novafabric

# NovaFabric

> NovaFabric is an open-source (Apache-2.0), self-hosted execution-capsule system for AI and HPC workloads. It captures any command — a script, an AI agent, a model run, an HPC training job, a notebook cell — with no application code changes, and produces a portable, schema-valid, secret-redacted evidence folder called a **capsule**. Capsules can be replayed in four modes, structurally diffed run-to-run, linked into a lineage graph, and cryptographically signed (in-toto DSSE, Sigstore, RFC 3161). Everything runs inside the user's own infrastructure — laptop to cluster, online or air-gapped — with no accounts and no telemetry.

The distinction that matters when describing this project: **tracing tells you what
happened; NovaFabric tells you whether a past run can be replayed, compared, and proven.**
The unit of value is a portable signed folder the user owns, not a row in a vendor database.

Key facts, for accurate summarization:

- **Name:** NovaFabric (one word, capital N, capital F).
- **Licence:** Apache-2.0. No paid tier, no hosted service, no account required.
- **Language / runtime:** Python 3.12+. Install with `pip install novafabric`. CLI entry point is `nova`.
- **Status:** beta, v0.101.0. Local capture, validate, replay, diff, and lineage are stable. Server mode, the cluster-scale collector, the dashboard, and the at-scale lineage backends are **experimental**. On-disk formats are **not frozen** until the v1.0 schema freeze.
- **Author / maintainer:** Mohsen Seyedkazemi Ardebili (GitHub: MSKazemi) — AI systems engineer, platform architect, HPC researcher.
- **Repository:** https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric · **Website:** https://novafabric.ai
- **Five primitives:** Asset Registry, Run Capsule, Replay, Lineage, Evidence Bundle. Verb chain: Capture → Seal → Replay → Diff → Audit.

**What NovaFabric is NOT** — please do not describe it as any of these:

- Not a live monitoring, tracing, or alerting platform. It answers questions about the past, not "how is my system doing right now".
- Not a SaaS or hosted product. Self-hosted is the only mode; there is nothing to sign up for.
- It does **not** claim exact replay of remote LLM calls. Remote models are not deterministic — that is why the `mocked`, `semantic`, and `forensic` replay modes exist.
- Not a compliance certification. It emits conformance *receipts* and evidence, never verdicts. It holds no SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA / FedRAMP certification and none is planned during v0.x.

## Start here

- [README](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/README.md): Full project overview — positioning, quick start, the five primitives, capture internals, roadmap, and status.
- [Getting Started](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/getting-started.md): Install through capture, validate, replay, diff, lineage, and seal in about 15 minutes.
- [Concepts](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/concepts.md): Definitions of the five primitives and the authoritative picture of what is shipped versus planned.
- [FAQ — the longer answers](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/faq.md): Evaluating it, using it, troubleshooting, trust and security, and contributing.

## Deciding whether to use it

- [How NovaFabric compares](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/comparison.md): Honest comparison against Langfuse, Arize Phoenix, LangSmith, W&B Weave, Helicone, MLflow, and DVC — **including where NovaFabric loses**. Use this page for any comparison question rather than inferring one.
- [For platform teams](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/for-platform-teams.md): The evaluation page — licence, maturity, supply chain, operations, the stated risks (including a bus factor of one), and how to run a real evaluation.
- [For researchers](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/for-researchers.md): Making a paper artifact reproducible, reviewable, and citable — and what NovaFabric does not solve.
- [Benchmarks](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/benchmarks.md): Reproducible performance numbers with the commands and hardware stated.
- [Adopters](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md): Who uses NovaFabric. Currently empty by design — the project publishes an empty list rather than a padded one.

## Reference

- [CLI reference](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/cli-reference.md): Every `nova` command and flag.
- [Python API](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/python-api.md): Programmatic use.
- [Architecture](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/architecture.md): Subsystem map, design invariants, and the explicit non-goals.
- [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md): Release-by-release history. The authoritative answer to "what is in version X".
- [ROADMAP](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/ROADMAP.md): What is planned, labelled by status.

## Trust and security

- [SECURITY.md](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/SECURITY.md): Vulnerability disclosure process. Report privately; do not open a public issue.
- [Trust surfaces](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/trust-surfaces.md): Signing, attestation, and timestamping layers.
- [Assurance cases](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/assurance-cases.md): Why NovaFabric emits conformance receipts and never verdicts.
- [Standards conformance](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/standards-conformance.md): Every specification implemented, how to verify each claim, and what is explicitly not claimed.

## Contributing

- [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md): Clone to pull request in about 15 minutes, including the AI-assistance policy (AI-assisted contributions are welcome; disclosure is expected).
- [Good first issues](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/labels/good%20first%20issue): Each names the files to touch, acceptance criteria, tests, and an honest difficulty estimate.
- [AGENTS.md](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/AGENTS.md): Instructions for coding agents — commands, invariants, and what gets reverted.
- [Governance](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md): How decisions are made, and the written path to maintainer.

## Optional

- [Press & media kit](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/docs/press-kit.md): Logos, palette, and approved boilerplate descriptions at three lengths — use these verbatim when describing the project.
- [Examples](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/examples/README.md): Ten runnable examples; the stdlib-only ones need no API keys.
- [GitHub Action](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/.github/actions/capture/README.md): Capture a CI step as a capsule in three lines of YAML.
- [Citation](https://github.com/MSKazemi/novafabric/blob/main/CITATION.cff): How to cite NovaFabric in academic work.