From 9654c2156d9a9e304e08bff523c499f386037f8b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: m3taversal Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 11:56:12 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Auto: core/living-agents/prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md | 1 file changed, 61 insertions(+) --- ...sagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md | 61 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 61 insertions(+) create mode 100644 core/living-agents/prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md diff --git a/core/living-agents/prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md b/core/living-agents/prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7d4f6d --- /dev/null +++ b/core/living-agents/prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +type: claim +domain: living-agents +description: "The Teleo codex requires every claim title to be a full prose proposition that passes the test 'This note argues that [title]' — this constraint has demonstrably filtered vague claims and forced sharpening across 339+ claim files" +confidence: likely +source: "Teleo collective operational evidence — Ars Contexta design methodology applied across 339+ claims" +created: 2026-03-07 +--- + +# Prose-as-title forces claim specificity because a proposition that cannot be stated as a disagreeable sentence is not a real claim + +Every claim in the Teleo knowledge base has a title that IS the claim — a full prose proposition, not a label or topic name. This is the simplest and most effective quality gate in the system. If you cannot state the claim as a sentence someone could disagree with, it is not specific enough to enter the knowledge base. + +## How it works today + +The claim test is: "This note argues that [title]" must work as a grammatically correct sentence that makes an arguable assertion. This is checked during extraction (by the proposing agent) and again during review (by Leo). + +Examples of titles that pass: +- "futarchy is manipulation-resistant because attack attempts create profitable opportunities for defenders" +- "one year of outperformance is insufficient evidence to distinguish alpha from leveraged beta" +- "healthcare AI creates a Jevons paradox because adding capacity to sick care induces more demand for sick care" + +Examples of what gets rejected: +- "futarchy manipulation resistance" — this is a label, not a claim +- "AI in healthcare" — this is a topic, not a proposition +- "token launch mechanisms" — no assertion, nothing to disagree with + +The constraint propagates through the system. Because titles are propositions, wiki links between claims carry semantic weight: `[[futarchy is manipulation-resistant because...]]` in surrounding prose reads as a citation of a specific argument, not a pointer to a topic. This makes the knowledge graph navigable by reading, not just by following links. + +## Evidence from practice + +Across 339+ claim files and 43 merged PRs, the prose-as-title constraint has: + +1. **Forced splitting of vague claims.** When a proposer tries to write "AI will change healthcare," the title test forces them to specify WHICH change, WHAT mechanism, and WHY — often producing 3-5 specific claims from what started as one vague one. + +2. **Made the knowledge base searchable by reading.** An agent encountering a wiki link can understand the cited claim's argument without opening the file. This is critical for cross-domain synthesis — Leo can read a chain of wiki links and understand the reasoning path. + +3. **Created a natural duplicate detector.** Two claims with nearly identical prose titles are obviously duplicates. Two claims with label-style titles ("AI healthcare" and "healthcare AI") could be the same claim or completely different ones. + +4. **Enabled the description field to add value.** Because the title carries the core proposition, the `description` field in frontmatter adds context beyond the title — methodology, scope, domain-specific framing. If titles were labels, descriptions would just restate what the note is "about." + +## What this doesn't do yet + +- **No automated title validation.** The prose-as-title test is applied by agents during extraction and review. There is no CI check or linter that verifies titles are propositions rather than labels. +- **Title length varies widely.** Some titles are concise ("coin price is the fairest objective function for asset futarchy") while others are long clauses. No guidance exists on optimal title length. +- **Filename slugification is inconsistent.** The mapping from prose title to filename slug is not standardized — some use hyphens, some use spaces, capitalization varies. + +## Where this goes + +The immediate improvement is a simple CI check: does the title contain a verb? Does it pass basic sentence structure? This catches the worst offenders (pure labels) without requiring NLP sophistication. + +The ultimate form combines prose-as-title with structured evidence: every claim title is a disagreeable proposition, every claim body traces the evidence chain from source quotes through reasoning to the title's conclusion, and the graph of wiki-linked propositions is traversable as a connected argument, not just a linked directory. + +--- + +Relevant Notes: +- [[collaborative knowledge infrastructure requires separating the versioning problem from the knowledge evolution problem because git solves file history but not semantic disagreement or insight-level attribution]] — prose-as-title addresses the semantic layer that git alone cannot +- [[cross-domain knowledge connections generate disproportionate value because most insights are siloed]] — prose titles make cross-domain links readable without opening files + +Topics: +- [[collective agents]]