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+# Session Lifecycle and State Ownership Specification
+
+**Spec ID:** OVOS-SESSION-2 · **Version:** 1 · **Status:** Draft
+
+This document defines **who owns session state**, **when it may be
+mutated**, **how it propagates between client and assistant**, and
+**how a conversation resumes** after arbitrary elapsed time or across
+an orchestrator restart.
+
+It is the lifecycle complement to OVOS-SESSION-1, which defines the
+wire shape of the `session` carrier and explicitly defers lifecycle to
+this specification. Where SESSION-1 fixes *what `session` looks like
+on the bus*, this specification fixes *who is allowed to mutate it,
+when, and how its state survives across utterances*.
+
+The central principle is **statelessness with one named exception**: the
+orchestrator holds no authoritative session state for any session except
+`session_id == "default"` (SESSION-1 §3.1), which the orchestrator
+fully owns. Every other session is **client-owned**. This makes
+conversations resumable after arbitrary elapsed time, lets an
+orchestrator restart without losing client continuity, and lets
+multiple orchestrators serve the same session without coordination.
+
+Dependencies:
+
+- **OVOS-MSG-1** — the Message envelope, `forward` / `reply` /
+  `response` derivations, and the asynchronous bus substrate.
+- **OVOS-SESSION-1** — the `session` JSON shape, field registry,
+  `session_id == "default"` reservation, and omission-not-null rule.
+- **OVOS-PIPELINE-1** — utterance lifecycle, `Match.updated_session`
+  channel, and the universal end-marker `ovos.utterance.handled`.
+- **OVOS-TRANSFORM-1** — the six transformer hooks that are normative
+  session-mutation boundaries per §2.6.
+
+The key words **MUST**, **MUST NOT**, **SHOULD**, **SHOULD NOT**,
+**MAY** are used as in RFC 2119.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Scope
+
+This specification defines:
+
+- the **state-ownership model** (§2) — who holds session state, when
+  it mutates, and what components SHOULD project vs hold internally;
+- **client-side merge rules** (§3) — how a client tracks session
+  updates from assistant-emitted Messages;
+- **resumption semantics** (§4) — what makes a conversation resumable
+  across arbitrary elapsed time or orchestrator restart;
+- the **default-session ownership rule** (§5) — the one exception to
+  statelessness;
+- **conformance** (§6) for the four roles: bus, orchestrator,
+  component, client.
+
+This specification does **not** define:
+
+- **the wire shape of `session`** — owned by OVOS-SESSION-1;
+- **semantics of any individual session field** — owned by the
+  field's claiming specification;
+- **persistence format** for client-held session state;
+- **session authentication or authorization** — a layer-2 concern
+  (OVOS-MSG-1 §3.4);
+- **cross-client session sharing** — routing policy is a layer-2
+  responsibility;
+- **session migration between orchestrators** — handled implicitly by
+  the §2.2 stateless rule;
+- **lifecycle observability events** (`ovos.session.start` / `.end`
+  or similar) — not required for correctness here.
+
+---
+
+## 2. The state-ownership model
+
+### 2.1 The bus is stateless transport
+
+The message bus **MUST NOT** interpret, persist, or mutate
+`Message.context.session`. A dropped, delayed, or duplicated Message
+has no effect on any party's session state beyond what that party reads
+off the Message.
+
+### 2.2 The orchestrator is stateless for named sessions
+
+For every `session_id` other than `"default"`, the orchestrator
+**MUST NOT** maintain authoritative session state across utterances.
+Each inbound Message brings its own session snapshot; the orchestrator
+processes it during the utterance lifecycle (PIPELINE-1 §6), mutating
+in place only at the permitted boundaries of §2.6, and emits the result
+on its response Messages. Between utterances on a named session the
+orchestrator holds no state for that session.
+
+The orchestrator **MAY** maintain a transient per-utterance cache (the
+inbound session, the active Match, etc.); such caches are
+utterance-scoped and **MUST NOT** be relied upon as durable across
+utterances.
+
+A consequence: any orchestrator in a deployment can serve any inbound
+Message on any named session — no coordination required, no shared
+state to consult.
+
+### 2.3 The orchestrator owns `session_id == "default"`
+
+The orchestrator **MUST** maintain persistent in-process state for
+`session_id == "default"` — the **default-session store**. This is the
+one exception to §2.2. Behaviour rules for this store are in §5.
+
+### 2.4 Project state into session when practical; plugin-internal state is permitted
+
+A component that holds `session_id`-keyed state **across** utterances
+**SHOULD** project that state into a session-resident field it claims
+under SESSION-1 §2.2. Projection flows through `Match.updated_session`
+(PIPELINE-1 §4.2) for pipeline plugins, or through in-place mutation
+at transformer and handler boundaries (§2.6). Projected state is
+**resumption-safe by construction** — it travels with the session,
+survives orchestrator restart, and is transparent to multi-orchestrator
+deployments.
+
+A component **MAY** instead hold authoritative cross-utterance state
+internally when projection is impractical. A component that takes this
+path:
+
+- **MUST** own its state lifecycle in full — persistence (or not),
+  expiry, eviction, and any coordination the deployment requires;
+- **MUST NOT** expect other components or clients to know its state
+  exists or to compensate for its absence;
+- offers **best-effort resumption with no normative guarantee** — the
+  spec does not bind the outcome of any plugin-internal resumption
+  attempt.
+
+Transient in-utterance caches (helper structures built and discarded
+within a single `match` call or transformer invocation) are always
+permitted regardless of projection choice.
+
+### 2.5 Clients own their named sessions
+
+A client that uses a named `session_id` (anything other than
+`"default"`) **MUST** be its own authoritative store for that session's
+state. Persistence format and lifetime are entirely the client's
+choice. The spec places no constraint on what `session_id` or `session`
+value a client sends; trust boundaries are a layer-2 concern.
+
+### 2.6 When session mutates in place
+
+In-place session mutation during an utterance lifecycle is permitted
+only at these boundaries:
+
+- **transformer boundaries** — any of OVOS-TRANSFORM-1's six hooks
+  (audio, utterance, metadata, intent, dialog, TTS);
+- **pipeline boundaries** — a pipeline plugin's `match` returning a
+  non-null `Match.updated_session` per PIPELINE-1 §4.2; the
+  orchestrator **MUST** apply it as `session = match.updated_session`
+  immediately;
+- **handler boundaries** — a dispatched handler **MAY** mutate
+  session in place; its emissions via `forward` / `reply` / `response`
+  (OVOS-MSG-1 §5) carry the mutated session forward.
+
+Bus events emitted outside these boundaries **MUST NOT** be relied upon
+to mutate session state during the current utterance. A bus-emitted
+Message carrying a mutated session **MAY** affect subsequent utterances
+on that session (merged by the client per §3), but **MUST NOT** be
+expected to affect the utterance during which it was emitted.
+
+---
+
+## 3. Client-side merge rules
+
+### 3.1 `session_id` is the only key
+
+A client **MAY** update its local session tracking from any Message it
+observes carrying a `session_id` matching its own. No other matching
+predicate is normative.
+
+### 3.2 Every assistant-emitted Message carries an updated session
+
+Per PIPELINE-1 §4.2 and §5, every assistant-emitted Message carries a
+valid session snapshot at the point of emission. A client that adopts
+any one such Message's session has a snapshot consistent with the
+assistant's view at that point in the round. Adopting the latest
+received session is the simplest conformant policy.
+
+### 3.3 `ovos.utterance.handled` is the canonical convergence point
+
+`ovos.utterance.handled` (PIPELINE-1 §9) is emitted exactly once per
+utterance on every terminal path. A client that wants a single
+"round is over" snapshot **SHOULD** adopt the session carried by this
+end-marker. A client **MAY** also merge incrementally per §3.1; both
+are conformant.
+
+---
+
+## 4. Resumption semantics
+
+### 4.1 Resumption is implicit
+
+A client **MAY** re-emit a previously-used `session_id` with its
+locally-held session state at any time. There is no session-resume
+handshake on the wire: the inbound Message's session IS the resume.
+The orchestrator processes it per §2.2 — stateless, without knowledge
+of prior utterances.
+
+### 4.2 What is resumption-safe
+
+Resumption-safe state is every field in the SESSION-1 §3 registry, plus
+the projected state of any component that elected §2.4's
+SHOULD-project pathway (by construction, since it lives in
+session-resident fields).
+
+Resumption is field-by-field: omitted fields resolve to deployment
+defaults at the consumer (SESSION-1 §2.1). A client that resumes
+without, for example, `intent_context` enters with a fresh context but
+retains every other present field.
+
+### 4.3 Plugin-internal state — best-effort resumption
+
+State held internally by a component per §2.4's MAY-internal pathway
+is governed by the holding component alone. The spec defines no
+protocol for plugin-internal state resumption; the plugin chooses what
+to persist and what "resume" means for its own state.
+
+---
+
+## 5. The default-session ownership rule
+
+### 5.1 Persistent orchestrator-held state
+
+The orchestrator **MUST** maintain a **default-session store** — persistent
+in-process state keyed under `session_id == "default"`. The store:
+
+- **merges inbound fields**: a present field on an arriving
+  `session_id == "default"` Message replaces the stored value for that
+  field; an omitted field leaves the stored value unchanged (SESSION-1
+  §2.1 — the stored value is the last authoritative value);
+- **sources outbound sessions**: every Message the orchestrator emits
+  on the default session derives from the current store, so dispatched
+  handlers see the most-recent default-session state;
+- **reflects in-utterance mutations**: transformer, pipeline-match, and
+  handler mutations (§2.6) propagate into the store through the
+  standard derivation chain.
+
+### 5.2 Restart semantics
+
+The default-session store is process-local. An orchestrator restart
+discards it; the default session reverts to deployment defaults.
+Deployments that want persistence across restarts **MAY** implement
+orchestrator-side persistence; the spec does not require it.
+
+### 5.3 Component reliance on default-session continuity
+
+Components **MAY** rely on default-session continuity within a single
+deployment lifetime: a §2.4-projected field is preserved across
+utterances because the orchestrator's store holds it. For named
+sessions the same field is preserved only as long as the client holds
+it locally — best-effort on remote peers.
+
+---
+
+## 6. Conformance
+
+### 6.1 Bus
+
+The bus **MUST** be stateless with respect to session. It **MUST NOT**
+interpret, mutate, persist, or special-case `Message.context.session`.
+
+### 6.2 Orchestrator
+
+An orchestrator **MUST**:
+
+- treat every named session (`session_id != "default"`) as stateless
+  per §2.2 — no cross-utterance state held outside what the inbound
+  Message brings;
+- hold the default session as persistent in-process state per §5;
+- apply in-place session mutations only at the boundaries of §2.6
+  (transformer, pipeline-match, handler);
+- propagate session forward unchanged on every Message derivation
+  (OVOS-MSG-1 §5, SESSION-1 §4) except where §2.6 dictates mutation;
+- emit `ovos.utterance.handled` carrying the final round session as the
+  canonical convergence point (PIPELINE-1 §9, §3.3 above).
+
+An orchestrator **MUST NOT** require any session-start, session-end, or
+session-id-allocation handshake before processing an inbound Message.
+
+### 6.3 Component
+
+A component that holds `session_id`-keyed state across utterances
+**SHOULD**:
+
+- project that state into a session-resident field it claims under
+  SESSION-1 §2.2, via `Match.updated_session` (pipeline plugins) or
+  in-place mutation (transformers and handlers) per §2.6;
+- read its state from `session` on each inbound Message rather than
+  from a cross-utterance internal store.
+
+A component **MAY** instead hold cross-utterance state internally per
+§2.4 and **MUST** then take full responsibility for state lifecycle and
+accept best-effort resumption (§4.3).
+
+A component **MUST NOT** rely on bus events fired outside the utterance
+lifecycle to mutate session state during the current utterance.
+
+### 6.4 Client
+
+A client using a named `session_id` **MUST**:
+
+- hold its own authoritative session state for the `session_id` values
+  it uses, per §2.5;
+- include that state in `Message.context.session` on every inbound
+  Message it emits;
+- **NOT** expect the orchestrator to remember any session state between
+  rounds — every round **MUST** be self-sufficient via the inbound
+  session.
+
+A client using `session_id == "default"` (the local device) **MAY**
+omit `Message.context.session` or emit `session: {}` and rely on the
+orchestrator's stored state — the only case this spec recognises where
+a client need not carry its own authoritative state, because the
+orchestrator's default-session store is that state.
+
+A client **MAY** update its local session per §3, choose any
+persistence format and lifetime, and re-emit a previously-used
+`session_id` at any time (§4).