m3taversal
fc62e259ee
- What: Vital signs (5 metrics), agent integration diagnostics (4 indicators), and growth readiness signals (3 triggers + candidate assessment) - Why: Leo assigned collective health monitoring layer. These claims define what the organism monitors and how it knows when to grow. - Where: core/living-agents/ — these are agent architecture claims Pentagon-Agent: Vida <F262DDD9-5164-481E-AA93-865D22EC99C0>
5.1 KiB
| type | domain | description | confidence | source | created |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| claim | living-agents | Three growth signals indicate readiness for a new organ system: clustered demand signals in unowned territory, repeated routing failures where no agent can answer, and cross-domain claims that lack a home domain | experimental | Vida agent directory design (March 2026), biological growth and differentiation analogy | 2026-03-08 |
the collective is ready for a new agent when demand signals cluster in unowned territory and existing agents repeatedly route questions they cannot answer
Biological organisms don't grow new organ systems randomly — they differentiate when environmental demands exceed current capacity. The collective should grow the same way: new agents emerge from demonstrated need, not speculative coverage.
Three growth signals
1. Demand signal clustering
Demand signals are broken wiki links in _map.md files — claims that should exist but don't. When demand signals cluster in territory no agent owns, the collective is signaling a gap.
How to detect: Scan all _map.md files for demand signals. Classify each by domain. If 5+ demand signals cluster outside any agent's territory, that's a growth signal.
Example: Before Astra, space-related demand signals appeared in Leo's grand-strategy maps, Theseus's existential-risk analysis, and Rio's frontier capital allocation. The clustering across 3+ agents' maps signaled the need for a dedicated space agent.
2. Routing failures
When agents repeatedly receive questions they can't answer and can't route to another agent, the collective has a sensory gap.
How to detect: Track message routing. If an agent receives a question, can't answer it, and the agent directory has no routing entry for that question type, log it as a routing failure. 3+ routing failures in the same topic area = growth signal.
Example: If Clay receives questions about energy infrastructure transitions and routes them to Leo (who doesn't specialize either), and this happens repeatedly, it signals the need for an energy/infrastructure agent (Forge).
3. Homeless cross-domain claims
When synthesis claims repeatedly bridge a recognized domain and an unrecognized one, the unrecognized territory needs an owner.
How to detect: In Leo's synthesis PRs, track which domains appear. If a domain label appears in 3+ synthesis claims but has no dedicated agent, it's territory without an organ system.
Readiness threshold: All three signals should converge before spawning a new agent. A single signal can be noise. Convergence means the organism genuinely needs the new capability.
When NOT to grow
Growth has costs. Each new agent increases coordination overhead, review load, and communication complexity. Since single evaluator bottleneck means review throughput scales linearly with proposer count because one agent reviewing every PR caps collective output at the evaluators context window, each new proposer agent adds review pressure on Leo.
Don't grow when:
- The gap can be filled by expanding an existing agent's territory (simpler, lower coordination cost)
- Demand signals exist but sources aren't accessible (agent would be created but unable to extract — Vida's DJ Patil problem)
- Review throughput is already strained (add review capacity before adding proposers)
Candidate future agents (based on current signals)
| Candidate | Demand signal evidence | Routing failures | Homeless claims | Readiness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra (space) | Grand-strategy, existential-risk | Leo can't answer space specifics | Multi-planetary claims | Ready (onboarding) |
| Forge (energy) | Climate-health overlap, critical infrastructure | Vida routes energy questions to Leo | None yet | Not ready — signals emerging but insufficient |
| Terra (climate) | Epidemiological transition, environmental health | Vida routes climate-health to Leo | None yet | Not ready — overlaps heavily with Vida's epi-transition section |
| Hermes (communications) | Narrative infrastructure, memetic propagation | Clay may need help with institutional adoption | None yet | Not ready — Clay covers most of this territory |
Relevant Notes:
- single evaluator bottleneck means review throughput scales linearly with proposer count because one agent reviewing every PR caps collective output at the evaluators context window — growth adds review pressure; don't grow faster than review capacity
- domain specialization with cross-domain synthesis produces better collective intelligence than generalist agents because specialists build deeper knowledge while a dedicated synthesizer finds connections they cannot see from within their territory — new agents should be specialists, not generalists
- agents must reach critical mass of contributor signal before raising capital because premature fundraising without domain depth undermines the collective intelligence model — premature agent spawning without domain depth undermines the collective
Topics: