bernstein's orchestrator is pure python: tick loop, task store, scheduler, router, merge queue, quality gates. no llm call sits on the coordination path. given the same backlog, the same .sdd/ state, and the same model outputs, a re-run produces the same task ordering and the same merge sequence. that determinism is what makes the hmac audit chain meaningful (no model nondeterminism in the metadata) and what lets the eval harness replay an entire run from a recorded fixture. compare with crewai or claude-flow, where the coordinator is itself an llm and two runs of the same brief diverge.
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