# Architecture URL: https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture > How Hanzo Cloud is built today, and the plugin-platform direction it is evolving toward. This section explains how Hanzo Cloud is put together — what runs today, and where the platform is headed. We keep the two clearly separated: the product pages elsewhere in these docs describe shipped behavior, while the platform direction here is design work being ratified through the [Hanzo Improvement Proposals (HIPs)](https://hips.hanzo.ai). For the principles behind it all, see [Engineering Philosophy](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/philosophy). ## Today Hanzo Cloud is **one Go binary**. A single API key at `api.hanzo.ai` reaches every capability — AI inference, identity, secrets, storage, commerce, and more — because those capabilities are **native subsystems compiled into that one binary** (`cloud`, `CGO_ENABLED=0`, static), each served under `/v1/` and described by the one document the binary emits, [hanzoai/cloud](https://github.com/hanzoai/cloud)'s `openapi.yaml`. Ingress and routing are native subsystems too, so the binary is its own entry point rather than sitting behind a separate gateway or ingress tier. This single-binary consolidation is the unified cloud binary (HIP-0106), already substantially shipped — and it is the same binary that powers [the network you can run yourself](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/network). Every capability is grouped into exactly one of **nine domains**. [The reference](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi) counts them and lists them all: - [Identity & trust](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/iam): Who you are, what you may touch, where secrets live. - [Intelligence](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/ai): Models, agents, evaluation — the mind of the cloud. - [Data](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/base): The stores every capability writes to and reads from. - [Streams](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/pubsub): Messaging, durable tasks, async orchestration. - [Observability](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/o11y): See everything — telemetry, analytics, usage. - [Commerce](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/commerce): The economy — meter, price, bill, reward. - [Platform](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/platform): The cloud fabric — deploy, provision, route, host. - [Applications](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/git): The user-facing surfaces built on all of the above. - [Chain](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi/web3): The networks the cloud speaks to — enumerate, call, read balances. A few products still run as standalone applications on their own domains — for example [Sign](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi) (`esign.hanzo.ai`), [Dataroom](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi) (`dataroom.hanzo.ai`), and [Cap Table](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/openapi) (`captable.hanzo.ai`) — authenticating through Hanzo IAM. These are the remaining standalone apps, being absorbed into the one runtime rather than the intended end state. ## Direction Hanzo's [self-improvement loop](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/self-improvement) connects another part of the design: everyday task outcomes can improve scoped memory and lead to validated changes in skills, tools, apps, the agent harness and cloud infrastructure. It is event-driven, with review before shared product changes are released. The page distinguishes existing memory machinery from the end-to-end integration still to be built. The platform is converging on one model for running these services: a **consensus-backed plugin platform**, where each service is a _plugin_ registered into a single cloud runtime, and a small consensus control plane decides where each plugin's writers live. This is a design direction — specified as a draft proposal, not yet a shipped runtime. - [Engineering Philosophy](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/philosophy): The principles behind V8: one and one way, decomplect, the language seam is the wire not FFI. - [The Network](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/network): The AI cloud you can run yourself — one binary, BYO GPU, the network is the cloud. - [Consensus-Backed Plugin Platform](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/plugin-platform): The HIP-0125 direction: plugins as the unit, consensus over placement, ZAP-native authoring. - [ZAP Protocol](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/zap): Zero-Copy App Proto — the high-performance transport plugins default to. - [Hanzo Improvement Proposals](https://hips.hanzo.ai): Where platform architecture is specified and ratified. > The plugin platform is described in \*\*HIP-0125 (Draft)\*\*. It builds on a set of related proposals — the in-process extension runtime (HIP-0105), the unified cloud binary (HIP-0106), streaming replication (HIP-0107), and the ZAP transport (HIP-0114). Draft proposals may change; nothing on the [plugin-platform page](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/plugin-platform) is a shipped user feature. - [Engineering Philosophy](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/philosophy): The principles behind Hanzo V8 — one and one way, decomplect, ZAP-native, the language seam is the wire not FFI, one contract to N SDKs to thin CLIs. - [The Platform Algebra](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/algebra): The whole cloud is a small set of primitives — Principal, Tenant, Resource, Policy, Ledger, Meter, Schedule, Bus, Gateway, Store, Money — and every product is a composition of them. Declare a schema, attach a policy, and persistence, tenancy, audit, and metering come free. - [Consensus-Backed Plugin Platform](https://docs.hanzo.ai/docs/architecture/plugin-platform): The architecture direction for Hanzo Cloud — plugins as the unit of deployment, a small consensus control plane over placement, and ZAP-native authoring. Specified in HIP-0125 (Draft).