Melder Architecture and Design

Melder is an AI-native Dependency Graph Runtime: it turns registered Python objects into a governed, scoped, inspectable object world. This documentation explains that world from its outside boundary down to the source files that implement it.

Melder system context

Editable diagram source

Choose Your Path

Intent	Start here	What you will learn
Understand Melder	What Melder is	Category, mental model, and value
See the ceiling	Capability ladder	Which layers are optional
Understand the runtime	Runtime model	Ownership and execution boundaries
Follow the visual descent	Engineering drawings	C4 system context through C2 meld internals
Build with it	Compose an application	The basic application shape
Integrate subsystems	Connect subsystems	Dynamic links and contracts
Evaluate design costs	Design tradeoffs	Benefits and accepted costs

Three Reading Depths

High-level orientation explains what Melder is and where it sits.
Mid-level architecture and use explains boundaries, lifetimes, and flows.
Source descent links directly to implementation and integration evidence.

Nothing in the advanced ceiling is required to use Melder as a dependency runtime. Start with the human core and stop when you have the depth you need.

Architecture

Advanced architecture follows in the optional ceiling:

Utilization Stories

Documentation Contract

Every page answers one reader question, explains one dominant picture when a picture helps, states the mechanism behind each strength, names accepted tradeoffs, and ends with a deliberate next-depth route. Pictures never replace the adjacent text.

The canonical diagram sources and generated assets follow the diagram contract.

Current License

Melder is licensed under GNU AGPL v3 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). See the repository LICENSE and NOTICE.

Canonical source · Full contents