# Bytes management surface **Contract:** 2026-09-11 The management surface observes a particular bytes instance for its operator. It has its own listener, description and contract, independent of the nine BN bytes content operations. The operations listener serves that separate contract at its own `/describe/SURFACE.md`. Management does not change content identity or require an index of every implementation of the content protocol. ## Inventory `inventory` reads an observation of committed artifacts: their count, total logical byte length, up to ten most recently modified objects, and up to ten largest objects. Counts and lengths are nonnegative decimal strings. The empty store returns zero counts and empty arrays. Only regular files with canonical lowercase SHA-256 object paths under `objects//` are counted. Symlinks, temporary uploads and unrelated files are excluded. The scan reads metadata; it neither reads nor hashes object content, so this is not an integrity audit. Logical byte length excludes filesystem metadata, staging files and allocation overhead. `recent` orders objects by descending modification time, `largest` by descending logical size. Equal values are ordered by ascending content name. Both lists and totals come from the same scan. Successful observations may be reused for at most five seconds, retaining their original scan timestamps. Reads are idempotent and can be retried. Request cancellation cancels waiting or scanning. A scan failure returns an error, never successful partial totals. `scan_started_at` and `observed_at` bound the scan in UTC. Concurrent writes can enter or miss the observation. This is not a transactional snapshot or an upload history; there is no pagination, retained read view or snapshot token. ## Timestamp meaning `timestamp_source` is `filesystem_mtime`. An artifact's `stored_at` is the file's modification time. The store writes a temporary file, then renames it, preserving that timestamp. It is an approximation of when an object was added: writing may finish before commit, and restores or external changes can alter timestamps. Historical first-admission times are not recorded. Idempotent puts ordinarily preserve existing objects and do not increase the artifact count. The dashboard explains this basis and does not present it as exact upload history. The observation carries no ownership, authority, attribution, binding or custody claim. ## Separation Management is unauthenticated, like the underlying foundation. Deployment decides who can reach each listener. The separate management port allows a private management network while preserving a public content API. A deployment may explicitly publish both; no particular exposure follows from this contract. The content listener does not serve management routes. The management listener does not serve content reads or writes. Each listener's description covers exactly its own surface.