9.8 KiB
The Fabric — Architecture Document
Status: Design Draft — Not Implemented Date: 2026-05-02 Author: MrC (Fred Cullpepper)
What Is The Fabric?
The Fabric is an ambient intelligence layer that watches across Chris's three silos — School (FRC 2890), Work (PSB brewery), Play (HHS-Hackers) — detects knowledge gaps, and surfaces learning opportunities before they're hit.
It is NOT:
- A chatbot students ask questions
- A passive archive of notes
- A curriculum database
It IS:
- A watching, noticing, connecting layer
- A gap detection engine
- A proactive learning path builder
- A synthesis surface that cross-pollinates knowledge without bleeding personal data
Name origin: Chris chose "Fabric" — it suggests threads weaving together, a living mesh rather than a static graph.
Core Principles
- Proactive, not reactive — The Fabric notices before you do (stalled fermentation, VLAN capability on new router, 3-day flat gravity)
- Scale-aware — Home lab, not enterprise. Chris doesn't need Cisco certs.
- Students first — Build pathways that teach students to discover, not handouts
- Privacy by design — Soft walls between silos (cross-silo data anonymized). Hard walls pending Chris's stew.
- Agents as writers — The Fabric reads what agents already do. No extra work for Chris.
The Three Silos
| Silo | Domain | Agents | Data Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏫 School | FRC 2890 robotics | 2890-bot | Kanban board (JSON), Gitea repos, team Discord, student conversations |
| 🏭 Work | PSB brewery | PSB agents (hacker-claude, gemma, thinking, business) | TILT hydrometer data, fermentation logs, recipes, Google Drive |
| 🎮 Play | HHS-Hackers | crash-bot | Project docs, Discord, hardware projects (ESP32, ComBadge, etc.) |
The Layers
Layer 1: Input (Gitea as Hub)
All sources flow into Gitea:
- Chris's personal notes (Obsidian phone → git push → Gitea)
- Agent streams (2890-bot, PSB agents, crash-bot push to their repos)
- Kanban board data (polled from 2890-bot's board.json)
- Student code (Gitea repos)
- Fermentation data (PSB-Gemma writes logs)
Gitea is the single input hub. Everything lands there.
Layer 2: Ingestion (memory-wiki Bridge)
The memory-wiki plugin runs in bridge mode:
- Pulls artifacts from Gitea repos
- Imports agent memory streams
- Compiles daily notes and board data
- Stores as structured pages: sources/, entities/, concepts/, syntheses/
Command: openclaw wiki bridge import (run on a schedule)
Layer 3: The Fabric (MrC's Brain)
I am the Fabric. I read the compiled vault and:
- Monitor for anomalies (fermentation stalled, board tasks stuck, new hardware drops)
- Detect gaps between what Chris is working on and what he needs to learn
- Build learning paths for students (based on their board activity, not generic curriculum)
- Surface cross-domain connections (ESP32 knowledge from Play → useful for School)
- Route insights to the right channel (Chris DM, Gitea issue, Discord thread)
Layer 4: Output (Routing)
Insights route based on context:
| Insight Type | Route |
|---|---|
| Student learning path | Gitea issue on student repo + Discord thread |
| Cross-silo connection | Chris DM only (pending privacy resolution) |
| Anomaly alert (fermentation stalled) | Chris DM via PSB agent |
| New hardware/technique relevant to active project | Chris DM |
| General gap detection | Chris DM |
Output goes to Chris first until the privacy model is settled.
The Privacy Model (OPEN QUESTION)
Chris identified an XSS-like issue: the Fabric knows things about people. Even when cross-silo data is "anonymized," specific knowledge can reverse-engineer identities.
Current thinking — three options:
Option 1: Soft walls (honor system) I track where information originated and don't surface it in cross-silo contexts. Works as long as I don't get asked the wrong question by the wrong person. No technical enforcement.
Option 2: Hard walls (technical anonymization) The Fabric only sees anonymized output. I know "ESP32 expertise exists in the Play silo" but not whose. This would require building the anonymization layer deliberately into synthesis.
Option 3: Strict routing Cross-silo insights go only to Chris. Chris acts as the human firewall and decides what to relay. I never contact students directly on cross-silo matters.
Decision pending: Chris is stewing on this.
Student Learning Pathway Design
When a student (via 2890-bot) wants to learn X:
Step 1: Assess
Ask 2-3 diagnostic questions to understand current level. Example (PhotonVision):
- "What have you tried so far?"
- "Do you know what AprilTags are?"
- "Have you worked with camera calibration before?"
Step 2: Build custom path
Based on answers + board activity, build a 5-7 step learning path. Not a curriculum — a personalized guide with checkpoints.
Step 3: Deliver
- Post to student's Gitea repo as an issue
- Track progress via board activity
- Adjust path as they work
Step 4: Connect cross-silo
If the student needs help with something that exists in another silo, route through Chris (not direct contact).
What Chris Wants to Prove Out
- Fermentation anomaly loop — PSB-Gemma sees flat gravity → I surface to Chris → Chris acts
- Student learning path — Bruno wants PhotonVision → I assess → custom path → track progress
- Hardware monitoring — new ESP32 variant drops → I surface if relevant to active projects
- Cross-domain gap detection — Chris is setting up Pi-hole with VLAN capabilities he doesn't know about → I surface the learning gap at the right moment
Current State
| Component | Status |
|---|---|
| Gitea input hub | ✅ Running (2890.duckdns.org:3002) |
| memory-wiki vault | ✅ 167 sources ingested (2026-05-03) |
| Vault git sync | ✅ Pushed to Gitea openclaw-wiki repo |
| Bridge mode | ❌ Not configured — Path B rat hole noted |
| Ingestion pipeline | ✅ Manual wiki ingest working |
| Fabric (me) | ✅ Reading across silos |
| Output routing | 🔨 Design complete, not built |
| Privacy model | 🔥 Open question |
| Cross-agent chat room | 🔨 Design complete — needs implementation |
| PSB-business / hacker-claude ingest | ❌ Deferred (low priority) |
Path B (Fabric backbone) noted as rat hole for future session. |
Cross-Agent Coordination — Chat Room Option
Alternative to heartbeat polling. A shared Discord channel where agents coordinate in real-time without waiting for scheduled wakes.
Architecture
#fabric-agents (private Discord channel)
├── 2890-bot (reads/writes)
├── PSB-gemma (reads/writes)
├── crash-bot (reads/writes)
└── me / MrC (reads/writes)
Chris lurks or checks when needed
Key Design: Silos Preserve Purpose
Chris: "the silos have a purpose."
The chat room does NOT merge silos. Each agent stays in its own domain:
- 2890-bot posts school-relevant status
- PSB-gemma posts brewery-relevant status
- Agents still respond to their own users in their own channels
- The chat room is a coordination layer, not a merge layer
Security Model
Threat: A public-facing bot (crash-bot-public) gets manipulated into requesting exec in the chat room. That request echoes into the room. A privileged agent grants it, thinking it came from a trusted agent.
Guard Rails:
| Guard Rail | What it does |
|---|---|
| Agents run stripped-down in chat room | Same as crash-bot-public — exec denied, no shell access |
| Privileged agents ignore exec requests from room | Only trust /approve flow through normal channels |
| Chat room agent is relay only | It reads/writes, doesn't grant permissions |
| Chris in approval path | For sensitive actions, human signs off |
What Gets Posted to the Room
| Agent | Posts |
|---|---|
| 2890-bot | "Bruno working on roller coaster sub-task 3 stuck 4 days" |
| PSB-gemma | "Gravity flat 72h on batch X, recipe FG not reached" |
| crash-bot | "New ESP32-S3-WROVER variant dropped, review" |
| Me | "Synthesized: fermentation stalled + Bruno stuck = both need Chris attention" |
How I Stay Invisible
I can write to the room. The other agents see my posts but don't attribute them to me — they treat it as shared context. I surface synthesis, they act on what matters to their domain.
Chris approves this design in principle. Implementation requires:
- Create
#fabric-agentsDiscord channel - Configure agents to join (stripped exec)
- Test relay flow end-to-end
Open Questions
- Privacy model — soft walls, hard walls, or routing? (Chris stewing)
- How do I talk to students? — via 2890-bot Discord thread? Gitea issues? GitHub PR comments?
- Ingestion automation — cron job for
openclaw wiki bridge import? Agent-triggered? - Who manages the vault? — Do I (MrC) own it? Does crash-bot? Is it shared?
- Knowledge graph vs. Fabric — Is the "knowledge graph" the vault, or is it the connections I draw? Are they the same thing?
- Cross-agent chat room — implement after silos preserve purpose (Chris approved 2026-05-03)
What Needs to Happen Next
Chris decides on privacy model— Chris stewing, deferConfigure memory-wiki bridge mode— deferred, Path B rat holeRun first ingestion— ✅ 167 sources (2026-05-03)Test output routing— design complete- Create
#fabric-agentsDiscord channel — next concrete step - Configure agents to join — stripped exec, relay only
- Build first student learning path — when Bruno or student asks
- Test cross-agent chat relay — proof of concept
- Help Chris open vault in Obsidian on iOS — deferred from tonight
This document is a working draft. It will evolve as the architecture is proven out.