IPD‑12 Capture Auto‑Formatter

Canonical Ordering Rules for All Capture Objects#

The formatter enforces one universal rule:

Every capture object must appear in canonical IPD‑12 order before any drift‑layer operator is allowed to run.

This prevents malformed captures from breaking drift‑tensor chains or paradox detection.

1. Canonical Field Order#

Every capture object MUST follow this exact order:

1. name
2. purpose
3. boundaries
4. structural_layers
5. operational_flow
6. coherence_baseline
7. domain
8. regime_level

This ordering mirrors the composite grammar in your active tab ( github.com).

2. Canonical Formatting Rules#

Rule A — All fields must be present#

No optional fields.
No empty fields.
No nulls.

Rule B — Arrays must be non‑empty#

• boundaries
• structural_layers
• operational_flow

Rule C — Values must be atomic#

No nested objects inside capture fields.
No multi‑layer structures inside a single field.

Rule D — Domain must be singular#

One domain per process.
Multi‑domain drift is handled at the bundle level.

Rule E — Regime level must be ≤ deep#

IPD‑12 cannot accept composite, substrate, dimensional, or infinite regimes.

3. Canonical Sorting Rules#

The formatter applies sorting rules to ensure consistency:

A. boundaries#

Sort alphabetically.

B. structural_layers#

Sort by structural depth:

form → function → behavior → interpretation

C. operational_flow#

Sort by execution order:

start → middle → end

D. domain#

No sorting — domain is atomic.

E. regime_level#

No sorting — must be one of:

surface | mid | deep

4. Canonical Normalization Rules#

Normalize naming#

• lowercase with underscores
• no spaces
• no hyphens
• no camelCase

Example:

"Human Notes" → "human_notes"

Normalize purpose#

Purpose must be a single sentence, no conjunctions.

Normalize boundaries#

Convert constraints into nouns:

"limited time" → "time"
"must be accurate" → "accuracy"

Normalize structural layers#

Convert layers into canonical nouns:

"listening" → "input"
"thinking" → "interpretation"
"writing" → "output"

Normalize operational flow#

Convert steps into canonical verbs:

"listen" → "input"
"interpret" → "process"
"write" → "output"

5. Canonical Output Template#

After formatting, every capture object must look like:

{
  "name": "canonical_name",
  "purpose": "single-sentence purpose",
  "boundaries": ["sorted", "constraints"],
  "structural_layers": ["form", "function", "behavior"],
  "operational_flow": ["input", "process", "output"],
  "coherence_baseline": "declared baseline",
  "domain": "workflow",
  "regime_level": "surface"
}

6. Auto‑Formatter Pseudocode#

function autoformat(capture):
    enforce_field_order()
    enforce_required_fields()
    normalize_name()
    normalize_purpose()
    normalize_boundaries()
    normalize_structural_layers()
    normalize_operational_flow()
    validate_domain()
    validate_regime_level()
    sort_arrays()
    return formatted_capture

7. Why this matters#

The formatter guarantees:

• drift() always has boundaries
• drift_tensor() always has layers
• align_coherence() always has a baseline
• cross_system() always has domain alignment
• paradox() always has dependency + drift + coherence

It ensures every capture object is operator‑ready.