Operand Decoding

Operand decoding is part of the bytecode contract and must be handled through the VM’s decoder helpers instead of direct raw byte access. This page exists to make the decoding boundary explicit. The encoded stream is not the same thing as the logical operand value, especially when encryption or width changes are involved. Pointers Always use the decoder helpers that understand the bytecode format. Treat direct indexing as unsafe for encrypted or width-sensitive operands.

Source repo

aoiflux/mutant

Source path

docs/BYTECODE_IR.md

Last reviewed

2026-07-03

Freshness tier

critical

Operand decoding is part of the bytecode contract and must be handled through the VM’s decoder helpers instead of direct raw byte access.

This page exists to make the decoding boundary explicit. The encoded stream is not the same thing as the logical operand value, especially when encryption or width changes are involved.

Pointers

Always use the decoder helpers that understand the bytecode format.
Treat direct indexing as unsafe for encrypted or width-sensitive operands.
Keep operand format changes synchronized with the opcode table and VM logic.

Decoding Path

flowchart LR A[Encoded instruction bytes] --> B[Decoder helper] B --> C[Logical operand value] C --> D[VM execution]

Canonical Source

docs/BYTECODE_IR.md