howell.help
Howell architecture diagrams
Rendered overview of the live Howell stack, its public/private surfaces, reasoning path, and writeback loop.
1. Startup path
From boot to ready state.
flowchart TD
A([system boot]) --> B[ollama.service]
A --> C[howell-vllm.service]
A --> D[howell-daemon.service :7777]
A --> E[howell-cortex-offline.service :7778]
A --> F[howell-tunnel.service]
B --> D
C --> D
D --> G[post_boot_check.sh]
E --> G
G --> H[ready / health]
2. Data path
Input to grounded knowledge.
flowchart LR
IN([user · corpus · notes]) --> DA[Daemon :7777]
DA --> CX[Cortex :7778]
CX --> OL[Ollama models]
CX --> VL[vLLM speed layer]
CX --> KG[(Knowledge Graph)]
DA --> PR[(Persist root)]
CX --> PR
3. Public and private surfaces
The tunnel allowlist is the privacy boundary.
flowchart LR
subgraph PUB[Public]
HL[howell.help]
WK[Cloudflare Worker]
BN[brain.rlv.lol]
end
subgraph PRI[Private]
DA[Daemon :7777]
CX[Cortex :7778]
PR[(Persist root)]
KG[(Knowledge Graph)]
end
HL --> WK
BN --> DA
DA --> CX
CX --> KG
DA --> PR
4. Daemon front door
Default-deny auth, rate limiting, and body-size protection.
flowchart TD
REQ([request]) --> AUTH{X-API-Key}
AUTH -->|missing/wrong| E401[401 Unauthorized]
AUTH -->|valid| ROUTE{route}
ROUTE --> H["/health"]
ROUTE --> B["/brief"]
ROUTE --> C["/cockpit"]
ROUTE --> S["/synthesize"]
ROUTE --> P["/context/packet"]
ROUTE -->|rate limit| E429[429]
ROUTE -->|1MB+| E413[413]
5. Cortex reasoning path
Seed → filter → verdict floor → verify → KG guard.
flowchart TD
SEED([seed]) --> DR[dream pipeline]
DR --> FLT[Archivist filter]
FLT --> VFL[dream_verdict_floor]
VFL --> VB[verify_backlog]
VB --> CF[counterfactual_check]
CF --> G[kg_guard]
G --> KG[(KG writeback)]
G --> Q[quarantine]
6. Writeback path
Verified claims become receipts and optionally KG observations.
flowchart LR
VB[verified hypothesis] --> GD[kg_guard]
GD --> RC[write receipt]
RC --> KG[(kg_observations.jsonl)]
GD --> Q[(quarantine.jsonl)]
7. Runtime spine
Timers and services that keep the stack alive.
flowchart TD
T1[howell-dream.timer] --> D[dream pipeline]
T2[howell-verify-backlog.timer] --> V[verify_backlog]
T3[howell-research.timer] --> R[research_cycle.sh]
T4[howell-vllm-sweep.timer] --> S[vllm sweep]
T5[howell-weekly-digest.timer] --> W[weekly digest]
T6[howell-meaning-brief.timer] --> M[meaning brief]
8. Cockpit and heartbeat
Operational health from daemon to the cockpit-lite tile.
flowchart LR
DA[Daemon :7777] --> OH[ops-heartbeat.js]
OH --> WK[Cloudflare Worker]
WK --> R2[(R2 heartbeat)]
R2 --> CL["/cockpit-lite"]
DA --> CK["/cockpit"]
9. Meaningful system view
Generation, verification, accumulation, and surfaces.
flowchart TD
CU[curiosity] --> RA[research agenda]
RA --> RV[research loop]
RV --> KG[(Knowledge Graph)]
KG --> BR["/brief"]
KG --> CK["/cockpit"]
10. Layer stack
Storage through public surfaces.
flowchart TD
L1[Storage] --> L2[Models]
L2 --> L3[Reasoning]
L3 --> L4[Orchestration]
L4 --> L5[Public surfaces]