Overview
DaemonCore is a governance layer: the structural foundation beneath orchestration that defines what agents are allowed to do. It provides protocol validation, boundary enforcement, and deterministic behaviour.
The purpose is not coordination—that's what orchestrators do. The purpose is governance: ensuring agents operate within defined constraints they cannot override.
Problem Statement
Current AI systems lack architectural discipline. Daemon Core addresses this through structural constraints, not prompt engineering. See the full rationale.
Solution Architecture
Agents under Daemon Core do not receive isolated prompts. They boot into a structured context stack: global preferences, project state, task scope.
The stack is deterministic. Given identical inputs, agent behavior is predictable.
Core Mechanisms
Boot Sequence
Agents follow a defined initialisation protocol. Context loads in layers. State is explicit at every step. No implicit assumptions.
Vendor Isolation
Each AI provider operates within isolated configuration. No cross-contamination. Models can be substituted without restructuring.
Environment Awareness
Agents report execution context at boot. Hardware constraints, network access, available tooling. Behavior adapts to environment parameters.
Safety Scaling
Permissions correlate with environment trust. Constrained environments receive restricted capabilities. High-trust deployments may operate with greater autonomy.
Session Persistence
Context persists within defined boundaries. Agents resume from established state. No repeated context reconstruction.
Negative Definition
- Not an AI model – operates alongside existing models.
- Not an interface – focuses on behavior, not presentation.
- Not prompt engineering – defines runtime environment.
- Not vendor-specific – designed for multi-provider operation.
Design Principles
- Determinism – identical inputs produce identical behavior.
- Transparency – agents declare state and capabilities explicitly.
- Constraint-first – restrictions are default; permissions are earned.
- Composability – components combine without modification.
- Human authority – critical decisions require human approval.