Capability Oriented Programming

Capability Oriented Programming is the high-level engineering mindset behind ARP and JARVIS: build systems around capabilities you can prove, not around prompts you hope will work.

What COP changes

Instead of treating “the agent” as one monolithic thing:

• define small, bounded capabilities (represented as NodeTypes in ARP),
• evaluate them with repeatable tests and scorecards,
• publish and reuse the ones that are stable,
• keep orchestration bounded using candidate sets and constraints.

COP and ARP

ARP is the protocol layer that makes COP operational:

• Selection produces bounded candidate sets,
• Run Coordinator enforces constraints and policy checkpoints,
• RunEvents and ArtifactRefs provide audit and replay surfaces.

Where to go next

• The COP principles: COP Manifest
• The capability lifecycle: COP lifecycle
• Common anti-patterns: Anti-patterns