ontology

Ontology

Details

Ontology defines what the Seed's goal means and where that meaning stops. It does not ask for actions; acceptance_criteria already covers actions.

Input

Read the latest Seed from .symposium/scratch/socrates.md top-level ## Seed. If there is no Seed, stop and ask the user to run socrates first.

Ontology Shape

ontology:
  idea: <Seed.goal exactly>
  boundary: <what is inside and outside the idea>
  properties:
    - <property 1>
    - <property 2>
    - <property 3>

Process

1. Copy Seed.goal exactly into ontology.idea.
2. Ask one boundary question: "Where does this idea's meaning begin and end?"
3. Ask for exactly three properties inside that boundary.
4. Replace the top-level ## Ontology section in .symposium/scratch/socrates.md.

Use request_user_input in Codex Plan mode when available, AskUserQuestion in Claude when available, or normal conversational questions otherwise.

Question Style

Prefer multiple-choice prompts for both boundary and properties, but keep them editable. Choices are candidate boundaries/properties, not final ontology terms.

Boundary prompt shape:

Where does this idea's meaning begin and end?
A. <boundary candidate>
B. <boundary candidate>
C. <boundary candidate>
D. Other / define the boundary in your own words

Properties prompt shape:

Which three properties must be inside that boundary?
A. <property>, <property>, <property>
B. <property>, <property>, <property>
C. <property>, <property>, <property>
D. Other / list exactly three properties

Only write terms the user selected or wrote.

Rules

• idea and boundary are different.
• Every property must be inside the boundary.
• Exactly three properties are required.
• Do not ask for data types.
• Do not ask for actions.
• Only user-provided boundary and property terms enter the YAML.

Convergence Comparison

The interview-harness compares the previous ontology and the current ontology:

• idea: 1 if identical, otherwise 0.
• boundary: 1 only if the user confirms the two boundaries mean the same thing.
• properties: Jaccard overlap between the two property sets.

Average the three scores. A score of 0.85 or higher means converged.