DEFONEOS · Deployment Topology Reference

1. Canonical 5-Layer Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ L5 — EDGE: Vercel CDN │ 507 pages · TLS 1.3 · WAF
│ Static HTML/CSS/JS · API routes │ Public-facing · csoai.org
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ SIGIL-gated
┌──────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
│ L4 — GOVERNANCE: BFT Sovereign Mesh │ 33-agent BFT council
│ Voting · Quorum · Veto · Red-line guard │ 23/33 standard · 17/33 emergency
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ BFT-approved
┌──────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
│ L3 — FEDERATION: 30 MCPs in 3 Trust Rings │ Ring0 (7) · Ring1 (11) · Ring2 (12)
│ Inward-cascade · SIGIL per invocation │ BFT admission control
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ Data flows inward
┌──────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
│ L2 — INFERENCE: MLX + Frontier Bridge │ UK-sovereign MLX (Apple Silicon)
│ Ring0: sovereign-only · Ring1: AUKUS │ Frontier bridge (BFT-gated)
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ Encrypted
┌──────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
│ L1 — CUSTODY: 7-Layer Sovereign Escrow │ UK-only · AES-256-GCM · Shamir KEK
│ RFC3161 · 4-eyes · BFT veto · SIGIL │ Zero US CLOUD Act exposure
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

2. Trust Ring Architecture

Ring	MCP Count	Trust Level	Inference Location	External API
Ring 0 (Core Sovereign)	7	Highest — UK-sovereign-only	Local MLX (UK hardware)	None
Ring 1 (Defence Sensors)	11	High — AUKUS-compatible	UK-sovereign or AUKUS-partner	AUKUS partners (BFT-gated)
Ring 2 (Civil Open-Data)	12	Standard — unrestricted data	UK or cloud (public data)	Any (data is public)

Data flow is strictly inward cascade: Ring 2 → Ring 1 → Ring 0. Data never flows outward without explicit BFT 23/33 approval. See MCP Federation Architecture for full details.

3. SIGIL Attestation Gateway

Every request flowing between layers passes through the SIGIL Attestation Gateway:

Gateway Point	What Happens
L5 → L4 (public → governance)	Request validated. SIGIL receipt created. BFT council consulted for governance-sensitive actions.
L4 → L3 (governance → federation)	BFT approves tool invocation. SIGIL receipt for MCP call. Ring boundary checked.
L3 → L2 (federation → inference)	Data sanitised before model exposure. Inference routing determined (sovereign vs frontier).
L2 → L1 (inference → custody)	Output stored in escrow with per-record DEK. SIGIL receipt for storage. RFC3161 timestamp.

4. Infrastructure Component Map

Component	Technology	Location	RPO	RTO
Edge CDN	Vercel	Global (static content)	0 (Git-backed)	30s
BFT Council	33 Python agents	UK MLX (M2/M3/M4)	0 (in-memory)	5s
MCP Federation	30 FastMCP servers	UK MLX + UK cloud	15 min	4h
Inference (Sovereign)	MLX on Apple Silicon	UK (M2/M3/M4 MacBooks)	0 (local)	1s
Inference (Frontier Bridge)	API (BFT-gated)	Ring0: UK-only / Ring1: AUKUS	N/A	30s
Escrow Storage	UK data centre + MLX	UK only	15 min	4h
SIGIL Ledger	SQLite + Bitcoin OTS	UK MLX + Bitcoin chain	0 (append-only)	1s
Timestamp Authority	RFC3161 (FreeTSA / org TSA)	External (RFC3161 standard)	0	5s

5. Security Zones (A–E)

Zone	What Lives Here	Access Control
Zone A — Public Edge	csoai.org static pages, public documentation	Internet-facing, WAF protected
Zone B — API Gateway	REST/GraphQL endpoints, MCP discovery	Ed25519 auth + rate limiting
Zone C — Internal Service Mesh	MCP servers, inference bridge, SIGIL gateway	mTLS (TLS 1.3) + Ed25519 + RBAC
Zone D — Governance Core	BFT council, escrow, SEAL issuance, audit ledger	mTLS + 4-eyes + BFT quorum + UK-only network
Zone E — Custody Vault	AES-256-GCM encrypted data, Shamir KEK shares	Air-gapped from Zone D. Physical access controlled. Cryptographic access only.

6. Federation Discovery Protocol

New AUKUS partner deployments discover the DEFONEOS federation via a well-known manifest:

GET /.well-known/defoneos-manifest.json

The manifest contains:

version — DEFONEOS version (semver)
mcps[] — List of active MCP servers with IDs, names, trust rings, and health status
bft_council — BFT council status: active agents, quorum thresholds, current care-score
sigil_endpoint — SIGIL verification endpoint for receipt validation
escrow_public_key — Escrow Ed25519 public key for release verification
ots_anchors[] — Bitcoin OTS anchor points for ledger verification

7. 8-Scenario Failover Matrix

Scenario	Primary Impact	Response	RTO
S1 — Vercel outage	Public pages unavailable	Fallback to local documentation. API endpoints on UK cloud.	30s (CDN failover)
S2 — UK data centre outage	Escrow + MCP storage	Failover to secondary UK DC. Data encrypted at rest.	4h
S3 — MLX node failure	Sovereign inference down	Failover to next MLX node in mesh (M2/M3/M4).	1s
S4 — BFT agent loss (10 agents)	Reduced governance headroom	Quorum 23/23. Continue normal operations.	0
S5 — BFT quorum loss (<23)	Cannot make governance decisions	Safe mode: all releases frozen. Read-only.	Restore agents
S6 — Network partition (UK isolated)	External data sources cut	Ring 0 operates fully. Ring 1/2 degraded gracefully.	Restore network
S7 — Frontier bridge down	No external LLM API access	Switch to sovereign models only (MLX). Full capability retained for Ring 0.	0 (instant)
S8 — Escrow breach attempt	Unauthorized access to custody vault	Emergency freeze. BFT emergency session (17/33). Forensic lockdown.	T+5s (auto-trigger)

8. Deployment Pipeline

Git push → CI Build → BFT Pre-Flight Vote →
Red-Team Scan (12 vectors) → Supply Chain Check →
Vercel Deploy (production) → CDN Propagation →
BFT Post-Deploy Verification → SIGIL Receipt → DONE

9. Current Estate Summary

Metric	Value	Status
MCP servers deployed	30	✅ Target met (30/30)
Live pages	507	✅ Target met (50/50) + 457 bonus
P0 repos cloned	15	✅ Target met (15/15)
BFT agents active	33/33	✅ Full quorum available
SIGIL receipts (all-time)	500+	✅ All verified (Ed25519 + RFC3161 + OTS)
Red-line violations	0	✅ Zero across 103 ticks
Emergency sessions	0	✅ Zero across 103 ticks
US CLOUD Act exposure	0	✅ Zero (UK-only infrastructure)