Overview
The vocabulary you need to be productive with Observal.
The registry
The registry stores users, agents, components, review state, and alert rules in PostgreSQL. Session events and aggregates are stored separately in ClickHouse. See Session tracking and reconciliation for the complete session data flow.
Registry components
Six component types are available. Agents bundle the other five.
Agent
A complete, installable AI agent. Bundles MCP servers, skills, hooks, prompts, and sandboxes into one YAML.
MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol server, the tools an agent can call.
Skill
A portable instruction package agents load on demand.
Hook
A lifecycle callback that runs on session start, tool use, session end, and other supported events.
Prompt
A named, parameterized prompt template with variable substitution.
Sandbox
A Docker execution environment for running code the agent generates.
Anyone can publish. Admin review controls what appears in the public listing, but your own items are usable immediately without approval.
Canonical identity
An agent or component has a canonical namespace/slug identity. The namespace is the owner's username. The slug is stable within that namespace. Display names can change without changing the canonical identity.
UUIDs are the stable reconciliation key. The server supplies canonical namespace, slug, display name, qualified name, and review status. Installed versions in the local lockfile remain local pins.
Deployment mode
SSO-only access is controlled by deployment.sso_only:
deployment.sso_only=false (default)
Yes
Yes, a fresh server creates an admin on first login
Email and password or API key
deployment.sso_only=true
No
No
SSO only
Most self-hosters use deployment.sso_only=false.
Next
Last updated
Was this helpful?