Kiln

Biocybernetic control plane for governed AI work.

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Kiln is a biocybernetic control plane for governed AI work. Its contracts are expressed through cybernetic control structures, and its architecture is informed by biological and neural regulation.

It regulates AI work the way a thermostat regulates temperature: sense state, compare it against policy and goals, apply bounded control, and recover safely when conditions drift.

Its job is to govern execution, context, coordination, safety, and adaptation across tools and agents without letting any single model, prompt, or workflow become the system's source of truth.

In practical terms, Kiln is for running governed local or remote agent sessions with explicit admission, bounded context, auditable tool use, memory evidence, provider routing, and operator-facing control surfaces.

Current Baseline

Kiln 2.1.0 is the current supported public package line for the control-plane architecture. The 2.0.0 release remains the first supported public baseline. The repository is public and buildable from source. The 3.0.0-beta.1 note describes an unpublished candidate; it is not package or installation evidence.

Use this repo today if you want to:

• inspect or contribute to the control-plane architecture
• run workspace verification from source
• work on the CLI, GUI, TUI, runtime, gateway contracts, or native surface
• evaluate Kiln's governance model before integrating a published package
• try governed external engagement workflows that turn bounded X community evidence into provider-neutral feature intake

First Path

git clone https://github.com/sequelcore/kiln.git
cd kiln
bun install
bun run typecheck
bun run test
bun run build

For normal use from any project, install the public CLI package. It brings the official CLI, GUI, TUI, runtime, gateway contracts, and GUI static assets:

bun add -g @kilnai/cli@2.1.0
kiln tui
kiln gui

When contributing inside this repository, use the source entry point:

bun --cwd packages/cli src/index.ts tui
bun --cwd packages/cli src/index.ts gui
bun --cwd packages/cli src/index.ts run "Inspect this repository"

Thesis

Kiln exists to answer one question reliably:

Given the current task, state, constraints, and risk posture, what work should be admitted, what context should be exposed, what coordination pattern should be activated, and what actions should be allowed right now?

That framing changes the product boundary:

• Kiln admits, routes, and constrains work through explicit control policy.
• Kiln governs context as a bounded resource.
• Kiln coordinates agents and tools through auditable runtime contracts.
• Kiln keeps safety, memory, telemetry, and adaptation inside one regulatory layer.

Architecture

The canonical architecture is modular and documented in docs/architecture/.

Core subsystems:

• IngressGovernor admits or rejects work and routes it into the proper control path
• ContextGovernor decides what context is sufficient, affordable, and safe to expose
• Managed coordination policy selects direct, sequential, centralized, or independent-review execution from governed signals
• GoalRunStore and WorkItemStore own durable goal, dependency, execution, evidence, and recovery state
• Managed orchestration lifecycle resolves each admitted specialist and route, executes dependency-ready children, propagates bounded handoffs, and records terminal evidence
• SafetyKernel enforces hard boundaries with fail-closed defaults
• ModeController manages operating modes such as NORMAL, DEGRADED, and LOCKED
• TelemetryLoop closes feedback loops through measurement, anomaly detection, and tuning
• AdaptationEngine updates policy and behavior without letting the system drift into self-corruption

Supported Surfaces

Surface	Status	Use it for
CLI	Public npm + source	Automation, local runs, config, auth, sync, project context, gateway launch
TUI	Public npm + source	Terminal-first supervision over the shared runtime session path
GUI	Public npm + source	Rich local or gateway-attached operator supervision
Runtime	Public npm + source	Gateway, sessions, channels, triggers, interactive tools, provider routing
Gateway contracts	Public npm + source	Shared HTTP, WebSocket, projection, and operator-surface contracts
React SDK	Public npm + source	React integration over Kiln gateway contracts
Widget	Public npm + source	Embeddable interface components
Native	Experimental/private	Electron-backed desktop capability and projection work
Studio	Internal/private	Development inspection and topology views

See Operator Surfaces for when to use GUI, native, TUI, CLI, IDE, or gateway integrations. See Gateway App Runtime when Kiln should power AI behavior inside an app.

Documentation

Start here:

• Documentation Index
• Getting Started
• Examples
• Architecture Overview
• Research Index
• Roadmap
• Changelog
• Release Runbook

Most important architecture documents:

• Identity
• Control Model
• Invariants
• Subsystems
• Flows
• Safety
• Coordination
• Memory
• Context Governance
• Adaptation

Operator guides:

• Governed External Engagement

Most important research documents:

• Kiln Research Synthesis
• Cybernetic Foundations
• Biological Mechanisms
• Current State Mapping
• Memory Systems
• Safety Defense
• Regulation And Adaptation
• Context Governance
• Tool Execution And Trust
• Coordination Intelligence

Packages

Package	Description
@kilnai/gateway-contracts	Shared HTTP, WebSocket, projection, and operator-surface contracts
@kilnai/core	Core control-plane types, policies, safety, memory, routing, evaluation, and runtime contracts
@kilnai/runtime	Runtime surfaces, channel handling, registries, triggers, and execution plumbing
@kilnai/cli	CLI surface for local operation, inspection, and controlled execution
@kilnai/tui	Terminal interface for interacting with Kiln as an operator-facing control surface
@kilnai/react	React integration surface for applications using Kiln capabilities
@kilnai/widget	Embeddable interface components
@kilnai/gui	Public web operator surface served by the runtime
@kilnai/native	Experimental Electron-backed native operator surface
@kilnai/studio	Internal and development-facing inspection tooling

Examples

Start with docs/examples for source-run examples of gateway apps, MCP tools, tenant isolation, widget embedding, WhatsApp channels, and multi-app hosting.

Development

git clone https://github.com/sequelcore/kiln.git
cd kiln
bun install
bun run typecheck
bun run test

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Apache-2.0