5.2 KiB
Project Thoth
Conversation Manifest Specification
Version 0.1 (Draft)
Purpose
This specification defines the canonical structure of a Project Thoth Conversation Manifest.
A Conversation Manifest is a Secondary Source derived from a Primary Source conversation.
Its purpose is to improve:
- discoverability
- classification
- semantic retrieval
- corpus navigation
- future harvesting
- AI reasoning
The Manifest is descriptive.
It is not intended to replace the Primary Source.
Design Principles
The Manifest answers:
Why is this conversation important, and how should it be found?
The Manifest does not answer:
- What knowledge should become canonical?
- What articles should be written?
- What curriculum should be produced?
Those belong to downstream Project Thoth processors.
Relationship to Primary Sources
Every Manifest shall reference exactly one Primary Source.
The Manifest is always considered a Secondary Source.
If the Primary Source changes substantially, the Manifest may be regenerated.
Manifest Structure
A Conversation Manifest consists of two logical sections.
Part I — Catalog Metadata
The purpose of Catalog Metadata is objective classification.
Whenever possible, prefer observation over interpretation.
Conversation Title
A concise descriptive title.
Conversation Purpose
One or two paragraphs describing why the conversation occurred.
Remain descriptive.
Avoid interpretation.
Conversation Type
One or more classifications.
Examples include:
- discussion
- brainstorming
- architecture
- planning
- philosophy
- research
- implementation
- editorial
- reflection
- learning
- decision_making
Primary Topics
Major subjects discussed.
Secondary Topics
Supporting or incidental subjects.
Entities
Group entities by category.
Typical categories include:
- people
- organizations
- software
- technologies
- projects
- books
- games
- methodologies
- places
- other
Only include populated categories.
Related Domains
Academic or professional disciplines represented.
Examples include:
- Knowledge Management
- Library Science
- Sociology
- Anthropology
- Information Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Software Architecture
Controlled Vocabulary
Preferred indexing terms selected from the evolving Project Thoth taxonomy.
These should remain relatively stable across the corpus.
Free Keywords
Additional retrieval keywords derived directly from the conversation.
Suggested Tags
Obsidian-compatible tags.
Related Sources
Known related Primary Sources or significant Secondary Sources.
Do not invent relationships.
Source Classification
Choose one.
Examples include:
- Permanent Primary Source
- Reference Conversation
- Temporary Discussion
- Administrative
- Ephemeral
Include a brief justification.
End of Catalog Metadata
Part II — Analytical Metadata
The purpose of Analytical Metadata is to assist future harvesting.
Interpretation is appropriate within this section.
Interpretations should always remain faithful to the Primary Source.
Different reasoning systems may legitimately produce different analytical metadata.
Key Concepts
Important concepts introduced, refined, or clarified.
Significant Discoveries
Insights that emerged through the conversation itself.
Only include discoveries resulting from reasoning.
Decisions Reached
Agreed conclusions.
Assumptions Challenged
Assumptions that were questioned, revised, or replaced.
Open Questions
Questions intentionally left unresolved.
Future Exploration
Research directions naturally suggested by the conversation.
These are not implementation task lists.
Proposed Artifacts
Artifacts that could reasonably be derived from this conversation.
Examples include:
- methodology
- article
- book chapter
- prompt
- specification
- architecture document
- plugin
- software
- diagram
- presentation
- course
Relationship Candidates
Potential knowledge graph relationships that may become useful during future curation.
These are suggestions rather than established facts.
Harvest Recommendation
Assign one.
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Foundational
Include a concise justification.
Confidence
Assign:
- High
- Medium
- Low
This represents confidence that the Manifest accurately reflects the conversation.
Architectural Principles
- A Manifest is always a Secondary Source.
- A Manifest catalogs rather than replaces the Primary Source.
- Catalog Metadata should remain relatively stable.
- Analytical Metadata may evolve as reasoning systems improve.
- Interpretation must remain faithful to the evidence.
- The Manifest exists to support retrieval and future harvesting.
- The Manifest should optimize corpus navigation rather than content generation.
- The specification is implementation independent.
Relationship to Other Specifications
This specification should be used together with:
- Source Metadata Schema Specification
- Harvest Specification
- Canonical Knowledge Specification (future)
- Knowledge Graph Specification (future)
Together these specifications define the Project Thoth knowledge processing pipeline.