Add RocksDB action backed by a RocksDB HTTP service

[Paul Lizer (paullizer)]

Summary

Adds a new rocksdb action type so agents can query an ordered RocksDB key-value store, with its own configuration card and Test Connection button in the action modal — similar in shape to the existing SQL and Cosmos actions.

RocksDB is an embedded C++ library with no native network protocol. SimpleChat does not run RocksDB locally and never opens a database directory on the application host. Instead, the action calls a RocksDB-backed HTTP/JSON service that the operator runs alongside their data.

Agent
  └── RocksDbPlugin
        └── requests ──► RocksDB HTTP/JSON service ──► RocksDB database

Agent functions

Reads are always available:

get_value · get_values · key_exists · scan_prefix · scan_range · list_column_families · get_database_stats

Writes (put_value, delete_value, write_batch) are refused unless the action explicitly allows them, matching the read-only default of the SQL action. While read-only they never issue a request.

Configuration

Field	Notes
Service Base URL	Required; http/https only
Authentication Scheme	none, bearer, or api_key (configurable header name)
Verify TLS Certificate	Defaults to on
Column Family	Defaults to default
Read-Only	Defaults to on
Key / Value Encoding	utf8, base64, and json for values
Key Prefix Hints	Surfaced to the model to focus its scans
Max Results / Max Value Bytes / Timeout	Bounded caps

The configured encodings are sent with every service request so the service knows the wire representation of keys and values. The service token lives in auth.key, so existing Key Vault storage and masked-edit flows apply unchanged — no plugin.schema.json change needed.

Security

• No local filesystem exposure and no path-traversal surface, since SimpleChat never opens a database directory.
• POST /api/plugins/test-rocksdb-connection sits on the bpap blueprint with @swagger_route(security=get_auth_security()) → @login_required → @user_required.
• Base URLs restricted to http/https.
• Service failures report the HTTP status code only — response bodies are never echoed to the browser or the model.
• Oversized values are truncated with an explicit value_truncated flag plus the original value_bytes, so one record cannot flood the model context.

Service contract

The plugin speaks a documented SimpleChat contract: /health, /get, /multi_get, /exists, /scan, /column_families, /stats, /put, /delete, /batch. Range semantics (inclusive start, exclusive end, reverse, clamped limit) are specified in the feature doc so operators can implement a conforming service. The Test Connection button probes GET /health and falls back to POST /scan with {"limit": 1} when /health returns 404.

Validation

Suite	Result
functional_tests/test_rocksdb_plugin.py	10/10
functional_tests/route_tests/	12/12
functional_tests/test_cosmos_query_plugin.py (regression)	4/4
functional_tests/test_yamcs_action_plugin.py (post-merge regression)	14/14
functional_tests/test_agent_modal_instructions_step_order.py (post-merge regression)	6/6
ui_tests/test_workspace_rocksdb_action_modal.py	3 collected, env-gated skip per repo convention
Playwright DOM pass over the action modal	0 console errors

I drove the real modal in a headless browser rather than only parsing the JS. That caught two genuine bugs, both fixed here:

1. The summary card displayed the un-normalized base URL (trailing slash) while the saved endpoint stripped it.
2. "bad block" was misclassified as a lock error because block contains lock.

After merging Development I re-ran the DOM pass to confirm the RocksDB and Yamcs sections both still switch, configure, and post correctly.

Files

New

• application/single_app/semantic_kernel_plugins/rocksdb_plugin.py
• application/single_app/static/json/schemas/rocksdb.definition.json
• functional_tests/test_rocksdb_plugin.py
• ui_tests/test_workspace_rocksdb_action_modal.py
• docs/explanation/features/v0.250.215/ROCKSDB_ACTION.md

Modified

• route_backend_plugins.py — test-connection route and action type card
• semantic_kernel_plugins/plugin_health_checker.py — manifest validation
• templates/_plugin_modal.html — config section, summary card, CSS with dark theme
• static/js/plugin_modal_stepper.js — full type wiring
• static/js/workspace/view-utils.js — action type icon
• config.py (VERSION → 0.250.215), release notes, features index, logging tags

Review notes

Commit history. The first commit added the action with both an embedded mode (via the rocksdict binding, gated by a ROCKSDB_ALLOWED_ROOTS path allowlist) and the remote mode. The second commit removes embedded support entirely per the decision not to run RocksDB on the app host — dropping the rocksdict dependency, the allowlist env var, the embedded manifest fields, and the connection-mode selector. Two later commits merge Development. Reviewing the squashed diff is by far the clearest view.

Merge conflicts. Development shipped the Yamcs action, which touches the same action-type integration points, so the automatic merge interleaved the two features. They were resolved to keep both side by side: separate routes, separate method blocks, and merged isStructuredConfigType / summary-type conditions covering isRocksDbType and isYamcsType. The net diff against Development is +2852/−6, and every one of those 6 deleted lines is either the version bump, a trailing-whitespace line, or a condition that gains isRocksDbType while keeping isYamcsType. No Development code was lost.

Known limitations

• The action depends on a RocksDB HTTP service that you operate; SimpleChat does not ship one.
• The contract is SimpleChat-defined, so an existing RocksDB proxy will usually need a thin adapter.
• Results are capped per call, so very large scans must be paged by the agent using narrower prefixes or range bounds.

Follow-up

No GitHub issue is currently linked — happy to file one if you would like this tracked.