Vitruvyan-Core Technical Debt Audit

Date: January 18, 2026
Updated: January 18, 2026
Objective: Document contamination and deprecations for core abstraction

Executive Summary

The vitruvyan-core repository has two major technical debt categories:

Domain Contamination: 134 files with financial-specific terminology (ticker, AAPL, stock, portfolio)
CrewAI Deprecation: 20 files with CrewAI dependency to be replaced with native agents

🚨 CrewAI Deprecation (HIGH PRIORITY)

Decision: Deprecate CrewAI in favor of native Vitruvyan agents.

Rationale: During Mercator development, we realized that agent work can be done with custom implementations that better integrate with Sacred Orders.

Affected Files (20):

vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/crewai/ (4 files, 523 lines total)
├── __init__.py
├── base_agent.py
├── base_tool.py
└── logging_utils.py

vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/node/crew_node.py
vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/node/quality_check_node.py
vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/node/compose_node.py
vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/node/llm_soft_node.py
vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/node/output_normalizer_node.py
vitruvyan_core/core/orchestration/langgraph/graph_flow.py

vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/cognitive_bus/herald.py
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/cognitive_bus/event_schema.py
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/cognitive_bus/lexicon.py

vitruvyan_core/core/governance/vault_keepers/chamberlain.py
vitruvyan_core/core/governance/vault_keepers/chamberlain_crewai_backup.py
vitruvyan_core/core/governance/codex_hunters/scripts/backfill_*.py

Migration Plan: See CREWAI_DEPRECATION_PLAN.md

🔴 Sacred Orders Contamination (HIGH PRIORITY)

ALL Sacred Orders are contaminated with financial terminology:

Codex Hunters (Order I - Perception) — 25+ files

vitruvyan_core/core/governance/codex_hunters/
├── conclave_cycle.py      # ticker references
├── binder.py              # ticker references
├── tracker.py             # ticker references
├── cassandra.py           # ticker references
├── restorer.py            # ticker references
├── scholastic.py          # ticker references
├── inspector.py           # ticker references
├── event_hunter.py        # ticker references
├── scribe.py              # ticker references
├── hunter.py              # ticker references
├── fundamentalist.py      # ticker references
├── scripts/               # 8+ files with backfill_*
├── backfill/              # 10+ files
└── tests/                 # 3+ files

Vault Keepers (Order II - Memory) — 2 files

vitruvyan_core/core/governance/vault_keepers/
├── sentinel.py            # portfolio, ticker references
└── chamberlain.py         # crewai + ticker references

Memory Orders (Order II - Memory) — 5+ files

vitruvyan_core/core/governance/memory_orders/
├── migrations/            # 3+ files with ticker schemas
└── tests/                 # 2+ files

Orthodoxy Wardens (Order V - Truth) — 3 files

vitruvyan_core/core/governance/orthodoxy_wardens/
├── inquisitor_agent.py    # ticker references
├── docker_manager.py      # ticker references
└── schema_validator.py    # ticker references

Pattern Weavers (Cognitive - Discourse) — 1 file

vitruvyan_core/core/cognitive/pattern_weavers/
└── weaver_node.py         # ticker references

Neural Engine (Cognitive - Reason) — 2 files

vitruvyan_core/core/cognitive/neural_engine/
├── neural_client.py       # ticker references
└── engine_core.py         # heavy financial logic

Vitruvyan Proprietary (Cognitive) — 10+ files

vitruvyan_core/core/cognitive/vitruvyan_proprietary/
├── vare_engine.py         # portfolio risk
├── vhsw_engine.py         # historical stock
├── vmfl_engine.py         # financial metrics
├── vwre_engine.py         # weighted risk
├── vee/                   # 5 files with financial narratives
└── orchestrator.py        # ticker references

Semantic Engine (Cognitive) — 6+ files

vitruvyan_core/core/cognitive/semantic_engine/
├── semantic_engine.py     # ticker extraction
└── semantic_modules/      # 5+ files

Domain Contamination Categories

Category 1: Terminology (HIGH PRIORITY)

Current Term	Abstract Term	Affected Files
`ticker`	`entity_id`	50+ files
`tickers`	`entities` / `entity_ids`	50+ files
`stock`	`asset` / `entity`	30+ files
`portfolio`	`collection` / `entity_set`	20+ files
`trading`	`domain_operation`	15+ files
`AAPL`, `NVDA`, etc.	`EXAMPLE_ENTITY`	10+ files

Category 2: Schema Contamination (MEDIUM PRIORITY)

Files with hardcoded financial schemas:

vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/cognitive_bus/event_schema.py
- Lines 272-298: Ticker-specific fields in events
- Lines 407-426: Ticker validation logic
- Lines 762-774: Example with AAPL hardcoded
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/cognitive_bus/lexicon.py
- Domain-specific vocabulary
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/persistence/factor_*.py
- Financial factor terminology (momentum, trend, volatility)

Category 3: Prompt Contamination (MEDIUM PRIORITY)

Files with financial prompts:

vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/llm/prompts/base_prompts.py
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/llm/prompts/scenario_prompts.py
vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/llm/conversational_llm.py

Category 4: Example/Test Contamination (LOW PRIORITY)

Files using financial examples in tests/docs that should be parameterized.

Abstraction Strategy

Recommended: Parameterized Domain Loading

Rather than find/replace 134 files, implement domain-parameterized loading:

# vitruvyan_core/core/foundation/domain_config.py
 
class DomainConfig:
    """Load domain terminology at startup"""
    
    ENTITY_TERM = "entity_id"      # Was: ticker
    ENTITIES_TERM = "entity_ids"   # Was: tickers
    COLLECTION_TERM = "collection" # Was: portfolio
    
    @classmethod
    def load_from_vertical(cls, vertical_name: str):
        """Load domain-specific terms from vertical config"""
        config_path = f"verticals/{vertical_name}/domain_config.yaml"
        # ... load and override class attributes

This approach:

✅ Minimal code changes (~50 lines)
✅ Verticals define their own terminology
✅ Core remains truly agnostic
✅ Backward compatible with existing code

Migration Timeline

Phase	Scope	Effort	Priority
1	CrewAI deprecation	3 weeks	HIGH
2	Domain config layer	1 week	HIGH
3	Sacred Orders cleanup	2 weeks	MEDIUM
4	Test/example cleanup	1 week	LOW

Total estimate: 6-8 weeks for full abstraction

Immediate Actions (Today)

✅ Remove verticals/mercator folder
✅ Create empty verticals/ with README
✅ Document CrewAI deprecation plan
✅ Document Sacred Orders contamination
⏳ Begin native agent framework

Notes

The domains/ folder contains abstract contracts (base_domain.py, aggregation_contract.py, etc.) that are already domain-agnostic. These should be preserved as-is.

Priority: Document debt now, clean incrementally. The core is functional as-is for Mercator. Oculus Prime development will drive further abstraction.

Sacred Orders Pattern Overview