Core Concepts

Core Concepts

Nodes and Domains

A Brane deployment spans multiple nodes across different domains (organizations). Each domain controls its own data and policies.

Node Type	Purpose
Central	Orchestrates workflows, hosts the API and package registry
Worker	Executes tasks, hosts local data, enforces policies
Proxy	Handles cross-domain networking (optional)

Packages

A package wraps your code (in any language) inside a Docker container, along with metadata describing its functions. Packages are defined using a container.yml file.

name: my_analysis
version: 1.0.0
kind: ecu
files:
  - analyze.py
entrypoint:
  kind: task
  exec: analyze.py
actions:
  'run_analysis':
    command:
      args:
      - run_analysis
    input:
    - name: dataset_path
      type: string
    output:
    - name: result
      type: string

Workflows

Workflows are written in BraneScript and describe what to compute, not where. Brane decides where to run each step based on data location and policies.

import my_analysis;
let data := new Data { name := "patient_records" };
let result := run_analysis(data);
println(result);

Policies

Policies define rules for data access at each domain, written in eFLINT. They enforce constraints like “raw data must not leave this domain” or “only approved algorithms may access sensitive datasets.”

Roles

Role	Responsibility	Primary Tool
System Administrator	Deploy and manage nodes	branectl
Software Developer	Build packages	brane CLI
Scientist	Write and execute workflows	brane CLI / REPL
Policy Expert	Define data access policies	eFLINT / Policy GUI

Data Flow

The central design principle: computation moves to the data, not the other way around.

1. The planner identifies where the data lives
2. The package container is sent to that worker node
3. Computation runs locally — data never leaves
4. Only approved results are returned