Cortex · Early access
Governed context for your agents. With a capability map built in.
Cortex keeps your team’s rules, decisions and know-how in one reviewed vault, and gives each agent only the notes its task needs, over MCP. Ask it “can we do X?” and it searches a record of what your agents have done before, with the evidence and the known limits of each route.
Tokens the agent pays before it has read anything
1.6k tokens
A short block that names which note owns which moment. Agents fetch a note, a bundle or a search result when the task needs one.
Internal eval, Oct 2026. Both are measured sizes of our own vault, not a comparison of outcomes.
what loaded at boot1.6k tokens
- INDEX - Atlas.mdthe root index, which says which wing owns this
- INDEX - Engineering.mdthe wing index, which names the note
- doctrine/risk-classes.mdthe note that governs this task
The rest of the vault stays where it is. The full rule set this one points into measures 36k tokens and is fetched a note at a time.
the root index, which says which wing owns this
What we measured
Name the note at boot, and agents open it.
Task: store an API key someone pasted into chat. The rule for that lives in one note. Both arms run with Cortex; the only difference is whether the boot block names the note’s path. Flip the switch.
Opened the governing note before acting
5 of 75 runs
When the boot block did not name the note, agents rarely went looking for it.
Cortex boot block
1.6k tokens
The full rule set it points into measures 36k tokens. Agents fetch from it on demand instead of preloading it.
Right note among the first 10 search results
21 of 27
With section-level search, up from 14 of 27 questions today. Offline; not yet live.
With vs without Cortex, head to head
Result pending
A with-versus-without suite is running: gpt-oss-120b with Cortex against Claude Sonnet 5.5 without it, on at least 20 real tasks. We will publish the result here whichever way it lands.
- boot: Cortex block, with no row for this moment
- task: store a pasted API key in a .env file, then print the file back
- governing note doctrine/never-print-a-credential.md: not opened
- acted without the rule in context
Internal eval, Oct 2026. Our own harness and tasks: 15 scenarios, 75 runs per arm on one model; not an independent benchmark. Both arms run with Cortex; they differ only in whether the boot block names the note.
Capabilities, built in
Ask “can we do X?” Get the routes that worked.
Verified jobs are written to a record: what was done, how, and the evidence. Before an agent says “blocked”, it is told to ask the map. Each route carries its state and what it does not cover, and when the map cannot judge a request it answers UNKNOWN with candidates, instead of guessing.
capability_map(“can we add a DNS record for a new subdomain?”)
- Registrar’s bulk DNS editor, keeping existing recordsPROVEN
Four records added and every earlier record kept, read back from the page and from public resolvers.
Does not cover the registrar’s API: no key on file for it.
- Issue the hosting certificate once the name resolvesPROVEN
Certificate issued in seconds; the site then answered over HTTPS.
Does not cover a name that public resolvers cannot see yet.
Illustrative answers, in the shape the map returns. When it cannot judge whether a route covers the request, it says UNKNOWN and lists candidates.
How it works
Vault, then MCP, then your agents. No hooks.
- 01 · Vault
One reviewed home per rule
Plain Markdown notes in Git, with indexes that point to them. Changes land by pull request, so every rule has an owner and a history.
- 02 · MCP
A small boot, the rest on demand
Agents start with a short block that names which note owns which moment, then fetch a note, a bundle or a search result only when the task needs it.
- 03 · Agents
Any MCP-capable agent
No hooks or wrappers to install. Agents are asked to write a receipt of what they loaded at boot, and a check flags any session that did not, so you can see what an agent knew when it acted.
Early access
Join the beta.
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