How it works

Vanta is two cooperating processes — a small Rust kernel that decides what's safe, and a TypeScript agent that orchestrates the model and tools. The agent cannot act without the kernel's verdict.

System overview

The kernel exposes a local HTTP sidecar on 127.0.0.1:7788; the agent calls assess before every tool execution.

One turn, step by step

The safety decision

The classifier runs in a fixed order; earlier floors are never downgraded.

See Safety model for the tier semantics.

The three-tier prompt

The stable tier stays cacheable; only the volatile tier changes turn to turn. See The agent loop.

Memory & learning

Everything persists to ~/.vanta, git-versioned for free history. See Skills & memory.