A.R.C. (Agentic Reasoning Core)
An open-source, "Platform-in-a-Box" for building, deploying, and orchestrating production-ready AI agents.
A.R.C. (Agentic Reasoning Core) is an open-source, modular, and cloud-native AI system designed to be a distributed intelligence orchestration engine.
But A.R.C. isn't just another Python library—it's a "Platform-in-a-Box."
It's a production-ready ecosystem of pre-built, "black-box" services that you compose and control. We provide the "batteries-included" infrastructure (like IAM, streaming, and API gateways) so you can stop worrying about plumbing and focus on what matters: building the "thinking engine" for your agents.
Use A.R.C. to build, deploy, and scale:
- Voice-first AI companions (powered by Scarlett)
- Stateful, long-running research agents (powered by Sherlock)
- Adversarially tested logic flows (trained by Ivan Drago)
- Modular, event-driven AI microservices
- Truly Open-Source: 100% of our core stack is FOSS. No BSL, source-available, or proprietary-core-with-non-compete-clauses. We're built on Apache 2.0, MIT, and MPL.
- Platform-in-a-Box: We provide the "batteries-included" foundation. You get auth, secrets, messaging, and observability out of the box, not as an afterthought.
- Modular & Pluggable: We're built on standards. We use OpenFeature for feature flags and OpenTelemetry for observability, so you're never locked into a single vendor (not even us).
- Built for Resilience: Our stack isn't a toy. It includes Chaos Engineering by default to ensure your agents survive the real world.
A.R.C. is a polyglot platform managed by a single powerful CLI. We map industry-standard open-source technology to specific "Roles" within the cluster.
| Role | Codename | Technology | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway | Heimdall | Traefik | The Gatekeeper. Opens the Bifrost (ports) only for authorized traffic. |
| Identity | J.A.R.V.I.S. | Kratos | The Butler. Handles identity, authentication, and user sessions. |
| Secrets | Nick Fury | Infisical | The Spymaster. Securely holds the nuclear codes (API keys & secrets). |
| Flags | Mystique | Unleash | The Shapeshifter. Changes app behavior flags instantly without redeploying. |
| Events | Dr. Strange | Pulsar | Time Stone. Replays event history and manages the durable stream. |
| Messaging | The Flash | NATS | The Nervous System. High-speed, ephemeral messaging for the cluster. |
| Real-Time | Daredevil | LiveKit | The Radar. Sees the world through sound waves (WebRTC). |
| Delivery | Hedwig | Mailer | Mail Delivery. Delivers the message (emails) no matter what. |
| Resilience | T-800 | Chaos Mesh | (NEW) The Terminator. Randomly kills pods to test survival. |
| Role | Codename | Technology | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| L.T. Memory | Oracle | Postgres | Long-Term Memory. The photographic record of truth. |
| Working Mem | Sonic | Redis | Context Cache. "Gotta go fast." Holds the immediate agent context. |
| Semantic | Cerebro | Qdrant | The Finder. Vector database connecting thoughts via semantic search. |
| Storage | Tardis | MinIO | Infinite Storage. S3-compatible object storage for files/media. |
| Pioneer | Pathfinder | Migrate | Maps the database schema before anyone else enters. |
Your agents aren't just scripts; they are specialized workers in a distributed system.
| Role | Codename | Technology | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoner | Sherlock | LangGraph | The Core Engine. "Data! I cannot make bricks without clay." |
| Voice | Scarlett | Voice Agent | The Voice. Turns raw data into human connection (Her). |
| Guard | RoboCop | RuleGo | Safety. Enforces "Prime Directives" to stop the agent from shooting civilians. |
| Critic | Gordon Ramsay | QA Worker | "This output is RAW!" Yells until the LLM's answer is perfect. |
| Gym | Ivan Drago | Adv. Trainer | "I must break you." Attacks the Agent's logic to find weaknesses. |
| Translator | Uhura | Semantic | Converts human speech/intent to system commands (SQL/API). |
| Mechanic | Statham | Healer | Self-Healing. Slides under the car to fix leaks while running. |
| Janitor | The Wolf | Ops | "I solve problems." Cleans up the mess efficiently. |
| Manager | Alfred | Billing | Tracks the budget and manages the estate. |
| Sentry | Sentry | Ingress | The Watchtower. Handles incoming RTMP/SIP streams for LiveKit. |
| Scribe | Scribe | Egress | The Recorder. Archives LiveKit sessions to tape. |
| Role | Codename | Technology | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collector | Black Widow | OTEL | The Spy. Intercepts all signals and traces without being seen. |
| Metrics | Dr. House | Prometheus | Diagnostics. Trusts the vitals, not the patient. |
| Logs | Watson | Loki | The Chronicler. Writes down every messy detail for later deduction. |
| Traces | Columbo | Tempo | The Detective. "Just one more thing." Follows the request path. |
| UI | Friday | Grafana | The visual interface overlay for all metrics and logs. |
| Shipper | Hermes | Promtail | The Messenger. Delivers the logs to Watson. |
We've designed A.R.C. to have the power of a microservice architecture, with the simple developer experience of a monolith.
-
Interactive Scaffolding It all starts with the
arcCLI wizard. This tool guides you through a series of questions to understand what your platform needs. -
Smart Composition Based on your answers, the A.R.C. framework acts as a "smart scaffolder." It dynamically generates a new, fully-configured project, composing our pre-built services (Heimdall, J.A.R.V.I.S., Sherlock) into a single, cohesive
docker-compose.yml. -
One-Command Launch The entire, complex, multi-service platform—which would normally take weeks to configure—launches locally with a single
arc runcommand. -
Focus on the "Thinking Engine" Your job is not to build infrastructure. The plumbing is done. Your only task is to open the Sherlock (
arc-brain) service and start writing your unique agent logic using LangGraph.
We are building A.R.C. in the open. We'd love your help. Please read our CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.
All community interaction is governed by our CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
A.R.C. is open-source under the Apache 2.0 License.
Architect's Note: This isn't just a list of Docker containers; this is the cast of the movie we're building. Every service has a specific job, a personality, and a specific way of ruining your weekend if configured wrong.
We use codenames because "Redis" is boring, but "Sonic" tells you exactly what happens if he crashes (you die).
| Service | A.R.C. Image | Type | Upstream Source | Codename | Role & "Why Him?" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traefik | arc-gateway |
INFRA | traefik:v3.0 |
Heimdall | The Gatekeeper. Opens the Bifrost (ports) only for authorized traffic. |
| Unleash | arc-flags |
INFRA | unleashorg/unleash-server |
Mystique | The Shapeshifter. Changes app behavior flags instantly without redeploying. |
| Kratos | arc-identity |
INFRA | oryd/kratos:latest |
J.A.R.V.I.S. | The Butler. "Welcome home, sir." Handles identity and authentication. |
| Infisical | arc-vault |
INFRA | infisical/infisical:latest |
Nick Fury | The Spymaster. Holds the nuclear codes (secrets). Paranoid for a reason. |
| LiveKit | arc-voice-server |
INFRA | livekit/livekit-server |
Daredevil | The Radar. Sees the world through sound waves (WebRTC). |
| NATS | arc-pulse |
INFRA | nats:alpine |
The Flash | The Nervous System. Information travels so fast it feels like telepathy. |
| Pulsar | arc-stream |
INFRA | apachepulsar/pulsar |
Dr. Strange | Time Stone. Replays history (events) and sees 14 million outcomes. |
| Postgres | arc-db-sql |
INFRA | postgres:16-alpine |
Oracle | Long-Term Memory. The photographic record of truth. |
| Redis | arc-db-cache |
INFRA | redis:alpine |
Sonic | Working Memory. "Gotta go fast." Holds context; if he stops, he dies. |
| Qdrant | arc-db-vector |
INFRA | qdrant/qdrant |
Cerebro | The Finder. Connects to every thought to find semantic matches. |
| MinIO | arc-storage |
INFRA | minio/minio |
Tardis | Infinite Storage. It's bigger on the inside (S3 compatible). |
| OTEL | arc-otel |
INFRA | otel/opentelemetry-collector |
Black Widow | The Spy. Intercepts all signals and traces without being seen. |
| Prometheus | arc-metrics |
INFRA | prom/prometheus |
Dr. House | Diagnostics. Doesn't trust you; trusts the vitals. "It's never DNS." |
| Loki | arc-logs |
INFRA | grafana/loki |
Watson | The Chronicler. Writes down every messy detail for later deduction. |
| Jaeger | arc-traces |
INFRA | grafana/tempo |
Columbo | The Detective. "Just one more thing." Follows the request path. |
| Grafana | arc-viz |
INFRA | grafana/grafana |
Friday | The UI. The visual interface overlay for the metrics. |
| Promtail | arc-log-shipper |
INFRA | grafana/promtail |
Hermes | The Messenger. Delivers the logs to Watson. |
| Chaos | arc-chaos |
INFRA | chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh |
T-800 | The Terminator. "It absolutely will not stop until you are dead." Tests infra resilience. |
| Brain | arc-brain |
CORE | ./core/engine |
Sherlock | The Reasoner. "Data! I cannot make bricks without clay." (LangGraph). |
| Voice Agt | arc-voice-agent |
CORE | ./core/voice |
Scarlett | The Voice. Turns raw data into human connection (Her). |
| Janitor | arc-janitor |
CORE | ./core/ops |
The Wolf | The Fixer. "I solve problems." Cleans up the mess efficiently. |
| Billing | arc-billing |
CORE | ./plugins/billing |
Alfred | The Manager. Tracks the budget and manages the estate. |
| Guard | arc-guard |
CORE | ./core/guardrails |
RoboCop | Safety. "Prime Directives." Stops the agent from shooting civilians. |
| Critic | arc-critic |
WORKER | ./workers/critic |
Gordon Ramsay | QA. "This output is RAW!" Yells until the answer is perfect. |
| Gym | arc-gym |
WORKER | ./workers/gym |
Ivan Drago | Adversarial Trainer. "I must break you." Attacks the Agent's logic. |
| Semantic | arc-semantic |
WORKER | ./workers/semantic |
Uhura | Translator. Converts human speech to system commands (SQL/API). |
| Mechanic | arc-mechanic |
WORKER | ./workers/healer |
Statham | Self-Healing. Slides under the car to fix the leak while running. |
| Migrate | arc-migrate |
SIDECAR | script |
Pathfinder | Pioneer. Maps the database schema before anyone else enters. |
| Ingress | arc-ingress |
SIDECAR | livekit/ingress |
Sentry | The Watchtower. Handles incoming RTMP/SIP streams. |
| Egress | arc-egress |
SIDECAR | livekit/egress |
Scribe | The Recorder. Archives the session to tape. |
| Mailer | arc-mailer |
SIDECAR | courier |
Hedwig | Mail Delivery. Delivers the message no matter what. |
We are escalating our testing protocols. We used to just punch the agent (Ivan Drago); now we hunt the infrastructure.
- Service:
arc-chaos(Chaos Mesh) - Codename: T-800 (The Terminator)
- Mission: Infrastructure Resilience.
- Methodology:
- Stress Testing the Mind (Ivan Drago): Attacks the Prompt/Logic. Tries to jailbreak the LLM or make it hallucinate.
- Stress Testing the Body (The Terminator): Attacks the Server. Kills Redis containers, introduces 500ms network latency, and corrupts disk I/O.
Why Him? > [cite_start]"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." [cite: 13]
If your system (A.R.C.) stays online, it is truly resilient. [cite_start]If not... hasta la vista, baby[cite: 15].