Kernel & Layers

Quark Agent is built as an onion — concentric layers, each one opt-in.

The 4 Layers

Layer	Package	What's Inside	Deps
Kernel	packages/core	Agent, Context, Runtime, Types	zero
Plugins	packages/plugins	A2A, SSE, Workspace, defineAction	kernel
Extensions	packages/extensions	Sessions, Healer, Skill scoring	kernel + plugins
Full	src/	All 16 tools, 7 channels, all providers, evolve, memory, sandbox	everything

Pay for What You Use

```ts // Just the kernel — 5KB, no tools, no channels import { Agent } from "quark-agent/core"; const agent = new Agent({ ... });

// Add plugins (defineAction, SSE, workspace) import "quark-agent/plugins";

// Add extensions (sessions, healer) import "quark-agent/extensions";

// Or just take everything import { createAgent } from "quark-agent"; ```

Why So Small?

The kernel does exactly four things:

1. Agent loop — receive a message, call the LLM, dispatch tool calls, repeat until done
2. Context — holds the conversation, tools, and current state
3. Runtime — wires providers, channels, and plugins together
4. Types — TypeScript types so the rest of the codebase stays honest

Everything else — the 16 tools, 7 channels, GEPA evolver, A2A protocol, SQLite memory — lives outside the kernel and is loaded only if you need it.

Dependency Policy

• The kernel (packages/core) must stay zero-dependency and <5KB gzipped
• Plugins may depend on the kernel only
• Extensions may depend on kernel + plugins
• The full src/ layer can depend on anything

This is enforced by a pre-commit hook (scripts/pre-commit-check.sh) that checks the kernel size on every commit.