Architecture Overview

AIP is a layered Rust workspace. The filesystem mirrors the runtime boundary so core semantics, transport mechanics, compatibility profiles, product connectors, and daemon boot code do not collapse into one crate.

Native or compatibility client
  -> transport/profile ingress
    -> authenticated gateway
      -> policy and native runtime
        -> lifecycle stores and handlers
          -> connector or local capability implementation
      -> operational read model, events, receipts, and callbacks

Layers

1. aip-core defines typed ids, principals, sessions, capabilities, actions, events, channel messages, audit payloads, receipts, settlements, and the native envelope.
2. aip-schema, aip-crypto, and aip-auth provide validation, cryptographic primitives, and authorization policy building blocks.
3. aip-discovery and aip-runtime manage manifests, sessions, actions, approvals, transactions, delegation, idempotency, callbacks, event streams, operational queries, and lifecycle stores.
4. aip-transport-* crates define HTTP, NATS, SSE, and WebSocket bindings.
5. aip-profile-* crates translate MCP, A2A-style agent cards, and signed webhooks into AIP semantics.
6. aip-connector defines the frozen connector boundary, while aip-connector-* crates translate product systems such as Dify, CrewAI, Chatwoot, Cal.diy, and Hermes Agent.
7. aip-gateway and aipd compose embedded and daemon runtimes. aipctl is an external operator and conformance client over supported transports.
8. aip-storage-postgres implements the reference multi-process durable backend; local file storage remains a single-host option.

Design Rules

• aip-core has no async runtime, network, product, crypto, or mandatory schema tooling dependency.
• Product DTOs never enter aip-core.
• Transports move envelopes; they do not decide product semantics.
• Profiles map protocols; they do not call product APIs.
• Connectors translate products; they do not define global policy.
• Gateway composes; runtime executes lifecycle behavior.

The Dependency Graph shows crate direction. The Gateway, Runtime, and Security Model documents describe the principal execution and trust boundaries in more detail.