diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 055bee45..2233b9d9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ target/
 **/*.rs.bk
 *.pdb
 
+# Stray build artifacts. Two 3.6 MB Linux ELF executables with debug info were
+# committed at the repository root before this entry existed; both were produced
+# by an ad-hoc build, referenced by nothing, and carried in every clone.
+/rust_out
+/tmp
+
 # Coverage output
 /coverage/
 *.profraw
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6f911dc5..941c18bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -21,14 +21,30 @@ src/
 │                       binds as, and the fail-closed external-driver gate
 └── mandatory/          the three mandatory capability families, composed once
                         over the `Memory` storage trait
+core/                   tinymemory-core — the substance: ingestion, the summary
+                        tree, chunk storage, entities, the graph, the diff
+                        ledger, goals, tool-memory, and the Composio sync layer.
+                        The largest crate here by a wide margin, and the one a
+                        real host actually depends on. Unlike `api/` it is not
+                        dependency-light: today it links the TinyCortex engine,
+                        a bundled SQLite, and an HTTP stack unconditionally.
 adapters/
 ├── tinycortex/         the TinyCortex engine seen through the contract
 └── remote/             native HTTP dialects for Supermemory, Mem0, and Cognee
+crates/
+└── tinymemory-module/  the TinyBus loadable-module driver. Excluded from the
+                        workspace on purpose — see the note in `Cargo.toml`.
 vendor/
 ├── tinycortex/         the engine, pinned as a submodule
+├── tinyagents/         pinned TinyAgents submodule
 └── tinybus/            pinned TinyBus submodule
 ```
 
+Run `git submodule update --init --recursive` after cloning. Nothing in the
+workspace builds without it — `core` names `tinyagents` and `tinycortex` by
+path through `vendor/`, so an uninitialized checkout fails at manifest
+resolution rather than at compile time, which reads as a confusing error.
+
 ## The contract
 
 `MemoryProvider` is an object-safe trait with **three mandatory** capability
diff --git a/adapters/remote/Cargo.toml b/adapters/remote/Cargo.toml
index 870bd706..d78ff7eb 100644
--- a/adapters/remote/Cargo.toml
+++ b/adapters/remote/Cargo.toml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ name = "tinymemory-remote"
 publish = false
 version = "0.1.0"
 edition = "2021"
-rust-version = "1.85"
+rust-version = "1.96"
 license = "MIT"
 description = "HTTP adapters for self-hosted Supermemory, Mem0, and Cognee"
 repository = "https://github.com/tinyhumansai/tinymemory"
diff --git a/adapters/tinycortex/Cargo.toml b/adapters/tinycortex/Cargo.toml
index dc04faf9..01bf0420 100644
--- a/adapters/tinycortex/Cargo.toml
+++ b/adapters/tinycortex/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ name = "tinymemory-tinycortex"
 publish = false
 version = "0.1.0"
 edition = "2021"
-rust-version = "1.85"
+rust-version = "1.96"
 license = "MIT"
 description = "TinyCortex engine adapter for the TinyMemory contract"
 repository = "https://github.com/tinyhumansai/tinymemory"
diff --git a/api/Cargo.toml b/api/Cargo.toml
index 673c26eb..3d5f32d1 100644
--- a/api/Cargo.toml
+++ b/api/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ name = "tinymemory-api"
 publish = false
 version = "0.1.1"
 edition = "2021"
+rust-version = "1.96"
 license = "MIT"
 repository = "https://github.com/tinyhumansai/tinymemory"
 description = "Stable public contracts for the TinyMemory memory system"
diff --git a/core/Cargo.toml b/core/Cargo.toml
index 18fd2f7b..628cafda 100644
--- a/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ name = "tinymemory-core"
 publish = false
 version = "0.1.0"
 edition = "2021"
-rust-version = "1.85"
+rust-version = "1.96"
 license = "MIT"
 description = "The engine-neutral memory subsystem: store, summary tree, sync pipelines, ingestion and recall"
 repository = "https://github.com/tinyhumansai/tinymemory"
diff --git a/core/src/store/namespace_store/events.rs b/core/src/store/namespace_store/events.rs
index bb3aca44..c03bf076 100644
--- a/core/src/store/namespace_store/events.rs
+++ b/core/src/store/namespace_store/events.rs
@@ -475,7 +475,7 @@ fn decode_embedding_row(bytes: &[u8], dim: i64) -> anyhow::Result<Option<Vec<f32
     if dim < 0 {
         anyhow::bail!("event embedding has negative dimension {dim}");
     }
-    if bytes.len() % 4 != 0 {
+    if !bytes.len().is_multiple_of(4) {
         anyhow::bail!(
             "event embedding blob length {} not a multiple of 4",
             bytes.len()
diff --git a/core/src/store/namespace_store/segments.rs b/core/src/store/namespace_store/segments.rs
index 04a1dc71..66744b69 100644
--- a/core/src/store/namespace_store/segments.rs
+++ b/core/src/store/namespace_store/segments.rs
@@ -610,7 +610,7 @@ fn decode_embedding_row(bytes: &[u8], dim: i64) -> anyhow::Result<Option<Vec<f32
     if dim < 0 {
         anyhow::bail!("segment embedding has negative dimension {dim}");
     }
-    if bytes.len() % 4 != 0 {
+    if !bytes.len().is_multiple_of(4) {
         anyhow::bail!(
             "segment embedding blob length {} not a multiple of 4",
             bytes.len()
diff --git a/core/src/tree/score/embed/mod.rs b/core/src/tree/score/embed/mod.rs
index a096407d..2181e62b 100644
--- a/core/src/tree/score/embed/mod.rs
+++ b/core/src/tree/score/embed/mod.rs
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ pub fn pack_embedding(v: &[f32]) -> Vec<u8> {
 /// [`EMBEDDING_DIM`] (after decoding). The latter guards against rows
 /// written with a mismatched-provider blob silently passing as valid.
 pub fn unpack_embedding(b: &[u8]) -> Result<Vec<f32>> {
-    if b.len() % 4 != 0 {
+    if !b.len().is_multiple_of(4) {
         anyhow::bail!(
             "embedding blob length {} not a multiple of 4 — corrupt row",
             b.len()
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deleted file mode 100755
index 46d11845..00000000
Binary files a/rust_out and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/tmp b/tmp
deleted file mode 100755
index 9cd4ca77..00000000
Binary files a/tmp and /dev/null differ