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Restore docs/adr to main; add check_adrs.py CI gate so existing ADR-*.md files cannot be modified — supersede with a new numbered ADR instead.
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1.7 KiB
ADR-0001: No swarm-wide orchestrator; coordinate through data
Status
Accepted (2026-07-08)
Context
The fleet flies fully autonomously with no internet uplink and only intermittent mesh connectivity between drones. A conventional control plane (Kubernetes across the swarm, a leader election, a central scheduler) assumes stable membership and low-latency links — exactly what a swarm does not have. Partitions are the normal case, not the exception.
Options
| Option | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| A — Cluster orchestrator spanning the swarm | Familiar tooling | Assumes stable membership; a partition stalls coordination; single point of failure in the air |
| B — Each drone autonomous, coordinating through exchanged data | Survives partitions; no air-side control plane to fail | No global view; behaviour must be derivable from local state |
Decision
Every drone is an autonomous node. There is no orchestrator spanning the swarm. Coordination happens by exchanging derived state (see ADR-0003), and each drone makes its own in-flight decisions against its local data window. Orchestration tooling (Kubernetes, Flux) is confined to the ground segment (ADR-0006).
Consequences
- The platform degrades gracefully under partition: a drone that loses peers keeps flying and recording.
- There is no single "fleet state" to query in the air; health questions are answered from each drone's own store and reconciled on the ground.
- Design principle 1 in
../../README.mdand the on-board model in../02-architecture.mdfollow from this.