Smithers Next - Smithers

Smithers Next is an unreleased rewrite. It is separate from the current smithers-orchestrator API documented elsewhere on this site.

Scope

Flows are discovered from flow.ts, flow.mdx, or SKILL.md.
Authoring, services, schemas, errors, and dependency injection use Effect.
Models are selected as seats (harness:model), not as unqualified model IDs.
Capabilities, placement, persistence, control operations, and journal history remain explicit.
CLI, gateway, plugins, and UI consume the same run model.

Execution model

Layer	Role	Guarantee
Actions	Hermetic work with declared inputs and outputs, content identity, and evidence-gated caching	Enforced and cache-sound at the recorded boundary tier
Runs	Imperative, dynamic workflow code that emits work and durably awaits results	Resumable; replay divergence after code changes is detected and parked

The runtime reduces to five primitives:

Primitive	Purpose
Action	Content-addressed, hermetic work
Cell	Named, write-once result; the only wait and completion mechanism
Intent	Durable, claimable work such as an effect, wake, compensation, or child start
Run	Leased workflow instance pinned to a workflow digest
Ledger	Atomic commit of facts, cell changes, and resulting intents

Sealed effects may run as Actions. Compensable and irreversible effects remain run-local. Irreversible effects require idempotency from the first attempt. Sleep, approval, signal, cancellation, action completion, and child completion all resolve by filling Cells. Fork and rewind create immutable lineage.

Repositories

Repository	Responsibility
`flows`	Umbrella checkout and combined documentation
`smithers-flows`	Durable engine, journal, database, capability kernel, hosts, sync, and time travel
`smithers-agent`	Agent harness, registry, models, control API, CLI, gateway, evals, memory, triggers, and observability
`smithers-plugins`	Agent adapters, skills, and MCP projections
`smithers-ui`	Browser and Electrobun application

Status

The repositories contain implemented packages and active architecture work. The integrated product is not released. APIs, schemas, package boundaries, and migration behavior may change without compatibility support.

​Scope

​Execution model

​Repositories

​Status

Scope

Execution model

Repositories

Status