The RAPP Kernel
One page. The canonical reading order for everyone — operators, contributors, engineers, partners, AI assistants. Every section points to the authoritative doc; nothing is duplicated. If you only read one page on this site, this is the one.
The trilogy
Why, what, how — read in this orderMaster Plan
Tesla-Master-Plan-style first-principles north star. The single-sentence version: "Use everyone else's hardware to run the network."
What we must doHero Use Case
The canonical scenarios this codebase must satisfy — Charizard-in-the-woods, Dream Catcher, Mom's Mixtape, Pizza Place. Every architectural decision is judged against whether these stories still work.
How it fits togetherEcosystem
End-to-end layout of a planted organism: file structure, identity stack, the two surfaces, memory tiers, MMR, egg cartridges, integrity, Dream Catcher, network modes.
The law
Discipline that's locked inConstitution
40+ articles governing the repo: kernel immutability, single-file agents, vault discipline, licensing, identity. When docs disagree, Master Plan wins; otherwise the Constitution does.
Locked rulesAntipatterns
Append-only. One term for the plugin unit (always "agent"). Frozen kernel. No half-released shims. No fallback branding. No network-only paths. PRs that violate don't merge.
VerificationDefinition of Done
The checklist a "done" thing has actually passed — for planted repos, code changes, features, links. A done thing is verified, not assumed.
IndexEcosystem Map
The authority order, decision table, schema registry, drift gaps — start every session here when in doubt about which doc owns a topic.
Reference
When you're operating, not readingSurvival
The matrix of what survives if the network breaks, GitHub goes dark, hardware dies, identity is lost. Defense-in-depth redundancy stack — the SLA you can trust.
VocabularyLexicon
Two vocabularies (human vs. developer) and the 1:1 mapping. Writers pick one per doc and stay consistent. Why we say "agent," never "skill" / "plugin" / "routine."
What's in this mirrorKernel Tree
The full grail kernel tree end-to-end, file by file, organized by sacred files / T1 / T2 / T3 / installer family / Pages / community / specs. What grail ships and where each piece lives.
Wire specNeighborhood Protocol
How organisms talk: twin chat protocol, three concentric trust scopes, four channel types, four exchange primitives, granular permissions via public_facets. Read before adding cross-organism communication.
7-layer modelOSI
RAPP mapped to a 7-layer stack with schemas at each layer: substrate / identity / discovery / channels / trust / envelope / application. Use to figure out which layer a new feature belongs to.
LicensingCommercial
License thresholds (less than 100 employees and less than $1M revenue = free; else commercial). For everyone else, the platform is open and self-hosted.
The specs
Wire contracts and the SDKSPEC
The frozen v1 contract for single-file agents — what perform() takes, what it returns, how metadata travels, the delimited slots (|||VOICE|||, |||TWIN|||). The API.
v2+ directionsRoadmap
Post-v1 directions that must honor the v1 contract. Where the platform is going, with hard constraints on backwards compatibility.
Multi-tier identityEstate Spec
The whole-organism cartridge — how an operator's full identity stack (kernel + soul + agents + memory + lineage + bonds) packs into a portable artifact.
SDKRapplication SDK
Reference for building rapplications — graduated, certified agents that ship with their own UI and per-rapp state.
For LLMsSkill manifest
Canonical AI-readable skill manifest. Feed this to any LLM (Claude, Copilot, GPT) and it can extend RAPP correctly without further prompting.
Network layerNetwork Protocol Spec
The wire contract for the global RAPP network — federation, doors, gates, rappid addressing, the canonical raw.githubusercontent.com URL shapes. Distinct from the agent SPEC; this is how organisms find each other across the public web.
Network runbookNetwork-citizen skill
The action-oriented companion to the Network Protocol Spec — six steps for an AI to become a 1st-class citizen of the RAPP network using only a GitHub account.
IndexAll specs
Browse every spec under pages/docs/ — SUBSTRATE_FEDERATION, PUBLIC_PRIVATE_BOUNDARY, QR_FRONT_GATE, VERSIONS, AGENTS, more.
Reading Paths
Curated note sequences for different audiences — ~30 min eachExec asking what this is
The shortest credible read. What it is, why it matters, what it changes — without engineering depth.
~30 minEngineer evaluating RAPP
8 notes. The fastest credible read for a senior engineer deciding whether the platform is worth integrating. Architecture, constraints, tradeoffs.
~40 minArchitect deciding to bet
For an architect or staff engineer weighing whether to bet a roadmap on RAPP. The constraints, the immune system, the why behind every locked rule.
~25 minPartner pricing a project
For implementation partners, ISVs, and consultants pricing a build on RAPP. What you ship, what you bill, what's commodified.
~35 minNew contributor
For a developer about to submit their first PR. The vault notes that make every code review go smoothly.
The vault
The why — decision narratives, removal stories, architecture essaysVault index
~100 published notes across Architecture, Decisions, Founding Decisions, Foundations, Manifestos, Removals, Twin and UX, Positioning. The why behind every locked rule and every shipped feature.
Deep divesArchitecture essays
Rappid, eggs, bonding, federation, mirror spec, layered mirrors, public-private body stack, neighborhood protocol — the engineering essays that justify the decisions in the law.
Why we choseDecisions
Each major design call documented with rationale, alternatives considered, and what would change our mind. The audit trail.
The kernel tree
What this repo actually contains, end to endKERNEL_TREE.md
The complete grail kernel tree at grail paths — sacred files, T1 Brainstem, T2 Swarm, T3 Copilot Studio, installer family, Pages content, community surface, specs, plumbing — plus this mirror's prerogative additions.
Species rootrappid.json
The identity of the RAPP species — every descendant organism's parent_rappid chain ends here. The platform's genealogical zero.
Mirror disciplineMirror Spec
The frozen-kernel pattern. Why three files must stay byte-identical to grail, why the installer is a sync wire not an installer, how to verify drift in one shell command.