A microkernel-style boot assembler where every module shares one lifecycle contract; a topological, fail-fast boot loads numbered capability tiers so that Tier 0 alone is an operable, health-serving platform with no AI and no business logic — and the AI runtime is its own tier.
This repository is a Technical Defensive Publication. It is published to establish dated, citable prior art so that the techniques described herein remain freely practiceable by anyone and cannot be patented by a third party.
Publisher / © holder Gus IT LLC (Florida, USA) Author Gustavo Assuncao, PhD Publication date 2026-06-25 Version 1.0 Document type Technical Defensive Publication (public prior art) Classification Public License AGPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft; commercial license available) Deposit channel To be assigned (IP.com / Zenodo / arXiv) — establishes a public, dated, citable prior-art record.
Large AI-agent platforms aggregate dozens to hundreds of interdependent modules — operating-system services (configuration, database, authentication, audit, event bus), an AI-inference runtime (token routing, tool execution, persona orchestration), and business domains (CRM, communications, documents). A conventional monolith or an undifferentiated plugin host gives no guarantee that the platform can boot deterministically, fail fast on an unmet dependency, or remain operable and manageable when AI or business logic is absent or broken. When the expensive, fast-moving AI runtime crashes, the whole process often dies with it — taking down the health endpoint that operators need precisely at that moment.
This publication describes a boot architecture that solves that problem with three
combined mechanisms. First, a single uniform module-lifecycle contract —
{id, category, requires, optional, register, bootstrap, shutdown, health, emits, listens, config} — is used identically across every module, whether it is an OS
service, the AI runtime, or a business domain. Second, the assembler computes a
topological ordering from the declared dependencies and refuses to boot
(fail-fast) when any required dependency is unmet. Third, modules load in
numbered capability tiers with AI-platform-specific semantics: Tier 0 is a
bare kernel that exposes an aggregated /health endpoint and is fully operable with
zero AI and zero domain logic; the AI runtime is its own distinct Tier 2,
sandwiched between OS/policy services (Tier 1) and optional business domains (Tier 3).
A later-tier module that fails its declared dependency is isolated without
preventing lower tiers from remaining operable and health-reporting, and per-domain
database-schema isolation is bound to module identity. The platform thereby attains
and reports a verified operable health state before, and independent of, loading
any AI or domain logic.
This is a defensive disclosure. Gus IT LLC publishes the technique to keep it in the public domain: by creating a dated, public, citable record of the combined mechanism, we ensure the technique remains freely practiceable by everyone and bar later patenting of the same combination by others. We are not seeking a patent on this; we are deliberately preventing one. The architecture of a boot assembler is inspectable from any deployed system, so there is little durable trade secret to protect — the right move is to publish, timestamp, and open-source.
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| DEFENSIVE-PUBLICATION.md | The full technical whitepaper: architecture, mechanics, data model, claims, prior-art delta, worked example, evaluation, standards mapping. |
| docs/PRIOR-ART.md | Fuller prior-art landscape, delta table, and honesty attestation. |
| docs/FIGURES.md | All Mermaid figures with captions (Figure 1..N). |
| docs/OPEN-SOURCE-APP.md | The planned open-source reference app and its Kubernetes/AKS deployment sketch. |
| src/ | Original, clean-room illustrative reference implementation of the boot assembler. |
| LICENSE · NOTICE · CITATION.cff | Licensing, attribution, and citation metadata. |
This repository is intended to seed a small open-source reference application that boots a synthetic 12-module platform through the tiered assembler, proves Tier-0 operability before any "AI" tier loads, and renders a live tier-health dashboard. See docs/OPEN-SOURCE-APP.md for scope, architecture, and a generic Kubernetes/AKS deployment sketch.
Licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later (see LICENSE) — copyleft, so anyone who modifies it and offers it as a network service must release their source. AGPL-3.0 also carries an express patent grant. A commercial license for proprietary/closed use is available from Gus IT LLC (see COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md). Please cite using CITATION.cff:
Assuncao, G. (2026). Tiered-Boot Capability Kernel for an AI-Agent Platform: A Technical Defensive Publication (Version 1.0). Gus IT LLC.
Defensive publication established 2026-06-25 by Gus IT LLC (Florida, USA).