Bench control should be boring

A lab full of scripts can work for years and still be one cable move away from ambiguity. Bounded adapters, durable job state, and honest evidence are less glamorous than a universal command socket—and much more useful.

Raw access is not an API

Forwarding a serial port or shell across the network moves the problem; it does not define authority, timeouts, recovery, or what state means after a disconnect.

A bench API should name intentional operations and preserve the device-specific constraints behind them.

Different work has different lifecycles

A command, a long-running capture, a telemetry stream, and a calibration artifact are not variations of one request. Treating them separately makes cancellation, replay, retention, and review understandable.