The input to a strand is defined in /lib/strand/hoon as:

+$  strand-input  [=bowl in=(unit input)]

When a thread is first started, spider will populate the bowl and provide it along with an input of ~. If/when new input comes in (such as a poke, sign or watch) it will provide a new updated bowl along with the new input.

For example, here's a thread that gets the time from the bowl, runs an IO-less function that takes one or two seconds to compute, and then gets the time again:

/-  spider
/+  *strandio
=,  strand=strand:spider
|%
++  ackermann
  |=  [m=@ n=@]
  ?:  =(m 0)  +(n)
  ?:  =(n 0)  $(m (dec m), n 1)
  $(m (dec m), n $(n (dec n)))
--
^-  thread:spider
|=  arg=vase
=/  m  (strand ,vase)
^-  form:m
;<  t1=@da  bind:m  get-time
=/  ack  (ackermann 3 8)
;<  t2=@da  bind:m  get-time
(pure:m !>([t1 t2]))

Since it never does any IO, t1 and t2 are the same: [~2021.3.17..07.47.39..e186 ~2021.3.17..07.47.39..e186]. However, if we replace the ackermann function with a 2 second sleep from strandio:

/-  spider
/+  *strandio
=,  strand=strand:spider
^-  thread:spider
|=  arg=vase
=/  m  (strand ,vase)
^-  form:m
;<  t1=@da  bind:m  get-time
;<  ~       bind:m  (sleep ~s2)
;<  t2=@da  bind:m  get-time
(pure:m !>([t1 t2]))

...and run it again we get different values for t1 and t2: [~2021.3.17..07.50.28..8a5d ~2021.3.17..07.50.30..8a66]. This is because sleep gets a %wake sign back from behn, so spider updates the time in the bowl along with it.

Now let's look at the contents of bowl and input in detail:

bowl

bowl is the following:

+$  bowl
  $:  our=ship
      src=ship
      tid=tid
      mom=(unit tid)
      wex=boat:gall
      sup=bitt:gall
      eny=@uvJ
      now=@da
      byk=beak
  ==

our - our ship
src - ship where input is coming from
tid - ID of this thread
mom - parent thread if this is a child thread
wex - outgoing subscriptions
sup - incoming subscriptions
eny - entropy
now - current datetime
byk - [p=ship q=desk r=case] path prefix

There are a number of functions in strandio to access the bowl contents like get-bowl, get-beak, get-time, get-our and get-entropy.

You can also write a function with a gate whose sample is strand-input:strand and access the bowl that way like:

/-  spider
/+  strandio
=,  strand=strand:spider
=>
|%
++  bowl-stuff
  =/  m  (strand ,[boat:gall bitt:gall])
  ^-  form:m
  |=  tin=strand-input:strand
  `[%done [wex.bowl.tin sup.bowl.tin]]
--
^-  thread:spider
|=  arg=vase
=/  m  (strand ,vase)
^-  form:m
;<  res=[boat:gall bitt:gall]  bind:m  bowl-stuff
(pure:m !>(res))

input

input is defined in libstrand as:

+$  input
  $%  [%poke =cage]
      [%sign =wire =sign-arvo]
      [%agent =wire =sign:agent:gall]
      [%watch =path]
  ==

%poke incoming poke
%sign incoming sign from arvo
%agent incoming sign from a gall agent
%watch incoming subscription

Various functions in strandio will check input and conditionally do things based on its contents. For example, sleep sets a behn timer and then calls take-wake to wait for a %wake sign from behn:

++  take-wake
  |=  until=(unit @da)
  =/  m  (strand ,~)
  ^-  form:m
  |=  tin=strand-input:strand
  ?+  in.tin  `[%skip ~]
      ~  `[%wait ~]
      [~ %sign [%wait @ ~] %behn %wake *]
    ?.  |(?=(~ until) =(`u.until (slaw %da i.t.wire.u.in.tin)))
      `[%skip ~]
    ?~  error.sign-arvo.u.in.tin
      `[%done ~]
    `[%fail %timer-error u.error.sign-arvo.u.in.tin]
  ==

Input

bowl

input