The Post-Coding Age of Industrial Robotics. No human writes, reads, or debugs code.
NEXUS is a production-ready specification for a distributed intelligence system designed for general-purpose industrial robotics. Instead of humans writing code, operators wire hardware, describe intent in natural language, demonstrate desired behaviors, and approve or reject AI-generated proposals. The system learns from observation, synthesizes reflexes, validates them through A/B testing, and progressively earns trust to operate with increasing autonomy.
Three-tier, hardware-agnostic design:
| Tier | Hardware | Role | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Reflex | ESP32-S3 MCU | Real-time sensor polling, bytecode VM execution, safety enforcement | 10µs – 1ms |
| 2 — Cognitive | NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano | AI inference, NLP chat, pattern discovery, reflex compilation | 10 – 500ms |
| 3 — Cloud | Starlink / 5G | Heavy training, simulation, fleet management | seconds – hours |
Each tier operates independently. Tier 1 maintains control even when all higher tiers fail.
- Wire Protocol: RS-422, COBS framing, CRC-16, 28 message types, 921,600 baud
- Bytecode VM: 32 opcodes, 8-byte instructions, ~3 KB footprint, <100µs per tick
- Safety System: 4-tier defense-in-depth (hardware interlock → firmware ISR → supervisory task → application)
- Autonomy: INCREMENTS framework with 6 levels per subsystem, 25:1 trust loss-to-gain ratio
- Learning: 5 pattern discovery algorithms (cross-correlation, BOCPD, HDBSCAN, temporal mining, Bayesian reward inference)
- Cross-Domain: Marine, agriculture, HVAC, factory automation, mining, aerospace, healthcare
├── docs/ # Reports, presentations, overviews
├── specs/ # Phase 1 production specifications
│ ├── protocol/ # Wire protocol, message payloads
│ ├── safety/ # Safety system, trust scores, safety policy
│ ├── firmware/ # Bytecode VM, I/O drivers, memory map
│ ├── jetson/ # Learning pipeline, MQTT, cluster API
│ └── ports/ # Hardware compatibility matrix
├── dissertation/ # 5-round iterative research dissertation
│ ├── round1_research/ # Deep technical foundations
│ ├── round2_research/ # Cross-domain & regulatory analysis
│ ├── round3_research/ # Philosophical, ethical, cultural perspectives
│ ├── round4_simulations/ # Monte Carlo & adversarial simulations
│ ├── round5_synthesis/ # Universal synthesis
│ ├── companion_docs/ # Non-technical guide + senior engineer deep dive
│ ├── addenda/ # Debate transcripts, multilingual summaries
│ └── figures/ # Simulation data & charts
├── framework/ # Core framework design documents
├── vessel-platform/ # Marine vessel platform architecture
├── autopilot/ # ESP32 autopilot engineering & simulations
├── genesis-colony/ # Earlier philosophical/architectural explorations
│ ├── round1-4/ # Iterative research rounds
│ ├── final/ # Final synthesis documents
│ └── phase2_discussions/ # Deep-dive discussions
├── knowledge-base/ # Encyclopedic knowledge base (333K words)
│ ├── foundations/ # History, VMs, biology, culture, paradigms
│ ├── theory/ # Agents, evolution, verification, synthesis, self-org, types
│ ├── philosophy/ # AI consciousness, trust psychology, post-coding
│ ├── systems/ # Embedded, distributed, robotics, edge AI, HW/SW co-design
│ ├── domains/ # Marine systems, maritime navigation history
│ ├── reference/ # Glossary (310 terms), frameworks, law, bibliography (178 refs)
│ └── developer-guide/ # Onboarding guide for new developers
├── a2a-native-language/ # A2A-native programming research (45K words)
├── a2a-native-specs/ # A2A-native Rosetta Stone twin specs
├── onboarding/ # Onboarding for research agents + A2A user education
│ ├── research/ # Deep context maps, frontiers, methodology (45K words)
│ └── user-education/ # Gamified intros, builder education, patterns (79K words)
├── human-readable/ # Plain-language summaries for non-technical readers (27K words)
├── worksheets-logs/ # Iteration worksheets, agent worklogs, session logs
├── claude-build/ # Build specifications for Claude Code (Claude Code starts here)
├── incubator/ # Edgeware Incubator — philosophy, manifesto, contribution guide
├── a2a-native-language/ # A2A-native programming research (45K words)
│ ├── language_design_and_semantics.md # Language philosophy, 29 new opcodes, AAB format
│ ├── assembly_mapping_and_hardware_bridge.md # Xtensa/ARM64 mapping, unfiltered transfer
│ ├── nexus_integration_analysis.md # Backward compatibility, 12 wire protocol extensions
│ ├── agent_communication_and_runtime_model.md # Agent protocol, equipment runtime, vessel model
│ ├── cross_domain_a2a_applicability.md # 8-domain analysis, regulatory, trust calibration
│ └── final_synthesis.md # Grand thesis, Three Pillars, 36-month roadmap
├── v31-docs/ # v3.1 documentation set
├── addenda/ # Engineering addenda (pitfalls, checklists, playbooks)
├── schemas/ # JSON schemas for configuration
└── archives/ # Complete project zip archives
roadmap.md — Master build plan: 6 phases, 20 sprints, 5 milestones, $2.6M over 36 months.
claude-build/ — Component-by-component build specification for Claude Code. Struct definitions, opcode implementations, test vectors, the works.
Quick start for Claude Code: Read claude.md → roadmap.md → claude-build/build-specification.md → start with Phase 0 Sprint 0.1.
NEXUS is the reference implementation for the Edge-Native Edgeware Incubator — a framework for designing, building, and evolving edge-native AI systems. Read the manifesto for the 10 principles.
NEXUS extends its bytecode VM into an agent-first programming paradigm where LLM agents are the primary authors, interpreters, and validators of control code. With the right system prompt (compiler), runtime (equipment), and hardware (vessel), any agent can actualize a user's intention directly to the capability of the underlying hardware.
- Research:
a2a-native-language/— 45,000-word research corpus (language design, hardware bridge, integration, communication, cross-domain, synthesis) - Rosetta Stone:
a2a-native-specs/— Agent-native twin of every production specification - Builder Education:
onboarding/user-education/— Gamified zero-shot education, builder toolkit, architecture patterns, use case scenarios - Research Onboarding:
onboarding/research/— Context maps, research frontiers, methodology, expansion guides
A Wikipedia-grade encyclopedia of 27 articles (333,775 words) covering the full breadth of knowledge a NEXUS developer needs — from the history of programming languages to maritime navigation law, from the philosophy of consciousness to the specifications of the ESP32-S3.
Start here: knowledge-base/developer-guide/onboarding_guide.md
Key resources:
knowledge-base/reference/nexus_glossary.md— 310 terms with NEXUS contextknowledge-base/reference/open_problems_catalog.md— 29 unsolved problemsknowledge-base/reference/annotated_bibliography.md— 178 referencesknowledge-base/README.md— Full article index
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Specification files | 21 |
| Total specification lines | ~19,200 |
| Architecture decision records | 28 |
| VM opcodes | 32 (+ 29 proposed A2A extensions) |
| Wire protocol message types | 28 (+ 12 proposed A2A extensions) |
| Error codes | 75 |
| MCU families evaluated | 13 |
| A2A research documents | 6 (45,191 words) |
| A2A-native Rosetta Stone specs | 8 (350K+ words) |
| Research onboarding docs | 4 (45,100 words) |
| A2A user education docs | 7 (78,500 words) |
| Human-readable summaries | 3 (26,800 words) |
| Total onboarding content | ~132,500 words |
| Target domains | 8 |
| Estimated build (3 devs, parallel) | 12 – 16 weeks |
| Fastest path to demo | 8 weeks |
| A2A migration path | 32 weeks (3 phases) |
| Knowledge base articles | 27 |
| Knowledge base words | ~334,000 |
| Glossary terms | 310 |
| Annotated references | 178 |
| Open problems cataloged | 29 |
| Standard | Level | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| IEC 61508 | SIL 1 | Functional safety |
| ISO 26262 | ASIL-B equivalent | Automotive |
| IEC 60945 | — | Marine environmental |
| ISO 13850 | E-Stop | Emergency stop |
- Tier 1 (Limbs): ESP32-S3 — $6–10/unit, 240MHz dual-core, 8MB PSRAM, 45 GPIO
- Tier 2 (Brains): NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super — $249, 40 TOPS INT8, 8GB LPDDR5
This project is released under the terms of the included LICENSE file.
"The Ribosome, Not the Brain" — NEXUS does not centralize intelligence. It distributes cognition to the periphery, letting each limb think, react, and learn.