Storage Architecture
The Storage Architecture is responsible for one architectural problem:
Preserving everything the runtime cannot afford to forget.
Distributed execution produces more than computation.
It produces execution state.
Artifacts.
Execution evidence.
Replay metadata.
Runtime lineage.
These must survive beyond the lifetime of individual runtime components.
The Storage Plane exists to preserve that information.
Blob Storage is the primary large-object implementation within the Storage Architecture.
The Persistence Problem
Distributed computation is transient.
Execution finishes.
Processes terminate.
Agents disconnect.
Infrastructure changes.
Applications, however, require durable execution history.
The runtime therefore preserves:
- execution artifacts
- execution evidence
- runtime metadata
- replay assets
- binary payloads
- execution lineage
Persistence enables replay, inspection, governance, and long-term operational continuity.
Storage Philosophy
The Storage Plane preserves execution.
It never defines execution.
Execution contracts describe computation.
Agents perform computation.
Aggregation reconstructs canonical results.
Storage preserves everything required to understand, inspect, and replay that execution long after computation has completed.
Persistence is therefore an architectural responsibility rather than a storage feature.
Relationship to the Runtime
The Storage Plane participates throughout the execution lifecycle.
Execution Contract
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Hub Coordination
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Scheduler Placement
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Agent Execution
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Aggregation
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Storage Plane
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Replay & InspectionStorage preserves the long-term memory of the runtime.
It is not part of computation.
It is part of execution continuity.
Primary Responsibilities
Persistent Artifacts
Store large execution artifacts produced during runtime.
Examples include:
- datasets
- simulation outputs
- media assets
- generated reports
- model checkpoints
- archives
Artifacts remain externally addressable throughout their lifecycle.
Execution Evidence Preservation
Execution Evidence survives independently of the executing infrastructure.
Examples include:
- execution metadata
- verification records
- runtime lineage
- aggregation metadata
- transport metadata
- execution timestamps
Execution completes before storage becomes useful.
Replay depends upon it.
Replay Assets
Replay requires durable references.
The Storage Plane preserves:
- replay manifests
- artifact references
- deterministic reconstruction inputs
- execution history
- supporting binaries
Replay should remain possible after execution infrastructure no longer exists.
Lifecycle Management
Every stored object follows an explicit lifecycle.
Typical stages include:
- creation
- active retention
- archival
- expiration
- deletion
Lifecycle policies remain explicit and observable.
Secure Access
Storage enforces identity-aware access.
Capabilities include:
- project isolation
- signed URLs
- time-limited access
- authorization validation
- audit logging
Execution artifacts remain protected throughout their lifecycle.
Storage Components
The Storage Plane consists of multiple specialized storage systems.
Blob Storage
Stores large immutable binary objects.
Typical workloads include:
- media
- scientific datasets
- simulation outputs
- archives
- adapter payloads
Blob Storage prioritizes durability and efficient streaming.
Key-Value Storage
Stores small runtime metadata.
Examples include:
- execution identifiers
- runtime coordination
- scheduling metadata
- configuration
- lightweight execution state
KV prioritizes low-latency lookup.
Virtual Memory (VMem)
Stores structured numerical execution state.
Typical workloads include:
- matrices
- vectors
- tensor fragments
- intermediate scientific data
VMem optimizes numerical execution rather than binary persistence.
Blob Storage
Blob Storage provides immutable large-object persistence.
Supported capabilities include:
- multipart upload
- deterministic chunking
- range requests
- streaming access
- backend abstraction
- checksum validation
Blob Storage minimizes unnecessary memory consumption across distributed execution.
Artifact Lifecycle
Execution artifacts follow one canonical lifecycle.
Artifact Created
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Persistent Storage
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Execution Reference
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Replay Availability
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Retention Policy
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Archive or ExpirationArtifacts remain identifiable throughout their lifecycle.
Deterministic Persistence
Storage preserves execution identity through explicit persistence discipline.
Examples include:
- immutable artifacts
- canonical object identifiers
- checksum verification
- deterministic references
- explicit versioning
- retention metadata
Persistence should remain reproducible independently of infrastructure changes.
Chunk Management
Large objects are stored using deterministic chunk organization.
Chunking enables:
- efficient upload
- partial retrieval
- parallel execution
- distributed processing
- streaming reconstruction
Chunk boundaries exist to improve execution scalability.
They do not alter artifact semantics.
Heterogeneous Storage
The Storage Plane supports multiple storage implementations.
Examples include:
- Amazon S3
- MinIO
- Google Cloud Storage
- Azure Blob Storage
- local filesystem
- enterprise object stores
- future storage providers
Storage backends may evolve.
Storage Architecture remains unchanged.
Runtime Observability
The Storage Plane continuously emits operational metadata.
Examples include:
- storage latency
- capacity utilization
- checksum validation
- replication state
- artifact lifecycle
- upload duration
- download throughput
- storage health
Persistence therefore remains observable throughout execution.
Contribution to Execution Evidence
The Storage Plane contributes durable runtime history.
Examples include:
- artifact identifiers
- object metadata
- checksums
- retention policies
- replay manifests
- lineage references
- archival metadata
Storage preserves the persistent memory of execution.
Failure Model
The Storage Plane assumes persistent infrastructure may fail.
Examples include:
- backend outage
- replication delay
- interrupted upload
- object corruption
- storage migration
- regional failure
Failures affect availability.
They should not compromise execution integrity or artifact identity.
Architectural Guarantees
The Storage Plane is designed to preserve:
- durable execution artifacts
- immutable object identity
- replayable execution history
- heterogeneous storage support
- observable persistence
- execution evidence retention
- explicit lifecycle policies
These guarantees define persistence independently of any specific storage backend.
Architectural Non-Goals
The Storage Plane intentionally does not:
- execute workloads
- define computation semantics
- schedule execution
- aggregate results
- perform verification
- interpret business meaning
- replace runtime coordination
Storage preserves execution history.
It does not perform execution.
How to Verify Storage Behavior
A technical evaluator can inspect persistence throughout one execution.
Suggested verification path:
- Execute a workload producing execution artifacts.
- Inspect stored Blob objects.
- Verify checksum consistency.
- Observe replay references.
- Inspect execution evidence.
- Review lifecycle metadata.
- Confirm artifact immutability.
- Replay the execution using preserved assets where supported.
The observed persistence should correspond to the architecture described in this document.
Related Documentation
Continue with:
Final Mental Model
The Storage Plane preserves everything execution cannot afford to forget.
Computation is temporary.
Execution history is permanent.
That distinction defines the Forge Storage Architecture.