Architecture · technical reference
The four-layer
operating system.
INOOS is composed of four interlocking layers — each independently observable, auditable, and replaceable. Together they form the substrate on which Intelligence-Native Organizations run.
The stack
Building from the foundation up.
Each layer rests on the one below it. The Constitution governs everything; the Team API structures team contracts; the Pulse carries every signal; INAs flow through it all as the atomic unit of work.
You can replace any single layer with your own implementation — they communicate through documented interfaces, not shared memory. Nothing is opaque, nothing is locked in.
L4 · top of the stack
INA
Intelligence-Native
Artifacts
The atomic unit of work in an INO. Every piece of work — a decision, a deliverable, a request — is represented as an INA: a self-routing, context-aware, governance-bound digital object.
INAs replace the traditional model of tasks assigned to people. The artifact itself describes what it needs, who can claim it, and what governance applies.
Glossary entrySelf-routing
The INA carries rules describing where it should go next — no central dispatcher needed.
Context-aware
Everything an executor needs (data, history, related artifacts) travels with the INA itself.
Governance-bound
Constitutional checks happen at the INA level — every action it takes is evaluated against the rules.
Composable
Parent INAs contain child INAs. A project is a tree of artifacts, each with its own state and routing.
L3 · the nervous system
Pulse
The semantic
event bus
Pulse is the real-time signal layer. Every meaningful event in the system — INA transitions, swarm formations, SLA breaches, decisions, completions — flows through it.
Without Pulse, the components of an INO would be coordinated. With Pulse, they are alive.
Glossary entryBuilt on event streaming infrastructure (Redis Streams in the reference implementation), Pulse uses a publish-subscribe pattern with semantic event types — not just topic strings. Subscribers can filter by event meaning, by source, by governance class, or by any combination.
L2 · the contract layer
Team API
Inter-team
contracts
Strict interface contracts that define how teams accept, process, and deliver work. Modeled on the microservices pattern from software engineering — applied to organizational design.
No more ad hoc requests. No more favoritism in routing. Every team has a documented public surface, an SLA, and rules for what they will and won't accept.
Glossary entryA team's API defines four things: a Front Door (the intake INA every request must enter through), SLA tiers (standard, priority, critical), Accept/Reject rules (capability tags that determine what work the team takes), and a Readme (public documentation of what the team does, how to request help, and what to expect).
L1 · the foundation
Constitution
Governance
& ethics
Ten formal articles that bind every action — human or agent — taken in the system. The Constitution is not a policy document. It is enforceable code that runs before every consequential decision.
Every other layer of INOOS rests on this one. Every INA, every Pulse event, every Team API call passes through the constitutional checks. Violations are logged, blocked, or escalated to human review.
Glossary entryThe ten articles
- 01
Right to Disconnect
Humans cannot be required to be reachable outside agreed working hours by any agent or system.
- 02
Right to Explanation
Any decision affecting a human can be explained in language they understand, on demand.
- 03
Human Sanction Rule
No irreversible action significantly affecting humans without explicit human authorization.
- 04
Data Sovereignty
Personal data belongs to the person; organizational data has explicit ownership chains.
- 05
Responsibility of Intent
Agents cannot disclaim responsibility — the entity that deployed them is accountable.
- 06
Data Security
Encryption, access controls, and breach disclosure are non-negotiable system requirements.
- 07
Protection Against Precarity
Compensation has a stability floor — bounty work cannot replace baseline income guarantees.
- 08
Protection Against Algorithmic Discrimination
Routing, evaluation, and reward systems must demonstrate fairness across protected classes.
- 09
Surveillance Boundaries (Panopticon Test)
No monitoring practice the affected humans would not consent to if fully informed.
- 10
Enforcement & Governance
Violations are logged, escalated, or blocked; human governance bodies have final authority.
Architectural principles
Three properties hold across every layer.
01
Composability
Every layer exposes documented interfaces. You can replace Pulse with your own event bus, swap in a different governance engine, or extend the INA schema — without touching the rest. Nothing is locked together by shared memory or hidden state.
02
Observability
Every action in the system emits a Pulse event. Every INA carries an immutable ledger of what happened to it. Every constitutional check is logged with its inputs, outputs, and rationale. Audit-ready by default.
03
Governability
The Constitution is not a downstream check — it is upstream of every action. Agents cannot route around it; humans cannot accidentally bypass it. The governance layer is the foundation, not the afterthought.
Next
Where to go from here.
This page is the canonical reference for the architecture. For deeper dives — on individual concepts, on the SDK, on the reference implementation — follow the links below.
Glossary
Canonical definitions of every term
Ten authoritative entries — INO, INA, OFI, BYOT, BYOA, Pulse, Team API, Constitution, Panopticon Test, Human Sanction Rule.
Manifesto
The thesis behind the architecture
Why intelligence-native organizations exist, and what they replace.
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