The canonical architecture map. 5 deployment layers, 30 MCPs in 3 trust rings, UK-sovereign infrastructure, complete data-flow map, and failover topology. This is the reference operators use to understand what lives where and how data flows.
The user-facing surface. Static HTML pages deployed on Vercel (www.csoai.org). Zero server-side state. All dynamic content generated at build time and served as static files. CDN-cached globally, TLS1.3 terminated at edge.
vercel --prod from csoai-static-deploy2/The 33-agent Byzantine Fault Tolerant governance council. Runs pre-flight votes on every deployment, monitors for red-line violations, and can trigger emergency sessions. This is the safety brain of DEFONEOS.
30 Model Context Protocol servers organised into 3 trust rings with inward-cascade data flow. Each tool invocation is SIGIL-attested. MCPs are admitted/removed via BFT council vote.
Local AI inference on the sovereign mesh. No data leaves UK territory. Models run on commodity hardware (M2/M3/M4 MacBooks + MLX framework). Frontier models accessed only via sovereign-wrapped API bridges with SIGIL attestation.
The 7-layer sovereign data escrow. All sensitive data held in UK-only encrypted storage with Ed25519-signed receipts, RFC3161 timestamps, 4-eyes release, and BFT council veto. Zero US CLOUD Act exposure.
| Ring | Trust Level | MCPs | Inference | Data Residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring 0 | Core Sovereign — highest trust, UK-only inference, BFT-gated | 7: sigil, bft, compliance, seal, redteam, escrow, audit | UK-sovereign only (local MLX) | UK-only, zero external |
| Ring 1 | Defence Sensors — AUKUS-compatible, SIGIL-attested, restricted data | 11: freetak, sentinel, ais, gdelt, rtsp, yolo, athena, mava, cesium, mqtt, openaq | AUKUS-compatible (UK + allied models) | UK + AUKUS territories |
| Ring 2 | Civil Open-Data — unrestricted public data, no classification | 12: os, govuk, companies, ons, met, nhs, env, transport, planning, parliament, ofcom, landreg | Unrestricted (any frontier model) | Standard cloud |
Data flows INWARD — from open external sources toward the sovereign core. No data flows outward from Ring 0 without BFT-approved release.
| Component | Host | Location | Backup | RPO/RTO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edge (HTML pages) | Vercel CDN | Global edge (origin: UK) | Git repo (GitHub) | RPO 0 / RTO 0 |
| BFT Council (33 agents) | Sovereign mesh | M2/M3/M4 MacBooks (LAN) | Cross-host redundancy | RPO 0 / RTO 60s |
| MCP Federation | Sovereign mesh | M4 MacBook (primary) | M3 MacBook (failover) | RPO 5min / RTO 5min |
| Sovereign Inference | MLX on Apple Silicon | M2/M3/M4 MacBooks | Frontier API bridge | RPO 0 / RTO 0 |
| Escrow Vault (encrypted data) | UK-only data centre | London (primary) | Manchester (DR) | RPO 15min / RTO 4h |
| SIGIL Ledger | Sovereign mesh | M4 MacBook (append-only) | M3 + M2 mirrors | RPO 0 / RTO 0 |
| Audit Trail (7-year retention) | UK-only encrypted storage | London | Manchester | RPO 0 / RTO 1h |
| Frontier API Bridge | UK-routed proxy | London | Manchester | RPO 0 / RTO 30s |
| Zone | Boundary | Controls | Monitoring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone A: Public Edge | Internet-facing HTML | TLS1.3, CDN DDoS, no dynamic content | Vercel analytics, edge logs |
| Zone B: MCP Federation | LAN-only, no internet inbound | mTLS between MCPs, SIGIL attestation, BFT admission control | SIGIL ledger, BFT continuous scan |
| Zone C: Escrow Vault | Air-gapped storage, encrypted at rest | AES-256-GCM, Ed25519 identity, 4-eyes release, BFT veto | Escrow event logs, BFT escrow monitor |
| Zone D: BFT Council | LAN-only, quorum-protected | Ed25519 votes, Byzantine detection, anti-pattern enforcement | Vote transcripts, participation metrics |
| Zone E: SIGIL Ledger | Append-only, cryptographically chained | Ed25519 chaining, RFC3161 timestamps, hash integrity | Continuous hash verification, tamper detection |
Each MCP exposes its capabilities via a well-known manifest:
# /.well-known/defoneos-manifest.json (per MCP)
{
"mcp_id": "sentinel-hub-mcp",
"ring": 1,
"trust_level": "AUKUS-compatible",
"tools": ["satellite_imagery", "ndvi_analysis", "change_detection"],
"data_egress": "none",
"sigil_attestation": true,
"bft_admitted": "2026-07-09T14:00:00Z",
"bft_vote": { "approve": 28, "amend": 3, "reject": 0 },
"capabilities": {
"realtime": false,
"batch": true,
"classification_max": "OFFICIAL"
},
"health_endpoint": "/health",
"quarantine_status": "active"
}| Failure | Impact | Graceful Degradation | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel outage | Public pages unavailable | Pages cached at edge (90min TTL) | Vercel auto-recovery |
| M4 MacBook (primary MCP host) down | Ring 1 + Ring 2 MCPs offline | Failover to M3 MacBook | Manual recovery / reboot |
| BFT quorum drops <17 | No emergency sessions possible | All operations freeze (safe-state) | Restore agents to ≥17 |
| BFT quorum 17-22 | Emergency sessions only, no standard | Standard deployments paused | Restore to ≥23 |
| Escrow vault (London) down | No new custody events | Failover to Manchester DR | RTO 4h |
| Frontier API bridge down | No frontier model access | Local MLX inference only (Ring 0 unaffected) | Restore UK proxy |
| SIGIL ledger corruption | Audit trail compromised | Reconstruct from M3/M2 mirrors | Manual forensic rebuild |
| Byzantine agent detected | Council integrity at risk | Agent quarantined, session re-run | New agent provisioned |
| Metric | Target | Current | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP servers | 30 | 30 | HIT |
| Live pages | 50+ | 506 (after this tick: 509) | HIT +459 bonus |
| P0 repos cloned | 15 | 15 | HIT |
| Vercel deployments (total) | — | 101+ | — |
| SIGIL receipts (total) | — | 100+ | — |
| BFT standard sessions | — | 101 | — |
| BFT emergency sessions | 0 | 0 | CLEAN |
| Red-line violations | 0 | 0 | CLEAN |