First Principles Framework (FPF)

An "Operating System for Thought" — a transdisciplinary architecture for reasoning, written in human- and machine-readable pseudo-code. FPF turns raw intelligence (human or machine) into organisationally usable reasoning: explicit bounded contexts, auditable artefacts, multi-view descriptions, and disciplined hand-offs between specialised actors.

Use cases

Use FPF whenever you need to think more rigorously than the situation's default.

• Decompose a messy, cross-domain problem into parts that can be reasoned about independently
• Make a high-stakes decision with incomplete evidence — and know what evidence is still missing
• Get a mixed team to reason together without vocabulary collisions or hidden assumptions
• Audit whether a conclusion is well-founded or just plausible
• Transform or transfer an insight without losing its subject, precision, or stated limitations
• Structure a proposal that must survive scrutiny from multiple expert perspectives
• Generate alternatives systematically instead of anchoring on the first idea
• Define what "better" means before comparing options
• Classify what kind of problem you're facing before searching for solutions
• Plan how an AI agent should select and sequence its tools under budget and trust constraints
• Make a decision under uncertainty — identify options, weigh evidence, and commit with an auditable rationale
• Establish whether X causes Y — or just correlates — and determine what intervention would work
• Publish a stable multi-view artifact without changing the source semantics
• Assemble or check a public framework publication form while preserving product-specific bodies and references
• Develop a holder system's capability for a named Work family and verify transfer in representative Work
• Synthesize source ontologies for one bounded authoring decision without flattening their local meanings
• Refresh a SoTA pack, benchmark, or evidence trail when evidence decays or telemetry changes
• Synthesize architecture candidates, compare structural options, or repair modularity/reuse claims
• Detect an ontic candidate, decide its first-use disposition, and govern whether a new concept or U-kind should be introduced instead of just renamed
• Identify the exact system that acts or is intended to change, then trace a lost path from outside use to architecture, production, and recursive builders
• Discover other systems that may bear relevant consequences before a decision closes
• Recover a reusable method cautiously from several performances, logs, or observations without treating the evidence as the method itself
• Choose the next action during ongoing work when current facts, authority, and stop conditions matter
• Recover the actual performer/support configuration for Work and test what survives interruption, handoff, delay, or reconfiguration
• Compare what a finite addition, replacement, or intervention contributes relative to the current configuration
• Clarify what a claim about human, machine, organizational, or cultural “learning” actually says changed
• Clarify what “development” or “evolution” means by naming the changed subject, continuity rule, posture, and value basis
• Probe whether apparent capability loss is really an envelope, support, access, adaptation, enactment, or capability-change issue before choosing redevelopment
• Revalidate affected decisions when a relied-on source changes and the full set of receivers is unknown
• Request or reuse a bounded specialist result while preserving supplier authority and the receiving decision
• Select and combine diagrams, models, records, or other representations for one exact use
• Turn build, buy, reuse, outsource, or AI labels into comparable complete ways to obtain one result
• Apply one selected FPF pattern to a current question and stop at the first useful result

How to navigate

The use cases above help decide WHETHER to invoke FPF. The router below decides WHERE to go once invoked.

Step 1 — Match the thinking need to a starting point

What you need to do	Start here
Decompose a complex whole into bounded parts	05 Part A → A.1 Holons, A.1.1 Bounded Contexts, A.14 Mereology
Identify, trace, and discover the acting or changed system, find omitted Systems that may bear consequences, then locate the first unsupported dependency from outside use through recursive builders	05 Part A → A.1.SCR System Recognition, A.1.CSD Consequence-Bearer Discovery, A.1.STM System-Thinking Long Mantra; 03 FPF Readme → Recover a Lost Path
Assign system roles and responsibilities, recover what “role” means, check permission, or distinguish production work from the identity and completion of its product	05 Part A → A.2 System Role Kinds and Assignments, A.2.8.PER Permission; 11 Part E → E.10.ROLE Role Meaning Recovery; 07 A.V → A.15 Role-Method-Work Alignment, A.15.PROD Production Work
Recover a reusable method from several performances or direct evidence without overclaiming Method identity	05 Part A → A.3.1.MR Candidate-Method Recovery from Work Evidence
Recover what project, process, or case language directly refers to before modeling it	07 A.V → A.15.6 Project, Process, and Case Recovery
Steer and recovery-test Work by choosing the next action from current facts or recovering the actual performer/support configuration and probing interruption, handoff, delay, or reconfiguration	07 A.V → A.15.7 Situation-Responsive Work Steering, A.15.8 Work-Performance Configuration and Recovery Testing
Request or reuse specialist results for one receiving decision while preserving the other practice’s authority	07 A.V → A.15.9 Bounded Result from Another Practice
Select and combine representations for one exact action or decision without treating them as interchangeable	09 Part C → C.37 Use-Bounded Representation Selection and Co-Use
Set boundaries on what statements mean, distinguish relations from their individuated occurrences, or derive a missing relation claim	06 Signature Stack → A.6.B boundary norms, A.6.REL relation obtaining and occurrences, A.6.RCD relation-claim derivation, declarations, gates, duties, and evidence
Prevent category errors or reconcile ontology premises before extending the framework	07 Constitutional Principles → A.7 Strict Distinction, A.7.1 Consequence-Guided Ontological Problem Solving, A.7.2 Premise Reconciliation, A.7.CP Constructive Premise Compact
Evaluate confidence in a claim or artifact — including formality, scope, and reliability of the underlying knowledge	08 Part B → B.3 Trust & Assurance; 09 Part C → C.2 KD-CAL / F-G-R scoring, C.2.2 Reliability, C.2.3 Formality
Compose parts into wholes preserving properties	08 Part B → B.1 Gamma algebra; 09 Part C → C.13 Compose-CAL, C.20 Discipline-CAL
Reason through a problem systematically	08 Part B → B.5 Reasoning Cycle, B.5.2 Abductive Loop
Enter and apply FPF: choose a practical entry, find results across a DPF suite, or apply one pattern to a first useful result	03 FPF Readme → Practical Entries; 11 Part E → E.11.DSG DPF Suite Reference, E.11.PUA Pattern Use
Generate alternatives / construct comparable ways to obtain one result, explore solution space, and keep apparatus use bounded	09 Part C → C.38 Comparable Ways to Obtain One Result; C.17 Creativity-CHR, C.18 Open-Ended Search, C.19 Explore-Exploit, C.19.2 Use-Bounded Apparatus Application
Measure and compare options rigorously	07 A.V → A.17-A.19 Characteristics, CSLC & SelectorMechanism; 09 Part C → C.16 MM-CHR; 13 Part G → G.9 Parity / Benchmark Harness
Resolve conflicts across stakeholders or values	10 Part D → Ethics, bias audit, conflict optimization
Unify vocabulary or synthesize source ontologies across teams or domains without flattening source-local claims	12 Part F → F.0.2 Conceptual Synthesis, concept sets, bridges, UTS, lexical continuity
Transform, document, publish, and reuse epistemes, views, or frameworks while preserving subjects and product-specific bodies	06 A.IV.A → A.6.2-A.6.4 episteme morphing/viewing/retargeting, A.6.3.NAR narrative rendering; 11 Part E → E.4.PFIP Publication Integration, E.11.PFP Publication Form Profile, E.17 Multi-View Publication Kit
Sharpen expression — repair vague wording, recover exact method/work relations, clarify what “learning,” “development,” or “evolution” means in the current claim, surface ambiguity, or restore precision of epistemic / measurement / architecture terms	06 A.IV.A → A.6.P.WMR Exact Relation Recovery, A.6.H Wholeness Unpacking; 11 Part E → E.10.LRN, E.10.DEV, E.10.ARCH, E.17.EFP; 09 Part C → C.2.P, C.16.P, C.30.P
Decide or compare contributions under uncertainty — compare a finite configuration change to the current configuration, structure options, weigh evidence, and commit with auditable rationale	09 Part C → C.11.CRC Configuration-Relative Contribution Comparison, C.11 Decsn-CAL
Reason about time and change — distinguish state readings, trends, currentness, and intervention-sensitive change, or recover an actual temporal structure before testing coordination	09 Part C → C.27 Temporal Claim Adequacy, C.27.TA Temporal Aspect; 03 FPF Readme → ACTUAL-TEMPORAL-STRUCTURE
Establish causality — climb the causality ladder, identify causal structure, check realizability	09 Part C → C.28 CausalUse-CAL
Check mathematical or modeling fit — assess whether a formal lens / math model is adequate for the problem	09 Part C → C.29 Mathematical Lens Use
Describe architecture or structural views — characterize structure, unfold constraint-governed structure, produce adequate architectural descriptions and view types, triage cross-scope architectural residuals	07 A.V → A.22 STRUCT-CAL, A.22.CGUS; 09 Part C → C.30, C.30.AD, C.30.ASV, C.30.LCA, C.30.ILC, C.30.TFS-REL
Connect transformation flows without collapsing independent structures into one flow or project	11 Part E → E.18.NET Network of Transformation-Flow Structures
Synthesize architecture candidates or reconcile several non-isomorphic structures of one practice, then assess modularity/reuse or publish ADR-style projections	09 Part C → C.31 Modularity, C.32 Architecture Candidate Synthesis, C.32.MWA Practice Architecture, C.32.PAD, C.32.ADR, C.32.ADA
Assess structural information — check architecture capture, source return, equivalence, morphisms, or discovery adequacy	09 Part C → C.33, C.34, C.35
Model context-dependent or indeterminate states — represent superposed, probe-coupled, or viability-bounded behaviour	09 Part C → C.26 Quantum-Like Modeling Lens, C.26.1 Probe-Coupled Boundary, C.26.2 Enacted Distributed State, C.26.3 Viability-Envelope
Survey a discipline and build, ship, or refresh a reusable toolkit	13 Part G → G.1-G.13 SoTA kit, CG-Frame, dispatcher, benchmarks, shipping, telemetry refresh, dashboards, external interop; 09 Part C → C.21 Discipline-CHR
Classify a problem type, test whether a candidate is admissible for a kind judgment, or compare kind identity before claiming a cross-local correspondence	09 Part C → C.22 Problem-CHR, C.22.PFR Problematic-For Relation, C.3 Kind-CAL, C.3.2 Kind Judgment, C.3.3 KindBridge
Define quality attributes ("-ilities") as structured bundles	09 Part C → C.25 Q-Bundle; 07 A.V → A.17-A.19 Characteristics
Govern ontology — detect an ontic candidate, decide its first-use disposition, and determine whether a new concept or U-kind is warranted	11 Part E → E.24 Ontic Introduction Discipline, E.24.CD Ontic Candidate Detection and First-Use Disposition, E.24.UK U-kind Admission and Ontic Settlement
Probe or develop capability — distinguish apparent capability loss from envelope, support, access, adaptation, or enactment failures; when development is separately selected, test whether improvement transfers beyond an exercise	11 Part E → E.23.CAE Capability Access and Expression Differential Probe, E.23.CDI Developing Capability for a Named Work Family
Reason about cultural evolution — describe cultural-evolution engineering or repair cultural-evolution wording	09 Part C → C.36 Cultural Evolution, C.36.P Precision Restoration
Orchestrate agentic tool use under budgets and trust gates	09 Part C → C.24 Agent-Tools-CAL
Trace provenance and revalidate affected uses when a relied-on source changes, or detect refresh debt	07 A.V → A.10 Evidence Graph, A.10.1 Revalidate Affected Uses; 13 Part G → G.6 Provenance Ledger, G.11 Telemetry-Driven Refresh & Decay

For complex problems, follow paths across multiple sections — the router shows where to start, not where to stop.

Step 2 — Read the _index.md, then the sub-section

1. Open the _index.md of the target section folder — it lists all sub-sections with line counts and descriptions.
2. Read only the specific sub-section file you need.
3. Do NOT load entire sections. Pick the narrowest file that serves the user's question.

Step 3 — Apply in plain language

Use plain language for the user. Introduce FPF-internal names (U.Holon, Gamma, F-G-R) only when they add precision the user needs.

Step 4 — Compose findings across sections

When a problem draws from multiple sections:

1. State each pattern's contribution in one line (e.g., "Bounded Contexts gives us the parts; Trust Calculus scores our confidence in each").
2. If patterns from different sections appear to conflict, check for category errors via A.7 Strict Distinction — the conflict is usually a level confusion (role vs. function, method vs. work), not a real contradiction.
3. Synthesize in natural order: decomposition first (what are the parts?), then evaluation (how confident are we?), then resolution (what do we do about gaps?).
4. Do not just list FPF patterns — weave them into a coherent answer to the user's actual question.

Starter prompt (example — adapt to the user's actual role and need)

You have the FPF specification loaded. Help me structure my project / problem / programme. Use plain language for an engineer-manager. Propose: (1) bounded contexts / specialisations, (2) decision criteria, (3) key alternatives, (4) hand-offs, and (5) missing evidence or tests before commitment. Introduce internal FPF names only when they add precision.

Section INDEX

Structural reference. Each entry is a folder — read its _index.md first, then pick the sub-section.

#	Section	Sub	When to use
01	Title page	0	Identify: title, authorship, version date, top-level identity.
02	Table of Contents	0	Navigate: locate a pattern, keyword, query cue, dependency, or neighboring section.
03	FPF Readme	9	Enter, onboard, and recover: choose a practical entry, understand what each part contributes, connect transformation flows, or recover a lost path from outside use to recursive builders.
04	Preface	21	Orient: read philosophy, adoption storylines, uncertainty posture, and purpose/non-goals.
05	Part A — Kernel	26	Decompose, identify, discover, trace, assign, recover, and authorize: holons, bounded contexts, acting/changed-system recognition, consequence-bearing System discovery, outside-use dependency tracing, roles, permissions, candidate-Method recovery from Work evidence, transformers, method/work separation.
06	A.IV.A — Signatures	27	Set boundaries, derive relations, transform epistemes, and render: distinguish relations from occurrences; recover exact method/work and under-specified service/access relations; derive needed relation claims; keep source, receiving episteme, arrow, use claim, work, and publication distinct; classify statements or render structure faithfully.
07	A.V — Principles	46	Prevent confusion, recover direct subjects, and steer or recovery-test Work: category errors, ontology premises, project/process/case language, situation-responsive next-action choice, performer/support configuration and recovery probes, production-work identity and completion, measuring, comparing, evidence graphs and changed-source revalidation, bounded specialist results, mechanism suites, transformation-step constraint validity, independent-check gate decisions, constraint-governed unfolding.
08	Part B — Reasoning	25	Compose and evaluate: structural views (STRUCT-CAL), aggregation (Gamma), trust scores, emergence, reasoning cycles.
09	Part C — Extensions	79	Score, compare, search, and architect: epistemic quality, typed reasoning, measurement, configuration-relative contribution comparisons, comparable result routes, representation selection and co-use, decisions, bounded apparatus use, temporal/causal/math lenses, architecture synthesis across non-isomorphic practice structures, structural adequacy, cultural evolution.
10	Part D — Ethics	5	Resolve conflicts: ethical trade-offs, bias auditing, safety overrides, conflict optimization.
11	Part E — Constitution and Authoring	66	Enter, apply, clarify, probe, develop, govern, reuse, and publish: practical entry and pattern use, DPF-suite navigation, learning/development/evolution claim recovery, framework publication forms and preservation, capability access/expression probing and development for named Work, edition continuity, multi-view publication, transformation-flow networks, pattern quality, ontic/U-kind governance.
12	Part F — Unification	22	Synthesize and align: bounded conceptual synthesis across source ontologies, concept sets, sense cells, bridges, system-role descriptions, UTS, lexical continuity.
13	Part G — SoTA Kit	15	Harvest and refresh disciplines: SoTA Packs, CG-Frames, dispatchers, provenance ledgers, benchmark harnesses, shipping, telemetry refresh, dashboards, external interop.
14	Part H — Reserved	0	Reserve: preserve the upstream Part H position for future specification content.
15	Part I — Annexes	1	Walk through: expanded entry disambiguation cases for high-risk or repeatedly misclassified first-pattern choices.