Roles, runtimes, and Adaptive Skills
Keep portable responsibilities, execution environments, and reusable methods distinct when operating AletheIA.
Three ideas are often mixed together in AI-assisted work. AletheIA keeps them deliberately separate:
Why the distinction matters
When these concepts collapse into one label, teams lose clarity about ownership:
| If they are mixed | What becomes unclear | AletheIA response |
|---|---|---|
| “Codex is the reviewer” | Is the responsibility portable, or tied to one product? | Record reviewer as the role and Codex as the runtime. |
| “Use the testing agent” | Is testing a role, a method, or an approval? | Keep the role and chosen skill explicit. |
| “The PM agent approved it” | Was there a human decision, a persona, or a runtime output? | Treat personas as illustrative unless a contract defines a real role. |
| “The runtime has guardrails” | Which boundary is enforced versus advisory? | Identify the actual local permission or human gate. |
Canonical portable roles
Orchestrator
Frames the Work Slice, integrates results, and decides the next healthiest boundary.
Explorer
Reduces discoverable unknowns before implementation or judgment hardens around weak context.
Implementer
Executes a decision-closed, bounded change and reports what was actually done.
Reviewer
Challenges semantic risk, contract drift, assumptions, and insufficient proof.
Validator
Confirms closure evidence or explains the remaining proof gap.
Not every Work Slice needs all five roles. Use the smallest set that makes the boundary, decision, and proof clear.
Example: one documentation correction
The same example can run in different environments:
| Layer | One possible choice | What remains stable |
|---|---|---|
| Role | implementer |
Bounded execution responsibility |
| Runtime | Codex | Local tools and session mechanics |
| Skill | testing |
Verification method, when it materially shapes the work |
| Governance | AletheIA Work Slice | Scope, evidence, stop line, and closure decision |
Runtime adapters
Codex adapter
Tool-based execution surface; the main session commonly holds the Orchestrator boundary.
Claude Code adapter
Local agent files and richer runtime metadata may help, while portable role meaning remains unchanged.
Qwen adapter
Lighter or custom environments can preserve explicit roles through prompts, wrappers, and handoffs.
Where Adaptive Skills fits
Adaptive Skills provides portable methods that may support a role—for example, planning, debugging, testing, research, or documentation. A skill is selected because its method is useful for the slice, not because it grants authority.
Work Slice governance (AletheIA)
└── active role (portable responsibility)
└── selected skill (reusable method, if useful)
└── runtime adapter (local execution mechanics)The skill should appear in a handoff or record only when it materially influenced the method, validation, or continuation path.
Non-goals
This model does not:
- introduce more canonical roles;
- turn presentation personas into available agents;
- require every runtime to have native subagents;
- turn the role catalog into an automatic router;
- change Adaptive Skills behavior, capability metadata, or governance;
- authorize a runtime, tool, or security-sensitive action.