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audita/docs/integrations/subprocess.md

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# Subprocess Integration
## Scope
This document describes how a parent process should invoke Audita as a subprocess.
It covers:
- invocation shape;
- stdout/stderr behavior;
- output/report file behavior;
- diagnostics and exit behavior.
For full CLI and config references, see [`docs/cli.md`](../cli.md) and [`docs/config.md`](../config.md).
## Recommended Invocation
Use explicit output and report paths for machine workflows:
```sh
audita process <transcript.json> \
--glossary <glossary.yaml> \
--output <output-transcript.json> \
--report-json <report.json>
```
Optional commonly used flags:
- `--config <path>`
- `--output-schema <bare-segments|audita-v1>`
- `--work-dir <dir>`
- `--work-dir-retention <always|auto|never>`
- `--transcript-description <text>`
## Stdout Contract
On success:
- with `--output`: stdout is expected to be empty;
- without `--output`: stdout contains transcript JSON only.
`--report-json` output is never written to stdout.
## Stderr Contract
Stderr is human-readable status/error output.
On failures:
- stderr includes a concise top-level error;
- when diagnostics are initialized, stderr includes diagnostics directory path.
Do not treat stderr as a machine-stable JSON channel.
## Output and Report File Contract
Transcript output:
- `--output` writes corrected transcript JSON to the provided path;
- output write failures return nonzero.
Report output:
- `--report-json` writes machine-readable process report JSON to the provided path;
- run diagnostics also attempt to write their own `report.json`;
- report write failures return nonzero;
- on failure paths, report writing is best-effort and does not mask the primary run error.
## Diagnostics Contract
When run-directory initialization succeeds, per-run diagnostics artifacts are written under the configured work directory.
Typical artifacts include:
- `source-transcript.json`
- `source-transcript-parsed.json`
- `normalized-transcript.json`
- `normalization-summary.json`
- `chunking-summary.json`
- `invocation.json`
- `effective-config.json`
- `utilization-diagnostics.json`
- `correction-ledger.json`
- `report.json`
- `error.log` (failure)
Retention behavior is controlled by `--work-dir-retention` / config.
## Exit Behavior
Exit codes:
- `0`: success;
- `1`: runtime processing/output/report failure;
- `2`: CLI usage or configuration input error.
Treat any nonzero as subprocess failure.
## Parent-Process Guidance
For reliable orchestration:
- read stdout and stderr concurrently to avoid pipe blocking;
- prefer `--output` and `--report-json` for machine parsing;
- use timeout/cancellation in the parent process;
- inspect diagnostics path and `report.json`/`error.log` on failure.
For input file contracts, see [`docs/integrations/transcript-glossary-files.md`](transcript-glossary-files.md).