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Compass Engineering Docs

Runtime Specs

Living source-of-truth for the Compass runtime tier strategy — which runner backends exist, what each isolates, and how a user adopts them. The point-in-time design records (the why) live in the design corpus (../../designs/), bucketed by domain and indexed by DECISIONS.md.

Available specs:

  • runner-tiers.md — the runner tier strategy: the trust-model axis (DL-325), the three tiers (host / podman / microVM) with each tier’s isolation boundary and egress posture, the adoption funnel from host tier through embedded-local to self-host graduation, and the standing guidance on when each tier is (and is not) the right choice.

These specs describe the strategy and current behavior. The why — the rulings behind the trust-model split and each tier — lives in the design records under ../../designs/ (bucketed by domain, indexed by DECISIONS.md); each spec’s “Not yet specified” section names the surfaces still ahead of the code.