This is the pre-v1 holding repository for a future Knowledge Islands-wide specification programme. Repository-level specifications remain local to their owning repositories.
Knowledge Islands is at v0.x, so this repository owns no active ecosystem-wide specifications. Do not add KIPs, KIS documents, or wider normative contracts until the overall Knowledge Islands v1 boundary is ready for explicit review. The remaining material describes the intended future process and is not an active specification programme.
Knowledge Islands is an open-source operating system for governed human and AI knowledge work.
After the overall v1 boundary is established, KI Specifications is intended to become the canonical source for normative portable contracts, including KIPs, KIS documents, schemas, templates, conformance rules, and reference examples. Until then, concepts remain with Arcadia Principal, engineering practice with Techne Principal, and implementation contracts with the repository that owns each implementation.
A KIP (Knowledge Islands Proposal) is a reviewable proposal for a new foundational concept, specification, change or extension.
KIPs are numbered KIP-NNNNNN (six digits) and move through a lifecycle of Draft → Review → Accepted | Rejected | Withdrawn, then Implemented once a corresponding specification is published, and eventually Superseded.
Anyone may draft a KIP; maintainers assign the number and steward it through review.
A KIS (Knowledge Islands Specification) is the normative document produced once a KIP is accepted.
KIS documents are numbered KIS-NNNN (four digits) independently of the KIP series, and move through Draft → Active → Deprecated → Superseded, starting Draft and becoming Active once there is real implementation experience against it.
Together the two series separate the deliberative process (KIP: should we do this, and how) from the durable normative outcome (KIS: this is how it works today), so specifications can change carefully while proposals can be debated freely.
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
proposals/ |
KIP proposals: the deliberative record of what was proposed, why, and how it was decided |
specifications/ |
KIS documents: the accepted, normative specifications of the ecosystem |
schemas/ |
JSON Schemas that machines validate Knowledge Packages and other artefacts against |
templates/ |
Starter file sets for creating new Knowledge Packages at each conformance level |
examples/ |
Worked, valid reference packages illustrating the schema and conventions |
docs/ |
Process, versioning, adoption and architectural context documentation |
tooling/ |
Guidance on validating packages today, and on tooling anticipated in future |
No KIPs or KIS documents are currently registered. The series start afresh at KIP-000001 and KIS-0001; see proposals/README.md and specifications/README.md for the registries.
New concepts, specifications, changes and extensions start life as a KIP.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to raise one, and docs/specification-process.md for the full lifecycle from proposal through to an accepted, versioned KIS.
This repository is licensed under the MIT licence, which applies equally to specification text and to schemas.
The following are anticipated areas for future KIPs and KIS documents, alongside the Knowledge Package itself:
- KI kernel
- Kernel modules
- Planner and orchestration
- Workspaces
- Knowledge promotion
- Skills
- Tools and MCP adapters
- Evaluation
- Identity
- Provenance
- Storage and persistence providers