How the trio fits together

Transport, memory, and cost control as one local stack, with the contracts that connect them.

The AI Trio is not a bundle. It is three tools that meet at three interfaces: transport, memory, and cost.

The three layers

LayerToolResponsibility
TransportUMTConfig, server lifecycle, stdio/HTTP, registry
MemoryMemOSStore, retrieval, context packs, provenance
CostGuardianFolding, budgets, provider proxy

Each one works alone. The composition is optional and env-gated.

Data flow

coding agent
   │  MCP (stdio or Streamable HTTP)
   ▼
UMT ──────────────► MCP servers (GitHub, Postgres, Slack, ...)
   │
   │  link memos
   ▼
MemOS (SQLite) ──► context pack ──► Guardian ──► model provider
                                      │
                                      └─ folding, budgets, cache
  1. The agent asks for a tool. UMT routes it to the right server.
  2. The agent asks for memory. MemOS retrieves a token-budgeted pack.
  3. The agent calls the model. Guardian folds the prompt, enforces the budget, and forwards it.

Contracts

The tools compose through versioned contracts, not imports:

ContractProducerConsumer
ai.trio.memos.context-pack.v1MemOSGuardian, UMT, agents
ai.trio.umt.tool-manifest.v1UMTMemOS, agents
ai.trio.guardian.folded-pack.v1GuardianMemOS, agents

A contract is a JSON shape plus a version. That keeps the repos independently releasable.

Ports

ServiceDefault
MemOS HTTP7400
MemOS MCP (Streamable HTTP)8788
Guardian proxy3000
UMT server (HTTP mode)command-specific

All bind to loopback by default.

Run all three

# Show status, or launch the full trio
memos trio
memos trio --up

memos trio reports which siblings are present, which are running, and which ports they own.

Failure isolation

  • If MemOS is down, Guardian serves requests without memory injection.
  • If Guardian is down, the agent can still use MemOS and UMT directly.
  • If UMT is down, the harness can still read MemOS over MCP.

The composition is designed to degrade, not cascade.

Why local-first matters here

A hosted memory API plus a hosted gateway plus a hosted tool router is three accounts, three keys, and three places your context can leak. The trio replaces that with:

  • one SQLite file for memory,
  • one local process for folding,
  • one config file for tools.

You can inspect every hop. That is the point.

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