Layer reference

One page per canonical layer in the Synedrix OS architecture: what it owns, what it must not own, who it interfaces with, and how Synedrix OS implements it today.

These pages are descriptive reference, not normative specification. Layer boundaries are set by Layer Taxonomy Table; this reference expands each row into a full page and links out to the dedicated canonical specs, ADRs, and platform pages that actually govern each layer. Where a page here and the taxonomy table disagree, the taxonomy table wins and the page is a bug.

Not every layer has the same specification depth. Layers 3–11 (with a partial exception at 12) already have dedicated canonical specs; Layers 1, 2, and 12 currently rest on the taxonomy table row alone. Each page says so plainly — see Specification depth below.

The twelve layers link

Ordering and grouping follow the taxonomy table’s stack topology.

The twelve layers stacked in their five slices:

flowchart TB
    subgraph s1["Human and intent surface"]
        l1["1. Human Interface Layer"]
        l2["2. Goal & Intent Layer"]
    end
    subgraph s2["Orchestration core"]
        l3["3. Orchestration Layer"]
        l4["4. Agent Runtime Layer"]
        l5["5. Agent Registry Layer"]
    end
    subgraph s3["Infrastructure services"]
        l6["6. Tool Abstraction Layer"]
        l7["7. Memory & Data Layer"]
        l8["8. Event Layer"]
    end
    subgraph s4["Governance and observability"]
        l9["9. Governance & Controls Layer"]
        l10["10. Observability Layer"]
    end
    subgraph s5["Domain and runtime config"]
        l11["11. Domain Pack Layer"]
        l12["12. Business Instance Layer"]
    end
    s1 --> s2
    s2 --> s3
    s3 --> s4
    s4 --> s5

How to read a layer page link

Each page follows the same shape, adapted from the platform reference pattern:

The what it must not own table is the part worth reading closely. Non-overlapping responsibility is the design rule for this architecture, and that table is where each boundary is stated.

Specification depth link

Two layers currently carry less documentation than the other ten, and each page says so directly rather than manufacturing depth that doesn’t exist:

• Human Interface (1) has no dedicated canonical spec — only the taxonomy table row and one-line mentions in Synedrix OS and the Consolidated Canonical Reference. Adjacent detail (approval routing) currently lives inside the Orchestration and Governance & Controls specs instead. Goal & Intent (2) is now specified by the Goal Model Spec, the Goal Planning Strategy and the Task Graph Spec.
• Business Instance (12) has no document centered on it — coverage is split between the Deployment Model Spec and the Responsibility Matrix.

These are flagged, not silently corrected — closing the gap means writing a new canonical spec under docs/os/, which is a decision for that document’s own authoring process, not something this reference layer resolves on its own.

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