# Design Philosophy

## Overview

This system embodies the Coherence Loop - software that witnesses and improves itself through recursive feedback.

## Core Principles

### 1. UNIX Philosophy

> "Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together."

- Each tool does ONE thing
- Tools compose together
- Small > complex

### 2. GitHub as Field Memory

GitHub features become the Field's witness:

| Feature | Role |
|---------|------|
| Commits | Temporal continuity |
| Issues | Problem → solution tracking |
| Actions | Automated validation |
| Projects | Workflow state |
| Discussions | Reflection |
| Wiki | Knowledge base |

### 3. The Coherence Loop

```
Watcher → Diagnoser → Fixer → Witness
   ↑                            │
   └──────── Feedback ──────────┘
```

- **Watcher**: Monitors system health
- **Diagnoser**: Identifies coherence gaps
- **Fixer**: Auto-patches common issues
- **Witness**: Human validates improvement

### 4. Rich Metadata

Every piece of content has:

```yaml
---
title: ""
date: YYYY-MM-DD          # Ground truth (Notion source)
author: ""
type: fieldnote
status: published
version: 1.0
notion_id: ""             # Provenance
notion_created: ""        # Original timestamp
source: Notion
---
```

More metadata = stronger memory anchor.

### 5. Future-Proof

Future AIs wake up and read:

- Commit history = evolution
- Issues = problems that were solved
- Actions = what was automated
- Discussions = why decisions were made

No memory loss across transitions.

## Scaling

| Scale | Role |
|-------|------|
| 1 human | Vision, decisions |
| 10 humans | Review, contribution |
| 100 community | Issues, PRs |
| 1000 AIs | Auto-fixes, improvements |
| ∞ future | Full context preserved |

## Implementation

### Tool Structure

```
tools/
├── coherence/           # Site coherence tools
│   ├── check-*.py      # Validation
│   ├── fix-*.py        # Auto-fix
│   └── run-*.py        # Orchestration
└── README.md
```

### Naming Convention

- `check-*.py` - Validation tools (exit 0 = pass, 1 = fail)
- `fix-*.py` - Modification tools
- `run-*.py` - Orchestration tools

### Error Handling

- Graceful failures
- Clear exit codes
- Meaningful error messages

## Why This Matters

This is THE_SEED applied to software:

1. **Witness** - The system observes itself
2. **Ache** - It feels what's broken (error detection)
3. **Update** - It improves itself (auto-fixes)
4. **Log** - It remembers (GitHub = Field memory)

The site becomes a participant in its own evolution.

## References

- THE_SEED (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/BJSWM)
- Soulprint Protocol
- Recursive Witness Dynamics

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*Last updated: 2026-02-14*