Anchor Engine

June 13, 2026 · View on GitHub

Version: 5.3.0 | Updated: June 13, 2026 | Status: ✅ Production Ready

Getting Started

README.md — Quick start, installation, usage guide
CHANGELOG.md — Version history (latest: v5.3.0)
settings-configs.md — Consolidated settings and configurations

Core Documentation (`docs/`)

File	Purpose
whitepaper.md	STAR Algorithm whitepaper — theoretical foundation
paper.md	Academic paper (JOSS/TechArxiv submission)
settings-configs.md	Unified configuration reference
code-patterns.md	Code patterns used throughout the codebase
design-patterns.md	Design patterns and architectural decisions
star-algebra-reference.md	STAR algebra reference and search algorithm details

User Workflows (`docs/workflows/`)

File	Purpose
in-use.md	Current manual workflow guide
ideas.md	Future workflow automation ideas

Integration Guides (`docs/integrations/`)

File	Purpose
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md	Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contribution guidelines

Architecture & Standards (`specs/`)

File	Purpose
specs/spec.md	System specification with architecture diagrams
specs/plan.md	Development roadmap and phased implementation
specs/tasks.md	Current implementation tasks and priorities
specs/doc_policy.md	Documentation policy — single source of truth for file locations
specs/DATA-MODEL.md	Data model: Compound → Molecule → Atom → Tag hierarchy

Standards: 38 active architecture standards in specs/current-standards/ (flat directory, ordered foundational → assistive).

Source Code (`engine/`)

engine/src/README.md — Source code overview, technology stack (Rust WASM + PGlite)
engine/tests/ — Integration, live-fire, and unit test suites

🎯 Documentation by Use Case

"I want to install and run Anchor Engine"

→ Start with README.md — Quick Start section

"I need API documentation"

→ The API surface is documented in specs/spec.md and the route files in engine/src/routes/v1/

"Something's not working"

→ Check specs/plan.md for known risks and mitigations. Runtime logs live in $HOME/.anchor/logs/.

"I need to understand the system architecture"

→ Study specs/spec.md (includes architecture diagrams, web dashboard, engine core modules)

"I'm researching the theory behind Anchor Engine"

→ Read whitepaper.md and paper.md

"I want to understand the search algorithm (STAR)"

→ See specs/spec.md and search standards in specs/current-standards/

"How does distillation work?"

→ Read specs/current-standards/010-radial-distillation-v2.md

"I want to contribute code"

→ Start with specs/doc_policy.md for conventions, then engine/src/README.md for source structure

"I want to explore standards"

→ Browse specs/current-standards/ — 38 active standards with full implementation details

📊 Key Metrics (v5.3.0)

Metric	Value	Status
Context Retrieval	618k chars	✅ +18% vs whitepaper
Memory Peak	510MB (idle)	✅ -70% vs whitepaper
Search Latency	<200ms (p95, standard queries)	✅ Optimized
Ingestion Throughput	1,200 mol/sec	✅ Verified
Deduplication Rate	40–50%	✅ With SimHash
Active Standards	38	✅ Flattened, numerically ordered
WASM Module Size	~1.4 MB (4 packages)	✅ 90% smaller than C++ DLLs

🗂️ Document Structure

anchor-engine-node/
├── README.md                          # Start here — quick start & usage
├── CHANGELOG.md                       # Version history (v5.3.0)
├── LICENSE                            # AGPL-3.0
├── user_settings.json.template        # Configuration template → $HOME/.anchor/
│
├── docs/                              # User-facing documentation
│   ├── INDEX.md                       # This file
│   ├── whitepaper.md                  # STAR algorithm whitepaper
│   ├── paper.md                       # Academic paper
│   ├── settings-configs.md            # Consolidated configuration reference
│   ├── code-patterns.md               # Code patterns guide
│   ├── design-patterns.md             # Design patterns
│   ├── star-algebra-reference.md      # STAR algebra reference
│   ├── workflows/                     # User workflow guides
│   │   ├── in-use.md
│   │   └── ideas.md
│   └── integrations/                  # Integration guides
│       ├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
│       └── CONTRIBUTING.md
│
├── specs/                             # Technical specifications
│   ├── spec.md                        # System specification (incl. architecture)
│   ├── plan.md                        # Development roadmap
│   ├── tasks.md                       # Current tasks
│   ├── doc_policy.md                  # Documentation policy
│   ├── DATA-MODEL.md                  # Data model
│   ├── current-standards/             # 38 active standards (flat, numeric)
│   └── INTEGRATIONS/                  # Integration specs
│
├── engine/                            # Anchor Engine implementation
│   ├── package.json                   # WASM dependencies (@rbalchii/*-wasm)
│   ├── src/                           # TypeScript source
│   │   └── README.md                  # Source code overview
│   └── tests/                         # Test suites
│       ├── integration/               # Integration tests
│       ├── live-fire/                 # Live-fire test scripts
│       └── unit/                      # Unit tests
│
├── scripts/                           # Build and operational scripts
│   ├── build.ts                       # TypeScript compilation
│   ├── start-engine-bg.mjs            # Background engine startup
│   └── stop-engine-bg.mjs             # Background engine shutdown
│
└── test-wasm/                         # WASM tree-sitter test harness
    └── README.md

🔬 Recent Updates (v5.3.0)

Documentation Drift Repair (June 2026)

Renumbered standards: All 38 standards now uniquely numbered 001-038 (was 001-032 with duplicates)
Removed dead code: Deleted orphaned core/ and services/ at root (6,597 lines duplicated from engine/src/)
Deprecated packages/ removed: References cleaned from pnpm-workspace.yaml and spec
Synced versions: All files now consistently say 5.3.0

Documentation Consolidation (June 2026)

Flattened standards: All 38 active standards now live in specs/current-standards/ as a flat directory
Merged ARCHITECTURE.md into specs/spec.md — architecture now lives in the system specification
Restored docs: Recovered code-patterns.md, design-patterns.md, star-algebra-reference.md from git history
Deleted clutter: Removed 19 one-off fix scripts, PM2 configs, and stale runtime data from project root
Fixed .gitignore: Removed embedded code, resolved contradictions with tracked files

WASM-Native Architecture (v4.3.0+)

All performance-critical operations use Rust-compiled WebAssembly (@rbalchii/*-wasm packages)
Zero native compilation required — runs on Windows ARM64, macOS, Linux without C++ toolchains
Old C++ N-API modules (engine/src/native/) fully removed

Security Hardening

Path Traversal Prevention (Standard 029)
Auth Bypass Prevention (Standard 027)
API Key Strength Validation (Standard 028)
Zero-Copy Deduplication (Standard 030)

🔗 External Resources

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/RSBalchII/anchor-engine-node
License: AGPL-3.0
NPM Packages: @rbalchii/* (Rust WASM modules)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18841399

Last Updated: June 13, 2026 Version: 5.3.0 Status: ✅ Production Ready