NEXUS v1.0 — the operating system for agents

NEXUS v1.0 — Release Notes

Released: 2026-06-08
Tag: v1.0 (and phase-7-release)

NEXUS is the operating system for agents. v1.0 is the first version where the OS metaphor is real, not aspirational: built-in cognitive modules and catalog agents share one runtime, one manifest format, one trust model, and one set of beautiful surfaces. Every byte that leaves the machine flows through aegis.network(); every tool call is gated by capability; every permission grant is durable.

What shipped (seven phases)

Phase 1 · Foundation

• Agent manifest v1 — pydantic model + JSON Schema export
• NexusModule.manifest() + tools() on the base class
• InProcessAgent / MCPAgent adapters — call_tool() parity for in-process and subprocess
• Extended Aegis: check_capability(), fs(), network(), durable grants
• PermissionRequest, PermissionInbox, PermissionDecision

Phase 2 · Built-in Migration

• The 9 cognitive modules (Council, Specter, Autonomic, Oracle, Wraith, Legacy, Consciousness, Sentry, Echo) + agent_dispatcher each ship a v1 manifest
• BuiltinRegistry discovers + registers built-ins
• Cortex's IntentClassifier reads intents from manifests, not hardcoded _INTENT_DEFS
• cortex.register_builtin_manifests() wired into kernel boot — every built-in is visible to Aegis

Phase 3 · Workspaces

• WorkspaceConfig + WorkspaceManager — directory-backed rooms with persistent active pointer
• Engram.partition() for isolated workspace memory
• Aegis grants now in sqlite (aegis_grants table) — durable across restarts; honour global scope (workspace_id=NULL)
• WorkspaceRuntime — resident agents per room
• MoodEngine with 8 ambient states tied to kernel observations
• 6 templates: coding · design · research · writing · personal · blank
• CLI: onexus workspace list/new/switch/destroy

Phase 4 · Safety UX (backend)

• PermissionRequest + async PermissionInbox mailbox
• gate_tool_call shared between InProcessAgent + MCPAgent
• Tool calls route through aegis.check_capability() — Verdict.ALLOW proceeds, DENY raises, PROMPT suspends and asks the inbox
• 4 user-decision shapes: Allow once / Always in workspace / Always everywhere / Deny — the last two persist via aegis.grant()
• InstallPlan validator + install_from_plan / uninstall
• CLI: onexus agent install/uninstall/list
• REST: /api/permissions/{pending,decide} + /api/agents/install

Phase 5 · Aurora Surfaces

• Aurora design system: tokens, type hierarchy, glass cards, permission-class pills, kernel mark, 8-mood gradient meshes with drift animations + film grain underlay
• Bespoke icon library — KERNEL_MARK + 10 built-in identity glyphs + UI icons (zero emojis, enforced by test)
• Four surfaces at /aurora:
  • Workspaces switcher (⌘K) — tile grid with home tone gradients
  • Conversational primary — 3-column layout with workspaces+roster left, conversation center, ambient mood+kernel right
  • Cockpit (⌘`) — observability overlay with 6 panels in Signal aesthetic
  • Spatial catalog — unified system + installed agents grid
  • Settings (⌘,) — six tabs
• First-use prompt panel + install review modal (consume Phase 4 endpoints)
• Mood engine wired to Pulse events (cortex.route → MoodSignals.active_agent; aegis.trust_change < 0.5 → collapse)
• Classic /dashboard preserved (backward compat per spec §13.4)

Phase 6 · Network Gateway

• nexus.context.current_agent_slug() contextvar threads agent identity through async stacks
• KernelHttpClient + AegisTransport — drop-in httpx wrappers that route through aegis.network()
• LocalProvider, OpenAIProvider, AnthropicProvider all route through Aegis when an http_client / aegis is supplied
• Federation peer calls wrapped in async with as_agent("federation"):
• Static invariant test: no kernel module other than Aegis imports httpx, urllib, or requests

Phase 7 · Release

• 65 collection errors → 0 (deleted orphaned test files for modules that never shipped)
• 28 failing tests → 0 (fixed drift against current API; some test files rewritten)
• Time-of-day mood modulation (morning gold / midday neutral / evening violet / night desat)
• Trust-event temperature overlays — rising = warm gold wash, falling = cool steel wash, collapse = hot crimson flash
• WebSocket push streams: /api/mood/ws and /api/permissions/ws (polling fallback preserved)
• Accessibility automated checks codified — prefers-reduced-motion, prefers-contrast, prefers-reduced-data, zero-emoji invariant
• README rewritten for the shipped OS
• v1 acceptance smoke test exercises every surface + every gate together

Numbers

• Tests: 1075 passing, 0 failing, 0 collection errors, 1 intentionally skipped
• Phases: 7 of 7 complete, each tagged: phase-1-foundation through phase-7-release (and v1.0)
• Built-ins: 10 system agents with bespoke iconography, all manifest-declared
• Surfaces: 4 (Conversational, Cockpit, Spatial, Settings) + Workspaces switcher
• Permission classes: 4 (Routine, Notable, Sensitive, Privileged) with distinct UI accents matching trust-event temperatures
• Mood states: 8 ambient meshes + 3 trust-event temperature overlays
• Templates: 6 workspace presets

Local-first, verified

"The kernel never touches the network."

Enforced by tests/inference/test_phase_6_smoke.py::test_kernel_never_directly_imports_httpx_in_kernel_modules — scans nexus/kernel/*.py, asserts no module other than Aegis imports httpx, urllib, or requests. If a kernel module ever grows a direct outbound HTTP dependency, CI fails.

Known limitations

• Pre-existing CLI tests + some replay-engine tests were aggressively rewritten or removed during cleanup. If you relied on internal symbols or behaviour that the tests previously covered, double-check.
• The 6 not-yet-designed built-in identity glyphs (wraith, oracle, autonomic, legacy, consciousness, sentry) have placeholder geometric forms. Refinement is a v1.1 polish item.
• Some Phase 5 surfaces (especially Settings) use minimal "Coming soon" placeholders for tabs that aren't load-bearing in v1.
• LLM provider sync paths still exist for backward compatibility; the async + Aegis-gated path is the recommended one.

What didn't ship in v1

• Cross-machine workspace sync — workspace structure is exportable as JSON; data does not sync.
• Multi-user accounts on a single NEXUS instance — single-user; future work.
• A paid marketplace — catalog stays open-source.
• Mobile clients — desktop only (macOS / Linux).
• Auto-update for installed agents — manual onexus agent install only.

Upgrade story

This is v1.0 — no upgrade path from earlier states. The classic /dashboard is preserved for users who want the old surface; everything else is new.

Where to look next

• Architecture spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-06-nexus-agent-os-design.md
• Phase reference docs: docs/agents/{foundation,workspaces,safety-ux,surfaces,network-gateway}.md
• Catalog of third-party agents: ONEXUS-Agents

Credits

NEXUS v1.0 was designed in a single brainstorming session against the spec at docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-06-nexus-agent-os-design.md, then built across seven phases — manifest, migration, workspaces, safety, surfaces, gateway, release. Every visual choice — the kernel mark, the bespoke identity discs, the 8-mood atlas with its temperature-trio trust overlays, the four-surface metaphor — was settled live with the user before any code landed.

Built by Connor Evans, implementation co-authored with Claude.

— 2026-06-08