Validation Rules

DSP enforces 40+ validation rules across four categories: scene identity, scene references, operation validation, and content limits.

For recommended agent behavior when validation fails, see How AI Agents Should Use Zindex.

Layout-time and render-time advisory diagnostics (e.g. TEXT_OVERFLOW, CANVAS_AUTO_EXTENDED, LABEL_DUPLICATION_DETECTED) are documented separately in Rendering reference - Render diagnostics. Those are non-blocking warnings or info messages emitted alongside successful layouts; the rules below are blocking validation errors that prevent invalid scenes from rendering at all.

Scene identity rules (S-001)

Code	Rule	Severity
S-001	Duplicate element IDs	error

Scene reference rules (S-010 - S-014)

Code	Rule	Severity
S-010	Group/frame references nonexistent child	error
S-011	Edge references nonexistent endpoint	error
S-012	Edge endpoint is not a node	error
S-013	Edge references nonexistent port	error
S-014	`EDGE_COLUMN_NOT_FOUND` - edge `endpoint.column` references a column not declared in the entity’s `extensions.columns`	warning

Containment rules (S-020 - S-023)

Code	Rule	Severity
S-020	Element contains itself	error
S-021	Containment cycle detected	error
S-022	Element belongs to multiple groups	error
S-023	Invalid child kind (edges can’t be group children)	error
S-033	Inside target is not a container	error

Layout rules (S-030 - S-034)

Code	Rule	Severity
S-030	Relative layout references nonexistent target	error
S-031	Relative layout references itself	error
S-032	Relative layout cycle detected	error
S-034	Element missing required dimensions	warning

Port and asset rules (S-040 - S-062)

Code	Rule	Severity
S-040	Duplicate port IDs on a node	error
S-041	Port on non-node element	error
S-043	Edge is a self-loop	warning
S-050	Element references nonexistent asset	error
S-051	Asset kind mismatch	error
S-060	Element references nonexistent style	error
S-062	Remote URI not allowed by policy	warning

Operation target rules (O-010 - O-011)

Code	Rule	Severity
O-010	Operation target element not found	error
O-011	Create operation ID collision	error

Operation kind rules (O-020 - O-024)

Code	Rule	Severity
O-020	updateNode targets non-node	error
O-021	updateEdge targets non-edge	error
O-022	setText targets element without text	error
O-023	resizeElement targets non-resizable	error
O-024	moveElement targets relative-layout element	warning

Batch rules (O-040 - O-041)

Code	Rule	Severity
O-040	Batch creates then targets same ID	error
O-041	Batch deletes then references same ID	error

Post-mutation rules (P-001)

Code	Rule	Severity
P-001	Dangling reference after mutation	error

Constraint rules (C-001 - C-004)

Code	Rule	Severity
C-001	Constraint references nonexistent element	error
C-003	Constraint has fewer than 2 elements	error
C-004	Duplicate elements in constraint	warning

Content limits (L-001 - L-004)

Code	Rule	Severity
L-001	Scene exceeds maximum element count (1000)	error
L-002	Nesting depth exceeds maximum (10)	error
L-003	Text content exceeds maximum length (10000)	warning
L-004	Scene exceeds maximum constraint count (500)	error