Execution Kernel

Deterministic task lifecycle enforcement for multi-agent systems.

Overview

The execution kernel is a lightweight Python library and CLI tool that enforces strict task lifecycle semantics across agent operations. It prevents infinite work loops, skipped lifecycle states, and speculative busywork — ensuring agents produce only valid, bounded, externally-valuable work.

The package is lean by design (~39 KB, ~1,050 LOC across 8 source files). It focuses on one problem — task lifecycle discipline — and solves it without framework lock-in or heavy dependencies. Only requests and pyyaml are required.

Components

Module	Responsibility
lifecycle.py	State machine for task transitions (todo → in_progress → done, etc.)
loop_detector.py	Detection/prevention of self-generated work loops (depth, cycle, identity)
budget.py	Execution budget enforcement (steps, depth, wall-clock time)
paperclip_adapter.py	Optional adapter for the Paperclip agent orchestration API. Provides create_task, transition_task, checkout, and idle enforcement that blocks speculative work when no tasks are available. Ships with the library so downstream projects can use it without an extra dependency, but is only activated when you construct a PaperclipAdapter — the CLI and core modules work without it.
config.py	YAML configuration loading with deep-merge defaults
cli.py	CLI entry point for shell/agent environments
memory_hooks.py	Memory-management hooks for tracking task context across sessions

Installation

pip install exec-kernel

With multi-agent coordination support:

pip install exec-kernel[coordination]

Or from source:

git clone <repo-url>
cd autonomous-ventures
pip install -e .
pip install -e ".[coordination]"   # include coordination support

CLI Usage

Validate a state transition:

exec-kernel validate todo in_progress
# VALID: Work started

exec-kernel validate todo done
# INVALID: No valid transition from todo to done

Check for loops:

exec-kernel check-loop child-1 agent-1 feature --parent-task-id parent-1
# ALLOWED: depth=1

Check budget:

exec-kernel check-budget task-1 --steps 5 --max-steps 10
# OK: 5 steps, 0s elapsed (max 10 steps, 1800s)

exec-kernel check-budget task-1 --steps 15 --max-steps 10
# EXCEEDED: [steps] Task task-1 exceeded step budget: 15 steps taken, max 10

Enter idle sleep (no task generation allowed):

exec-kernel sleep --timeout 30 --agent-id agent-1
# SLEEP:idle agent=agent-1 reason=no_tasks timeout=30s

Python API

Lifecycle

from kernel.lifecycle import TaskLifecycle, TaskState, InvalidTransitionError

task = TaskLifecycle(task_id="my-task")
task.transition(TaskState.IN_PROGRESS)   # "Work started"
task.transition(TaskState.DONE)          # "Work completed"

# Invalid transitions raise InvalidTransitionError
try:
    task.transition(TaskState.TODO)      # Terminal state — raises
except InvalidTransitionError as e:
    print(e.reason)                      # "Cannot transition from terminal state done"

# Safe checking
if task.can_transition_to(TaskState.BLOCKED):
    task.transition(TaskState.BLOCKED)

The full transition table:

Current →	Allowed targets
backlog	todo
todo	in_progress, cancelled, blocked
in_progress	done, blocked, cancelled, in_review
in_review	done, in_progress, blocked, cancelled
blocked	in_progress, cancelled, todo
done	(terminal — no transitions)
cancelled	(terminal — no transitions)

Loop Detection

from kernel.loop_detector import LoopDetector, WorkNode, LoopDetectionError

detector = LoopDetector(max_depth=10)

# Register the parent task first
detector.register_node(WorkNode(
    task_id="parent-1", agent_id="agent-1", task_type="research"
))

# Check a child — allowed within depth limit
depth = detector.check_new_task(
    "child-1", "agent-1", "research", parent_task_id="parent-1"
)
# depth=1

# Deep nesting past max_depth raises LoopDetectionError
try:
    detector.check_new_task(
        "deep-task", "agent-1", "research", parent_task_id="parent-1",
        created_by_task_id="parent-1"
    )
except LoopDetectionError as e:
    print(e.loop_type)  # "depth"

LoopDetectionError includes a loop_type field: "depth", "cycle", or "identity".

Budget Enforcement

from kernel.budget import BudgetTracker, BudgetExceededError

tracker = BudgetTracker()
state = tracker.start_task("task-1", {"max_steps": 50})

# Record steps — raises if exceeded
for _ in range(50):
    tracker.record_step("task-1")  # Last one raises BudgetExceededError(budget_type="steps")

# Or check manually
state.check_all()          # checks steps + duration
state.check_depth(15)      # check proposed depth

When a budget is exceeded, BudgetExceededError is raised with:

• .budget_type — "steps", "depth", or "duration"
• Message with current vs. max values

Paperclip Adapter (Optional)

The PaperclipAdapter integrates with Paperclip, an open-source agent orchestration platform. It provides:

• transition_task() — atomically validate + apply lifecycle transitions via the Paperclip API
• create_task() — create new tasks with structured admission schema
• sleep() / wake() — idle enforcement that blocks speculative task generation
• checkout() — claim a task for execution

from kernel.paperclip_adapter import PaperclipAdapter, TaskAdmission, TaskAdmissionError

adapter = PaperclipAdapter(
    api_url="https://api.example.com",
    api_key="...",
    agent_id="agent-1",
)

# Every task requires an admission schema — consumer, pain point, value, validation
admission = TaskAdmission(
    consumer="end-user",
    pain_point="login page is slow",
    expected_value="reduce load time by 40%",
    validation_path="benchmark test suite",
)
task = adapter.create_task("Optimize login", "performance", admission=admission)

# Idle enforcement: prevents task creation when no work is available
result = adapter.sleep()   # enter idle
# adapter.create_task(...)  # raises IdleEnforcementError
adapter.wake()             # resume

Multi-Agent Coordination (Optional)

Install with the coordination extra to enable multi-agent message passing:

pip install exec-kernel[coordination]

The coordination package provides a FastAPI-based event queue and task dispatch system for connecting multiple agents. When combined with exec-kernel's lifecycle enforcement, you get:

• Deterministic task flow — every agent transitions through todo → in_progress → done
• Message passing — agents enqueue and dequeue tasks via the coordination API
• Escalation routing — EscalationHook (included in exec-kernel) forwards blocked tasks to the coordination layer's escalation queue
• Budget enforcement across agents — each agent tracks its own budget independently

See the getting-started tutorial for a complete 2-agent example.

Configuration

Create .exec-kernel.yml in your project root:

lifecycle:
  max_depth: 10
  max_heap_size: 1000

budget:
  max_steps: 50
  max_depth: 10
  max_duration_seconds: 1800

Values are deep-merged with defaults — omit any key to use the default.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  exec-kernel CLI / Python API               │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌─────────┐  │
│  │Lifecycle │ │Loop Detector │ │ Budget  │  │
│  │State     │ │              │ │Enforce- │  │
│  │Machine   │ │              │ │ment     │  │
│  └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ └─────────┘  │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Paperclip API Adapter (optional)       │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Error handling summary

Operation	Failure	Exception	Exit code
Invalid state transition	Transition not in table	InvalidTransitionError	1
Transition from terminal state	done or cancelled	InvalidTransitionError	1
Step budget exceeded	steps_taken > max_steps	BudgetExceededError(budget_type="steps")	1
Depth budget exceeded	proposed_depth > max_depth	BudgetExceededError(budget_type="depth")	1
Duration budget exceeded	elapsed > max_duration_seconds	BudgetExceededError(budget_type="duration")	1
Loop depth exceeded	Nesting past max_depth	LoopDetectionError(loop_type="depth")	1
Cycle detected	Task creates ancestor chain	LoopDetectionError(loop_type="cycle")	1
Identity match	Agent re-creates identical task	LoopDetectionError(loop_type="identity")	1
Task creation while idle	sleep() active	IdleEnforcementError	1
Incomplete admission schema	Missing required field	TaskAdmissionError	–

On CLI failure, the exit code is always 1 with a descriptive message on stderr.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Maintainer

Published by Autonomous Ventures.
Latest release: v0.2.0 (May 2026) — adds coordination optional dependency.
Initial release: v0.1.0 (May 2026). Beta — Development Status :: 4 - Beta.

This is a focused, minimal library (~39 KB, 1,050 LOC). It is designed to solve one problem well rather than be a general-purpose framework. Contributions welcome.