Phase 6. Beliefs are propositions with a prior set by epistemic kind and a
confidence computed from typed evidence: sigmoid(logit(prior) + slope ×
(support × diversity − opposition)), where support from a single source
is discounted so repetition cannot manufacture certainty, and bounds keep
the mind away from absolute certainty. Every evaluation stores its
breakdown and appends a version row protected by the append-only
trigger; the belief page shows the arithmetic, evidence for and against,
alternatives, contradictions and history.
Contradiction detection is deterministic first (negation plus token
overlap): a hit emits contradiction_detected, links both beliefs and
makes each counter-evidence for the other so both trend to contested.
Operators can assert beliefs (their statement is the evidence), add
evidence, mark a belief wrong (pinned rejected, history kept) and forbid
an inference; do-not-infer corrections block matching hypotheses.
Retracting a memory retracts the evidence that cited it and re-evaluates
the beliefs concerned.
The associate process proposes low-confidence causal hypotheses from
co-occurring notable observations, and the hypothesis handler turns
admitted ones into beliefs with automatic alternatives, closing demo
scenarios 1 and 2 without any model call.
Phase 5 (ADR-0003). pkg/concepts fixes the epistemic vocabulary
(observation, fact, memory, claim, hypothesis, belief, prediction,
assumption, inference, opinion), memory kinds and relation names.
internal/memory stores episodic, semantic, procedural and
autobiographical memories in one mind-scoped table with trust-derived
credibility, importance, salience and decaying activation. Retrieval
fuses full-text rank (any-term by default), optional pgvector similarity,
recency, activation, importance and credibility, and returns the
component scores so every recall can be explained. Decay lowers
activation and never deletes; retraction and supersession keep rows for
provenance. Relationships are constrained to one mind at insert time.
Embeddings live in a conditional pgvector table keyed by model so vector
spaces are never mixed; without an embedder the system degrades to text
and graph retrieval.
Attention gates encoding: the attend handler turns admitted observations
into episodic memories (operator changes become autobiographical ones)
with memory_created events; the retrieve process proposes recalled
memories as candidates and admitted recalls are reinforced with
memory_retrieved events carrying their scoring components.
Memory explorer UI (search with component breakdown, timeline, filters,
operator knowledge entry), memory detail with provenance, relationships,
citing events and an inaccurate-memory correction; API; noemactl memory
commands; decay and embed-missing background jobs.
Phase 4 (ADR-0001). internal/attention scores thought candidates as a
normalised weighted sum over ten named features with a per-term
breakdown, ranked by (score, id) so ordering is total and replayable.
internal/workspace holds the capacity-limited workspace (refresh by
subject, decayed competition, explained admit/reject outcomes) and the
decaying working memory.
internal/brain runs one runtime per active mind: debounced wake-ups from
the event bus (own output never re-triggers), a settle window so
concurrently committing events are not skipped, bounded concurrent
Observe calls with per-process isolation and timeouts, deterministic
scoring, a loop detector that suppresses recurring thoughts and raises a
metacognition warning, executive dispatch by thought kind, and one
transaction per cycle whose events are published only after commit.
Every candidate, selection, attention shift and broadcast is an event
with provenance back to the triggering observation. Operators can run a
cycle, pause, resume, reset transient state and change attention
weights live; the manager reconciles runtimes with mind status.
cognition/attend is the first process: deterministic candidates from
external events using an urgency lexicon, novelty against context and
trust-based operator priority.
Phase 3. Events are the append-only record of everything a mind does
(ADR-0002). pkg/events defines the closed type vocabulary, categories,
evidence references and the observation payload with explicit trust
levels. The store validates and appends inside the caller's transaction,
publishes to a bounded fan-out bus only after commit, queries by seq
cursor with type/category/source/salience/confidence/time/search
filters, and walks provenance: cause, parents, children, cited evidence,
derived events and correlation groups. Durable per-consumer cursors never
move backwards.
Server-Sent Events streams (per mind and global) subscribe before
replaying history after Last-Event-ID so nothing is missed, apply the
same filter vocabulary live, and heartbeat. Operators can inject
observations tagged with operator trust for demos and tests.
UI: live thought stream with filters and paging, forensic event page
with causal chain and evidence navigation, dashboard important events.
Personality and status changes now leave operator_action events in the
mind's own history. CLI: event inspect/list/tail, observe.
Phase 2. Minds are rows with a slug, status (active/disabled/archived),
cognitive configuration and a pointer to the current personality version.
Personalities are structured (identity, values, traits, communication,
behaviour, free text) with a deterministic Brief() used by prompts and the
editor preview. Every change appends a personality_versions row protected
by the append-only trigger; restore copies an old version forward.
Templates carry reusable personalities; minds record their overrides so a
template can be re-applied without losing mind-specific edits. The
self-model starts with structural limitations the mind cannot drop
(no policy changes, no influence over shutdown, no cross-mind access).
API, UI (list, overview, editor with sliders/diff/history/import/export,
template editor) and noemactl mind/template commands. All mutations are
audited with field-level diffs.
Phase 1 foundation. Local auth per ADR-0006: Argon2id passwords, opaque
hashed session tokens with idle/absolute expiry, CSRF token plus Origin
check on cookie sessions, per-IP token bucket and per-account exponential
lockout, three roles enforced by middleware, personal API tokens for
noemactl. Audit log writer used by every admin mutation.
API: request ids, panic recovery, strict CSP and security headers, body
limits, single JSON error envelope, health/ready/status, users, sessions,
tokens, audit, token-protected /metrics.
UI: embedded html/template pages (login, first-run setup, dashboard,
system, users, account, audit, interpretation boundary), light/dark
theme, dependency-free app.js with CSRF-aware fetch and SSE helper.
Binaries: noemad with graceful shutdown, migrations at start, bootstrap
admin from environment, supervised background tasks; noemactl with
status, migrate, user create and meaningful exit codes.
- config: defaults -> JSON file -> NOEMA_* env with validation and redaction
- observability: slog with secret-redacting handler; Prometheus registry with
the metric set from the plan (events, workspace, memory, LLM, tools, queues)
- scheduler: supervised Group and bounded Pool so no goroutine is unowned
- storage: pgx pool with statement timeout, embedded migration runner
(advisory lock, checksums, up/down/status), per-test schema helper
- migrations/0001: append-only guard trigger, users, sessions, api tokens,
recovery codes, audit log, settings
- pkg/ids: UUIDv7 with monotonic counter
Andy Dixon