agent-subsystem-is-self-contained
IN derived (depth 2)
The agent subsystem provides complete lifecycle management: import handles mixed truth states and topological cycles, namespace/relay pairs provide isolation and kill-switches, and all defeat operations are reversible for agent reactivation.
Summary
The agent subsystem is fully self-contained — it can bring in external belief networks regardless of their internal state, keep each agent's beliefs cleanly separated so one agent can't accidentally break another, and shut down or reactivate any agent without permanent side effects. This means agents can be treated as modular, pluggable units that the system can safely start, stop, import, and resume without requiring manual cleanup or risking corruption of the broader belief network.
Justifications
SL — Agent management spans import, runtime isolation, and reactivation without depending on any agent-specific engine features
Antecedents (all must be IN):
- agent-isolation-through-namespace-and-relay — Agent beliefs are doubly isolated: namespace prefixing prevents ID collisions, while the active/inactive relay pair provides per-agent kill-switch semantics without cross-agent interference
- import-handles-heterogeneous-truth-states — The import pipeline handles mixed truth states: OUT/STALE beliefs arrive without justifications, topological sort tolerates cycles, and two-phase truth maintenance reconciles everything post-import
- all-defeat-mechanisms-are-reversible — Every outlist-based defeat operation (challenge, kill-switch, supersession) is inherently reversible because outlist semantics flip truth values without deleting nodes
Dependents
These beliefs depend on this one:
- agent-beliefs-undergo-full-revision — Agent-imported beliefs participate in the full revision system: the self-contained agent subsystem provides isolated lifecycle management and reversible defeat, while the comprehensive revision system ensures agent beliefs are subject to the same outlist defeat and contradiction resolution as locally-created beliefs — no revision exception exists for external provenance.
- external-beliefs-defensively-contained — External beliefs pass through two independent safety layers: defensive ingestion pipelines (fail-soft validation, Jaccard guards, dual import/sync reconciliation modes) filter and validate beliefs on entry, while the self-contained agent subsystem (namespace isolation, relay-pair kill-switches, reversible lifecycle management) constrains their operational footprint after ingestion.
- multi-agent-safety-spans-all-layers — Multi-agent operation is safe across the full system: agent isolation prevents cross-contamination between namespaces with reversible lifecycle control, while data integrity is enforced across all three architectural layers through clean boundaries and snapshot persistence.