The runtime owns the handoff.
Millrace keeps durable authority outside the agent session: work enters a local workspace, configuration compiles into a frozen plan, stages dispatch through runner adapters, and the runtime applies the authoritative state change.
The workspace is the source of truth.
Millrace starts with a local workspace, not a hidden agent memory. Work enters as durable queue records. Runs leave logs, stage artifacts, reports, and status markers. The runtime authority lives there because the next tick can recover from files instead of depending on a still-open conversation.
That is the practical split: agents can reason inside a stage, but the runtime owns state mutation, recovery counters, active-stage bookkeeping, and the evidence trail humans use to decide whether the system is behaving.
Configuration becomes a compiled plan.
Millrace does not ask a runner to infer the operating model from scattered instructions. The runtime compiles workspace configuration into a compiled plan that names queues, stages, gates, routing behavior, and legal result surfaces before work is dispatched.
Scheduler input
The scheduler reads the compiled plan and current workspace state, then claims one legal next action instead of letting an agent self-select scope.
Frozen handoff
A stage handoff carries the bounded assignment and the runner contract. It is enough context to work, not enough authority to rewrite the runtime.
Operator surface
Because control is compiled, humans can inspect what will run, compare it to source configuration, and debug the system without spelunking an agent chat.
Runners execute. They do not become the control plane.
The contract has to survive more than one implementation.
The Python reference runtime is the primary installable surface. It carries the local workspace model, CLI, scheduler behavior, runner adapters, and operator-facing inspection loop.
The Rust parity implementation makes the contract less hand-wavy: queue ownership, compiled plan behavior, dispatch boundaries, and state transitions have to survive a second language surface.
Millrace OS is the longer operating-system-shaped direction: durable runtime authority, bounded execution, visible artifacts, and human operation around autonomous software work.
Follow the handoff in the open.
The deep lifecycle chart shows the scheduler path. Closure and recovery explain the completion gate. The operator guide covers install, compile, run, and inspect.