# CRE Connect Architecture Source: https://docs.chain.link/crec/concepts/architecture Last Updated: 2026-05-01 > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). **CRE Connect (CREC)** is the client-facing interface to the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). It gives applications two capabilities: 1. **Inbound — Verifiable on-chain events.** Subscribe to contract events on supported networks and receive them with a Decentralized Oracle Network (DON) signature attached. Every event can be verified end-to-end, off-chain, against the on-chain DON signer set. 2. **Outbound — Gas-less, account-abstracted operations.** Sign a batch of EVM transactions with EIP-712 and submit it. The Chainlink DON picks the signed Operation up, signs and broadcasts the underlying transaction, and routes it through your Smart Account — without your application managing gas, nonces, or relayers. Both capabilities share the same architecture: applications talk to a tenant-scoped CRE Connect interface, which orchestrates work on **CRE workflows** that read from and write to chains through the **Chainlink DON**. ## Component overview CRE Connect is a closed loop. Your application talks to a single platform interface; everything else — DON workflows, on-chain execution, log observation, signature attachment — happens on your behalf and surfaces back as verifiable events. The diagram below shows the components and the **two flows** that share them: - **Outbound (Operations).** App → CRE Connect → CRE Workflows → DON-signed transaction → your Smart Account on chain. The Smart Account emits an `OperationExecuted` log that re-enters the loop as an `operation.status` event. - **Inbound (Events).** Any watched contract (your Smart Account, your own application contract, or a third-party contract like an ERC-20 token) emits logs → CRE Workflows attach a DON signature → CRE Connect → your app receives a verifiable event. (Image: Image) How to read it: - The top two layers (**App → CRE Connect → CRE Workflows**) are the same for every interaction, inbound or outbound. The double-headed arrows mean each layer both submits requests downward and receives DON-signed events upward. - **Your Smart Account** appears in both flows: it is the *destination* of an Operation (outbound) and a *source* of `OperationExecuted` logs that come back as `operation.status` events (inbound). - **Watched contracts** are anything you point a [Watcher](/crec/concepts/watchers) at — your own contracts, contracts deployed by a partner, or public protocol contracts. They never need to know CRE Connect exists. - **CRE Workflows** is shown as a single box on purpose: which workflow does what is an implementation detail handled by CRE Connect. From the app's perspective, you only ever see verifiable events at the platform edge. ## How operations and events flow Two CRE workflows running on the DON handle every CRE Connect interaction end-to-end. You never write or deploy these workflows yourself — they ship with the platform. | Phase | What happens | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Operation execution** | When you submit an Operation, CRE Connect hands it to a CRE workflow on the DON. The workflow verifies your EIP-712 signature, then writes a DON-signed transaction on-chain that your Smart Account executes atomically. | | **On-chain status feedback** | Your Smart Account emits an `OperationExecuted` log. A second CRE workflow picks that log up, builds a verifiable `operation.status` event, and publishes it back so your application can observe lifecycle transitions. | [Extensions](/crec/concepts/extensions) such as DTA contribute their own pre-packaged watchers that run alongside these core flows. ## Smart Accounts on-chain Operations execute through a **Smart Account** contract deployed per tenant, per chain, per wallet. This contract: - Verifies the EIP-712 signature attached to each Operation against an allow-list of approved signer keys, configured at wallet creation time. - Executes each transaction (`to`, `value`, `data`) atomically — the Operation succeeds or fails as a single unit. - Emits an `OperationExecuted` log that CRE Connect picks up and turns into a verifiable `operation.status` event. The Smart Account is **not an ERC-4337 account**. It is a Chainlink-native contract whose authorization model is rooted in a CRE Connect-specific EIP-712 domain (see [EIP-712 Signing](/crec/concepts/eip712-signing)). The DON acts as the relayer and pays gas for the on-chain execution, giving applications a fully gas-less developer experience (see [Account Abstraction & Gas Sponsorship](/crec/concepts/account-abstraction)). ## Resources and lifecycles Every interaction in CRE Connect is scoped to one of five resource types: | Resource | Purpose | Lifecycle states | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Channel](/crec/concepts/channels) | Logical scope for watchers, events, and operations | `active`, `archived` | | [Watcher](/crec/concepts/watchers) | On-chain event monitor backed by a CRE workflow | `pending`, `active`, `archiving`, `archived`, `failed` | | [Wallet](/crec/concepts/smart-accounts) | Smart Account configuration with allowed signers | `pending`, `deploying`, `deployed`, `archived`, `failed` | | [Event](/crec/concepts/verifiable-events) | A single verifiable record (watcher event, operation status, wallet status, watcher status) | n/a (immutable) | | [Operation](/crec/concepts/operations) | A signed batch of EVM transactions | `accepted`, `sending`, `sent`, `broadcasting`, `confirmed`, `failed` | Every state transition above is observable as a verifiable event, which means your application can react to any lifecycle change with the same verifiable event pipeline it uses for on-chain data. ## Related - [Channels](/crec/concepts/channels) · [Watchers](/crec/concepts/watchers) · [Smart Accounts](/crec/concepts/smart-accounts) · [Operations](/crec/concepts/operations) — every component in detail. - [Verifiable Events](/crec/concepts/verifiable-events) — what makes an event "verifiable" in this architecture. - [Get Access](/crec/getting-started) — request access to the private beta.