Concepts

The Guides show you how to run Echo; the Reference states exactly what each knob does. This section explains the two design decisions that shape everything else — why Echo is built the way it is.

• Architecture — the core principle (deterministic scripts, LLM only where judgment is needed), the per-project tick sweep, the config-driven / zero-hardcoding design, and the state model: the GitHub board as a state machine, the notification outbox, and the vault.
• Trust model — why merge authority lives off the worker, the boundary between dispatcher-enforced deterministic gates and advisory worker review, and how Echo handles untrusted input (issue text, Discord replies, secrets in the worker’s environment).

If you read only one thing here, read the trust model: it is the part of Echo that lets an autonomous, permission-skipping worker touch your repo without being able to merge its own code.