Start heresource checked

Contents and learning route

The complete ordered reading route: establish ownership, then trace the durable control plane, adapters, work lifecycle, clients, remote paths, shipping system, and architectural synthesis.

What this chapter resolves

See why the order follows runtime causality instead of repository folders.
Understand the scope of every completed part and its visual explanations.

The old book introduced several keystone concepts long after depending on them. This edition orders the material by causal distance from one user request. The repository atlas remains available as reference, but it does not dictate the story.

Start here

How to read a changing system — evidence, revision, and reading paths.
The complete system map — the same architecture in spatial form.
One request, every boundary — a step-through trace before the zoomed chapters.

Part I · Boundaries and vocabulary

Control surface, not agent brain
Environment · project · thread · turn · session
Repository and dependency atlas
Runtime topologies and technology choices

Part II · Boot and connect

The npx t3 bootstrap path
Server composition and execution boundary
Effect RPC, subscriptions, and wire contracts
Pairing, scopes, credentials, and WebSocket upgrade

Part III · The durable domain kernel

Commands and invariants
Events, receipts, and idempotency
Projection tables and read models
Post-commit reactors: serialized handling without durable delivery
SQLite, files, settings, secrets, migrations, and recovery

Part IV · Five harnesses, one product model

The ProviderAdapter contract
Drivers, instances, registries, and multi-instance routing
Codex through app-server JSON-RPC
Claude through the Agent SDK
Cursor and Grok through ACP
OpenCode and the normalization matrix
Two usage systems: live context telemetry and transcript accounting

Part V · The work lifecycle

Project discovery and t3.json
Current checkout vs isolated worktrees
Start, stream, steer, interrupt, settle
Permission modes, approvals, and structured input
Threads, provider tasks, plans, skills, and subagents
Who owns context, compaction, and memory
Hidden-ref checkpoints, diffs, and revert
Terminals, files, previews, MCP, VCS, and pull requests

Part VI · Client architectures: shared semantics, platform edges

The shared client runtime
Web routes, state, and rendering performance
Composer, work log, review, and sidebar lifecycle
Desktop: Electron, IPC, server ownership, browser, SSH
Mobile: React Native, persistence, outbox, sharing, notifications

Part VII · Reach and ship

Primary, paired bearer, Tailscale endpoints, and SSH access
T3 Connect: OAuth, DPoP, relay, and tunnel
Reconnect, multi-environment state, notifications, version skew
Distribution artifacts: CLI, hosted app, desktop, mobile, marketing, and AUR
Release graph, three update systems, and observability/privacy

Part VIII · Synthesis

Six complete traces: ownership, convergence, and failure boundaries
Decisions, trade-offs, limitations, and an honest roadmap