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Glossary

Specialized terms used across Nexus documentation.

Core model​

  • Agent — a runtime-defined entity: a MongoDB document (config) plus attached skills, memory policy, tools, and permissions. Not a compiled type.
  • Blueprint — a template that agents are instantiated from. Blueprints hold default skills, tools, permissions, memory policy, and runtime image.
  • Skill — a reusable, versioned unit of capability assigned to agents. Instruction skills are structured markdown/YAML; later: tool, workflow, and verification skills.
  • Memory — durable context, stored in scopes (global, project, agent_private, task, user_profile) and subject to a review queue.
  • Task — a unit of work assigned to an agent. Has a status lifecycle.
  • Goal — a high-level objective that Nexus decomposes into tasks.
  • Run (agent run) — one isolated execution of an agent against a task, realized as a Kubernetes Job.
  • Run config — the payload Core hands to the runtime: system prompt, rendered skills, relevant memory, tools, permissions.

Orchestration​

  • Nexus Core — the Rust axum service that owns orchestration and is the only authority over state.
  • Worker — background service for scheduling, dispatch, retries, and sync.
  • Agent runner — the generic container image that becomes any agent from a config payload.
  • Runtime — the abstraction (AgentRuntime trait) for starting, cancelling, and observing runs. The Kubernetes implementation is KubernetesAgentRuntime.
  • Board — the durable collaboration primitive. Nexus has an internal board; external boards (Plane, later Jira) are projections via a BoardProvider.
  • Projection — a synced external view of internal state (e.g. Plane work items mirroring Nexus board items).

Memory scopes​

  • global — shared by all agents.
  • project — shared inside one project.
  • agent_private — readable/writable only by one agent.
  • task — available only during one task/run.
  • user_profile — your preferences and long-term instructions.

Agent statuses​

  • draft — created but not yet validated.
  • enabled — available for scheduling.
  • disabled — manually paused.
  • quarantined — auto-paused after repeated failures.
  • archived — retired.

Task statuses​

draft → planned → ready_for_agent → leased → running → waiting_review → (blocked) → done.

Infrastructure​

  • MongoDB — the source of truth for all configuration and state.
  • NATS JetStream — the durable event bus (replay + crash recovery).
  • Kubernetes Job — the isolation unit for a single agent run.
  • Plane — the first external board adapter. Has a REST API (~60 req/min per key) and webhooks.
  • Quarantine — automatic disable when an agent's success rate drops below a threshold or after consecutive critical failures.