# AFOS Integration Kernel Specification

## Overview
The Integration Kernel is the sensory apparatus of the operating system. It ensures that AFOS scales naturally by treating all external inputs as standardized `Event` objects.

## The Event Pipeline

The Integration Kernel sits between external data sources and the internal system architecture:

```
[External Sources]
Bloomberg, Market Data, Loan IQ, Salesforce, Internal ERP, Email, OCR, News
      ↓
Integration Kernel (Ingestion & Validation)
      ↓
[Event Bus]
      ↓
Operating System (Knowledge Kernel / Execution Kernel)
```

## Lifecycle of an Input

1. **Event Ingestion:** Raw data arrives from an external source.
2. **Validation:** The Integration Kernel validates the payload against the Canonical Risk Ontology to ensure it is structurally sound.
3. **Projection:** The validated Event is projected into the Knowledge Kernel (updating the Transactional or Relational memory).
4. **Decision Trigger:** The Event Bus notifies the Execution Kernel, which may trigger a workflow leading to a new Decision.
5. **Publication:** Outbound integrations publish the resulting Decisions back to external systems (e.g., updating Loan IQ).