Functions

Registering and invoking functions in your iii project.

Register a function

Inside a worker, worker.registerFunction(id, handler) makes a function callable from anywhere in the iii system. The id follows the service::name form; the handler receives the call’s payload and returns the result.

Node / TypeScript

import { registerWorker } from "iii-sdk";

const url = process.env.III_URL;
if (!url) throw new Error("III_URL must be set");
const worker = registerWorker(url);

worker.registerFunction("math::add", async (payload: { a: number; b: number }) => {
  return { c: payload.a + payload.b };
});

Python

import os
from iii import register_worker, InitOptions

worker = register_worker(
    os.environ.get("III_URL"),
    InitOptions(worker_name="math-worker"),
)

def add_handler(payload: dict) -> dict:
    return {"c": payload["a"] + payload["b"]}

worker.register_function("math::add", add_handler)

Rust

use iii_sdk::{InitOptions, RegisterFunction, register_worker};

let url = std::env::var("III_URL").expect("III_URL must be set");
let worker = register_worker(&url, InitOptions::default());

worker.register_function(RegisterFunction::new("math::add", |input: AddInput| {
    Ok(serde_json::json!({ "c": input.a + input.b }))
}));

Invoking functions

A function runs when a trigger fires. The same function can be invoked from many trigger types at once: direct CLI calls (iii trigger), in-process SDK calls (worker.trigger), or bindings to event-source workers like iii-http, iii-cron, iii-queue, iii-state, and iii-stream. All paths leave the handler unchanged.

The two most common ways to invoke a function directly are from worker code with worker.trigger or from the terminal with iii trigger:

Node / TypeScript

const result = await worker.trigger({
  function_id: "math::add",
  payload: { a: 2, b: 3 },
});

Python

result = worker.trigger({
    "function_id": "math::add",
    "payload": {"a": 2, "b": 3},
})

Rust

use iii_sdk::TriggerRequest;
use serde_json::json;

let result = worker
    .trigger(TriggerRequest {
        function_id: "math::add".into(),
        payload: json!({ "a": 2, "b": 3 }),
        action: None,
        timeout_ms: None,
    })
    .await?;

CLI

iii trigger math::add a=2 b=3

Both calls are synchronous by default; they wait for the function to return. For fire-and-forget (TriggerAction.Void), queue-routed delivery (TriggerAction.Enqueue), per-worker custom actions, condition gating, and binding to event-source triggers, see Triggers / Call a function directly.

Define request and response formats

Functions can carry JSON Schemas for their request payload and response shape. The schemas are stored with the function and feed the iii console and the agent-readable skills.

For how to attach schemas when registering a function, see Creating Workers / Functions.

Common functions

A handful of functions ship with the iii engine and the standard workers. You’ll likely call them from almost every iii project. They look like any function you’d register yourself and are invoked the same way (via iii trigger or worker.trigger). The only thing special about them is that you didn’t have to register them.

Engine functions (engine::*)

The engine itself registers a small set of introspection and lifecycle functions. Full request and response schemas are in the engine protocol reference.

Function	What it does
engine::functions::list	List every registered function. Pass { include_internal: true } to include engine internals.
engine::workers::list	List every connected worker with its metrics. Pass { worker_id: "<uuid>" } to look one up.
engine::triggers::list	List every registered trigger binding.
engine::trigger-types::list	List every advertised trigger type along with its config and call-request schemas.
engine::channels::create	Allocate a streaming channel reader / writer pair. The SDK wraps this as worker.createChannel(); rarely called directly.
engine::workers::register	Publish the calling worker’s metadata (runtime, version, OS, PID). The SDK calls this automatically on connect.

The engine also publishes two subscription triggers in the same family. Bind a function to one of these to react to the registry changing:

Trigger	Fires when
engine::functions-available	A function is registered or unregistered.
engine::workers-available	A worker connects or disconnects.

Common workers

Each of these is published by a separate worker. Function ids, payload shapes, and per-function behaviour are in the worker’s own docs at workers.iii.dev:

• State: KV-style state with scoped namespaces and reactive triggers on create/update/delete. See iii-state.
• Stream: Real-time push to connected clients over WebSocket. See iii-stream.
• Queue: Durable, ordered job processing with retries, concurrency limits, and a dead-letter queue. See iii-queue.
• Pub/Sub: Lightweight in-engine topic subscription for fan-out without durability guarantees. See iii-pubsub.
• Observability: Traces, logs, metrics, alerts, sampling rules, and rollups. See iii-observability.