Governed connectivity for systems, devices, and AI agents.
The orchestrator and SDKs for CNS/CP —
the layer that decides whether two nodes should connect, under what contract,
and in what context, before any data flows.
Traditional networks connect addresses and hope the rules get bolted on later. CNS/CP (Connectivity Naming System using Connection Profiles) is relationship-centric instead: nodes declare what they can do — as provider or consumer of a Connection Profile (CP), a machine-evaluable contract — and the substrate decides what binds to what. Nothing connects without declared identity, roles, and a matching CP: deny-by-default, auditable by design.
Others standardize messages. CNS/CP standardizes binding.
Arete is the orchestrator you deploy against. It performs brokerage — matching compatible provider/consumer declarations in a shared context — then instantiates governed connections and manages them through their whole lifecycle. Depending on the CP, it either mediates the data itself (in-band) or steps aside once the connection is governed and lets data flow peer-to-peer (out-of-band).
The model in four steps:
declare → nodes publish the CPs they provide or consume · broker → Arete matches compatible pairs in context · bind → a governed connection is instantiated · operate → the contract is monitored, adjusted, and audited for life
| Repository | What it is |
|---|---|
| sdk | The Arete SDK — build CNS/CP applications in Node, Python, or Rust |
| arete-monitor | A live dashboard for CNS/CP realms — systems, contexts, connections, and a realm graph. 📦 Easy installers for macOS / Windows / Linux |
| arete-monitor-pwa | Arete Monitor as an installable web app — 🌐 open it in any browser, nothing to install, add it to your phone's home screen. Works with any realm presenting a valid certificate (all *.aretehosting.com realms qualify) |
| arete-widget | Virtual widgets on a CNS/CP realm — describe a device as a YAML widget (its CP capabilities plus a faceplate) and the app registers it as a governed node with a live control panel, no hardware required. Great for prototyping contracts and standing in for real devices. 📦 Easy installers for macOS / Windows / Linux· 🌐 or open it as a web app |
| widget-library | The online widget library — community-extensible YAML widget definitions, validated against the CP registry and published as a live catalog that Arete Widget loads at runtime |
| helm-charts | Helm charts for deploying Arete |
| aretehosting | The Arete Hosting application (Go + React) — deploy it in your own environment (Docker Compose or Kubernetes) to run your own fleet of Arete orchestrators |
| website | Source of the Project Arete website |
Connection Profiles are governed centrally in the
CP registry — browse existing profiles like
padi.light before authoring your own.
Arete Hosting is a site we operate that gives
you your own Arete instance in a few clicks: sign in, click Add
orchestrator, pick a name — and you get a ready-to-run orchestrator at
<name>.aretehosting.com (deployed from the official Helm chart) with login
credentials to hand to your apps and users. It's the fastest way to get a live
realm to point the SDK, Monitor, or your own applications at.
Arete Hosting is free to use right now. Down the road it will carry a fee — orchestrators take real compute to operate — so early experimenting is a good deal.
Prefer to run things yourself? The same software that powers Arete Hosting lives in the aretehosting repo — deploy it on your own infrastructure and operate your own fleet of orchestrators.
- See a realm live — create an orchestrator on Arete Hosting (or use your own), then open the Arete Monitor web app right in your browser — or install the desktop Monitor — and watch systems declare capabilities and the broker bind them in real time.
- Put a node on it — no code — install Arete Widget, pick a widget from the library, and add a governed virtual device to your realm in seconds.
- Build something — grab the SDK, register a node, and declare your first provider or consumer.
- Design a contract — model a new capability as a CP: two asymmetric roles, a schema, constraints, a context, and a data mode.
- 🌐 projectarete.io — the project website
- 📖 CNS/CP specification and the CNS/CP site