 64 KB are shown truncated and are not uploaded when edited.
• A shared address book or calendar that two signed-in accounts can both see appears once per account when both sync it (each Android account holds its own copy).
• Floating events follow the device zone; alerts relative to the end, absolute alerts and alerts after the start are kept on the server but not shown.
• Photos travel as 512 px JPEG data: URIs; a larger original is replaced by its scaled copy only when the user changes the photo on the device.

Out of scope

Possible follow-ups:

• iOS. iOS has no third-party sync-provider API for Contacts or Calendar. The realistic route is a CalDAV/CardDAV configuration profile, which Stalwart already serves.
• Tasks through the OpenTasks provider.
• A contacts Directory provider for server-side search.
• Importing device-local contacts into Bulwark.
• An account-scoped Colors table so calendar apps can offer event colours.
• Re-basing old daily/hourly series past AOSP's 2000-period expansion cap.