Why it is built this way

These pages carry the architecture decisions behind meclaw, one question per page, at the level of the decision rather than the code.

• Everything is a file answers why the harness lives in the file system and why there is no SDK.
• An operating system for agents answers what meclaw-os is and what its four nested levels are for.
• Memory that outlives the window answers where a conversation is kept once the context window is not the place.
• One assistant, two brains answers why the shipped assistant runs two models.
• Why Rust, why Linux only answers what the single binary and the kernel sandbox buy, and what they cost.
• Ontology, in the meclaw sense answers which typed vocabulary a colony is composed out of, and which meaning of the word is not meant here.
• Prepared for self-improvement answers which primitives for rebuilding a running colony exist today, and why no loop closes them unattended.
• You talk, it shows answers what the voice cell and the screen are aimed at together.

Two files here are redirects for older links: names.md points at the glossary, and self-modification.md points at rsi.md.