[Epic] Declarative CDK: Add Fetch/Create/Update via SimpleBidirectionalRetriever


## Summary / Motivation

We're proposing extending the Python CDK declarative framework beyond list-only reads to support **fetch** (GET single record), **create** (POST), **update** (PATCH/POST), **replace** (PUT), and **delete** operations. The goal is to enable bidirectional sync capabilities while maintaining the declarative, low-code nature of the CDK.

The new `SimpleBidirectionalRetriever` component will provide a DRY configuration that shares authentication, base URL, error handling, headers, and response parsing across all operations. This allows connector builders to define write operations declaratively without custom Python code.

We'll ship incrementally across phases, starting with read-only fetch operations and progressing to write operations. The design leverages **standard operation profiles** (e.g., `REST_CRUDL_POST_1999`, `REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010`) that provide sensible defaults for conventional REST APIs, requiring minimal configuration for most connectors.

**Key Design Win:** Apart from selecting the profile, connectors need **zero additional config** to add read_one (Phase 1), create_one (Phase 2), update_one/delete_one (Phase 3) functionality. Only non-standard operations (like `replace_one: False` for Stripe) require explicit configuration.

---

## Scope

### In Scope
- New retriever type: `SimpleBidirectionalRetriever`
- Standard operation profiles: `REST_CRUDL_POST_1999` (POST for updates), `REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010` (PATCH for updates)
- Operations: `read_many`, `read_one`, `create_one`, `update_one`, `replace_one`, `delete_one`
- Bulk operation fallbacks: `create_many`, `update_many`, `delete_many`, `replace_many` (fall back to sequential single operations)
- CLI subcommands: `source-declarative-manifest fetch` (Phase 1), write operations via stdin (Phase 2+)
- Catalog `record_filters` with list-of-lists-of-maps semantics (outer list = OR slices, inner list = AND conditions)
- Per-operation configuration overrides (path, method, body, extractor)
- Optional response parsing for write operations (default: parse and verify)

### Out of Scope (for now)
- Search/filter as distinct operation (will be integrated as list operation capabilities)
- Stripe `/customers/search` endpoint (reserved config space but deferred)
- Airbyte protocol changes (Phase 2+ use CLI-specific stdin JSONL envelope)
- Optimistic concurrency (ETag/If-Match headers) - planned for future enhancement

---

## Phases and Acceptance Criteria

### Phase 1a: Fetch (No Credentials)
**Target APIs:** JSONPlaceholder, Pokémon TCG  
**Goal:** Prove fetch operations work with auth-less APIs

**Configuration needed:**
```yaml
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999  # or REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010
# That's it! read_one inherits GET /collection/{id} from profile
```

**CLI:**
```bash
source-declarative-manifest fetch --config config.json --catalog configured_catalog.json
```

**Catalog `record_filters` format:**
```jsonc
{
  "streams": [{
    "stream": {"name": "posts", "primary_key": ["id"]},
    "record_filters": [
      [{"id": "1"}],     // Fetch post with id=1
      [{"id": "2"}],     // Fetch post with id=2
      [{"id": "100"}]    // Fetch post with id=100
    ]
  }]
}
```

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Supports single and multiple IDs via `record_filters`
- [ ] Handles non-array responses via `field_path: []` (single object)
- [ ] Works with composite primary keys (AND within inner list)
- [ ] Unit and integration tests on JSONPlaceholder and Pokémon TCG
- [ ] Error handling for 404s and invalid IDs

---

### Phase 1b: Fetch (With Credentials)
**Target APIs:** Stripe customers, GitHub issues  
**Goal:** Prove fetch works with authenticated APIs using existing declarative auth

**Configuration needed:**
```yaml
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999
# Zero additional config needed - auth inherited from base_requester
```

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Auth via existing declarative authenticator blocks (Bearer, OAuth, API Key)
- [ ] Stripe: Verify DRY sharing of `base_requester` config with list operation
- [ ] GitHub: Demonstrate parity (note: GitHub connector is Python-based, not manifest-based)
- [ ] Integration tests with test credentials

---

### Phase 2: Create (POST)
**Input format:** stdin JSONL envelope
```json
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "create", "record": {"email": "test@example.com", "name": "Test User"}}
```

**Configuration needed:**
```yaml
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999
# Zero additional config needed - POST /collection inherited from profile
```

**CLI:**
```bash
cat records.jsonl | source-declarative-manifest write --config config.json --catalog catalog.json
```

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Send full record body by default (configurable JSON vs form-encoded)
- [ ] 2xx status codes treated as success
- [ ] Response parsed by default to retrieve generated ID and confirm field values
- [ ] Stripe: Support both JSON (`request_body_json`) and form-encoded (`request_body_data`)
- [ ] Error handling for validation failures (4xx responses)
- [ ] Dry-run mode (optional `--dry-run` flag)

---

### Phase 3: Update (PATCH/POST) and Delete
**Input format:** stdin JSONL envelope
```json
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "update", "record": {"id": "cus_123", "email": "updated@example.com"}}
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "delete", "record": {"id": "cus_123"}}
```

**Configuration needed:**
```yaml
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999  # Uses POST for updates
# or
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010  # Uses PATCH for updates

# Zero additional config needed - methods inherited from profile
```

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Default PATCH method works for `REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010` profile
- [ ] Default POST method works for `REST_CRUDL_POST_1999` profile (Stripe, older APIs)
- [ ] Per-stream override of method for non-standard APIs
- [ ] Response parsed by default to confirm update
- [ ] Handles partial updates (only changed fields in body)
- [ ] DELETE operations return success on 204 No Content
- [ ] Error handling for 404s (record not found) and 409s (conflicts)

---

### Phase 4+: Replace and Bulk Operations
**Configuration needed:**
```yaml
standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999
standard_operations_subset: [read, create, update, delete]  # Omit 'replace'

# Stripe doesn't support PUT full replacement
# CDK will fall back to read_one+update_one when replace is requested
```

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] `replace_one` uses PUT by default (from profile)
- [ ] Fallback to read_one + update_one when `replace_one: False`
- [ ] Bulk operations (`create_many`, `update_many`, `delete_many`) fall back to sequential single operations
- [ ] Document race condition risks for emulated replace operations

---

## Design: SimpleBidirectionalRetriever

### Final YAML Design (from PR)

**See the complete, finalized YAML example in PR:** https://github.com/airbytehq/airbyte/pull/69247

The PR demonstrates the final design applied to Stripe's `base_retriever` with:
- `standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999`
- `standard_operations_subset: [read, create, update, delete]` (simple list filter)
- Commented-out defaults for clarity
- Complete documentation of both profile variants

### Standard Operation Profiles

**`REST_CRUDL_POST_1999`** (RFC 2616 HTTP/1.1 circa 1999):
- `read_many`: GET /collection
- `read_one`: GET /collection/{id}
- `create_one`: POST /collection
- `update_one`: **POST** /collection/{id} (partial update)
- `replace_one`: PUT /collection/{id} (full replacement)
- `delete_one`: DELETE /collection/{id}

**`REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010`** (RFC 5789 circa 2010):
- Same as above, except:
- `update_one`: **PATCH** /collection/{id} (partial update)

### Component Structure

```yaml
base_retriever:
  type: SimpleBidirectionalRetriever

  base_requester:
    $ref: "#/definitions/base_requester"

  ## Opt into standard REST API conventions:
  standard_operations_profile: REST_CRUDL_POST_1999
  
  ## Filter which operation types to enable (applies on top of profile):
  standard_operations_subset: [read, create, update, delete]
  ## Subset options: read, create, update, replace, delete
  ## - read: Enables read_many and read_one
  ## - create: Enables create_one (create_many falls back to create_one loop)
  ## - update: Enables update_one (update_many falls back to update_one loop)
  ## - replace: Enables replace_one (replace_many falls back to replace_one loop)
  ## - delete: Enables delete_one (delete_many falls back to delete_one loop)
  ## Note: 'replace' omitted for Stripe since it doesn't support PUT replacement

  ## Renamed from 'record_selector' for clarity:
  multi_record_selector:
    type: RecordSelector
    extractor:
      type: DpathExtractor
      field_path: [data]  # Array response for read_many

  paginator:
    $ref: "#/definitions/base_paginator"

  ## Default single_record_selector (commented out - matches defaults):
  # single_record_selector:
  #   type: RecordSelector
  #   extractor:
  #     type: DpathExtractor
  #     field_path: []  # Single object response for read_one, create_one, update_one

  ## Operation overrides (commented out - inherited from profile):
  # operation_overrides:
  #   read_many: {}  ## Use default base_requester, multi_record_selector, paginator
  #   read_one: {}   ## Use default base_requester, single_record_selector
  #   create_one:
  #     requester:
  #       $ref: "#/definitions/base_requester"
  #       http_method: POST
  #       request_body:
  #         type: RequestBodyJsonObject
  #         value: "{{ record }}"
  #   update_one:
  #     requester:
  #       $ref: "#/definitions/base_requester"
  #       path_suffix: "/{{ record.id }}"  ## Planned CDK feature
  #       request_body:
  #         type: RequestBodyJsonObject
  #         value: "{{ record }}"
  #   delete_one:
  #     requester:
  #       $ref: "#/definitions/base_requester"
  #       http_method: DELETE
  #       path_suffix: "/{{ record.id }}"
```

### Key Design Principles

1. **Profile-based defaults**: Standard REST conventions baked into profiles
2. **Opt-out vs opt-in**: Only specify what's different from the profile
3. **DRY configuration**: `base_requester` shared across all operations
4. **$ref with inline overrides**: Shallow merge semantics for requester customization
5. **Sensible fallbacks**: Unsupported operations have documented emulation strategies

### Defaults and Overrides

| Operation | Default Path | Default Method | Default Extractor | When to Override |
|-----------|--------------|----------------|-------------------|------------------|
| **read_many** | `{path}` | `GET` | `field_path: [data]` | Non-standard array wrapper |
| **read_one** | `{path}/{id}` | `GET` | `field_path: []` | Non-standard path pattern |
| **create_one** | `{path}` | `POST` | `field_path: []` | Form-encoded body |
| **update_one** | `{path}/{id}` | `POST` or `PATCH` | `field_path: []` | Profile determines method |
| **replace_one** | `{path}/{id}` | `PUT` | `field_path: []` | API doesn't support PUT |
| **delete_one** | `{path}/{id}` | `DELETE` | (none) | API returns object on delete |

### Catalog `record_filters` Semantics

**Format:** List-of-lists-of-maps
- **Outer list:** OR across slices (fetch any of these records)
- **Inner list:** AND within slice (all conditions must match)

**Examples:**

Single-field primary key (fetch 3 records):
```json
"record_filters": [
  [{"id": "1"}],
  [{"id": "2"}],
  [{"id": "3"}]
]
```

Composite primary key (fetch 2 records):
```json
"record_filters": [
  [{"company_id": "123", "property": "status"}],
  [{"company_id": "456", "property": "size"}]
]
```

### Disposition Semantics (Phase 2+)

**Input envelope format:**
```json
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "create|update|replace|delete", "record": {...}, "identifiers": [...]}
```

**Disposition values:**
- `create`: Insert new record (fails if exists, unless upsert strategy specified)
- `update`: Partial update (merge provided fields, preserve unmentioned fields)
- `replace`: Full replacement (unmentioned fields cleared per API rules)
- `delete`: Remove record

**Mapping to operations:**
- `disposition=create` → `create_one` operation
- `disposition=update` → `update_one` operation (PATCH or POST per profile)
- `disposition=replace` → `replace_one` operation (PUT, or fallback to read+update)
- `disposition=delete` → `delete_one` operation (DELETE)

---

## CLI/UX

### Phase 1: Fetch
```bash
# Fetch specific records via catalog record_filters
source-declarative-manifest fetch \
  --config config.json \
  --catalog configured_catalog.json \
  --manifest manifest.yaml

# Output: JSONL to stdout
{"id": "cus_123", "email": "test@example.com", ...}
{"id": "cus_456", "email": "other@example.com", ...}
```

### Phase 2+: Create/Update/Replace/Delete
```bash
# Write records via stdin JSONL envelope
cat records.jsonl | source-declarative-manifest write \
  --config config.json \
  --catalog catalog.json \
  --manifest manifest.yaml

# Input format (records.jsonl):
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "create", "record": {"email": "new@example.com"}}
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "update", "record": {"id": "cus_123", "email": "updated@example.com"}}
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "replace", "record": {"id": "cus_123", "email": "replaced@example.com", "name": "Full Object"}}
{"stream": "customers", "disposition": "delete", "record": {"id": "cus_789"}}

# Optional dry-run mode
cat records.jsonl | source-declarative-manifest write --dry-run ...
```

### Exit Codes
- `0`: All operations succeeded
- `1`: One or more operations failed (details in stderr)
- `2`: Configuration error

---

## Risks & Open Questions

### Risks
1. **Stripe body encoding:** Stripe supports both JSON and form-encoded. Default to JSON; document form-encoded as override.
2. **Composite/nested primary keys:** Use dot notation `{{ record.user.id }}` for nested keys.
3. **Partial updates:** Default to full record body; add `partial: true` option later if needed.
4. **Race conditions:** Emulated replace (read+update) subject to race conditions. Document risks; plan ETag/If-Match support for future.

### Open Questions
1. **Primary key injection:** Should we add a `pk()` Jinja macro to extract PK values without hardcoding field names? **Proposal:** Yes, plan for future enhancement.
2. **path_suffix:** Should we implement ergonomic path appending? **Proposal:** Yes, implement `path_suffix` to avoid full path overrides.
3. **replace_unset_strategy:** Should we support explicit null clearing for replace operations? **Proposal:** Add `replace_unset_strategy: omit|explicit_null|custom` option.
4. **Optimistic concurrency:** Should we support ETag/If-Match headers? **Proposal:** Plan for future enhancement, not MVP.

---

## References

- **Design PR (Final YAML):** https://github.com/airbytehq/airbyte/pull/69247
- **Epic Issue:** https://github.com/airbytehq/airbyte-python-cdk/issues/833
- **Devin session:** https://app.devin.ai/sessions/dc10fcdabf624323a9bef22bae444da8
- **Stripe API docs:**
  - List customers: https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/list
  - Create customer: https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/create
  - Update customer: https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/update
- **Current Stripe manifest:** https://github.com/airbytehq/airbyte/blob/master/airbyte-integrations/connectors/source-stripe/manifest.yaml
- **HTTP RFCs:**
  - RFC 2616 (HTTP/1.1, 1999): https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616
  - RFC 5789 (PATCH, 2010): https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5789

---

## Implementation Notes

1. **Schema changes:** Add `SimpleBidirectionalRetriever` to `declarative_component_schema.yaml`
2. **New fields:**
   - `standard_operations_profile`: Enum (`REST_CRUDL_POST_1999`, `REST_CRUDL_PATCH_2010`)
   - `standard_operations_subset`: List of operation types (`read`, `create`, `update`, `replace`, `delete`)
   - `single_record_selector`: RecordSelector for single-object responses
   - `multi_record_selector`: RecordSelector for array responses (renamed from `record_selector`)
3. **Operation semantics:**
   - `read` in subset enables both `read_many` and `read_one` (special case)
   - Other operations (`create`, `update`, `replace`, `delete`) enable only `_one` variants
   - `_many` variants fall back to loops over `_one` unless explicitly defined in `operation_overrides`
4. **Edge case handling:** For asymmetric support (e.g., list-only or fetch-only resources), use `enabled: true/false` in `operation_overrides`:
   ```yaml
   operation_overrides:
     read_many:
       enabled: false  # Disable for fetch-only/singleton resources (e.g., /v1/balance)
     read_one:
       enabled: false  # Disable for list-only resources
   ```
5. **HttpMethod enum:** Verify PATCH is included (currently has GET, POST, DELETE)
6. **Interpolation context:** 
   - Add `record` variable to Jinja context for operation paths
   - Plan `pk()` macro for primary key extraction
7. **path_suffix:** Implement ergonomic path appending with slash normalization
8. **Error handling:** Reuse existing `error_handler` from `base_requester` for all operations
9. **http_deep_link_pattern:** Optional field for advertising deep links to web dashboards/UI pages
   - Uses hybrid templating: Jinja for config/static parts + simple field interpolation for record fields
   - Field interpolation syntax: `{field.name}` using dot notation for nested access
   - Two-phase evaluation: Jinja at catalog generation time, field interpolation at record emission time
   - Advertised in catalog via JSON Schema extension: `x-airbyte-deep_link_url`
   
   **Pattern 1 - Static URL root (Stripe):**
   ```yaml
   retriever:
     $ref: "#/definitions/base_retriever"
     $parameters:
       path: customers
     http_deep_link_pattern: "https://dashboard.stripe.com/customers/{id}"
   ```
   Use when the dashboard URL base is static and doesn't depend on config.
   
   **Pattern 2 - Record-provided deep URL (GitHub):**
   ```yaml
   retriever:
     $ref: "#/definitions/base_retriever"
     $parameters:
       path: issues
     http_deep_link_pattern: "{html_url}"
   ```
   Use when the API already provides the full web URL in the record. No concatenation needed - just reference the field.
   
   **Pattern 3 - Nulled out on condition (GitHub Enterprise):**
   ```yaml
   retriever:
     $ref: "#/definitions/base_retriever"
     $parameters:
       path: issues
     http_deep_link_pattern: "{{ None if config.get('api_url') != 'https://api.github.com' else 'https://github.com/issues/{number}' }}"
   ```
   Use when URL translation is unreliable for custom API roots. Set to null when custom `api_url` is detected and can't be safely translated to a web URL.

10. **Testing strategy:**
   - Unit tests: Mock HTTP responses for each operation
   - Integration tests: Use real APIs (JSONPlaceholder, Stripe test mode)
   - Regression tests: Ensure existing list-only connectors still work

---

**Requested by:** AJ Steers (@aaronsteers)  
**Last updated:** November 9, 2025



Operation	Default Path	Default Method	Default Extractor	When to Override
read_many	`{path}`	`GET`	`field_path: [data]`	Non-standard array wrapper
read_one	`{path}/{id}`	`GET`	`field_path: []`	Non-standard path pattern
create_one	`{path}`	`POST`	`field_path: []`	Form-encoded body
update_one	`{path}/{id}`	`POST` or `PATCH`	`field_path: []`	Profile determines method
replace_one	`{path}/{id}`	`PUT`	`field_path: []`	API doesn't support PUT
delete_one	`{path}/{id}`	`DELETE`	(none)	API returns object on delete

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

[Epic] Declarative CDK: Add Fetch/Create/Update via SimpleBidirectionalRetriever #833

Summary / Motivation

Scope

In Scope

Out of Scope (for now)

Phases and Acceptance Criteria

Phase 1a: Fetch (No Credentials)

Phase 1b: Fetch (With Credentials)

Phase 2: Create (POST)

Phase 3: Update (PATCH/POST) and Delete

Phase 4+: Replace and Bulk Operations

Design: SimpleBidirectionalRetriever

Final YAML Design (from PR)

Standard Operation Profiles

Component Structure

Key Design Principles

Defaults and Overrides

Catalog `record_filters` Semantics

Disposition Semantics (Phase 2+)

CLI/UX

Phase 1: Fetch

Phase 2+: Create/Update/Replace/Delete

Exit Codes

Risks & Open Questions

Risks

Open Questions

References

Implementation Notes

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

[Epic] Declarative CDK: Add Fetch/Create/Update via SimpleBidirectionalRetriever #833

Description

Summary / Motivation

Scope

In Scope

Out of Scope (for now)

Phases and Acceptance Criteria

Phase 1a: Fetch (No Credentials)

Phase 1b: Fetch (With Credentials)

Phase 2: Create (POST)

Phase 3: Update (PATCH/POST) and Delete

Phase 4+: Replace and Bulk Operations

Design: SimpleBidirectionalRetriever

Final YAML Design (from PR)

Standard Operation Profiles

Component Structure

Key Design Principles

Defaults and Overrides

Catalog record_filters Semantics

Disposition Semantics (Phase 2+)

CLI/UX

Phase 1: Fetch

Phase 2+: Create/Update/Replace/Delete

Exit Codes

Risks & Open Questions

Risks

Open Questions

References

Implementation Notes

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions

Catalog `record_filters` Semantics