Pipeline Overview
Architecture of the NIKI multi-agent pipeline and artifact contracts.
Multi-Agent Pipeline Overview
At the heart of NIKI is an autonomous pipeline where each stage is handled by a specialized LLM agent.
Artifact Contract
Agents never exchange unstructured conversation logs. Every stage takes a validated JSON input and produces a validated JSON output:
| Producer | Consumer | Artifact | Schema / Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planner | Coder | TaskSpec |
Problem summary, files to touch, approach, acceptance criteria, constraints |
| Coder | Tester, Sandbox | CodeDiff |
Search/replace hunk edits, rationale, spec adherence verification |
| Tester | Reviewer | TestReport |
Synthesized tests, test execution results, pass/fail status, coverage summary |
| Reviewer | Orchestrator, Coder | ReviewVerdict |
Approved / RevisionNeeded / Rejected, quality scores, granular feedback |
Topology Modes
In niki.toml, you can configure how tasks route through the pipeline:
Auto(Default): Evaluates task complexity during the planning stage. Low-complexity, single-line or documentation fixes take a fast-path single-agent route, while multi-file or architectural changes run the full 4-agent pipeline.MultiAgent: Strictly forces all tasks through the full Planner → Coder → Tester → Reviewer sequence.SingleAgent: Runs Coder solo without formal Tester/Reviewer revision loops.