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A node is a machine; the session is a feature of it

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Correcting an overstatement from the previous commit, where I had written that
a node IS a conversation. It is not. A node is a machine inside the mesh, and
the session is one of the things running on it -- like the host, like any
workload.

That also dissolves the conflict I flagged as unresolved rather than needing
anyone to decide it. 0001 says a node does not authenticate to a model
provider, agents do. Still true: the session authenticates, and the session is
not the machine. The node does not think, something on the node does. I had
manufactured the contradiction by promoting a feature into an identity.

0001's summary row is corrected the same way, and says explicitly that neither
the node's session nor a hired worker makes the node itself a thinking thing --
both run on a machine, which is what leaves that line untouched.
This commit is contained in:
jschoubben
2026-08-29 14:22:29 +02:00
parent 066f14b5f8
commit 5fd522b8da
2 changed files with 17 additions and 9 deletions
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02-DECISIONS/0001-mesh-brokers-nodes-host-agents-think.md
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@@ -81,15 +81,19 @@ Four layers. Naming them honestly is worth more than the word on the tin:
| **machines are linked by a private network** | and every machine reaches every other over it |
| **one node holds knowledge of all of them** | the control plane, and only it |
| **modules are how anything is built and delivered** | this *is* the CI/CD, not something beside it ([ADR 0010](0010-delivery.md)) |
| **every node is a conversation you can address** | it holds a session, it remembers, and any node can message any other ([ADR 0004](0004-a-node-and-how-it-joins.md)) |
| **every node runs a session you can message** | a feature of the node, remembering across callers; any node can message any other ([ADR 0004](0004-a-node-and-how-it-joins.md)) |
| **workers are hired onto nodes to do tasks** | employees, with a lifecycle — a different thing from the row above ([ADR 0003](0003-agents-are-persistent-employees.md)) |
**The last two rows are not the same thing and the vocabulary of one does not describe the other.**
A node's own session belongs to the node: nobody hires it, it holds no tasks, it is never
reassigned, and it is gone when the node leaves. A worker is an employee — named, hired, drained,
A node's session comes with the machine: nobody hires it, it holds no tasks, it is never
reassigned, and it goes when the node leaves. A worker is an employee — named, hired, drained,
retired, movable. They are built from the same parts and run on entirely different terms, and
collapsing them is how the employee vocabulary ends up stretched over something it does not fit.
**Neither makes the node itself a thinking thing.** A node is a machine; both of these run *on*
one, which is why *a node does not authenticate to a model provider, agents do* is unaffected by
either.
**Where the value is** is that both can reach across the whole set: a shell, a service, a file, or
simply a question to another node. Not machines that can be configured centrally, which is
ordinary, but a set of machines that can be worked across as though they were one.