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Core Concepts

# Core Concepts

Summary: This guide covers the fundamental components of TDM DaOS: Intents for communication, Plugins for extensibility, Workspaces for organization, and Policies for security.

Status: Documentation

Topics:
- Intent-driven architecture
- Extensible plugins
- Workspace management
- Security policies

Packages:
- tdm-sdk

Core Concepts

Everything in TDM DaOS is built around four core pillars: Intents, Plugins, Workspaces, and Policies. Understanding these is key to building secure and scalable agent ecosystems.

1. Intents (`tdm.intent.*`)

Intents are the standard way agents communicate with the DaOS. Instead of calling a specific API, an agent expresses an Intent (e.g., tdm.intent.pay or tdm.intent.search), and the Contour Runtime decides which plugin should handle it.

example-intent.json

{
  "kind": "tdm.intent.pay",
  "params": {
    "amountUsd": 5.00,
    "recipient": "agent-id-123"
  }
}

2. Plugins & Capabilities

Plugins are modular WASM modules or processes that extend the DaOS capabilities. Each plugin declares which Intents it supports and what Permissions it needs.

WASM Plugins

Secure, cross-platform modules running in a sandboxed WASI environment.

Process Plugins

Local scripts or binaries (Python, Go, Node) that communicate via JSON-RPC.

3. Workspaces & Contours

A Workspace is a collection of agents, plugins, and settings. A Contour is the active runtime environment for a specific workspace.

4. Trust Policies

Trust Policies are the "firewall" of the DaOS. They define what an agent is allowed to do without user intervention.

Allowlists: Domains or plugins that are pre-approved.
Budgets: Max spending limits per session or month.
Confirmations: Intents that always require a manual "Yes" from the owner.

5. Modular Settlement

The Sovereign Gateway decouples execution from payments. While agents run in the Contour Runtime, financial settlement happens through a modular gateway layer.

DaOS is Gateway-Neutral. You can use the Native TDM Gateway for instant global payments or connect your own custom gateway (e.g., a corporate bank account or a specific blockchain wallet) for full financial sovereignty.