Cortex-Inara/documentation/ARCH__FUTURE.md

Architecture: Planned Features

What's next and how it's designed to work. Last updated: 2026-04-29

For the current task list see TODO__Agents.md. For phases and priorities see ROADMAP.md.

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1. Local Orchestrator

Status: Partially built — openai_orchestrator.py exists and is wired into POST /orchestrate. When the orchestrator role in the model registry resolves to a local_openai model, it routes there automatically. Remaining work is quality/reliability parity with the Gemini orchestrator, not ground-up design.

Same ReAct tool loop as the Gemini API orchestrator, driven by a local model via Open WebUI's OpenAI-compatible API. Enables offline/private agent tasks with no API cost.

Why local models work for this now: Gemma 4 E4B and 26B A4B both support OpenAI tools / tool_choice function calling. The tool schema is nearly identical to Gemini's FunctionDeclaration — minor field renaming only.

Design:

POST /orchestrate  (role resolves to local_openai model)
    ↓
openai_orchestrator.py
    • converts tools/ to OpenAI tools format
    • POST /api/chat/completions with tools array
    • parse tool_calls response
    • execute tool, append result
    • loop until finish_reason: "stop"
    ↓
response returned (local model generates final answer)

Model selection:

• Gemma 4 E4B (25 t/s, 72k ctx) — interactive/fast tasks
• Gemma 4 26B A4B (9 t/s, 50k ctx) — heavier reasoning, background tasks

Context budget per iteration (system prompt + memory + tool results + history):

• Small model: budget ~40–50k tokens per round
• Medium model: budget ~35–40k tokens per round

Context compaction (to implement): automatically trim stale tool results mid-run when approaching the budget ceiling, preserving only the most recent N tool exchanges.

Full API reference: docs/OPEN_WEBUI_API.md

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2. Orchestrator Tool Expansions

Status: Planned. Current tool count: 27. These fill obvious gaps.

New tools for cortex/tools/ — each follows the existing async pattern (implement function, add FunctionDeclaration, register in __init__.py).

Tool	Module	Description
cortex_restart	system.py	systemctl --user restart cortex — Inara can apply her own config changes; returns last 10 log lines after restart
cortex_logs	system.py	journalctl --user -u cortex -n N — tail service logs for debugging
http_fetch	web.py	Fetch a specific URL and return content; for health checks, API probing, webhook testing — not a search, a direct GET/POST
file_list	scratch.py or new files.py	List files and directories at a path; currently only file_read exists
file_write	files.py	Write content to a file with a path allow-list (persona dir + scratch by default)
nc_talk_send	new notify.py	Proactively send a message to the user via Nextcloud Talk outbound API
email_send	notify.py	Send email via existing email_utils.py SMTP helper
web_push	notify.py	Browser push notification via Web Push API (requires push subscription stored per-user in home/{user}/push_sub.json; pairs with the PWA service worker)

Safety note for cortex_restart: The service will drop in-flight SSE connections on restart. Only call if no streaming response is active. Add a check or a short delay before restarting.

Safety note for file_write: Enforce an allow-list at the tool level, not just in the prompt. Default allow: home/{user}/persona/{name}/ and /tmp/cortex-scratch/. Reject any path outside.

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3. Dev Agent Pipeline

Status: Design complete, not yet built. Review §8 (Agent Architecture Patterns) before starting.

Accept a plain-English task, implement code changes, verify them, and present for human approval before committing.

Task (chat / Gitea issue / Kanban)
    ↓
Orchestrator — reads relevant files, routes to specialist
    ↓
Specialist Agent (Claude CLI in project directory)
    • implements the change
    • runs self-check: py_compile / svelte-check
    ↓
Supervisor Agent
    • reviews the diff
    • runs test suite
    • returns: PASS / NEEDS_REVIEW / FAIL + reason
    ↓
Human approval gate
    • summary in Cortex UI or NC Talk
    • approve → commit (+ optional push)
    • reject → feedback back to specialist

Specialists (both Claude CLI):

• Frontend — working dir: ~/OSIT_dev/aether_app_sveltekit/ — runs svelte-check after every change
• Backend — working dir: ~/OSIT_dev/aether_api_fastapi/ — runs py_compile + unit tests

Supervisor returns structured JSON:

{
  "verdict": "PASS | NEEDS_REVIEW | FAIL",
  "checks_passed": ["py_compile"],
  "checks_failed": [],
  "review_notes": "...",
  "commit_message": "..."
}

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4. Gitea Integration

Status: Not started. pfSense port forward for SSH already confirmed working.

• Webhooks → Cortex: push/PR/issue events → POST /webhook/gitea → orchestrator
  • Router pattern already established; add cortex/routers/gitea.py
• Gitea Actions CI: .gitea/workflows/check.yml — run py_compile/svelte-check on push
• Cortex → Gitea: after human approval, call Gitea API to create PR or push branch

SSH clone/push: git clone ssh://git@git.dgrzone.com:2222/<user>/<repo>.git

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5. Knowledge Layer (AE Journals)

Status: Tools exist, import script not yet built.

AE Journals becomes the searchable long-term knowledge base. Complements memory distillation: memory files cover "what have we been working on lately"; Journals cover "what do I know about topic X".

Existing tools: ae_journal_search, ae_journal_entry_create — already in orchestrator tool suite.

Import script (to build):

• Walk a markdown directory (Nextcloud, agents_sync docs)
• Chunk by H2 section
• Search before creating (deduplication)
• Tag from frontmatter, filename, directory path
• Target sources: ~/DgrZone_Nextcloud/, ~/OSIT_Nextcloud/

Agent workflow:

"Summarize my notes on WireGuard setup"
    → orchestrator calls ae_journal_search("wireguard")
    → returns matching entries
    → Claude synthesizes response

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6. Intelligent Model Routing

Status: Partially addressed. Model Registry V2 (2026-04-27) introduced role-based routing — chat, orchestrator, distill, coder, research roles each have their own primary/backup model chain, and the UI role toggle lets users manually select which role handles a message. Automatic task-characteristic routing (below) is still deferred.

Route automatically based on task characteristics rather than requiring manual selection:

Task type	Backend	Reason
User-facing conversation	Claude	Quality prose, persona fidelity
Tool use / orchestration	Gemini API or local	Native function calling
Private / sensitive / offline	Local (Ollama)	No data leaves the network
Long context (>50k tokens)	Gemini 2.0	1M token context window
Fast/cheap simple queries	Local (E4B)	25 t/s, no API cost

Routing logic would live in llm_client.py or a new router.py — map task metadata to backend choice.

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7. RAG via Open WebUI

Status: Future — Open WebUI already supports it.

Feed Nextcloud documents or session logs into Open WebUI knowledge collections. Reference them in local model chat via "files": [{"type": "collection", "id": "..."}].

Would complement AE Journals for local-only contexts where data shouldn't leave the network.

API reference: docs/OPEN_WEBUI_API.md — RAG section.

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8. Agent Architecture Patterns — Research

Status: Research — review before building dev agent pipeline and local orchestrator.

The Claude Code system prompt was leaked in early April 2026. Two reimplementation repos are worth reading for design ideas before building out the dev agent pipeline and local orchestrator:

• https://github.com/HarnessLab/claw-code-agent — Python reimplementation targeting local models (Qwen3-Coder recommended); most technically detailed
• https://github.com/ultraworkers/claw-code — Community porting/reverse-engineering project; reportedly has interesting detail in the source code itself

Ideas worth incorporating:

Tiered permission architecture — explicit read-only / write / shell / unsafe modes, each requiring an opt-in flag. Currently Cortex has implicit trust for agent operations. Relevant once the dev agent pipeline is writing and executing code — don't want a brief cron job accidentally in write mode.

Agent lineage tracking — agent manager records which agent spawned which sub-agent. Useful for debugging multi-step orchestrated tasks and essential for the supervisor → specialist → approval gate chain.

Cost/budget enforcement — hard token and cost budgets per operation, multiple budget types. ORCHESTRATOR_MAX_ROUNDS=10 is Cortex's only guardrail today. Worth adding a token budget check to the tool loop, especially relevant for local models with hard context ceilings (72k/50k practical).

Context compaction/snipping — automatic mid-session context trimming when approaching limits. Important for long orchestrator runs against local models. Could trim tool results that are no longer needed for the current reasoning step.

Nested agent delegation with dependency-aware batching — sub-agents that know their parent; parallel sub-tasks batched by dependency order. Directly applicable to the dev agent pipeline (orchestrator → specialist → supervisor, with some steps parallelizable).

File history journaling — beyond session logs, a journal of what files changed and why, with replay summaries. Different from memory distillation — more like a git log for agent actions. Could complement the supervisor agent's diff review.

Plugin/manifest-based tool extensions — tools declared via manifest rather than hardcoded in __init__.py. Would make adding new orchestrator tools less invasive. Worth considering before the tool suite grows much larger (currently 27 tools).

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9. Permanent Fleet Hosting

Status: Deferred. Currently running on scott-lt-i7-rtx (gaming/agents laptop).

Long-term target: home server (always-on, Docker). docker-compose.yml already exists in the project root.

Deployment path:

1. Copy to home server
2. Configure reverse proxy (Nginx, already Docker-hosted)
3. Update cortex.dgrzone.com → home server internal IP in pfSense
4. WireGuard required for all access — not internet-exposed
5. Update FLEET_MANIFEST.md and CLAUDE.md fleet table

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10. Cortex Mesh — Multi-Instance Fleet

Status: Concept — no design yet.

Rather than a single Cortex instance, each device in the fleet runs its own instance with its own persona(s), local models, and capabilities. Instances can delegate tasks to each other based on available resources and roles.

Use cases:

• scott_lpt (edit/dev node) delegates code tasks to scott-lt-i7-rtx (GPU/Ollama host)
• A background cron on one instance triggers an orchestrated task on another
• Each instance has its own "best available" model — mesh routing picks the right node automatically

Design questions to resolve:

• Auth between instances (shared JWT secret vs. per-instance API keys)
• How instances advertise capabilities (model registry over HTTP? shared Syncthing file?)
• Whether ae_send_message / the existing inbox system is the right coordination layer or if a dedicated Cortex-to-Cortex protocol is needed
• Session continuity — does a conversation that starts on one node stay there, or can it migrate?

The Syncthing-synced home/ directory and shared model_registry.json already provide a natural foundation — instances share persona memory and context without a central DB.