Dependency & Layer Review Lens

Review against code conventions and the executable import-linter contracts in pyproject.toml. The historical six-layer/plugin map is not the current dependency contract.

Ownership and direction

evolve -> evals -> core
evolve --------> core

core owns the runtime; evals measures it; evolve searches over runtime evidence. Neither core -> evals/evolve nor evals -> evolve is allowed. Within core, follow the named process/capability contracts rather than inventing a numeric layer order.

• core.wiring composes services through constructors and existing typed contexts.
• Use a narrow, named Protocol at a real consumer/provider boundary. A concrete import inside the owning subsystem is not automatically a port violation; one implementation does not invalidate an existing isolation boundary.
• ContextVars carry request identity, diagnostics, or request-local state, not service-locator DI. Do not hide a forbidden dependency behind a late import.

Review Checklist

1. Trace imports against the active contracts

rg -n '^(from|import) (evals|evolve)' core/ -g '*.py'
rg -n '^(from|import) evolve' evals/ -g '*.py'
uv run lint-imports

Search results are candidates: inspect guarded, dynamic, and transitive imports and the importing caller. The gate owns the declared forbidden directions.

2. Check cycles and composition

rg -n 'from core\.memory' core/orchestration/ -g '*.py'
rg -n 'from core\.orchestration' core/memory/ -g '*.py'
rg -n 'TYPE_CHECKING|ContextVar|Protocol' core/ -g '*.py'

For each suspected cycle, trace the actual import chain and the service's construction, binding, and teardown. A TYPE_CHECKING guard is not evidence that runtime composition is safe, and a Protocol count is not a quality score.

3. Verify optional and cold-start imports

Keep imports at module level unless an optional dependency, a measured startup cost, or a genuine cycle justifies deferral. Load optional SDKs at their owning adapter boundary. A fresh-interpreter check must fail if the forbidden eager import occurs; do not skip merely because the SDK is already imported.

4. Report ownership and the surviving contract

Name the caller, dependency owner, violated contract, smallest correction, and the behavioral/import test that must survive. Use current source evidence; historical architecture inventories are not automatic deletion instructions.