Add clientOnly mode to prevent clients from auto-starting servers and improve registration/reconnect behavior
- Introduce a clientOnly option on transports and clients, and support SMARTIPC_CLIENT_ONLY=1 env override to prevent a client from auto-starting a server when connect() encounters ECONNREFUSED/ENOENT.
- Update UnixSocketTransport/TcpTransport connect behavior: if clientOnly (or env override) is enabled, reject connect with a descriptive error instead of starting a server (preserves backward compatibility when disabled).
- Make SmartIpc.waitForServer use clientOnly probing to avoid accidental server creation during readiness checks.
- Refactor IpcClient registration flow: extract attemptRegistrationInternal, set didRegisterOnce flag, and automatically re-register on reconnects when previously registered.
- Add and update tests to cover clientOnly behavior, SMARTIPC_CLIENT_ONLY env enforcement, temporary socket paths and automatic cleanup, and other reliability improvements.
- Update README with a new 'Client-Only Mode' section documenting the option, env override, and examples.
Improve heartbeat handling and transport routing; forward heartbeat timeout events; include clientId routing and probe improvements
- IpcChannel: add heartbeatInitialGracePeriod handling — delay heartbeat timeout checks until the grace period elapses and use a minimum check interval (>= 1000ms)
- IpcChannel: add heartbeatGraceTimer and ensure stopHeartbeat clears the grace timer to avoid repeated events
- IpcChannel / Client / Server: forward heartbeatTimeout events instead of only throwing when configured (heartbeatThrowOnTimeout = false) so consumers can handle timeouts via events
- IpcClient: include clientId in registration request headers to enable proper routing on the server/transport side
- UnixSocketTransport: track socket <-> clientId mappings, clean them up on socket close, and update mappings when __register__ or messages containing clientId are received
- UnixSocketTransport: route messages to a specific client when headers.clientId is present (fallback to broadcasting when no target is found), and emit both clientMessage and message for parsed client messages
- ts/index.waitForServer: use SmartIpc.createClient for probing, shorten probe register timeout, and use a slightly longer retry delay between probes for stability
Add heartbeat grace/timeout options, client retry/wait-for-ready, server readiness and socket cleanup, transport socket options, helper utilities, and tests
- IpcChannel: add heartbeatInitialGracePeriodMs and heartbeatThrowOnTimeout; emit 'heartbeatTimeout' event when configured instead of throwing and disconnecting immediately.
- IpcClient: add connectRetry configuration, registerTimeoutMs, waitForReady option and robust connect logic with exponential backoff and total timeout handling.
- IpcServer: add start option readyWhen ('accepting'), isReady/getIsReady API, autoCleanupSocketFile and socketMode support for managing stale socket files and permissions.
- Transports: support autoCleanupSocketFile and socketMode (cleanup stale socket files and set socket permissions where applicable).
- SmartIpc: add waitForServer helper to wait until a server is ready and spawnAndConnect helper to spawn a server process and connect a client.
- Tests: add comprehensive tests (test.improvements.ts and test.reliability.ts) covering readiness, socket cleanup, retries, heartbeat behavior, race conditions, multiple clients, and server restart scenarios.
Refactor core IPC: replace node-ipc with native transports and add IpcChannel / IpcServer / IpcClient with heartbeat, reconnection, request/response and pub/sub. Update tests and documentation.
- Replaced node-ipc with native Node.js transports (net module) and length-prefixed framing
- Added transport abstraction (IpcTransport) and implementations: UnixSocketTransport, NamedPipeTransport, TcpTransport plus createTransport factory
- Introduced IpcChannel with automatic reconnection (exponential backoff), heartbeat, request/response tracking, pending request timeouts and metrics
- Implemented IpcServer and IpcClient classes with client registration, pub/sub (subscribe/publish), broadcast, targeted messaging, client management and idle timeout handling
- Exported factory API via SmartIpc.createServer / createClient / createChannel and updated ts/index accordingly
- Updated and expanded README with usage, examples, advanced features and migration guidance; added readme.plan.md
- Added and updated comprehensive tests (test/test.ts, test/test.simple.ts) to cover TCP transport, messaging patterns, reconnection and metrics
## 2025-08-23 - 1.0.8 - chore
Metadata and configuration updates; repository/org migration.
- Update package description and general project metadata.
- 1.0.2 → 1.0.7: a sequence of small core fixes and maintenance updates (repeated "fix(core): update" commits).
## 2025-08-29 - 2.1.4 - feat(transports)
Add client-only mode to prevent unintended server auto-start in Unix/NamedPipe transports; safer probing
- Add `clientOnly?: boolean` to transport options; when true (or `SMARTIPC_CLIENT_ONLY=1`), a client will fail fast on `ECONNREFUSED`/`ENOENT` instead of auto-starting a server.
- Update `SmartIpc.waitForServer()` to probe with `clientOnly: true` to avoid races during readiness checks.
- Extend tests to cover option and env override; update core test to use unique socket path and auto-cleanup.
