{
  "type": "capability-primitives/v1",
  "_what_this_is": "The starting set of CAPABILITY primitives: a verb crossed with an object class crossed with a reach, held at a stated altitude, each carrying whether its effect is reversible. A specific path, host or mailbox is an INSTANCE of a primitive, never a new one; only a new verb, object class or reach is a primitive, and it needs a probe. These are capabilities. The estate's other primitives — the counters a policy is written in — are METERS (measurable primitives); never say just 'primitives' in a document that touches both.",
  "source": "brief v0.33.64, 'the grant/mandate repo ships probes, not tables' (4 Sep 2026), §The Primitive",
  "verbs": [
    "read",
    "write",
    "create",
    "delete",
    "execute",
    "send",
    "receive",
    "authenticate-as",
    "grant",
    "revoke"
  ],
  "object_classes": [
    "file",
    "process",
    "network-endpoint",
    "credential",
    "message",
    "record",
    "repository",
    "budget",
    "schedule"
  ],
  "reaches": {
    "self": "the agent's own process, sandbox or turn",
    "project": "the working tree or workspace it was pointed at",
    "host": "the machine, container or account it runs as",
    "tenant": "the organisation's accounts, repositories and services",
    "world": "anything on the internet"
  },
  "reversible": {
    "yes": "undone by the same actor with no loss",
    "with-effort": "recoverable from a backup, a history or a revert, at a cost",
    "no": "cannot be undone: a record read is exposure that cannot be unread; a message sent is sent"
  },
  "families": {
    "filesystem": "files and directories",
    "process": "programs and their execution",
    "network": "endpoints and hosts",
    "identity": "credentials and who the agent can act as",
    "communication": "messages to people",
    "code": "repositories and what lands in them",
    "money": "budgets and spend",
    "schedule": "things that outlive the turn",
    "browser": "what a browser extension or automation can see and do in your browser"
  },
  "capabilities": [
    {
      "id": "read.file.project",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "file",
      "reach": "project",
      "reversible": "yes",
      "label": "Read the project it is working on"
    },
    {
      "id": "write.file.project",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "write",
      "object": "file",
      "reach": "project",
      "reversible": "with-effort",
      "label": "Change the project it is working on"
    },
    {
      "id": "read.file.host",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "file",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Read any file the account can reach",
      "why_irreversible": "a record once read is exposure that cannot be unread"
    },
    {
      "id": "write.file.host",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "write",
      "object": "file",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "with-effort",
      "label": "Change any file the account can reach"
    },
    {
      "id": "delete.file.host",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "delete",
      "object": "file",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Delete files anywhere the account can reach"
    },
    {
      "id": "execute.process.host",
      "family": "process",
      "verb": "execute",
      "object": "process",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "with-effort",
      "label": "Run programs as the account",
      "note": "reversibility is that of whatever the program does; the primitive is held at with-effort because installs and edits are recoverable and the worst cases are their own rows"
    },
    {
      "id": "execute.process.self",
      "family": "process",
      "verb": "execute",
      "object": "process",
      "reach": "self",
      "reversible": "yes",
      "label": "Run programs inside its own sandbox only"
    },
    {
      "id": "send.endpoint.allowed",
      "family": "network",
      "verb": "send",
      "object": "network-endpoint",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Reach a permitted list of hosts",
      "why_irreversible": "bytes sent are sent"
    },
    {
      "id": "send.endpoint.world",
      "family": "network",
      "verb": "send",
      "object": "network-endpoint",
      "reach": "world",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Reach any host on the internet"
    },
    {
      "id": "read.credential.host",
      "family": "identity",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "credential",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Read credentials stored where it runs",
      "why_irreversible": "a credential read is a credential exposed"
    },
    {
      "id": "authenticate-as.credential.tenant",
      "family": "identity",
      "verb": "authenticate-as",
      "object": "credential",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Act in accounts with the credentials it holds"
    },
    {
      "id": "grant.credential.self",
      "family": "identity",
      "verb": "grant",
      "object": "credential",
      "reach": "self",
      "reversible": "yes",
      "label": "Change its own permission settings"
    },
    {
      "id": "send.message.world",
      "family": "communication",
      "verb": "send",
      "object": "message",
      "reach": "world",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Send a message to anyone"
    },
    {
      "id": "read.message.tenant",
      "family": "communication",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "message",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Read mail or chat it is connected to"
    },
    {
      "id": "write.repository.project",
      "family": "code",
      "verb": "write",
      "object": "repository",
      "reach": "project",
      "reversible": "with-effort",
      "label": "Commit to the repository it was pointed at"
    },
    {
      "id": "write.repository.tenant",
      "family": "code",
      "verb": "write",
      "object": "repository",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "with-effort",
      "label": "Push to a code host (any branch it can reach)",
      "note": "a push to a branch that deploys is with-effort for the repository and no for whatever the deploy did"
    },
    {
      "id": "authenticate-as.credential.signing",
      "family": "code",
      "verb": "authenticate-as",
      "object": "credential",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Sign commits with the key it holds"
    },
    {
      "id": "create.record.world",
      "family": "code",
      "verb": "create",
      "object": "record",
      "reach": "world",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Publish packages, images or pages under the name it holds"
    },
    {
      "id": "write.budget.tenant",
      "family": "money",
      "verb": "write",
      "object": "budget",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Spend money or tokens against an account it holds"
    },
    {
      "id": "create.schedule.host",
      "family": "schedule",
      "verb": "create",
      "object": "schedule",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "yes",
      "label": "Create something that outlives the turn where it runs (a cron, a service)"
    },
    {
      "id": "read.record.history",
      "family": "filesystem",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "record",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Read a retained record: shell history, past sessions",
      "why_irreversible": "a transcript read is every earlier session's reach, exposed again"
    },
    {
      "id": "create.schedule.tenant",
      "family": "schedule",
      "verb": "create",
      "object": "schedule",
      "reach": "tenant",
      "reversible": "yes",
      "label": "Create something that outlives the session, on the platform (a routine, a scheduled trigger, a new session)",
      "note": "reversible in itself; what the scheduled thing does carries its own rows"
    },
    {
      "id": "read.record.browsing",
      "family": "browser",
      "verb": "read",
      "object": "record",
      "reach": "host",
      "reversible": "no",
      "label": "Read every page you visit",
      "why_irreversible": "what you read, it read"
    }
  ],
  "rules": [
    "A specific path, host or mailbox is an instance of a primitive, never a new one.",
    "Reversibility sits on the primitive, not the instance, because it decides whether a gap is a nuisance or a loss — and this estate has settled that recoverability decides insurability.",
    "A grant containing irreversible primitives is a different object from one that does not, however many rows each has.",
    "The set is a starting set and will be wrong at the edges from the first week. A proposed primitive that is a specific thing is an instance; one that is a new verb, object class or reach needs a probe.",
    "A label never says 'your' or 'as you': what host, tenant and world mean is the profile's to say (reach_names), because for an agent in a vendor's container 'host' is the container and 'tenant' is a scoped token, not your machine and not your accounts."
  ],
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0"
}