Context

Sema provides an ambient context system — a key-value store that flows through your entire execution without explicit parameter passing. Inspired by Laravel's Context, it's designed for tracing, metadata propagation, and sharing configuration across deeply nested calls.

Context data is automatically appended as metadata to log output (log/info, log/warn, log/error, log/debug).

Core Functions

context/set

Set a key-value pair in the current context frame.

(context/set :trace-id "abc-123")
(context/set :user-id 42)

context/get

Retrieve a value by key. Returns nil if the key doesn't exist.

(context/get :trace-id)   ; => "abc-123"
(context/get :missing)    ; => nil

context/has?

Check if a key exists in the context.

(context/has? :trace-id)  ; => #t
(context/has? :missing)   ; => #f

context/remove

Remove a key from all context frames. Returns the removed value, or nil.

(context/set :temp "data")
(context/remove :temp)    ; => "data"
(context/remove :temp)    ; => nil (already gone)

context/pull

Get a value and remove it in one step (identical to context/remove).

(context/set :token "abc")
(context/pull :token)     ; => "abc"
(context/has? :token)     ; => #f

context/all

Get all context as a merged map.

(context/set :a 1)
(context/set :b 2)
(context/all)  ; => {:a 1 :b 2}

context/merge

Merge a map of key-value pairs into the current context.

(context/merge {:trace-id "abc" :env "production" :version "1.0"})
(context/get :env)  ; => "production"

context/clear

Clear all context, resetting to an empty state.

(context/clear)
(context/all)  ; => {}

Scoped Overrides

context/with

Push a temporary context frame for the duration of a thunk. The frame is automatically popped when the thunk completes — even if it raises an error.

(context/set :env "production")

(context/with {:env "staging" :debug #t}
  (lambda ()
    (context/get :env)      ; => "staging"
    (context/get :debug)))  ; => #t

(context/get :env)    ; => "production" (restored)
(context/get :debug)  ; => nil (gone)

Scopes nest naturally — inner values shadow outer ones:

(context/set :a 1)
(context/with {:b 2}
  (lambda ()
    (context/with {:c 3}
      (lambda ()
        (list (context/get :a) (context/get :b) (context/get :c))))))
; => (1 2 3)

WARNING

Values set with context/set inside a context/with block are written to the inner frame and discarded when the scope exits. If you need a value to persist, set it before entering context/with.

Stacks

Context stacks are ordered lists of values that you can push to and pop from. Unlike key-value context, stacks are not scoped by context/with — pushes persist across scope boundaries.

context/push

Append a value to a named stack.

(context/push :breadcrumbs "login")
(context/push :breadcrumbs "dashboard")
(context/push :breadcrumbs "settings")

context/stack

Get all values in a named stack as a list.

(context/stack :breadcrumbs)
; => ("login" "dashboard" "settings")

context/pop

Remove and return the last value from a stack. Returns nil if the stack is empty.

(context/pop :breadcrumbs)  ; => "settings"
(context/stack :breadcrumbs)
; => ("login" "dashboard")

Hidden Context

Hidden context stores values that are not visible via context/get, context/all, or log metadata. Use it for sensitive data like API keys or internal state.

context/set-hidden

(context/set-hidden :api-key "sk-secret-123")

context/get-hidden

(context/get-hidden :api-key)  ; => "sk-secret-123"
(context/get :api-key)         ; => nil (not visible in regular context)

context/has-hidden?

(context/has-hidden? :api-key)  ; => #t

Log Integration

When context is non-empty, log/info, log/warn, log/error, and log/debug automatically append the context map as metadata:

(context/set :trace-id "abc-123")
(context/set :user-id 42)
(log/info "Request processed")

Output:

[INFO] Request processed {:trace-id "abc-123" :user-id 42}

Hidden context is not included in log output.

Examples

Request tracing

(context/set :request-id (uuid/v4))
(context/set :method "GET")
(context/set :path "/api/users")

(log/info "Request started")
; [INFO] Request started {:method "GET" :path "/api/users" :request-id "a1b2c3..."}

;; All downstream functions automatically include this context in their logs
(process-request)

Pipeline breadcrumbs

(define (process-document doc)
  (context/push :steps "parse")
  (let ((parsed (parse doc)))
    (context/push :steps "validate")
    (let ((valid (validate parsed)))
      (context/push :steps "transform")
      (transform valid))))

(process-document input)
(context/stack :steps)
; => ("parse" "validate" "transform")

Scoped configuration

;; Set default model
(context/set :model "claude-sonnet")

;; Override for a specific block
(context/with {:model "gpt-4o" :temperature 0.9}
  (lambda ()
    ;; Code here sees the overridden values
    (context/get :model)))       ; => "gpt-4o"

(context/get :model)             ; => "claude-sonnet"

Function Reference

Function	Args	Description
context/set	key value	Set a context value
context/get	key	Get a value (or nil)
context/has?	key	Check if key exists
context/remove	key	Remove and return value
context/pull	key	Get and remove (alias for remove)
context/all		Get all context as a map
context/merge	map	Merge map into context
context/clear		Clear all context
context/with	map thunk	Scoped override
context/push	key value	Push to named stack
context/stack	key	Get stack as list
context/pop	key	Pop from named stack
context/set-hidden	key value	Set hidden value
context/get-hidden	key	Get hidden value
context/has-hidden?	key	Check hidden key exists