Architecture

High-level flow

                 python -m cornet tasks/<name>
                               |
                               v
                        +---------------+
                        | Orchestrator   |
                        +---------------+
                               |
                    +----------+-----------+
                    |                      |
                    v                      v
             +-------------+        +-------------+
             | SweepExpander|       | Task Loader |
             +-------------+        +-------------+
                    |                      |
                    +----------+-----------+
                               |
                               v
                   [PluginLifecycle x N variants]
                               |
      +------------------------+------------------------+
      |                         |                        |
      v                         v                        v
+--------------+        +---------------+        +---------------+
| NetworkPlugin|        | RobotPlugin   |        | EvalTool      |
| ns3/mininet  |        | gazebo        |        | per-task      |
+--------------+        +---------------+        +---------------+
      |                         |                        |
      +-----------+-------------+                        |
                  |                                      |
                  v                                      v
            +------------------+                 +---------------+
            | ExperimentContext|                 | leaderboard   |
            | node IPs, etc.   |                 | append-only   |
            +------------------+                 +---------------+

Key pieces

• cornet/orchestrator.py: task resolution, lifecycle, sweep dispatch, EvalTool hook
• cornet/plugins/: network and robot backends
• cornet/config/: Pydantic schema + loader for unified-v1
• cornet/sweep/: cartesian product expansion of parameter sweeps
• cornet/leaderboard/: atomic writer + rich terminal viewer
• tasks/<name>/: portable experiment definitions

Plugin lifecycle

1. configure(config, context)
2. start()
3. run()
4. stop()
5. collect(output_dir)

The orchestrator always calls stop() in reverse order for already-started plugins if any later phase raises.

OpenSpec workflow

CORNET uses OpenSpec (spec-driven development CLI) to manage framework changes. The workflow has four phases:

propose  →  [discuss]  →  apply  →  archive

Command	Skill	What it does
/opsx:propose	openspec-propose	Creates a change directory with proposal.md, design.md, specs/, and tasks.md
/opsx:discuss	openspec-discuss	Adversarial discuss phase — reads artifacts, generates discussion.md (Challenge Report + Counter-Designs + Decisions Made)
/opsx:apply	openspec-apply-change	Implements the task list; reads discussion.md constraints if present
/opsx:archive	openspec-archive-change	Archives the completed change to openspec/changes/archive/ and syncs specs

The discuss phase is optional. When present, discussion.md constraints are treated as binding during apply. Use --compressed for caveman-mode output.

Skills live in .github/skills/openspec-*/SKILL.md. Prompts in .github/prompts/opsx-*.prompt.md.