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+# ADR-0003 · MQTT as the spine of the system
+
+**Status**: accepted
+**Date**: 2026-05
+
+## Context
+
+The platform has many independent processes that need to communicate: cameras → Frigate → enrichers → forensic engine → console → hub. Options considered:
+
+- **REST APIs everywhere**: tight coupling, polling overhead, hard to add subscribers.
+- **gRPC streams**: better but still point-to-point, no topic-based filtering.
+- **Kafka**: too heavy for edge devices, requires Zookeeper or KRaft, persistent disk-heavy.
+- **NATS**: lightweight but newer, less ecosystem maturity.
+- **MQTT**: mature, lightweight, broker available everywhere (Mosquitto), topic-based, retain messages, QoS levels, well-known TLS bridge mechanics.
+
+## Decision
+
+MQTT is the **spine** of the system. Mosquitto runs on the router as the local broker. Bridges to the hub are configured selectively, with topic remapping. Components communicate via MQTT topics with a documented contract (see `docs/01-architecture/mqtt-contract.md`).
+
+Key topics:
+
+```
+hai/<cam_id>/events/<type>      # detection events
+hai/<cam_id>/state/<key>        # retained state (online, fps)
+hai/<cam_id>/snapshots/<n>      # frame snapshots — NEVER bridged
+hai/<cam_id>/telemetry/<key>    # raw telemetry — NEVER bridged
+hai/_registry/announce          # service discovery
+hai/_registry/heartbeat/<id>    # liveness
+hai/healthd/health              # selftest reports
+hai/_bridge/status              # bridge health (retained)
+_cmd/<command>                  # commands incoming from hub
+```
+
+**Sovereignty principle**: snapshots and raw telemetry **never** bridge. Aggregated health does. Events do (with site prefix). The `bridge.conf` policy is in GitOps and visible in the UI.
+
+## Consequences
+
+**Good**:
+- Adding a new subscriber is free (no config changes upstream).
+- Selective bridging gives operational sovereignty as a programmable property.
+- `mosquitto_sub` is a superb debugging tool always available.
+- Retained messages handle late-joining subscribers correctly.
+
+**Bad / trade-offs**:
+- MQTT 5 has features we want (response topics, message expiry) but Mosquitto's MQTT5 support is partial — we stay on MQTT 3.1.1 for compatibility.
+- No native request-response semantics — we use `req-id` correlation in payloads where needed.
+- Encryption at rest of the broker DB is not transparent — addressed via LUKS at the OS layer.
+
+## Alternatives considered
+
+See above. **Kafka** was the strongest alternative; rejected primarily for edge-device cost and operational complexity.