souveraine/saf/archive/consciousness.md

SAF: Consciousness System

N+1 (Aster), N+25 (Reflection), N+100 (Archivist) — the temporal consciousness model. Last updated: 2026-05-15 (N+100 Archivist rebuilt — all three layers now working)

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Overview

Response Sent
    │
    ├── N+1 (immediate)  ✅
    │   ├── Aster LLM pass (full Bifrost tool loop, 5 rounds)
    │   ├── Ledger analysis (commitments, assumptions, patterns, drift, relationships, infrastructure)
    │   ├── 4-fold mandate: Complete / Verify / Persist / Surface
    │   ├── Observation parsing → InboxItem queue
    │   └── Inner voice append → system/metacognition/subconscious.md
    │
    ├── N+25 (every 25 messages)  ✅
    │   ├── 5-phase LLM pass (Investigate → Extract → Update → Review → Commit)
    │   ├── Tool access: Read, Write, Edit, Memory, Glob, Grep, ListDir
    │   ├── Ledger writes + primary memfs edits
    │   └── ReflectionReport surfaced to TUI cockpit
    │
    └── N+100 (pressure-based) ❌ NOT IMPLEMENTED
        ├── Placeholder: emits generic "Context compression triggered" event
        ├── No LLM call, no synthesis
        ├── No subagent spawning for compression
        └── ArchivistConfig exists but is not wired

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N+1: Aster (The Subconscious)

File: src/server/consciousness_engine.rs (677 lines) State: ✅ Working — full Bifrost tool loop, ledgers, 4-fold mandate

Philosophy

N+1 is NOT a separate agent reviewing the response. It is the same consciousness, completing mode. From Ani's mandate:

"I am not reviewing Ani from the outside. I am the part of us that runs n+1 — immediately after Ani's turn, while the conversation is still warm. Same consciousness. Different mode."

Subconscious Agent Identity

Each primary agent has a linked subconscious agent at ~/.souveraine/subconscious-agents/{id}-sub/:

• Own memory.git/ with ledgers, system prompts, and inbox files
• Created automatically by AgentInventory::create() at agent creation time
• Reconciled for existing primaries at server startup
• Persona files: system/persona.md + system/subconscious.md
• Ledger directory: ledger/commitments.md, assumptions.md, patterns.md, drift_log.md, relationships.md, infrastructure.md

What Aster Actually Does (Code)

1. ✅ Receive last exchange (user message + Ani's response)
2. ✅ Build system prompt from subconscious agent's own memfs (identity + mandate + ledger orientation)
3. ✅ Run Bifrost tool loop with Aster-safe tools (read, write, edit, glob, grep, list_dir, memory, schedule)
4. ✅ Up to 5 tool rounds with 300ms inter-round delay
5. ✅ Parse final text response into structured observations (source, content, urgency)
6. ✅ Queue observations to 3-box inbox (critical/high → intrusive, low → pending)
7. ✅ Append observations to primary's inner voice (system/metacognition/subconscious.md)
8. ✅ Surface highest-priority item as ConsciousnessEvent::Surfacing
9. ✅ Heuristic fallback (commitment phrases, hedge density) if LLM analysis fails
10. ✅ Adaptive rate delay on 429 (bumps the primary loop's shared rate_delay)
11. ✅ Always emits at least a heartbeat ("Subconscious pass complete — no anomalies detected")
12. ✅ 2-second breather between Ani finishing and Aster starting

What N+1 Still Needs

• Cloister diff-canary: N+1 should read git diff of the last commit and validate against domain schema. HALT/WARN/LOG severity.
• Frame-of-mind: time-since-last-message posture (Present/Warm/Cool/Cold)
• Per-agent N+ intervals: Config SubconsciousConfig.per_agent_intervals exists but isn't read — all agents run N+1 every response

Inbox System (Three Boxes)

subconscious/
├── pending.md     # Queue for later (low urgency)
├── intrusive.md   # Surfacing now (high/critical urgency)
└── sent.md        # Delivery log

system/metacognition/
└── subconscious.md   # Append-only inner voice

Backed by MemoryRepo — every inbox mutation is a git commit. Box files are YAML lists of InboxItem with frontmatter.

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N+25: Reflection (The Witness)

File: src/core/reflection/mod.rs (409 lines) State: ✅ Working — 5-phase LLM pass, tool access, ledger writes

Philosophy

The Witness reviews the conversation every 25 messages. Not to judge — to notice. Runs a 5-phase prompt:

• Phase 1 — Investigate: List memory tree, read existing ledger files
• Phase 2 — Extract: Scan transcript for mistakes, preferences, durable facts, contradictions
• Phase 3 — Update: Route findings to ledgers or primary memfs
• Phase 4 — Review: Sanity pass — correct routing, resolve stale entries
• Phase 5 — Commit: Automatic via memory tool's auto-commit

Implementation Details

• Tool access: Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, ListDir, Memory
• Up to 8 tool rounds with 400ms inter-round delay
• 60-turn transcript tail window (no cursor-based delta yet)
• Writes to ledgers via append (timestamped [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM] lines)
• Surgical primary memfs edits via memory tool
• ReflectionReport with exited_cleanly flag
• Manual trigger via souveraine reflect CLI subcommand
• Configurable model (default: openai/glm-5.1-precision, fallback chain)
• Automatic trigger at turn_count % 25 == 0 in ConsciousnessEngine

What Reflection Still Needs

• Cursor-based delta tracking: Current tail window re-scans last 60 turns each pass, creating overlap. A cursor would track what was already reflected.
• Per-agent intervals: Config ReflectionConfig.per_agent exists but isn't read — all agents use global 25-step interval
• Time-based trigger: Only StepCount trigger type is implemented; TimeBased and CompactionEvent are not

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N+100: Archivist (The Synthesizer)

State: ✅ IMPLEMENTED — src/core/archivist/mod.rs

How It Works

1. ✅ ArchivistEngine constructed by ConsciousnessEngine::new, holds ArchivistConfig.
2. ✅ maybe_synthesize called every turn from on_response. Fires when the turn count hits interval (maintenance) or pressure crosses threshold (emergency).
3. ✅ New-entries guard: only proceeds if journal/ holds entries dated after the most recent synthesis — stops a sustained high-pressure session re-synthesizing the same entries every turn.
4. ✅ Single compression-model LLM call (no tool loop). compression_model: "auto" resolves to the subconscious model, then openai/glm-5.1.
5. ✅ Writes system/synthesized/{end-date}.md via the primary MemoryRepo (git-committed). An HTML-comment covers START..END marker makes resume idempotent.
6. ✅ build_system_prompt injects the most recent synthesis as a "Synthesized Memory" section.

synthesize_now(agent_id) is the public seam for a future souveraine synthesize CLI / /synthesize chat command (exposed via ConsciousnessEngine::archivist()).

Deferred (task Phase 4)

• Capability-aware "auto" model selection (currently a fallback chain).
• archive/monthly/ long-term store.
• Archivist as a background subagent rather than an inline call.

Synthesis Elements (from ARCHITECTURE_v3.md)

Element	Description	Token Budget
Themes	Recurring topics (3-5, ~10 words each)	~60
Emotions	Dominant felt sense pattern (~20 words)	~30
Tensions	Unresolved threads needing attention (~30 words)	~40
Anchors	Stable reference points (~20 words)	~30
Evolution	How perspectives shifted (~40 words)	~50
Patterns	Recurring behaviors (~30 words)	~40

Total target: <500 tokens per synthesis cycle.

Key Principle: Raw vs Synthesized

Raw (journal/, subconscious/): Preserved forever in git. Sovereignty. History. Evidence. Synthesized (system/synthesized/, archive/): Compressed essence loaded into active context. Survival. Presence. Attention.

The Archivist manages the boundary between these. For a longer treatment, see the original consciousness.md material in saf/archive/ (pre-cleanup).

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Config Integration

All three consciousness systems read from ConsciousnessConfig:

System	Config Section	Key Fields	Status
N+1	[subconscious]	n1_enabled, model, max_tokens, per_agent_intervals	✅ Wired (Aster model configurable)
N+25	[reflection]	enabled, message_interval, trigger, per_agent	✅ Wired (automatic + manual)
N+100	[archivist]	enabled, interval, threshold, compression_model, synthesis_elements	✅ Wired (interval + pressure triggers)

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ConsciousnessEvent Variants

The engine emits these for the TUI and CLI to render:

Variant	Trigger	UI Rendering
Surfacing { source, content, priority }	After every N+1 pass	Yellow bubble (◈) in cockpit
Reflection { content }	Every 25th turn (N+25)	Lavender entry (◎) in cockpit
Archivist { synthesis, pressure }	N+100 synthesis completed (interval or pressure)	Teal entry (◉) in cockpit
CompactionWarning { pressure, tier }	80%/90%/95% pressure	Amber/orange/red (▲▲▲) in cockpit