Register

Type: kb/types/definition.md · Status: current · Tags: document-system

One of three content modes that classifies what a knowledge artifact says — its orientation toward knowledge. Each register has a distinct quality goal and writing conventions:

Register Orientation Quality goal Title style
Theoretical Claims about what is true Reach Claim
Descriptive Accounts for what exists Fidelity + economy Topical
Prescriptive Directs what to do Executability + precision Imperative

In this KB, registers map to collections: kb/notes/ (theoretical), kb/reference/ (descriptive), kb/instructions/ (prescriptive). This is a design choice — registers could also be encoded in types, metadata, or convention. Directories work because they make conventions enforceable by path and visible to tooling.

The three registers are exhaustive because they correspond to the three fundamental orientations toward knowledge: understanding why, representing what exists, and directing action. Every question a consumer asks reduces to "Why is X a good idea?", "How does X work here?", or "How do I do X?"

Registers are orthogonal to operational roles (what an artifact does in the system — evidence, executable instruction, generated report, routing surface). A note type in kb/notes/ is theoretical; the same type in kb/reference/ is descriptive. Register × type gives the full picture.

Two properties make the distinction real: the formulation constraint (theories must be statable in general terms, without referencing a particular system) and maintenance asymmetry (changes flow downstream from theory through prescriptions into descriptions).

Scope

Use the term register when the question is what mode of knowledge an artifact is written in: theoretical, descriptive, or prescriptive. In this KB, register determines a collection's quality goal, title conventions, and default linking grammar.

Register is collection-facing vocabulary. kb/notes/, kb/reference/, and kb/instructions/ use different registers so agents can infer the right writing goal before drafting or revising.

Exclusions

Register is not type. A note type can appear in multiple registers; its type says what structure the artifact has, while its register says what kind of knowledge it is trying to carry.

Register is not trait, status, or behavioral authority. Traits are review-routing properties, status is lifecycle/commitment state, and behavioral authority records what force a retained artifact has when consumed.

Misuse Cases

  • Treating theoretical, descriptive, and prescriptive as document types rather than content modes.
  • Assuming a prescriptive artifact always has high behavioral authority. A procedure may be advisory if no system loads or enforces it.
  • Applying theoretical title conventions to descriptive reference docs, producing claim-shaped titles where fidelity and scanability matter more.

Register shapes link vocabulary through defaults, not inheritance. Each register has a characteristic link grammar — inference labels (extends, grounds, mechanism, contrasts) for theoretical, structural labels (part-of, implements) for descriptive, operational labels (composition, precondition, invokes) for prescriptive. These are defaults offered as starting templates when a new collection is authored; the authoritative home of a collection's outbound grammar is its own COLLECTION.md, not the register. Collections can diverge from the register default when their work requires it.

Cross-register links use a shared, smaller vocabulary (rationale, evidence, procedure, operates-on, defined-in) drawn from a common catalogue. A reader crossing a register boundary typically has a different unmet need (operational vs. evidential vs. definitional) than one moving within, and both endpoints need to recognise the label — so the vocabulary is shared across collections rather than owned by any single one.

Relevant Notes: