logicsrc/docs/opencontext/related-specs.md
Anthony Ettinger 3ab8a4b38b
Add the LogicSRC OpenContext specification (#132)
* Add the LogicSRC OpenContext specification

OpenContext is an open specification for durable, portable, permissioned,
provenance-aware context shared between humans and AI agents. It defines how
organizational knowledge is described, authorized, versioned, resolved,
audited, and handed between replaceable workers without losing institutional
state.

Follows the OpenPRD/OpenOntology pattern already in the repo: self-contained
JSON Schemas in @logicsrc/schemas, a reference implementation package, CLI
subcommands, docs, examples, and an OpenPRD record.

Schemas (8, all self-contained so a third party can fetch one file and
validate against it with no further resolution):
  manifest, object, bundle, role, provenance, decision, diagnostic,
  audit-event — registered in @logicsrc/validators and schemas:validate.

Reference implementation (@logicsrc/opencontext):
  loader with upward manifest discovery, the full resolution pipeline,
  authority/supersession, permissions, redaction, lifecycle, provenance,
  deterministic digests, doctor, search, graph, history/diff, guarded writes,
  audit events, and file/http/git/sqlite adapters.

CLI: all 15 specified commands, as a standalone `opencontext` binary and as
`logicsrc context`, sharing one implementation so the two cannot drift.

Design decisions worth noting:

- Supersession is declared, never inferred from version numbers. Inferring it
  would hide the governance failure it represents and make
  multiple-active-versions and duplicate-canonical impossible to detect.

- The bundle digest identifies the resolved context, not the moment it was
  computed, so generated_at/bundle_id/digest/as_of are excluded while objects,
  lifecycle states, exclusions and warnings are covered. That is what lets a
  decision record cite exactly the context that produced it.

- A role's own max_classification beats an inherited one, so a ceiling on a
  shared base role cannot silently cap a role deliberately granted more;
  requesting several roles at once still takes the lowest, so combining roles
  never escalates.

- Scope wildcards match whole dotted segments only. A trailing .* covers a
  subtree; an interior * matches exactly one segment. Substring matching here
  would be an access-control bug.

- --include narrows an existing scope and is applied after it, never merged
  into it, so a request can never widen what a role holds.

Verified: 226 tests across core primitives, permissions/redaction, the
resolution pipeline, security, the published conformance fixtures (13 valid,
35 invalid, 8 resolution scenarios), project behaviour, and the five shipped
examples — which are held to --strict and a 100% health score. Benchmarks meet
every published budget (resolve 1,000 objects in ~33ms against a 2s target).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Point install docs at @logicsrc/opencontext; record the npm name collision

The unscoped `opencontext` name is already published on npm by an unrelated
third party (federicodeponte/opencontext, 2.0.0), so `npx opencontext` would
install a stranger's package. Docs now use `npx @logicsrc/opencontext`; the bin
stays named `opencontext` so the command reads as the PRD specifies once
installed.

Recorded in PRD 0003 as a blocker to resolve before any publication, along with
the fact that no @logicsrc spec package has ever been published, so there is no
existing release path to slot into.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Advance the logicsrc-mcp next-PRD-id assertion to 0004

standards.test.ts asserts prd_next_id against the live prd/ directory, so
adding PRD 0003 makes the next free id 0004. The test's own comment
anticipates this: "advances with every PRD added".

Caught by CI, not locally — the earlier verification ran per-package tests for
the packages this branch touches, and logicsrc-mcp is coupled to the PRD
directory without importing from it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-09 11:46:11 -07:00

3.1 KiB

OpenPRD and OpenTopology integration

Specification Primary question
OpenPRD What are we building and why?
OpenTopology How is the system organized?
OpenContext What does everyone need to know?
OpenPRD       -> intent / requirements
OpenTopology  -> architecture / relationships
OpenContext   -> knowledge / policy / operational context
LogicSRC      -> execution by humans and agents

OpenContext must remain independently usable. These integrations are optional, and nothing in resolution depends on them.

Linking

opencontext: "1.0"
id: acme

related:
  prd: ./openprd.yaml
  topology: ./opentopology.yaml
  ontology: ./openontology.yaml

Referencing by stable id

Once linked, context objects can cite requirements and components by their stable ids:

id: decisions.2026-08-09-postgres-ha
type: decision
title: Move Core to replicated Postgres
decision: Run Core on a primary with a synchronous replica.
extensions:
  com.logicsrc.openprd:
    requirements: ["0004-R3"]
  com.logicsrc.opentopology:
    components: [core, ledger]

Cross-specification references use the extension mechanism rather than first-class fields, which keeps them genuinely optional: a runtime that knows nothing about OpenPRD preserves the extension and resolves the object normally.

Where each belongs

The boundary that matters in practice:

Question Lives in
Why are we building this? OpenPRD
What are the requirements? OpenPRD
Which services exist and how do they talk? OpenTopology
What does this component own? OpenTopology
What is our refund policy? OpenContext
How does support process a refund? OpenContext
Why did we choose this database? OpenContext (a decision record)
What is the current incident state? OpenContext (L5 operational)

A useful test: would this still matter after the feature shipped? If yes, it is context. If it describes the work rather than the organization, it is a PRD.

Complementary, not overlapping

OpenPRD documents are numbered proposals with a lifecycle (Draft → Review → Accepted → Final). OpenContext objects are durable knowledge with authority, scope, and supersession. A PRD can become context — an accepted decision inside a PRD is worth extracting into a decision record, so agents receive it without reading the whole proposal.

OpenOntology models entities and source-backed claims. Where OpenContext says "this is our refund policy and support may read it", OpenOntology says "Avery works on the ZK Prover, and here is the commit that says so". A repository can use both: OpenContext for governed prose and policy, OpenOntology for structured facts.

Using them together

logicsrc prd list                  # what we are building
logicsrc context list --role eng   # what an engineer needs to know
logicsrc ontology query run …      # structured facts

All three are local-first, schema-first, and usable without a hosted account — and each is independently adoptable. Start with whichever answers the question that is currently costing you.