ADR 0006: Observation encoders are out of scope

Status: Accepted. Scope: src/core/heads/, convert/.

Context

Real policies condition on an observation encoder. Diffusion Policy and ACT use a ResNet. VLAs use a vision-language model. These are large and varied.

Decision

  • The engine covers the backbone and the action head.

  • A head takes a precomputed conditioning vector. The observation encoder is out of scope for v1.

  • The converter maps the backbone and head weights, not the encoder.

Consequences

  • The engine stays small and focused.

  • Running a full vision policy end to end needs the encoder as a separate follow-up.