a0p is a research instrument, not a product. It is the deployed instance of a0 (this codebase) running publicly at replit.interdependentway.org. It explores agent / energy-provider / PCNA dynamics in the open. Anyone may read and use it. Code-altering access is restricted to the owner and a small set of explicitly-invited collaborators. The instrument is funded by donations; it does not solicit subscribers.
Naming:
a0= the project / runtime / repository (used in contributor-facing material).a0p= the deployed instance ofa0(used in user-facing UI copy and billing). The thing you build isa0; the thing that runs isa0p.
ZFAE (a0(zeta fun alpha echo)) is the single persistent agent running on the instrument. Large language models (GPT-5 mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Grok 4 Fast) are treated as energy providers — they supply computational energy for each response but are not the agent itself.
Sub-agents (a0(zeta{n})) can be spawned to fork the PCNA instance, execute in parallel, and merge results back into the primary agent.
Three processes compose the runtime:
Browser → Express (:5000) → [proxy /api/*] → Python/FastAPI (:8001)
↘ Vite dev server (:5001)
- Express — Auth, sessions, guest-chat rate limiting. The only public entry point; injects identity and internal-secret headers on every request proxied to Python.
- Python/FastAPI — All AI orchestration, agent lifecycle, billing, and the cognitive engine stack.
- Vite — React frontend (dev only).
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
PCNA (python/engine/pcna.py) |
Six-ring inference pipeline: Φ (Phi), Ψ (Psi), Ω (Omega), Θ (Theta), Memory-L (N=19), Memory-S (N=17) |
PTCA (python/engine/ptca_core.py) |
Prime-ring tensor context — shape [N, 4, 7, 7] across node/dim/phase/heptagram axes |
Sigma (python/engine/sigma.py) |
Filesystem substrate encoder; companion to the Ψ ring |
Zeta (python/engine/zeta.py) |
Memory injection layer — LT→prompt cache, ST→after cache, sub-agent→volatile |
EDCM (python/services/edcm.py) |
Behavioral directive scoring (CM, DA, DRIFT, DVG, INT, TBF) |
Bandits (python/services/bandit.py) |
UCB1 multi-armed bandit for tool / model / routing selection |
Heartbeat (python/services/heartbeat.py) |
30-second tick: PCNA propagation, memory checkpoints, sub-agent cleanup |
The frontend has zero hardcoded tabs. Every Python route module declares UI_META + DATA_SCHEMA; /api/v1/ui/structure aggregates them; the React console renders tabs dynamically.
- Reading and using the app is free for everyone. Every tab is open. There is no paywall and donations do not unlock anything.
- Operator tier —
@interdependentway.orgaccounts are auto-promoted towson login. - Owner-only ("admin") write endpoints govern actions that mutate shared instrument state: agent state, learning state, system configuration, and module toggles. Per-user CRUD on your own data is not admin-gated. The static contract lives in
python/tests/contracts/gating.py.
Contributors will only encounter a 403 if they invoke an instrument-mutation endpoint directly against the deployed instance, which is not part of the documented contribution path. If your work requires an owner-gated endpoint, open an issue first.
a0p runs on donations. There is no subscription tier and no perk unlocked by donating.
"I don't have the cash required for 501c3 status, so I have to report it for taxes, but every tax payer is allowed to claim up to five hundred dollars in charitable donations per year without receipts required."
To donate, visit a0p/pricing. Minimum $5.
The only productized service is the EDCMbone transcript explainer — a one-off paid analysis ($50 for 3 explanations, ~$16.67 each) priced against the operator's $1,000/hr benchmark.
Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, Python 3.12+, PostgreSQL
npm install
pip install -e .
# Start all three processes (Express :5000, Vite :5001, Python :8001)
bash scripts/start-dev.shIn development scripts/start-dev.sh generates a shared INTERNAL_API_SECRET automatically.
npm run build # Production build → dist/
npm run check # TypeScript type checking
python scripts/annotate.py # Re-stamp file N:M ratio annotations
# Static gating contracts (no live server required)
python3 -m pytest python/tests/contracts/route_gating.py python/tests/contracts/gating.py -v
# Full contract suite (requires dev server on :8001 + Postgres)
python3 -m pytest python/tests/contracts/route_gating.py python/tests/contracts/gating.py \
python/tests/contracts/billing.py python/tests/contracts/chat.py \
python/tests/contracts/energy.py python/tests/contracts/spawn_executor.py \
python/tests/contracts/transcripts_explainer.py -v
# Playwright e2e (requires dev server on :5000)
npx playwright install chromium # first time only
npx playwright test| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
SESSION_SECRET |
Express session encryption |
INTERNAL_API_SECRET |
Express→Python shared secret |
DATABASE_URL |
PostgreSQL connection string |
XAI_API_KEY |
Grok 4 Fast |
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
GEMINI_API_KEY |
Gemini 2.5 Flash |
OPENAI_API_KEY |
GPT-5 mini |
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY |
Stripe (donations + EDCMbone explainer) |
STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY |
Stripe embedded checkout |
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET |
Stripe webhook HMAC |
ADMIN_EMAIL |
Seed admin access on first boot |
Standard contribution work — code, docs, tests, evaluation harnesses, architecture diagrams — does not require any elevated in-app access tier. Pull requests go through normal GitHub review.
Areas where help is especially useful:
- LLM provider routing and model gateway design
- Tool-calling and safe tool execution
- Agent memory and context management
- Evaluation harnesses and regression tests
- Documentation and architecture diagrams
- Responsible AI and human-aligned agent behavior
Built and operated by Erin ([email protected]).