---
status: canonical
updated: 2026-09-24
---

# The Novox repositories

The map of where implementation lives. Humans use it for orientation; agents use it for issue
triage (playbook [`process/03-issues.md`](process/03-issues.md)). The `code:` frontmatter
field in design documents points at entries here.

Repository *names* are recorded; hosts, URLs and owners are not — this repository is public,
and a forge address is an operational detail (see [`README`](../README.md)).

| Repository | Owns |
|---|---|
| `hal` | The monorepo — the node runtime, the module catalogue, the delivery machinery, and the bootstrap scripts. Every core module lives here. |
| `hq` | This repository, under the company organisation — mission, research, design, decisions, issue diagnosis. Company-scoped ([ADR 0019](../02-DECISIONS/0019-how-this-repository-works.md)); the mesh is its first product. The source of truth for *why*. Carries no implementation. |
| *(one per application)* | Every standalone application, site or side-project gets its own repository, with `module.yml` at the root. Registered with the mesh as a build source; built and deployed by the same pipeline as anything in the monorepo. |
| `migration` | **Private.** The record of one installation replacing the predecessor mesh with this one: the runbook, a dated log of every step and what it cost, the per-service data procedures, the readiness checks, and the scripts. Private because it is the opposite of this repository in every way that matters — it names machines, addresses, ports and paths, because a procedure that cannot be followed is not one. Where hq asks *what did we decide and why*, that repository answers *what happened on the machines, in what order, and what to do next*. Its `HANDOFF.md` is where somebody picking the work up starts. |

## What the mesh becomes

[ADR 0019](../02-DECISIONS/0019-how-this-repository-works.md) records the repositories the
monorepo decomposes into. **`mesh-host`, `mesh-controller`, `mesh-catalog`, `mesh-lab`, `mesh-sdk` and `mesh-tools` exist
so far** — the lab was built first ([ADR 0016](../02-DECISIONS/0016-the-lab.md)). The tiered
decomposition below is the planned shape; the repositories built to date do not map onto it
one-for-one — `mesh-catalog`, `mesh-sdk` and `mesh-tools` exist where the table names
`mesh-foundation` and `mesh-surfaces`, and reconciling the two is itself still ahead.

| Repository | Tier | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| `mesh-host` | 0 | **exists.** The node host — one statically linked binary, requiring nothing present ([ADR 0005](../02-DECISIONS/0005-the-node-host.md)) |
| `mesh-foundation` | 1 | the four pinned services, as declarations |
| `mesh-controller` | 2 | **exists.** The controller and its contexts — one of seven built ([ADR 0006](../02-DECISIONS/0006-the-substrate-and-the-control-plane.md)) |
| `mesh-surfaces` | 3 | tools, web, cli |
| `mesh-sdk` | — | the stable spine modules build against — the tool-serving harness, the messaging/event framework, the contracts and core primitives. Holds nothing per-module and nothing volatile ([ADR 0039](../02-DECISIONS/0039-what-the-sdk-holds-and-refuses.md)). |
| `mesh-lab` | — | **exists.** The lab — scenario lifecycle, networking, placement. Ships to nobody; runs on a workstation. |

Tier 4's shape is open, and deliberately so: see ADR 0019 and
[research 005](../01-RESEARCH/005-domain-grouping/00-overview.md).

## What lives where inside the monorepo

Named by role, because the layout is itself part of the as-is design — see
[`03-DESIGN/00-as-is/`](../03-DESIGN/00-as-is/).

| Area | Holds |
|---|---|
| Module catalogue | One directory per module, each with a manifest. Core modules sit under the mesh's own namespace; everything else at the top level. |
| Node runtime | The daemon and interactive runtime that every node runs. |
| Bootstrap scripts | First-node initialisation, joining an existing mesh, and node rescue. |
| Shared library | The SDK every module builds against. |
| Pipeline test harness | End-to-end coverage of the delivery pipeline. Currently unbuildable — see [`04-ISSUES/005`](../04-ISSUES/005-pipeline-test-harness-unbuildable/00-report.md). |

## Why applications do not live in the monorepo

A standalone application in the monorepo is a convention violation, and reviewers reject it.
The reasoning is recorded in [`02-DECISIONS/0010`](../02-DECISIONS/0015-applications-live-in-their-own-repository.md):
the mesh installs, provisions for, and ships an application through exactly the same machinery
whether or not its source sits beside the mesh's own — so co-location buys nothing and costs
the monorepo's review cadence.

## There is no npm workspace

Each module is a standalone package that consumes its dependencies from the private registry,
not from a sibling directory. The workspace was removed after it caused build-versus-development
divergence — a workspace member importing another resolved to local unbuilt source in the
pipeline and to a published version in development. Recorded in
[`02-DECISIONS/0007`](../02-DECISIONS/0014-no-npm-workspace.md).

Consequence, and it is a real one: a cross-package change is two steps — publish, then consume
— and a repository-wide `npm install` does not exist.