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@@ -9,3 +9,59 @@ This section describes overarching, principal regulations and solution ideas tha
 - Implementation rules
 
 <!-- Concepts form the basis for conceptual integrity (consistency, homogeneity) of the architecture. Thus, they are an important contribution to achieve inner qualities of your system. -->
+
+## Operating Model
+
+ai4X is an operating model for agentic AI work. Its value proposition rests on three differentiating properties — need-first, host-agnostic, and self-validating — that together define how agent teams are specified, materialized, and activated. The concepts below give each property architectural substance.
+
+## Agent-Host Agnosticism Principle
+
+Agent declarations in ai4X are independent of any specific runtime environment (Agent Host). A Cognitive Capability Composition (CCC) *(Design Target)* declares *what* an agent knows and *how* it reasons — not *where* it runs.
+
+This separation creates a clear boundary: everything before materialization is host-agnostic; everything after is host-specific. The same CCC can be materialized for VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Codex CLI, Claude Code, or any future Agent Host without changing the declaration.
+
+**Architectural consequence:** The system must maintain a strict separation between declaration artifacts (`dev/cap/`, `dev/agn/`) and materialized artifacts (host-specific output of `spawn`). No declaration may contain host-specific references. No materialized artifact may be treated as a source of truth.
+
+## Materialization Boundary
+
+Materialization is the deterministic transformation that crosses the boundary from host-agnostic declaration to host-specific artifact. It is the first step of the `spawn` lifecycle — `spawn` materializes and then activates.
+
+The boundary is a pure function: given the same declaration and the same target Agent Host, materialization always produces the same output. This determinism is what makes agent work reproducible across environments and over time.
+
+**Architectural consequence:** Materialization must be implemented as a stateless transformation. No side effects during materialization; activation is a separate, subsequent step. The boundary is the single point where host-specific knowledge enters the system.
+
+## Self-Validating Design Goal
+
+ai4X is designed to apply its own operating model to itself. The aspiration is that the team building ai4X — its agents, their collaboration topology, their governance — is itself a valid output of `curate` and `spawn`:
+
+```
+spawn(curate(ai4X's requirements)) ≡ ai4X's own agent team
+```
+
+This formula is **aspirational** — it describes a design target, not a current capability. Today, ai4X's agent team is hand-maintained. The self-validating property will be realized incrementally as `curate` and `spawn` mature.
+
+**Architectural consequence:** Every governance artifact, agent definition, and collaboration pattern used by ai4X must be expressible in the formats that `curate` produces. This constrains how much project-specificity is acceptable in team-layer artifacts and ensures that ai4X's own structure remains a valid test case for its tooling.
+
+## Three-Layer Model
+
+The Three-Layer Model defines how ai4X separates concerns in agent team specification. Each layer has distinct responsibilities and independence guarantees.
+
+### Layer 1: Collaboration Topology *(Design Target)*
+
+A Collaboration Topology is a reusable, abstract pattern that defines roles and coordination structure for a team of agents. Topologies are value objects — "leader + n specialists" is the same pattern regardless of which concrete agents fill the roles.
+
+Topologies are fully independent of agents. They define *shape* (how many roles, how they coordinate) without binding *identity* (which agent fills which role).
+
+Examples: leader–specialists, swarm, pipeline, review-loop.
+
+### Layer 2: Agent-Host Binding
+
+Binding is the concrete assignment of agents to topology role slots. This is where the abstract topology meets the concrete agent set: a specific CCC is assigned to each role defined by the topology.
+
+Binding is coupled to both the topology (it must respect the role structure) and the agent set (it must reference existing CCCs). It lives inside the Team Declaration, not as a standalone artifact.
+
+### Layer 3: Team Declaration *(Design Target)*
+
+The Team Declaration is the aggregate output of `ai4x curate`. It binds a Collaboration Topology to a concrete set of agents with explicit role assignments. A Team Declaration is the complete, reproducible specification of an agentic team — topology, agents, and their binding — ready for materialization.
+
+**Architectural consequence:** Topology definitions must not reference specific agents or CCCs. Agent definitions must not reference specific topologies. Only the Team Declaration may couple them — explicitly, declaratively, and reproducibly.