About cognitive-substrate
cognitive-substrate is an MCP server and Python package for agents that applies a validated 28-layer reasoning substrate, carries Tree-of-Thoughts memory across sessions, and includes telemetry and peer-agent tools.
Key features
- 01Validated 28-layer reasoning substrate
- 02Cross-session Tree-of-Thoughts memory
- 03Seven reasoning paradigms
- 04Session tree-state telemetry
- 05Peer-agent discovery and orchestration
Use cases
- 01Validate agent reasoning against a layered schema
- 02Reuse lessons from pruned reasoning branches
- 03Inspect active and pruned session paths
- 04Discover and coordinate peer agents
MCP support
The `cognitive-substrate` CLI starts an stdio MCP server. Its reasoning, memory, telemetry, parsing, and A2A capabilities are exposed as tools.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEmcp-cognitive-substrate
mcp-name: io.github.JaysonAIOnline/cognitive-substrate
A 28-layer cognitive substrate with cross-session Tree-of-Thoughts (ToT) evolutionary memory, conditional self-telemetry, and A2A tools for MCP agents.
Lets agents reason through a validated 28-layer substrate, evolve memory across sessions, and communicate with peer agents — all in one pip-installable package.
Features
- 28-layer cognitive substrate with Pydantic validation —
CognitiveSubstratevalidates reasoning through 6 families / 28 layers. - Cross-session ToT evolutionary memory — SQLite-backed tree-of-thoughts nodes + substrate history; pruned branches become lessons for future sessions.
- Robust stack-based JSON parser — no regex; handles nested brackets, escaped strings, embedded code fences (
robust_slice/robust_json_slice). - Self-telemetry tool —
get_cognitive_tree_statereturns active paths and pruned branches for a session. - Post-execution storage loop —
store_5key_telemetryauto-saves compact 5-key telemetry (foundations, metacognition, defensive, resource, utility). - 7 reasoning paradigms — deductive, inductive, abductive, analogical, causal, syllogistic, falsification.
- A2A tools — list, discover, call, and orchestrate peer agents.
- MCP server — exposes everything as tools via the
cognitive-substrateCLI.
Install
pip install mcp-cognitive-substrate
Or install from source:
git clone https://github.com/JaysonAIOnline/mcp-cognitive-substrate.git
cd mcp-cognitive-substrate
pip install -e .[test]
Requires Python >= 3.11.
Quick Start
from mcp_cognitive_substrate.substrate import CognitiveSubstrate
from mcp_cognitive_substrate.memory import get_cognitive_tree_state, store_5key_telemetry
substrate = CognitiveSubstrate()
response = substrate.run("Your user prompt here")
print(response["layers_applied"], "layers applied")
print(response["substrate_verdict"])
Usage
28-layer substrate
from mcp_cognitive_substrate import substrate
# Layer count and schema
print(substrate.layer_count()) # 28
print(substrate.SUBSTRATE_SCHEMA) # the full 6-family schema
# Validate a prompt through the substrate
result = substrate.CognitiveSubstrate(session_id="s1").run("deploy safely")
print(result["substrate_verdict"]) # heuristic pruning verdict
# Run a single paradigm
from mcp_cognitive_substrate import run_paradigm
print(run_paradigm("14_idempotency_side_effect_audit", {"evaluate_branch": True}))
Cross-session ToT evolutionary memory
from mcp_cognitive_substrate.memory import (
store_5key_telemetry,
get_cognitive_tree_state,
prune_failed_approach,
)
node_id = store_5key_telemetry(
session_id="session-a",
payload={
"foundations": {"premise_validation": "assuming deps", "state_hash": "h", "falsification_notes": "deps missing"},
"defensive": {"blast_radius": "unpredictable", "is_idempotent": True, "invariant_rule": "r"},
"resource": {"big_o": "o(n)", "latency_bottleneck": "none"},
"utility": {"load_summary": "pin versions to deploy", "checklist_verified": True},
"metacognition": {"self_critique": "c", "drift_pct": 0.1},
},
score_delta=-110.0,
)
prune_failed_approach(node_id)
state = get_cognitive_tree_state("session-a", include_pruned=True)
print(state["active_path_count"], state["pruned_branch_count"])
Stack-based JSON parser
from mcp_cognitive_substrate.memory import robust_slice, robust_json_slice
cleaned, payload = robust_slice('prefix {"a": {"b": [1, 2]}, "c": "x"} suffix')
# payload == {"a": {"b": [1, 2]}, "c": "x"}; cleaned == "prefix suffix"
7 reasoning paradigms + A2A
from mcp_cognitive_substrate import reason, a2a_list, a2a_call, a2a_orchestrate
print(reason("Solve X", reasoning_type="abductive", depth=3)["steps"])
print(a2a_list())
print(a2a_call("peer-agent", "hello"))
print(a2a_orchestrate("hi", capability="memory"))
As an MCP server
cognitive-substrate # starts stdio MCP server
cognitive-substrate --info # prints package summary
All of the above — substrate paradigms, extraction/evaluation, memory store/recall, ToT lessons, tree-state telemetry, JSON parsing, reasoning plans, and A2A — are exposed as MCP tools.
Testing
pip install -e .[test]
python -m pytest src/tests -q # 16 tests
License
Comments
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