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Device Wide Substrate

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github-actions[bot] edited this page Jun 13, 2026 · 2 revisions

Device-Wide Substrate

Installed per repo, but stateful per machine — one vault and one on-host config serve every project, with a per-repo escape hatch when a machine has no vault.

The harness installs into each project, but the memory it reads and writes is device-wide: a single vault and a single on-host config file (.agentm-config.json) serve every repo on the machine. That is what lets a lesson learned in one project surface in the next, and why "where does state live" is answered once per device rather than once per repo.

How it works

Two device-level artifacts plus a per-repo override decide where any phase write lands:

Artifact Scope Decides
.agentm-config.json device the default state_mode (vault or local) + vault path
<vault>/ device the durable store, shared across all projects
<repo>/.harness/.project-mode per-repo overrides the device default for one repo

The default is vault mode: state routes through the device vault. A machine with no Obsidian/Drive vault opts into local mode (install.sh --local-state), and every phase write lands in <repo>/.harness/ instead — no vault required. The per-repo .project-mode marker wins over the device default, so a single repo can diverge without flipping the machine.

How it fits

  • AgentMemory — the vault this layer makes device-wide. The substrate is where; AgentMemory is what.
  • Phases — every phase read/write resolves through this layer to either the vault or the repo-local directory.
  • Host adapters — each host reads the same on-host config, so state resolution is identical wherever the harness runs.

See also

Detail:

Designs:

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Device-Wide Substrate

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