diff --git a/manager/types/application.go b/manager/types/application.go
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+// Copyright 2015, 2016 Eris Industries (UK) Ltd.
+// This file is part of Eris-RT
+
+// Eris-RT is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+
+// Eris-RT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with Eris-RT.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package types
+
+// TODO: Result is not yet defined (originally defined as tmsp protobuf type)
+
+// NOTE: [ben] this interface is likely to be changed.  Currently it is taken
+// from the tendermint socket protocol application interface;
+// but for the needs of eris-rt and generalisation improvements will be made.
+
+// Application interface applies transactions to the state.
+//
+type Application interface {
+
+  // Info returns application information as a string
+  // NOTE: [ben] likely to move
+  Info() (info string)
+
+  // Set application option (e.g. mode=mempool, mode=consensus)
+  // NOTE: [ben] taken from tendermint, but it is unclear what the use is,
+  // specifically, when will tendermint call this over tmsp ?
+  SetOption(key string, value string) (log string)
+
+  // Append transaction applies a transaction to the state regardless of
+  // whether the transaction is valid or not.
+  // Currently AppendTx is taken from tmsp, and returns a result.
+  // This will be altered, as AppendTransaction needs to more strongly reflect
+  // the theoretical logic:
+  //   Append(StateN, Transaction) = StateN+1
+  // here invalid transactions are allowed, but should act as the identity on
+  // the state:
+  //   Append(StateN, InvalidTransaction) = StateN
+  // TODO: implementation notes:
+  // 1. at this point the transaction should already be strongly typed
+  // 2.
+  AppendTx(tx []byte) Result
+
+  // Check Transaction validates a transaction before being allowed into the
+  // consensus' engine memory pool.  This is the original defintion and
+  // intention as taken from tmsp, but should be remapped to the more
+  // general concept of basic, cheap verification;
+  // Check Transaction does not alter the state, but does require an immutable
+  // copy of the state. In particular there is no consensus on ordering yet.
+  // TODO: implementation notes:
+  // 1. at this point the transaction should already be strongly typed
+  // 2.
+  CheckTx(tx []byte) Result
+
+  // Commit returns the root hash of the current application state
+  // NOTE: [ben] Because the concept of the block has been erased here
+  // the commit root hash is a fully implict stateful function;
+  // the opposit the principle of explicit stateless functions.
+  // This will be amended when we introduce the concept of (streaming)
+  // blocks in the pipe.
+  Commit() Result
+
+  // Query for state.  This query request is not passed over the p2p network
+  // and is called from Tendermint rpc directly up to the application.
+  // NOTE: [ben] Eris-DB will give preference to queries from the local client
+  // directly over the Eris-DB rpc.
+  // We will support this for Tendermint compatibility.
+  Query(query []byte) Result
+}