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10: Layer Registry

10.1 What it is

Content-addressed store + ref database + policy engine + review/PR objects + audit index. Substrate: extend packages/collab-server and apps/server (auth, websocket, persistence already exist). Protocol: plain HTTP push/pull of layers by id (dumb storage, smart client), websocket events for reviews.

10.2 Open core split (deliberate Git/GitHub split)

  • MPL-2.0, forever: layer format, manifest spec, diff, merge, CLI, MCP tools, single-user/local refs, the GitHub Action
  • Paid (extends the Tauri CHF 19/month track with a team tier): hosted registry, team permissions, protected refs + policies, review workflows + notifications, provenance/audit search ("every layer any agent wrote this month, grouped by model"), sidecar CDN, SLA

The merge engine being open is what makes the standard adoptable (11); coordination is the product.

10.3 Federation and grouping

Multi-model sessions (04 §4.2) render as one logical PR. Cross-org federation (architect's registry ↔ engineer's registry) via signed layer exchange: the long-game version is registries syncing like Git remotes, with the DBL/DPP world (manufacturer layers, 03 §3.2) as external principals.

10.4 Ref policies (branch protection for buildings)

Per ref: required checks (IDS specs by digest), minimum reviewers, signature requirements, author-kind rules (e.g. agent-authored layers always need one human approval), risk-tier rules (red-tier ops never auto-merge), and auto-merge: conflict-free + all-green + in-policy layers merge unattended. Auto-merge is what makes the nightly model-gardener agent (06 §6.5) safe to ship.

10.5 Visibility

Public, internal, private registries (same trichotomy as code forges). A public registry of open reference models with full layer history is the community flywheel: teaching material (BFH courses run on it), benchmark corpus, and the place hackathon projects publish to.

10.6 Endgame

The registry as the system of record for change in the built environment: every model state reproducible, every contributor accountable, every agent auditable, across organizations and decades. The pitch to enterprises is insurance-grade: "show me who changed the fire rating of this wall, when, on whose instruction, and what checks passed" answered in one query.