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Application runtime reload technical specification

A stable application owner contains:

  • the current replaceable AgentApplication;
  • operation admission and active-operation accounting;
  • shared event state;
  • owner-lifetime application notifications;
  • the reload worker and candidate factory.

Reload closes admission, waits for retained operations, constructs the candidate from freshly read configuration/environment, swaps on success, then closes old application resources before reporting completion.

Candidate failure keeps the old application active and reopens admission. Concurrent reload requests are rejected or coalesced according to the owner contract.

Application closure includes application plugins, runtime stores, async runtime resources, tools, and MCP servers. Completion must not be reported before required old-runtime cleanup finishes.

Owner integrations may be terminal/server, combined console/server, or a future embedded mobile runtime. The contract does not require terminal-process ownership.