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The three layers

A QiForge deployment has exactly three layers. Knowing what each one owns saves a lot of confusion.

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Layer 1 — Your oracle

Typically apps/your-oracle/src/main.ts (a createOracleApp(...) call), a config.ts for identity, and any custom plugins or Nest modules. You own: the entry point, your oracle’s identity, custom plugins, custom Nest modules. You don’t own: the agent loop, the graph state shape, the checkpointer, the auth flow, the meta-tools, the bundled plugins’ internals.

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Layer 2 — @ixo/oracle-runtime

The framework. Owns the bootstrap (createOracleApp), the always-on Nest modules (Sessions, Messages, WebSocket, Secrets, UCAN, Auth, Subscription, Throttler, Health), the per-request agent builder, the four always-on agent middleware (capability gate, tool validation, tool-repetition guard, tool retry — plus page-context and safety-guardrail when their hooks are set), the Matrix-backed SQLite checkpointer, and the plugin API. You never edit this layer. Updates come via pnpm update @ixo/oracle-runtime.

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Layer 3 — Bundled plugins

15 plugins shipped inside the runtime package, each independently toggleable via features. See the Plugin catalog for what each one does.

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Bootstrap, in one picture

The HTTP server accepts requests immediately; auth-requiring routes 401 until Matrix init finishes and the UCAN signing mnemonic loads. Defined in create-oracle-app.ts.

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The six registries

Plugins don’t talk to the runtime directly. They push contributions into one of six registries at boot; the agent builder reads from them per request.
RegistryHoldsCollision rule
ToolRegistryAll plugin toolsFlat namespace — collision is a boot error
SubAgentRegistryAll plugin sub-agentsFlat namespace — collision is a boot error
MiddlewareRegistryAll plugin middlewareOrdered topologically; no names
ManifestRegistryAll plugin manifestsTitle collision = soft warn
ConfigSchemaRegistryAll plugin Zod schemasMerged; later wins with warning
SharedStateRegistryPlugin shared-state accessorsFlat namespace — collision is a boot error
Source: packages/oracle-runtime/src/registries/.

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What’s pluggable vs fixed

PluggableFixed
Plugin set (bundled toggles + your plugins)Agent loop (LangChain createAgent)
nestModules (your Nest modules)Graph state shape (except one new loadedPlugins field)
authExcludedRoutes (host + plugin)Checkpointer (Matrix-backed SQLite)
LLM provider (env-driven)Auth flow (UCAN delegation)
hooks.checkpointerForUser (advanced)The four always-on middleware
System prompt (via OracleConfig.prompt)The Tier-1 block format
Anything inside a custom pluginThe six registries
If you find yourself wanting to swap something on the “Fixed” side, you’re probably trying to do something the framework explicitly doesn’t allow — and you should either work within the model (e.g. write a plugin) or fork the runtime.

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Model resolution and hooks

How does the agent pick which LLM to call, and how do you change it? Provider is env-driven. LLM_PROVIDER selects the whole per-role model map: openrouter (default) or nebius, each with its matching API key (OPEN_ROUTER_API_KEY / NEBIUS_API_KEY). The actual model id for each role (main, subagent, utility, vision, guard, …) is baked into the provider’s model map — there is no env var to change a single role’s model id on its own. Resolution is per-role. Different jobs use different models. The main agent resolves the main role; sub-agents and utility calls resolve subagent / utility through ctx.llm.get(role). The runtime resolves the main model as resolveModel('main'), defaulting to the provider map. To change the main agent’s model, pass hooks.resolveModel to createOracleApp. Spreading params keeps the provider’s fallback models and latency sorting: 
import { createOracleApp, getProviderChatModel } from '@ixo/oracle-runtime';

const app = await createOracleApp({
  config,
  plugins,
  hooks: {
    // role is 'main' | 'subagent' | 'utility'. Spreading params preserves
    // the provider's fallback models + latency sort.
    resolveModel: (role, params) =>
      getProviderChatModel(role, {
        ...params,
        ...(role === 'main' && { model: 'google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite' }),
      }),
  },
});
The runtime only calls resolveModel('main') itself, so a hook that special-cases 'main' swaps only the main agent’s model; sub-agents and utility calls keep the provider defaults unless your own code routes them through the hook too. resolveModel is one of several hooks — the framework’s advanced extension surface. Others include checkpointerForUser (swap the per-user checkpointer), safetyModel (enable the safety-guardrail middleware), getRoomTitle (enable the page-context middleware), and prompt-block overrides like operationalMode. See the createOracleApp reference for the full list.

Request lifecycle

What happens between user message and streamed response.

Build your first oracle

The recipe for wiring createOracleApp.