AmpersandBoxDesign AmpersandBoxDesign/docs/registry/README.md
This directory contains the capability registry pages for the [&] Protocol.

Capability Registry Pages

This directory contains the capability registry pages for the [&] Protocol.

These pages are intended to serve two purposes at the same time:

  1. human-readable documentation

  2. stable, structured content for indexing, generation, and publishing

Each page describes one concrete protocol capability such as:

  • memory.graph

  • memory.episodic

  • reason.argument

  • reason.deliberate

  • reason.attend

  • time.forecast

  • space.fleet

The canonical protocol identifiers for these are:

  • &memory.graph

  • &memory.episodic

  • &reason.argument

  • &reason.deliberate

  • &reason.attend

  • &time.forecast

  • &space.fleet

What these pages are for

A capability page is the protocol-level explanation of a single capability subtype.

It should help a reader answer questions like:

  • What does this capability mean?

  • Why does it exist?

  • When should an agent use it?

  • What operations does it usually support?

  • What inputs and outputs does it work with?

  • What other capabilities does it compose well with?

  • Which providers can satisfy it?

  • What governance and provenance concerns apply?

  • What MCP or A2A implications does it have?

In other words, these pages are the bridge between:

  • the formal schema and contract artifacts

  • the broader protocol specification

  • concrete implementation and integration decisions

Relationship to the rest of the repository

These pages complement several other protocol artifacts.

Protocol specification

  • SPEC.md

  • protocol.html

These define the formal model, grammar, and architecture of the protocol.

Schemas

  • protocol/schema/v0.1.0/ampersand.schema.json

  • protocol/schema/v0.1.0/capability-contract.schema.json

  • protocol/schema/v0.1.0/registry.schema.json

These make the protocol machine-readable.

Contract examples

  • contracts/v0.1.0/

These define typed capability behavior such as operations, accepts_from, feeds_into, and a2a_skills.

Registry artifact

  • protocol/registry/v0.1.0/capabilities.registry.json

This publishes discoverable provider and subtype metadata.

Deep-dive documentation

  • docs/capabilities/memory.md

  • docs/capabilities/reason.md

  • docs/capabilities/time.md

  • docs/capabilities/space.md

  • docs/capabilities/body.md (planned)

  • docs/capabilities/govern.md

These explain the primitive domains. The files in this directory explain specific capability pages inside those domains. For &body.* subtypes (body.browser, body.os, etc.), see the individual registry pages and the OS-011 Embodiment Protocol specification for behavioral semantics.

Naming convention

Files in this directory use the capability subtype name as the filename.

Examples:

  • memory.graph.md

  • memory.episodic.md

  • reason.argument.md

  • reason.deliberate.md

  • reason.attend.md

  • time.forecast.md

  • space.fleet.md

This mirrors the public route shape envisioned in the protocol roadmap:

  • /capabilities/memory.graph

  • /capabilities/memory.episodic

  • /capabilities/reason.argument

  • /capabilities/reason.deliberate

  • /capabilities/reason.attend

  • /capabilities/time.forecast

  • /capabilities/space.fleet

What a capability page should include

Each capability page should be substantial enough to stand on its own.

Recommended sections:

  1. Definition

A concise explanation of the capability.

  1. Why it exists

The architectural reason the capability is a first-class subtype.

  1. Position in the primitive family

How it fits under &memory, &reason, &time, &space, or &govern.

  1. Capability contract summary

A representative contract or contract excerpt.

  1. Operations

Typical operations and what they do.

  1. Architecture patterns

How the capability composes with other capabilities.

  1. Example declaration

A realistic ampersand.json fragment.

  1. Example API or payload shape

A representative implementation-facing example.

  1. Compatible providers

Providers that may satisfy the capability contract.

  1. Governance implications

Hard constraints, soft constraints, and escalation considerations.

  1. Provenance implications

What should be preserved in the provenance chain.

  1. A2A and MCP implications

How this capability may compile into downstream protocol artifacts.

  1. Research grounding

Theoretical or systems background that motivates the capability.

  1. Anti-patterns

Common mistakes in modeling or implementing the capability.

  1. Summary

A short closing explanation of why the capability matters.

Quality standard

These are not meant to be thin SEO pages.

A good capability page should be:

  • technically useful

  • accurate

  • specific

  • provider-agnostic at the protocol level

  • grounded in the actual schema and contract model

  • helpful to both implementers and readers discovering the protocol

A weak capability page usually does one or more of the following:

  • repeats the subtype name without explaining it

  • talks only in marketing language

  • confuses provider names with capability identifiers

  • has no contract or architecture context

  • has no realistic examples

  • is too short to help an engineer use the capability

Current pages

At the moment, this directory includes:

  • memory.graph.md

  • memory.episodic.md

  • reason.argument.md

  • reason.deliberate.md

  • reason.attend.md

  • time.forecast.md

  • space.fleet.md

These pages are the first set of high-quality registry entries and can act as templates for future pages.

Suggested future pages

As the protocol expands, useful additions include:

  • memory.vector.md

  • reason.vote.md

  • reason.plan.md

  • time.anomaly.md

  • time.pattern.md

  • space.route.md

  • space.geofence.md

These should be added only when they can be documented with enough quality and grounded protocol detail.

Authoring guidance

When writing a new capability page:

  • start from the protocol capability identifier, not the provider name

  • keep the capability/provider distinction explicit

  • use realistic examples

  • align terminology with SPEC.md

  • align contracts with contracts/v0.1.0/

  • align registry metadata with protocol/registry/v0.1.0/capabilities.registry.json

  • mention governance and provenance when they materially matter

  • prefer clarity over hype

A simple rule of thumb:

Write each page so that an engineer could understand what the capability is, how it composes, and how to implement or consume it without reading the whole repository first.

Short summary

This directory is the protocol’s capability-level documentation surface.

The top-level spec explains the model. The schemas validate the artifacts. The contracts define typed behavior. The registry publishes discovery metadata.

These pages explain what each capability actually means.

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