System overview

A model is only part of the system

Aleph is a desktop runtime and work environment, not a chat wrapper around one provider. A model generates and reasons over inputs. Aleph provides the surrounding system that determines which context and capabilities are available, how work executes, where state persists, and how results become usable artifacts.

Workshop / Science · Education · Office · Finance · Legal · Design
                 │ shared application frame
                 ▼
     agents + model/provider selection + tool dispatch
                 │
     sessions · context · memory · artifacts · permissions
                 │
     local services / workspace-specific services
       ├── isolated guest: Python and shell
       ├── mediated browser and filesystem capabilities
       └── intentional calls to provider APIs and connectors
                 │
        Tauri desktop shell + packaged resources

This is a conceptual map, not an API specification. Components and availability can differ by build.

Process and responsibility boundaries

Component	Responsibility	Boundary
Desktop shell	Lifecycle, navigation, packaged UI, native integration	On device
Local sidecars and services	Workspace state, sessions, dispatch and specialized runtimes	Separate local processes
Model and agent layer	Inference, agent context and available tool use	Local or connected, depending on provider
Execution guest	Python and shell execution	Isolated from the host on macOS
Browser, filesystem and connectors	Access to web pages, files or external accounts	Distinct capability boundaries
Work surfaces	The Workshop and six domain workspaces	Shared application frame

The macOS application uses a Tauri shell with packaged local sidecars and runtimes. A sidecar is a service that Aleph starts and manages on the device to provide a specialized capability. It is not evidence that the entire application is cloud-hosted. Interprocess calls and authorization are part of the local trust model.

Why the surrounding system matters

As model capabilities and prices change, a user should not have to rebuild the rest of their environment around a single model. The agent’s useful authority comes from scoped context, permitted tools, execution, interfaces and workflow state. Aleph brings these parts together while keeping their responsibilities distinct.

See local state, models and agents, and the security model for the individual boundaries.

Extension direction

Models, provider adapters, tools, connectors, agent capabilities and workspaces are distinct extension points in the architecture. This does not imply a stable public plugin API or that every combination is already supported. Cross-workspace context and capabilities are a longer-term interoperability direction.