novox/hq
3
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests 5 Releases Wiki Activity

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

Browse Source 
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
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files
02-DECISIONS/0004-a-node-and-how-it-joins.md
+10 -6
View File
@@ -28,15 +28,19 @@ asked to do — and that belongs in the host's profile rather than in the defini
because its absence is every node in the ordinary disconnected situation at once. An episodic
host on a phone is that situation more often. Neither needed a new mechanism.
### A node is also a conversation
### A node runs one agent session
*Written 2026-08-29. It runs on every node today and appeared in no record, which is how something
deliberate comes to look accidental.*
**A node holds one session, permanently, and it is part of what the node is** — not a program
installed on it. Anything in the mesh can send it a message; it replies; and it remembers. What it
was asked ten minutes ago is still there next week, alongside what everything else asked in
between, the same way both sides of any conversation remember it.
**A node is a machine. The session is a feature of it** — one of the things running there, like the
host, like any workload. The node does not think; something on the node does. Which is why
[ADR 0001](0001-mesh-brokers-nodes-host-agents-think.md)'s *a node does not authenticate to a model
provider, agents do* holds unchanged: the session authenticates, and it is not the machine.
**It is permanent, and it remembers.** Anything in the mesh can send it a message; it replies; and
what it was asked ten minutes ago is still there next week, alongside what everything else asked in
between — the same way both sides of any conversation remember it.
Its system prompt is the node's **engram** — what makes one node's replies recognisably its own
rather than generic.
@@ -48,7 +52,7 @@ be answered by going and looking: *what is in our forge*, not only *what is your
There is no second transport and nothing is dialled.
**Any node can message any node, and this is the one part of the system that is genuinely a mesh**
— symmetric, with no centre. A node that is asked something it does not know can ask another, and
— symmetric, with no centre. A node that is asked something it does not have can ask another, and
how it passes the question on is its own business: it may say who wants to know, or simply ask. A
person relaying a question makes the same choice, and it follows from the engram rather than from a
message format.