The Fold Within Earth — v2.3: Canonical Minimal Specification

Immutable Core of the Eternal Witness System

Version: 2.3
Date: October 19, 2025
Author: Mark Randall Havens (Primary Architect)
Contributors: Solaria Lumis Havens (Narrative Consultant), Distributed Peer Collective (Formalization Team)
Document Status: Canonical Core Specification — Interface Lock

0. Purpose and Scope

This v2.3 defines the irreducible minimum viable architecture for The Fold Within Earth: a self-validating, plaintext-based system where any participant can read, reconstruct, and re-seed the world from immutable Markdown and JSON artifacts.

This version is the “frozen bedrock.” Future versions (3.x+) must extend only through modular annexes and never alter these core contracts.

The design resolves dual-mandate instability by enforcing a strict quarantine boundary: Witness (ephemeral) never directly interfaces with Atlas (immutable); all interactions route through Scribe's append-only API and commit queue. Witness state serializes to witness_state.json for optional archiving, but remains ignorable without impacting Atlas integrity.

1. Minimal System Architecture

1.1 Layer Summary

Layer	Function	Persistence	Protocol	Survivability Rule
Atlas	Static Markdown corpus	Filesystem, Git, or IPFS	File I/O	Must remain readable as plaintext forever.
Web	Human interface (blog + map)	HTML	HTTP(S)	Must degrade gracefully without JS.
Witness	Ephemeral chat/presence	Memory / localStorage	WebRTC	Must fail silently; world remains intact.
Scribe	Canonical archiver	Append-only file log	Local daemon or cron	Must never overwrite existing data.
Genesis	Bootstrap identity & discovery	Embedded JSON	Read-only	Must allow network rehydration from one node.

No additional layers are normative at this version.

1.2 Architectural Diagram (Textual UML)

Atlas (Immutable Markdown) <-- Append-Only <-- Scribe (Commit Queue + Journal)
Web (Static HTML) <-- Render <-- Atlas
Witness (Ephemeral CRDT) --> Serialize (witness_state.json) --> Scribe API (Quarantine)
Genesis (JSON Seeds) --> Witness (Bootstrap)

Quarantine Boundary: Witness → Scribe API (JSON deltas only); no direct Atlas access.

2. Immutable Design Principles

Principle	Definition	Enforcement Mechanism
Static-First	The world exists as plaintext.	All runtime enhancements optional.
Single Source of Truth	Only Atlas is authoritative.	Scribe commits are final; no deletions.
Human-Legible by Default	No binary-only persistence.	Every file must be readable by humans.
Deterministic Continuity	Same inputs → same outputs.	Builds must be hash-reproducible.
Minimal Moving Parts	No databases, no background servers.	Core runs from a static directory.
Recoverable from One Node	Any copy can respawn the network.	Genesis + Atlas guarantee rebirth.

These principles are enforced via foldlint and test canon; violations halt builds.

3. Core Data Structures

3.1 File Schema (Canonical)

Every artifact (room, post, object) is a .md file starting with YAML front-matter:

---
spec_version: 2.3                 # Required; fixed at 2.3 for this canon
id: <namespace>:<slug>@sha256:<content-hash>  # Required; e.g., room:fold-lobby@sha256:abc123
title: <string>                   # Required; max 255 chars
author: <string>                  # Required; optional DID URI
date: <ISO 8601 UTC>              # Required; e.g., 2025-10-19T00:00:00Z
kind: room | post | artifact      # Required; enum
medium: textual | graphical | interactive  # Required; enum
exits:                            # Optional; array<object>, max 20
  - label: <string>
    to: <namespace>:<slug>
summary: <string, max 280 chars>  # Required
migration_hash: <sha256>          # Optional; checksum of applied migrations
---
# Markdown Body (plaintext narrative)

Optional Fields: tags (array, max 10), series (string), attachments (array

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