SG/Sentinel: The Rules Engine Where Rules Are Everything
Summary
Settles the name — SG/Sentinel — and states the central inversion: rules are not configuration on top of an engine; rules are the engine, and should be 98% of the code. The core is a tiny, tight, high-privilege machine for executing rules; everything else — every block, allow, log, cleanup — is a rule at lower privilege. From this follow the update-risk gradient (changing a rule is low-risk and constant; changing the engine is high-risk and rare), per-rule least privilege (each rule asks for exactly the data it needs), RFD-style version control per rule, and the LLM usage pattern: heavy in development and testing, minimal in production, never inline.
Key concepts
- Rules are the engine — the inversion the rules page opens with
- The tiny core — small enough to audit thoroughly, stable enough to trust
- LLMs author rules, never run them inline — slow smart work decides what the rules should be; fast deterministic rules enforce
Key ideas
- The behaviour of the entire platform at any moment is a readable function of which rules are enabled.
- A rule is a function with an IAM scope — single-responsibility, explicit data grant, testable in isolation.
- Rules-as-vault: the rule repository is version-controlled content; a deployment is a manifest of pinned rule versions.
On this site
The rules page's framing; the MVP's flat six-rule list is this model's deliberate first slice.