Skip to content

PROVENANCE.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
83 lines (50 loc) · 5.03 KB

PROVENANCE.md

File metadata and controls

83 lines (50 loc) · 5.03 KB
Raw

PROVENANCE.md — OpenCoven Origin Record

This document exists to establish the clear, timestamped origin of the architectural ideas that define OpenCoven. It is a public record, not a legal claim. It is maintained so that future readers — contributors, users, researchers, patent examiners — can verify where these ideas came from and when.

Origin

OpenCoven was created by Valentina Alexander (@BunsDev) and first published publicly on April 27, 2026 under the MIT License.

This repository has no fork parent. It is an original work with no upstream source repository.

Architectural Concepts and Their Origins

1. The Familiar Identity Model

First appeared: coven-cli/src/familiar_identity.rs, commit history from 2026-04-27

A named, role-scoped agent persona — a "familiar" — resolved from a configuration manifest (familiars.toml) and attached to a session via a CLI flag or runtime config. Each familiar has an id, display_name, and role. The familiar model is the foundational identity primitive for multi-agent systems in OpenCoven.

This concept was original to this repository. It has been independently acknowledged as prior art by third parties in their own published documentation.

2. The Agent Spawn Harness

First appeared: pty_runner.rs:307 (spawn_piped_with_observer), commit history from 2026-04-27

A structured dispatch pattern for launching configured agent/harness processes. The pattern validates a harness allowlist, canonicalizes working directory, checks session state, then dispatches to one of a defined set of low-level spawn primitives. This is the root pattern from which single-chokepoint process execution architectures in agent systems derive.

3. The Multi-Agent Familiar Substrate

First appeared: 2026-04-27, OpenCoven core architecture

Composable, purpose-scoped agents ("familiars") that cooperate through structured routing, share session context, and are individually manageable. Each familiar has a defined lane; routing between familiars is explicit and traceable. This is not monolithic prompt-chaining — it is a hub-and-spoke orchestration model where each agent is a named, scoped participant.

4. The Graded Approval Tier Model

First appeared: The Familiar Contract RFC-0001 v0.2.0, authored by Valentina Alexander and Sage, dated 2026-06-19

Defines a ward.toml-like structure with a [protected] partition (files/invariants an agent may not modify autonomously) and [editable] partition, gated by approval tiers: auto → familiar_review → human_review → human_required. Enforced by an authority layer separate from the familiar itself.

5. Session Memory and Continuity Substrate (OpenTrust)

First published: 2026 (active development)

Durable, portable agent memory that persists across sessions, remains under user control, and maintains provenance of agent actions. Designed to be model-agnostic and provider-agnostic — memory is not stored on vendor servers unless the user chooses that. This is the trust layer that makes long-running agent systems auditable and recoverable.

Third-Party Acknowledgments

The following third-party projects have independently documented OpenCoven as a source or ancestor of their architectural concepts. These acknowledgments are recorded here as additional evidence of the originality and priority of OpenCoven's contributions:

Project Documentation Concepts acknowledged
YogiSotho/warden lineage/LINEAGE.md, docs/ops/patent/prior-art-search.md Spawn chokepoint (pty_runner.rs:307), familiar identity model (coven-cli/src/familiar_identity.rs:23-35), harness adapter contract, ledger shape, CLI skeleton. Warden's own prior-art search gives OpenCoven a "real, dated, public prior art" verdict for these elements.

The presence of these acknowledgments in third-party repositories is noted for the record and does not constitute an endorsement of those projects by OpenCoven maintainers.

Maintainer

Valentina Alexander

  • GitHub: @BunsDev
  • Role: Creator and Core Maintainer, OpenCoven
  • Also: Core Maintainer, OpenClaw; Developer Relations Engineer, Ritual Foundation

Contributing to the Record

If you are aware of prior art that predates any of the concepts listed here, please open an issue. We maintain this document honestly — if something was not original to us, we want to know and update the record accordingly.

If you are aware of a patent application or trademark filing that cites or conflicts with the concepts documented here, please notify the maintainers immediately via the Discord or by opening a GitHub issue.

Last updated: 2026-07-04 This document does not constitute legal advice.