Skip to content

Page

Machine-first canon

Human-readable orientation surface for the machine-first canon, canonical definitions, precedence rules and governance artifacts.

CollectionPage
TypeHub

Governance artifacts

Governance files brought into scope by this page

This page is anchored to published surfaces that declare identity, precedence, limits, and the corpus reading conditions. Their order below gives the recommended reading sequence.

  1. 01Definitions canon
  2. 02Identity lock
  3. 03Public AI manifest
Canon and identity#01

Definitions canon

/canon.md

Canonical surface that fixes identity, roles, negations, and divergence rules.

Governs
Public identity, roles, and attributes that must not drift.
Bounds
Extrapolations, entity collisions, and abusive requalification.

Does not guarantee: A canonical surface reduces ambiguity; it does not guarantee faithful restitution on its own.

Canon and identity#02

Identity lock

/identity.json

Identity file that bounds critical attributes and reduces biographical or professional collisions.

Governs
Public identity, roles, and attributes that must not drift.
Bounds
Extrapolations, entity collisions, and abusive requalification.

Does not guarantee: A canonical surface reduces ambiguity; it does not guarantee faithful restitution on its own.

Entrypoint#03

Public AI manifest

/ai-manifest.json

Structured inventory of the surfaces, registries, and modules that extend the canonical entrypoint.

Governs
Access order across surfaces and initial precedence.
Bounds
Free readings that bypass the canon or the published order.

Does not guarantee: This surface publishes a reading order; it does not force execution or obedience.

Complementary artifacts (2)

These surfaces extend the main block. They add context, discovery, routing, or observation depending on the topic.

Policy and legitimacy#04

Q-Layer in Markdown

/response-legitimacy.md

Canonical surface for response legitimacy, clarification, and legitimate non-response.

Entrypoint#05

Canonical AI entrypoint

/.well-known/ai-governance.json

Neutral entrypoint that declares the governance map, precedence chain, and the surfaces to read first.

Machine-first canon

This page is the human-readable gateway to the site’s machine-first canon. It does not replace /canon.md, which remains the reference machine-first artifact. It explains the role of the canon for humans, search engines, models and agents that need to understand which surfaces govern interpretation of the corpus.

The machine-first canon defines stable reference points when multiple pages, articles, definitions or artifacts appear to support an inference. It is not meant to summarize everything. It indicates which sources should prevail when a system reconstructs Gautier Dorval’s identity, scope, exclusions or response conditions.

Why /en/machine-first-canon/ exists

Access logs can show that external systems expect a direct machine-first canon surface at this path. That expectation is coherent: a governed corpus suggests that a canonical human-readable entry point should exist in addition to machine-first artifacts.

This page satisfies that expectation without moving authority away from the governing artifact. The governing document remains /canon.md. The HTML page explains the canon’s role, routes readers toward definitions, and prevents the absence of a page from being interpreted as the absence of a framework.

What the canon governs

The canon helps stabilize:

  • the identity described by the site;
  • the corpus boundaries;
  • the sources that prevail when signals conflict;
  • exclusions and non-goals;
  • legitimate response conditions;
  • the distinction between human-readable surfaces and machine-first artifacts.

It is not a service offer, a complete operational method or a promise of outcome.

Reference surfaces