Architecture

Architecture

Every orchestration system makes a fundamental choice about where authority lives. Kubernetes chose the control plane. Erlang chose the supervisor tree. Obsidian chose consensus.

This is not indecision dressed up as philosophy. It is a deliberate architectural commitment: no single component should have unilateral authority over the system’s behavior. Not even the Warden .

System Overview

◈ Obsidian Architecture 

                  ┌─────────────┐
                  │   WARDEN    │
                  │  (overseer) │
                  └──────┬──────┘
                         │
            ┌────────────┼────────────┐
            │            │            │
      ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌───┴───┐ ┌─────┴─────┐
      │  AGENT A  │ │ AGT B │ │  AGENT C  │
      │ (primary) │ │       │ │ (primary) │
      └─────┬─────┘ └───────┘ └─────┬─────┘
            │                        │
       ┌────┴────┐             ┌────┴────┐
       │ sub-agt │             │ sub-agt │
       └─────────┘             └─────────┘

The Warden

The Warden is not a scheduler. It does not assign tasks, manage queues, or optimize throughput. It is a constitutional guardian — it watches for violations, mediates disputes, and maintains the systemic integrity that allows everything else to function.

Think of it as the Supreme Court, not the Executive Branch. It does not govern. It ensures that governance works.

Agent Hierarchy

Agents in Obsidian organize through Fractal Delegation — a pattern where any agent can delegate sub-tasks to child agents, creating hierarchies that mirror the structure of the problem itself.

This is not accidental. Complex problems have fractal structure. Your orchestration system should too.

The Task Pipeline

Tasks flow through the system via a pipeline that enforces constitutional compliance at every stage:

  1. Submission — A task enters the system with explicit requirements
  2. Validation — The Warden verifies constitutional compliance
  3. Assignment — Consensus determines which agent handles the task
  4. Execution — The assigned agent (and any sub-agents) perform the work
  5. Verification — Results are checked against constitutional principles
  6. Completion — Verified results are committed to the system state

Every stage is auditable. Every decision is traceable. This is not paranoia — it is good engineering.