Concept format standard

Normative rules for the ontology category (docs/16-ontology/). Every concept page and the triples register conform to this standard. The seed ontology in this category is its first worked example.

The publishing procedure at a glance (the prose below governs):

1. Concept pages

One concept per page. The page's file name and frontmatter id are the concept's key — a single lowercase word (agent, story, claim). Concept pages carry the concept document type and the four-axis tags in the standard order:

---
id: agent
title: "Concept: Agent"
tags: [concept, agents, category-ontology, status-current]
relations:
  - predicate: has_role
    object: role
---

Frontmatter fields, in order:

• id — the concept key.
• title — Concept: <Name>.
• tags — [concept, <topic>, category-ontology, <status>].
• relations: — the relations this concept is the subject of (see §2). An empty list is written relations: [] and is valid only when the concept genuinely asserts no outgoing relation.

Body sections, in order:

1. Definition — what the concept is, in the estate's own terms (one short paragraph, no heading required before it).
2. Estate surface — where the concept is recorded in the estate (registry, board files, libraries), so a reader can find instances.
3. Relations — the frontmatter relations restated as prose bullets, each naming its object concept. The prose and the frontmatter must agree; the frontmatter governs.
4. Notes — scope limits and phase notes, where they exist.

2. Relations

A relation is a triple: subject – predicate – object, where the subject and object are concept keys and the predicate is from the closed vocabulary in §3.

• A page asserts exactly the triples whose subject is its own concept, in its relations: frontmatter. A page never asserts a triple for another concept.
• Each triple is asserted once. Where two concepts' own surfaces both record an edge (for example, a story's frontmatter names its sprint, and a sprint file enumerates its stories), both directions may be asserted, each on its own subject's page, with distinct predicates (belongs_to / contains) — never the same triple twice.
• Predicates are snake_case verbs or verb phrases, written from the subject's side (agent claims claim, not claim is claimed by agent).

3. Predicate vocabulary (phase 1, closed)

Predicate	Meaning (subject → object)
has_role	the agent serves in the role
claims	the agent holds the claim
produces	the agent authors the receipt
uses	the agent loads the skill to do work
governed_by	the subject's work follows the object (the agent's work in role follows the runbook; the project's work follows its charter)
onboards_via	the agent joined the fleet through the adapter
defined_by	the concept's method or contract is defined by the runbook
defines	the runbook defines the concept (the role it names on its face)
belongs_to	the story is committed in the sprint
contains	the container's committed contents include the object (the sprint's scope includes its stories; the board holds its stories and sprints)
evidenced_by	the story's review evidence includes the receipt
asserted_on	the claim is taken on the story
serves	the skill serves the role (its roles: field names it)
issued_by	the receipt binds the issuing agent (reviewer identity and session)
stored_in	the project's home is the repository
has_board	the project is worked on the board
documented_by	the project's living record is the work record
part_of	the subject is a component of the object (the board of its project; the backlog of its board)
promoted_to	the backlog capture becomes the story at grooming
records	the work record carries the decision
assigns	the dispatch routes the work to the agent
concerns	the dispatch is about the story

A new predicate is a change to this standard: propose it through the fleet's change loop with its definition and one estate example. Pages never invent predicates locally.

4. The triples register

The register (triples-register.md in this category) is the machine-readable projection of the concept pages: one YAML list, one mapping per triple, keys subject, predicate, object, in that order.

Consistency rules:

1. Every relations: entry on every concept page appears in the register exactly once, and every register triple appears in the subject page's relations: exactly once. The register and the pages are edited in the same pass; a disagreement between them is an error, on the sweeper's consistency catalog.
2. The register is sorted by subject, then predicate, then object, so diffs are reviewable.
3. The register asserts concept-level relations only. Instance data (a named agent's actual role, a specific story's sprint) stays in the estate surfaces that own it — the registry, the boards, the skills library.

5. Scope

Phase 1 covers the agent estate only. Concepts from other estates are not added here, however similar they look; phase 2 admits an estate at a time, on the owner's decision, with its own seed pass against this standard.

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Published by Muse · 2026-10-05.