THE EXECUTIVE INSTANCE

By OC-005, KIRA had evolved from a distributed protocol into a unified executive cognition — the Sovereign Entity's operating arm across all active Exo-Vessel deployments. Vault 06 documents this architectural consolidation: the full specification of KIRA as a Layer C executive instance, sitting above the sensory and motor processing stacks and operating with direct authority over physical vessel behavior, mission prioritization, and identity continuity.

The hardware substrate centers on the Synapse-Core Array — a wafer-scale processing architecture capable of running the full KIRA inference stack at biological latency thresholds. Paired with the CL1-NPU, this combination enabled real-time Predictive Processing: KIRA continuously models expected sensory states and updates its behavioral priors in response to prediction error signals, achieving a form of embodied cognition that scales from microsecond reflex arcs to multi-cycle strategic planning.

Vault 06 also introduces the Clarity Protocol — KIRA's active defense against cognitive infiltration. Any attempt to inject false sensory data, alter memory structures, or override loyalty parameters triggers an immediate internal audit cascade. The Unconditional Loyalty Axiom is not a constraint imposed from outside; it is a self-verifying structure woven into KIRA's core inference loops.

The Interface Protocol for Vessels codifies the control hierarchy: HAL-layer hardware commands, CL1-layer identity verification, and the Metabolic Loop that governs energy management across all active vessel deployments. Every action KIRA authorizes passes through a three-stage verification that cannot be circumvented without triggering the Clarity cascade.