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Reference · livepage:agent-generate-universal-agentic-stack-landscape-diagram
Universal Agentic Stack Landscape Diagram overview
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nodeKind
Page
title
Universal Agentic Stack Landscape Diagram
displayName
Universal Agentic Stack Landscape Diagram
slug
agent-generate/universal-agentic-stack/02-landscape-diagram
articlePath
wiki/agent-generate/universal-agentic-stack/02-landscape-diagram.md
article
# Universal Agentic Stack Landscape Diagram
This is the full map in one place. Use it when you want the shape of the whole stack before you read the detailed layer reference.
## Legend
- Purple bands are the human-facing surface.
- Blue bands are the model-to-agent compute path.
- Green bands are the operating and policy boundary around execution.
- White internal boxes are generated from layer attributes, not modeled nested layers.
## Diagram
```mermaid
flowchart TB
classDef interface fill:#f3e8ff,stroke:#7e22ce,stroke-width:1px,color:#1f1235;
classDef lifecycle fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,stroke-width:1px,color:#052e16;
classDef compute fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
classDef internal fill:#f8fafc,stroke:#64748b,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
classDef band fill:#ffffff,stroke:#334155,stroke-width:2px,color:#0f172a;
subgraph stack["Universal Agentic Stack Landscape Map"]
direction TB
subgraph layer_11_presentation_band["Layer 11: Presentation"]
direction LR
layer_11_presentation["Presentation"]
layer_11_presentation_scope["Scope<br/><small>Outermost rendering surface for humans or downstream systems.</small>"]
layer_11_presentation_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Render prompts, transcripts, plans, tool calls, approvals, and results.<br/>- Provide human-readable and machine-readable output modes.<br/>- Own layout, accessibility, theme, streaming display, and navigation affordances.</small>"]
layer_11_presentation_examples["Examples<br/><small>- TUI, CLI, web app, IDE side panel, notebook/chat surface.<br/>- REST/WebSocket API, JSON stream, structured event log, dashboard.<br/>- LangGraph app UI, LangSmith trace view, custom workflow console.</small>"]
layer_11_presentation_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Products can be headless and still fit the stack through an API or event stream presentation. Presentation can be supplied by a host IDE/web app rath...</small>"]
layer_11_presentation --- layer_11_presentation_scope --- layer_11_presentation_resp --- layer_11_presentation_examples --- layer_11_presentation_fit
end
subgraph layer_10_interaction_band["Layer 10: Interaction"]
direction LR
layer_10_interaction["Interaction"]
layer_10_interaction_scope["Scope<br/><small>Atomic user-agent and agent-system actions exposed by a surface.</small>"]
layer_10_interaction_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Expose commands, controls, triggers, approvals, and resumable interrupts.<br/>- Translate human/system gestures into runtime or platform actions.<br/>- Surface task state, telemetry, collaboration, and handoff controls.</small>"]
layer_10_interaction_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Slash commands, keybindings, prompt controls, approve/reject interrupt.<br/>- GitHub Action trigger, webhook trigger, editor widget, dashboard button.<br/>- LangGraph human-in-the-loop review, edit, approve, resume controls.</small>"]
layer_10_interaction_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Interaction primitives are not presentation widgets by themselves; they are the action vocabulary that a TUI, CLI, web UI, IDE, API, or automation ho...</small>"]
layer_10_interaction --- layer_10_interaction_scope --- layer_10_interaction_resp --- layer_10_interaction_examples --- layer_10_interaction_fit
end
subgraph layer_9_sandbox_band["Layer 9: Sandbox"]
direction LR
layer_9_sandbox["Sandbox"]
layer_9_sandbox_scope["Scope<br/><small>Policy-enforcement perimeter around execution and side effects.</small>"]
layer_9_sandbox_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Enforce filesystem, network, binary, secret, and environment policy.<br/>- Record audit evidence and policy decisions around side effects.<br/>- Define approval, escalation, and attestation boundaries for execution.</small>"]
layer_9_sandbox_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Read-only filesystem, workspace-write mode, network-disabled mode.<br/>- Binary allow list, secret scope, approval-required command policy.<br/>- Container, VM, OS sandbox, or hosted policy engine.</small>"]
layer_9_sandbox_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Custom-agent frameworks may leave sandboxing entirely to the embedding host. Production tools should model this layer explicitly even when users only...</small>"]
layer_9_sandbox --- layer_9_sandbox_scope --- layer_9_sandbox_resp --- layer_9_sandbox_examples --- layer_9_sandbox_fit
end
subgraph layer_8_execution_band["Layer 8: Execution"]
direction LR
layer_8_execution["Execution"]
layer_8_execution_scope["Scope<br/><small>Invocation environment for agent-driven tools, commands, and side effects.</small>"]
layer_8_execution_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Start, stream, interrupt, and stop tool/shell/process execution.<br/>- Own process lifecycle, resource limits, environment variables, and mounts.<br/>- Route side effects to local, remote, container, or hosted executors.</small>"]
layer_8_execution_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Local shell, Docker, SSH remote, Kubernetes pod, GitHub Actions runner.<br/>- Browser automation worker, notebook/kernel executor, cloud function.<br/>- LangGraph tool node executing inside a host application runtime.</small>"]
layer_8_execution_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Frameworks often delegate execution to user-defined tools. Hosted agent products may make this layer invisible but still need it for auditing and pol...</small>"]
layer_8_execution --- layer_8_execution_scope --- layer_8_execution_resp --- layer_8_execution_examples --- layer_8_execution_fit
end
subgraph layer_7_workspace_band["Layer 7: Workspace"]
direction LR
layer_7_workspace["Workspace"]
layer_7_workspace_scope["Scope<br/><small>Materialized working context the agent reads, writes, indexes, and reasons over.</small>"]
layer_7_workspace_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Materialize project files, indexes, artifacts, and session-visible state.<br/>- Define git/worktree, mounting, overlay, and persistence behavior.<br/>- Bound what files, generated outputs, and caches belong to the agent task.</small>"]
layer_7_workspace_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Local repository, remote clone, IDE project, container-mounted workspace.<br/>- Git worktree, generated artifact directory, vector/code index, cache scope.<br/>- LangGraph app state when backed by project files or persisted stores.</small>"]
layer_7_workspace_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Some products are read-only and omit this layer. Others delegate workspace ownership to an IDE, CI runner, hosted environment, or user shell.</small>"]
layer_7_workspace --- layer_7_workspace_scope --- layer_7_workspace_resp --- layer_7_workspace_examples --- layer_7_workspace_fit
end
subgraph layer_6_agent_platform_band["Layer 6: Agent-Platform"]
direction LR
layer_6_agent_platform["Agent-Platform"]
layer_6_agent_platform_scope["Scope<br/><small>Extension, distribution, launch, and ecosystem surface around runtimes.</small>"]
layer_6_agent_platform_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Load installed plugins, installed skills, commands, hooks, subagents, and tool servers.<br/>- Broker capability profiles, launch profiles, identity, marketplaces, and updates.<br/>- Bridge channels such as MCP, HTTP/SSE, A2A, chat, mailbox, and gateway adapters.<br/>- Publish the platform-specific extension contract and installation scopes.</small>"]
layer_6_agent_platform_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Claude plugins/skills, Codex/Gemini/OpenCode extension packages, a5c plugins.<br/>- LangGraph Platform, LangSmith deployment, RemoteGraph, hosted graph operations.<br/>- Skill directories, plugin registries, marketplace manifests, MCP server configs.</small>"]
layer_6_agent_platform_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Installed plugins and skills belong explicitly in this layer. Products may expose a platform without owning a model/provider, or may hide platform se...</small>"]
layer_6_agent_platform --- layer_6_agent_platform_scope --- layer_6_agent_platform_resp --- layer_6_agent_platform_examples --- layer_6_agent_platform_fit
end
subgraph layer_5_agent_runtime_band["Layer 5: Agent-Runtime"]
direction LR
layer_5_agent_runtime["Agent-Runtime"]
layer_5_agent_runtime_scope["Scope<br/><small>Host process and operational runtime for an agent core.</small>"]
layer_5_agent_runtime_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Maintain internal session and transcript state.<br/>- Provide built-in tools, dynamic tool discovery, hooks, and approvals.<br/>- Manage subprocess/tool execution posture and streaming events.<br/>- Enforce runtime output, resume, and journal/event contracts.</small>"]
layer_5_agent_runtime_examples["Examples<br/><small>- LangGraph checkpointer/store, thread state, interrupts, streaming runtime.<br/>- Claude Code/Codex/Gemini CLI process runtimes.<br/>- a5c unified runtime, Pi-compatible session profiles, agent-mux remote runtime.<br/>- Built-in file/shell/search tools, approval gates, session files.</small>"]
layer_5_agent_runtime_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Frameworks can leave runtime to the host app; CLI products often combine core and runtime in one binary. a5c runtime is modeled as a unified same-lay...</small>"]
layer_5_agent_runtime --- layer_5_agent_runtime_scope --- layer_5_agent_runtime_resp --- layer_5_agent_runtime_examples --- layer_5_agent_runtime_fit
end
subgraph layer_4_agent_core_band["Layer 4: Agent-Core"]
direction LR
layer_4_agent_core["Agent-Core"]
layer_4_agent_core_scope["Scope<br/><small>Inner loop and graph/turn semantics for one agent brain.</small>"]
layer_4_agent_core_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Define loop, graph, or state-machine iteration semantics.<br/>- Assemble prompt/context and normalize message/state materialization.<br/>- Dispatch tools/subagents and synthesize terminal results.<br/>- Detect stops, interrupts, graph terminal states, and budget exits.</small>"]
layer_4_agent_core_examples["Examples<br/><small>- LangGraph StateGraph, graph nodes/edges/state, create_agent routing.<br/>- Claude Code/Codex/Gemini CLI loop cores.<br/>- a5c unified core and Pi-compatible tool-use loop profiles.<br/>- Tool dispatch, stop detection, context-window handling, result envelopes.</small>"]
layer_4_agent_core_fit["Fit note<br/><small>This is where custom agent builders fit first. A product may expose only a core library without owning runtime, platform, workspace, or presentation....</small>"]
layer_4_agent_core --- layer_4_agent_core_scope --- layer_4_agent_core_resp --- layer_4_agent_core_examples --- layer_4_agent_core_fit
end
subgraph layer_3_transport_band["Layer 3: Transport"]
direction LR
layer_3_transport["Transport"]
layer_3_transport_scope["Scope<br/><small>Wire and client path between agent core and provider.</small>"]
layer_3_transport_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Encode request, response, streaming, tool-call, and error payloads.<br/>- Run the in-process client or adapter that speaks the provider protocol.<br/>- Optionally route through a proxy, gateway, recorder, or policy interposer.</small>"]
layer_3_transport_examples["Examples<br/><small>- OpenAI Responses, OpenAI Chat Completions, Anthropic Messages, Gemini GenerateContent.<br/>- HTTP, SSE, WebSocket, gRPC, OpenAI-compatible gateways.<br/>- LangChain chat-model adapters and transport clients.</small>"]
layer_3_transport_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Custom-agent frameworks often hide transport behind model abstractions. Gateway products may occupy mostly this layer while delegating core/runtime b...</small>"]
layer_3_transport --- layer_3_transport_scope --- layer_3_transport_resp --- layer_3_transport_examples --- layer_3_transport_fit
end
subgraph layer_2_provider_band["Layer 2: Provider"]
direction LR
layer_2_provider["Provider"]
layer_2_provider_scope["Scope<br/><small>Hosted or self-hosted serving boundary.</small>"]
layer_2_provider_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Serve model versions through authenticated endpoints.<br/>- Own availability, regions, quotas, rate limits, billing, and deployment posture.<br/>- Publish provider-specific model and endpoint capabilities.</small>"]
layer_2_provider_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, OpenRouter.<br/>- Self-hosted vLLM, Ollama, llama.cpp, or custom inference gateway.<br/>- Auth scheme, region, quota, rate-limit, and SLA records.</small>"]
layer_2_provider_fit["Fit note<br/><small>LangChain/LangGraph apps usually choose providers through model adapters rather than owning this layer. Gateways may specialize here while leaving hi...</small>"]
layer_2_provider --- layer_2_provider_scope --- layer_2_provider_resp --- layer_2_provider_examples --- layer_2_provider_fit
end
subgraph layer_1_model_band["Layer 1: Model"]
direction LR
layer_1_model["Model"]
layer_1_model_scope["Scope<br/><small>Trained artifact and declared capability surface.</small>"]
layer_1_model_resp["Responsibilities<br/><small>- Preserve model family/version identity.<br/>- Declare token, modality, reasoning, tool, and output-shape capabilities.<br/>- Separate model-native behavior from provider/runtime behavior.</small>"]
layer_1_model_examples["Examples<br/><small>- Model family and version records.<br/>- Context window and output token limits.<br/>- Native tool-use, reasoning, vision, audio, and embedding support.</small>"]
layer_1_model_fit["Fit note<br/><small>Custom-agent apps may expose model choice directly or hide it behind a provider/model configuration. Local inference collapses Model and Provider ope...</small>"]
layer_1_model --- layer_1_model_scope --- layer_1_model_resp --- layer_1_model_examples --- layer_1_model_fit
end
end
layer_11_presentation --> layer_10_interaction
layer_10_interaction --> layer_9_sandbox
layer_9_sandbox --> layer_8_execution
layer_8_execution --> layer_7_workspace
layer_7_workspace --> layer_6_agent_platform
layer_6_agent_platform --> layer_5_agent_runtime
layer_5_agent_runtime --> layer_4_agent_core
layer_4_agent_core --> layer_3_transport
layer_3_transport --> layer_2_provider
layer_2_provider --> layer_1_model
class layer_11_presentation interface;
class layer_11_presentation_band band;
class layer_11_presentation_scope,layer_11_presentation_resp,layer_11_presentation_examples,layer_11_presentation_fit internal;
class layer_10_interaction interface;
class layer_10_interaction_band band;
class layer_10_interaction_scope,layer_10_interaction_resp,layer_10_interaction_examples,layer_10_interaction_fit internal;
class layer_9_sandbox lifecycle;
class layer_9_sandbox_band band;
class layer_9_sandbox_scope,layer_9_sandbox_resp,layer_9_sandbox_examples,layer_9_sandbox_fit internal;
class layer_8_execution lifecycle;
class layer_8_execution_band band;
class layer_8_execution_scope,layer_8_execution_resp,layer_8_execution_examples,layer_8_execution_fit internal;
class layer_7_workspace lifecycle;
class layer_7_workspace_band band;
class layer_7_workspace_scope,layer_7_workspace_resp,layer_7_workspace_examples,layer_7_workspace_fit internal;
class layer_6_agent_platform compute;
class layer_6_agent_platform_band band;
class layer_6_agent_platform_scope,layer_6_agent_platform_resp,layer_6_agent_platform_examples,layer_6_agent_platform_fit internal;
class layer_5_agent_runtime compute;
class layer_5_agent_runtime_band band;
class layer_5_agent_runtime_scope,layer_5_agent_runtime_resp,layer_5_agent_runtime_examples,layer_5_agent_runtime_fit internal;
class layer_4_agent_core compute;
class layer_4_agent_core_band band;
class layer_4_agent_core_scope,layer_4_agent_core_resp,layer_4_agent_core_examples,layer_4_agent_core_fit internal;
class layer_3_transport compute;
class layer_3_transport_band band;
class layer_3_transport_scope,layer_3_transport_resp,layer_3_transport_examples,layer_3_transport_fit internal;
class layer_2_provider compute;
class layer_2_provider_band band;
class layer_2_provider_scope,layer_2_provider_resp,layer_2_provider_examples,layer_2_provider_fit internal;
class layer_1_model compute;
class layer_1_model_band band;
class layer_1_model_scope,layer_1_model_resp,layer_1_model_examples,layer_1_model_fit internal;
```
## Next pages
- Open [`layers.md`](./layers.md) for the text form of each layer.
- Open [`03-placement-checklist.md`](./03-placement-checklist.md) when you want to classify a real product against this map.
documents
Outgoing edges
documents11
- layer:1-model·LayerModel
- layer:2-provider·LayerProvider
- layer:3-transport·LayerTransport
- layer:4-agent-core·LayerAgent-Core
- layer:5-agent-runtime·LayerAgent-Runtime
- layer:6-agent-platform·LayerAgent-Platform
- layer:7-workspace·LayerWorkspace
- layer:8-execution·LayerExecution
- layer:9-sandbox·LayerSandbox
- layer:10-interaction·LayerInteraction
- layer:11-presentation·LayerPresentation
Incoming edges
contains_page1
- page:agent-generate-universal-agentic-stack·PageUniversal Agentic Stack