What's Happening (Mental Model)

Here's the mental model for how a request flows through m4trix:

Flow Overview

1. HTTP Request — A client sends a POST (or GET) to your exposed endpoint.

2. expose() — Extracts the JSON payload, runs auth (if configured), and publishes a start event to the main channel.

3. Main Channel — Events enter here. Agents subscribed to this channel receive the event.

4. Agent(s) — Logic runs. The agent reads triggerEvent.payload, does work (e.g. calls an LLM), and emits new events.

5. Client Channel — Emitted events are published to channels the agent is bound to. The client channel has an httpStream() sink, so events are streamed as SSE to the browser.

6. Browser — Receives SSE events and can render them in real time.

Key Ideas

• Events are typed messages. Schemas are validated at runtime via Effect.

• Channels route events. Agents subscribe to channels (input) and publish to channels (output).

• Sinks determine how events leave the system — e.g. httpStream() for SSE, or Kafka for event backends.

• AgentNetwork wires everything: channels, agents, and the event plane.

Diagram

HTTP Request
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│   expose() / API    │  ← Auth, payload extraction
└────────┬────────────┘
         │ start event
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│    Main Channel     │  ← Events enter here
└────────┬────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│      Agent(s)       │  ← Logic runs, emits new events
└────────┬────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│   Client Channel    │  ← sink: httpStream()
└────────┬────────────┘
         │ SSE
         ▼
      Browser

Next

• Next Steps — Where to go from here