Open Source Roadmap

The Mandrel open source ecosystem is planned in three phases: Core Foundation (current), Mesh Integration and Extensibility, and High-Assurance Tooling. Each phase covers The Mandrel Spec, the Mandrel CLI, and the Collet runtime enforcement engine.

Phase 1: Core Foundation (Current)

Focus: Establishing the deterministic contract and basic enforcement.

• Mandrel Spec v1.0: Stable schema for identity, network boundaries, and threshold-based governance matrices.
• Mandrel CLI: Static validator and declarative artifact generator for Kubernetes manifests and Open Policy Agent (OPA) policies.
• Mandrel Collet (MVP): Local sidecar enforcement proxy for turn-level gRPC delegation, hop decrements, and basic proxying.
• Chips Standard: Baseline format for Chip rate tables and per-model economic cost multipliers.

Phase 2: Mesh Integration & Extensibility

Focus: Enabling developer velocity, dynamic mesh topologies, and richer tool proxying.

• Subprocess Plugin System: Dynamic discovery of custom validators and artifact generators in the CLI.
• Advanced Action Enums: Implementation of the challenge-always mandatory human-gate protocol.
• Orchestrator Mode (Basic): Support for permitted-intents and intent-driven task routing as defined in the orchestration specification.
• Capability-Binding Egress Engine: Collet-level runtime evaluation of dynamic delegate targets against declared capability schemas, namespaces, and risk profiles in permitted-delegates, avoiding brittle static name-pinning.
• Governed MCP Reverse-Proxy Mode: Native JSON-RPC proxying for Model Context Protocol (MCP) traffic, validating outbound tools/call payloads against declared threshold matrices and debiting chip costs against active budgets.
• Local Development Kits: Pre-configured containerized templates for rapid specialist development and integration testing.

Phase 3: High-Assurance Tooling & Late-Binding Governance

Focus: Strengthening the developer-to-production pipeline for autonomous, late-binding agent meshes.

• Spec v1.1 Evolution: Refinements to the orchestrator stanza and compound identity claims based on community feedback.
• Active Discovery API in Metrology Lab: Queryable capability endpoint within the Metrology Lab allowing late-binding agent harnesses to dynamically resolve specialist targets by intent, schema, and risk envelope, returning verified endpoints bound to signed Realized Specs.
• Explicit Turn Lifecycle Protocol: Standardized gRPC metadata headers (turn-start, turn-yield, turn-complete) for deterministic lifecycle coordination between host harnesses and the Collet, replacing passive memory eviction sweeps with active turn-state tracking and fan-out reclamation.
• Extended Validation (E-codes): Exhaustive pre-flight diagnostic checks for complex delegation patterns and deep graphs.
• Open Standards Alignment: Deepening compatibility with the Linux Foundation Agent2Agent (A2A) project and RFC-standard security protocols, including Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) for real-time revocation.

Architectural Context

For detailed analysis of how these roadmap capabilities support dynamic multi-agent runtimes, see the white paper on governing late-binding agent harnesses, as well as the egress governance architecture and workload maturity guide.