Architecture

Zinc is a host runtime.

Boundaries

CLI commands parse user intent and load settings.
Circuitry input is parsed, confirmed, normalized, and materialized into document facts.
Runtime planning chooses needed parts from stored value and binding facts.
Package resolution maps alias.path.to.asset to stored package asset paths.
The store records document facts, runs, parts, values, text payloads, actions, action outputs, package installs, and package assets.

Zinc state is DB-first and path-addressed. Domain tables keep their normal relational shape, and rows that should be navigable carry a path column.

Examples:

runs.<run_id>.values.answer
zinc://runs/<run_id>/values/answer

packages.responses.shapes.short_answer
zinc://packages/responses/shapes/short_answer

Dots and slashes are two views of the same tree. Zinc does not maintain a generic address graph.

Parallel workers return result drafts. The parent commits drafts in plan order and serializes database writes.