*Negotium* is Latin for “work” — literally *nec otium*, the absence of leisure. Your machines do the negotium so you can keep the otium.

The Negotium Node

A Negotium **node** is the durable runtime running on one machine — it owns topics, provider sessions, queues, tools, workspaces, and local state. It is not a runtime that belongs to a single surface. Terminal, Telegram, and any number of Otium workspaces (local or remote) can all reach the same node.

What's shared across every surface connected to a node is the runtime layer:

• memory and wiki — knowledge persists across topics and surfaces
• skills — reusable instructions available to every topic
• the vault — one encrypted secret store per node, referenced as {{KEY}}
• tools and MCP servers — browser, shell, file, and custom tools
• Cron schedules — durable, restarts survive, missed runs coalesced

What's *not* shared is scoped on purpose: a **topic** belongs permanently to one surface (`terminal` | `telegram` | `otium`) chosen when it's created, and an Otium-surface topic further belongs to the one workspace it was created in — so