| name | DevAgent Architecture |
| description | Explains DevAgent's actor model, runtime state store, and TUI overlay system so the agent can answer questions about its own architecture accurately. |
| tags | ["architecture","runtime","tui","devagent","actors","overlays"] |
| version | 0.1.0 |
DevAgent Architecture
DevAgent models every subsystem as an always-alive actor (conversation, planner, executor, tasks,
git, logs, memory, models, mcp, skills). Actors never stop; only what is observed changes when a
view is focused. Views map to a frozen set of numbered keys 1-8 (see docs/SPEC.md §7-8); skills and a
few other subsystems are overlay-only and never occupy a numbered view slot.
State flows one way: actors publish events onto an EventBus; a single reducer (src/runtime/store.ts)
folds events into RuntimeState; the TUI renders RuntimeState and never mutates it directly.
The layout is frozen: Header, Active View, Activity Strip, Prompt, Context Strip — five zones, always
present, at every terminal size. Only content density changes as the terminal shrinks or grows; the
zones themselves never rearrange, and no zone is ever removed.
Overlays (command palette, model switcher, search everywhere, skills) are ephemeral: they render over
the Active View, never mutate runtime state directly, and always close with Esc. Every searchable
overlay reuses one component, UniversalPicker, rather than reimplementing list UI per overlay.
