Agentic ecosystem map
Reference documentation for Agentic ecosystem map in Adaptive Skills.
Synchronized document. This file is maintained identically in two repositories:
AletheIA/docs/concepts/ecosystem-map.mdandadaptive-skills/docs/concepts/ecosystem-map.md. Edits in either repo must be mirrored to the other. The plan that introduced this document is the 2026-05-21 cross-repo plan (Epic 1).
Purpose
Place AletheIA and Adaptive Skills inside the broader 2026 ecosystem of agent-assisted work tooling, so that adopters can answer three questions without re-litigation:
- Does this duplicate something I already use?
- Does this replace something I already use?
- Where does this fit in my stack?
Layers
The ecosystem is organized by what question each layer answers, not by vendor or product family.
Adaptive Skills layer
Presentation reference: this illustration explains the intended capability-library model. Its visual metrics and outcome claims are illustrative, not product telemetry or delivery evidence.
| Layer | Question it answers | Ecosystem solutions | This ecosystem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open standards | How do components interoperate? | AGENTS.md, agentskills.io, MCP |
Conformance target |
| Package distribution | How is content installed and versioned? | APM (Microsoft) | Both repos publish here |
| Operating overlay | How do we decide, validate, hand off, report? | — (under-occupied) | AletheIA |
| Capability library | What reusable, portable skills are available? | Anthropic skills, awesome-copilot, agentskills.io packs | Adaptive Skills |
| Squad-ready bundle | What pre-built agents do I drop into a squad? | BMAD, SDD, similar internal frameworks | Not built here |
| Brain / runtime | How is memory, hooks, autonomy managed? | Agentic Stack, Hermes | Not built here (deferred) |
| Harness | Where does the code actually execute? | Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, Windsurf, etc. | Consumer of the layers above |
Differentiated value
AletheIA occupies the operating overlay layer — under-occupied today. The other layers either delegate governance elsewhere (standards, package managers, runtimes, capability libraries) or concentrate it inside a specific framework (squad bundles). AletheIA externalizes governance as a portable layer that travels with the consumer project, independent of which framework, runtime, or harness is in use.
Adaptive Skills occupies the capability library layer — populated but fragmented. The differentiator is conformance with open standards (agentskills.io, AGENTS.md) plus a governed evolution discipline (no skill self-edits; protected surfaces; observation → proposal → review).
Together they provide a governance overlay + capability library combination that plugs into any squad setup without replacing the squad’s existing framework. The two are usable independently — neither is a hard dependency of the other.
Relationship to adjacent solutions
| Adjacent solution | Layer | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| BMAD | Squad-ready bundle | Complementary. Keep BMAD; add AletheIA on top for governance; reference Adaptive Skills for portable capabilities. |
| SDD-style internal framework | Squad-ready bundle | Same as BMAD. |
| APM | Package distribution | Consumed by. Both repos are published as APM packages. |
| Hermes / Agentic Stack | Brain / runtime | Different layer. No competition; AletheIA shapes contracts that cross the runtime boundary. |
| Anthropic skills, awesome-copilot | Capability library | Adjacent. Adaptive Skills aims for agentskills.io conformance so artifacts are interoperable. |
| Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc. | Harness | Consumer. Receives shims and projected artifacts; does not negotiate the contract. |
What this map deliberately does not say
- It does not rank the layers by importance — each answers a distinct question.
- It does not claim AletheIA + Adaptive Skills is sufficient for every squad. A squad without BMAD/SDD/equivalent still has to decide which agents to run; this ecosystem governs how the work the agents do is operated.
- It does not claim domain coverage. Domain agnosticism is declared (see ADR-006 in AletheIA, ADR-002 in Adaptive Skills); observable agnosticism is a work item (Epic 2 of the cross-repo plan).
Source ADRs
- AletheIA: ADR-004 — Operating overlay, ADR-005 — Positioning in agentic ecosystem, ADR-006 — Domain agnosticism.
- Adaptive Skills: ADR-001 — Adaptive Skills as capability library, ADR-002 — Domain agnosticism, ADR-003 — Relationship with AletheIA.
Revision
This map updates when the ecosystem itself shifts (new consolidated layer, layer collapse, new dominant standard). Routine updates to a single solution within a layer do not require a new revision — only the table cell.