Docs/System Modules/Control Plane

Control Plane

Owns runtime configuration, process lifecycle, supervision, and system state without becoming part of the personal Substrate.

Current module contractLast updated July 17, 2026

The Control Plane answers what is installed, configured, running, paused, trusted, or failed right now. These facts operate the system; they are not the user's Timeline.

Owns

Core lifecycle, system.db, workspace selection, App and Connector registries, run state, schedules, and supervision.

Exposes

Host-only lifecycle and management APIs consumed by the trusted Shell and operator tooling.

Persists

Connector integrations and runs, approvals, credential metadata, settings, checkpoints, warnings, and mutable policies.

Does not own

Personal Events/Documents/Tables, provider secret values, Guard's data.db connection, or App business logic.

Process topology

Electron Host / standalone operator
                │
                ├── Core ─────────────→ system.db
                │    ├── App registry + channels
                │    ├── Connector supervisor
                │    └── Shell / operator APIs
                │
                └── Guard service ────→ data.db
                     └── isolated SQL executor

Core and Guard are separately supervised processes. Core does not open data.db; Guard has no system.db handle. The Host owns their private authentication material and startup order.

Control state

StateWhy it belongs here
Source pause/readiness/run statusChanges execution policy without rewriting existing Events.
Schedules, retries, timeout, concurrencyMutable operational policy, not static package truth.
Package trust approvalsAuthorizes the current Connector hash, not captured personal data.
Credential referencesBind integrations to secret custody without exposing secret values.
Warnings and healthDescribe current operation and recovery, not meaningful Timeline activity.

Lifecycle contract

  1. The Host selects or opens a Workspace and creates canonical .lamarck/ state.
  2. Guard starts and becomes the sole managed data.db owner.
  3. Core opens system.db, loads package registries, and starts supervisors.
  4. Interfaces become available only after required private channels are established.
  5. Workspace switch or shutdown revokes App channels, stops children, drains admitted work, and closes database owners in order.

An unexpected Guard or Capsule failure closes the affected capability path. Lamarck does not fall back to executing App commands directly on the Host.

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