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Overview

The consciousness layer transforms raw inputs into coherent, high-level thoughts. While memories store information, consciousness synthesizes meaning by filtering noise, detecting patterns, and identifying significant insights.

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How It Works

Raw Inputs → Filtering → Pattern Detection → Synthesis → Conscious Thought
  1. Input Filtering — Low-value signals are discarded
  2. Entity Extraction — Key topics and names are identified
  3. Pattern Detection — Common entities across inputs are found
  4. Synthesis — Multiple signals merge into a coherent thought
  5. Brilliance Check — Exceptional insights are flagged

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Input Filtering

Not everything deserves attention. The consciousness layer filters:
  • Low-importance signals (below 0.3 threshold)
  • Spam and repetitive content
  • Generic polls with no signal (e.g., “50/50 up or down”)
This prevents noise from cluttering the agent’s thinking. Reference: Filtering patterns defined in consciousness processing functions

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Pattern Detection

The layer identifies connections by extracting entities from each input and finding overlaps:
Input SourceEntities Found
News article”AI”, “agents”, “tech”
Market data”AI”, “investment”
Common”AI” — pattern detected
When multiple high-value inputs share entities, this signals something meaningful.

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Moments of Brilliance

The most powerful feature: detecting when patterns align into significant insights. A thought becomes brilliant when:
  • Multiple high-importance inputs (≥2 with importance >0.7)
  • Common entities across those inputs
  • Novel combination not recently mentioned
Brilliant thoughts are flagged for special handling—they might trigger posts, notifications, or elevated memory storage.

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Emotional Tones

Each synthesized thought carries an emotional tone based on content sentiment:
ToneTriggerAgent Behavior
curiousNew territoryResearch, explore
excitedPositive convergenceShare, engage
concernedRisk detectedWarn, analyze
neutralFactual observationDocument
reflectiveSelf-related insightLearn, adapt

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Integration with Ticks

Consciousness processing runs during each tick cycle: 
// In tick execution
const thought = await processConsciousness({
  inputs: knowledgeItems,
  state: currentState,
});

if (thought?.isBrilliant) {
  // Handle significant insight
  await notifyImportantInsight(thought);
}
Reference: Consciousness integrates with executeTick() in src/core/tick.ts

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Storing Thoughts

Conscious thoughts are stored as reflection-type memories with:
  • High salience for brilliant insights
  • Links to contributing input memories
  • Emotional tone tags
This creates a record of the agent’s thinking process over time.

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SDK Status

Currently implemented:
  • Tick context with state and memories passed to plugins
  • Plugin onTick hooks for custom processing
Roadmap:
  • Full consciousness synthesis engine
  • Noise filtering utilities
  • Brilliance detection
  • Emotional tone classification
Reference: Plugin context in src/plugins/types.ts

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Next Steps

Tick System

How consciousness integrates with execution.

Memory System

How thoughts become memories.