a project

Metnos

by Roberto Brunialti
An architecture for agents. And the attempt to make their power governable.
μῆτις + νοῦς — mêtis (the mind that adapts) + noûs (the mind that reasons): the two Greek words for mind, joined into one name. · technical project name: metnos

If you would like the how after the why, three doors. The note on the code (Code) answers where is the beef?

Quick tour & Survival kit 20 min · PDF available Architecture guide visual tutorial Code note

Metnos is a self-hosted architecture for governed agents. Its reference installation can act as a personal or household assistant, but that is one executor set, not the definition of the system: another admitted catalog can serve software maintenance, research, remote systems or another bounded operational domain. The core plans, judges, remembers and audits; executors define what can actually be done. The interesting part is therefore not only the code but the prior definition: which powers exist, which limits they honour, and in what vocabulary the system addresses the human who governs it.

What you will find here

The documentation describes the current product: an introductory guide, the interface map, a domain reference with natural-language examples, and the Architecture guide with component contracts. Technical catalogs and the interface page are generated from runtime registries; the Tutor compiles these sources together with admitted manifests into a signed catalog. The public repository contains the code and installer needed to verify the documented contracts.

Dialogues

The dialogues are the thought behind Metnos put under the pressure of objection: not treatises, not specifications, but ideas made to answer an uncomfortable peer. The form is Galilean — two voices, both the author’s, one of which refuses to grant easy agreement. Not fiction: only the structure is dialogic, the content is real.

The whole corpus

For anyone
Quick tour & Survival kit — Metnos in 15–20 minutes Nine real scenes, including the cross-domain Atlas dossier, and a dedicated Tutor chapter: how Metnos explains capabilities and procedures, observes admitted instance state, and hands a possible action to the normal engine only after confirmation. The guide also covers interface, consent, memory, growth, devices, limits, and a glossary. An accessible HTML version is also available.
HTML · 20 min
Domain reference — what to ask Metnos All 27 canonical domains explained one by one, with boundaries, availability, and natural-language request examples. Technical names and counts derive from manifests and builtin contracts.
Reference · 15 min
Opening and using Metnos — first access, first operations Which address opens the web chat, how to get in the first time, what you do in the conversation, and the exact steps to create a new user and give them access.
Guide · 6 min
The interface — two channels, one identity How the interface is arranged: the two channels and their separate conversations, the four Settings sections, and the map of administration pages with their navigation paths. The map derives from the runtime’s surfaces registry.
Guide · 8 min
Foundations
Architecture guide One visual tutorial from the system's purpose and request flow to executor authority and the exact contracts of every component. Inline SVG diagrams, printable as PDF.
20 min
Tutor — Metnos can explain Metnos The local component that compiles admitted manifests, runtime registries, and published documentation into a signed catalog. It separates explanations from actions, applies access control before composition, and answers with no tools.
8 min
Vision and assessment
Perspectives and judgement A critical assessment of the architecture from several viewpoints: usefulness, autonomy, proactivity, anthropomorphism risks, and conditions for governance.
Analysis · 20 min
Extended perspectives Capabilities that broaden Metnos's reach and the architectural conditions required to introduce them without confusing a possibility, a design, and an available function.
Analysis · 20 min
Dialogues
Dialogue on ends and limits Four Giornate on proactivity, laws, ends, judgement, and the separation between deterministic guard and graduated evaluation.
Reflection · 25 min
Dialogue on executors and distributed memory Four Giornate on executor contracts and forms of operational memory: mnests, traces, the mnestome, decay, and composition.
Reflection · 25 min
Reference
Glossary Technical and conceptual terms used throughout the corpus, with links to the pages that define their current contract.
Reference
Component contracts

The Architecture guide includes the complete component atlas. From there, each component name opens its canonical implementation contract: schemas, calls, authority, failure conditions and conformance checks.

Code
Public repository Code, installer, and English technical documentation under the AGPL-3.0 license. The code note explains the relationship between the public repository and an installed instance.
GitHub