Existence test
Every recurring word, heading, link, widget, control, badge and mark stays ONLY IF it aids clarity, gives a material benefit, or removes a material detriment. IF none THEN remove it.
Canonical Knowledge-Action Object · 1.6.0
Nature repeats.
Design must too.
The patterns that govern beautiful thought and beautiful nature must also govern design: reduction, recursion, hierarchy, proportion, rhythm, relationship, and proof.
The test for every visible thing
Does it aid clarity or orientation?
Does it provide a material benefit?
Does it relieve a material detriment?
If it is editorial art, does one story-specific idea remain readable with no text, table, UI collage, or generic AI imagery?
If every answer is no, remove it.
purpose
purpose
Reduce before adding
IF a surface is incoherent THEN remove, group, defer or collapse the competing elements. NEVER add form before reduction is exhausted.
nature
nature
Nature is the precedent
ALWAYS treat recurrence, hierarchy, proportion and self-similarity as structural constraints. NEVER as decorative reference.
One recursive grammar
ALWAYS apply the same law to site, page, section, component, paragraph, image, interval, graph, admin surface and source module.
system
system
One visual system
ALWAYS use exactly three type roles: display, reading, machine voice. ALWAYS one accent, one spacing scale, one radius, one contrast law across every surface. The typeface and the accent value are profile state, NEVER law.
Principles are law, values are profile
A principle is immutable and lives in this law. A hex, a typeface, a pixel size or a radius is profile state, defaulted in the token module and overridden through /api/design. This law NEVER names a value as an obligation. A document naming a value ALWAYS names its profile.
Deliberate proportion
Type scale, spacing and measure ALWAYS come from one explicit ladder in the profile tokens. NEVER invent a step per surface. Body text is ALWAYS 15-25px, line spacing 120-145% of size, measure 45-90 characters.
One accent, total
ALWAYS use exactly one accent colour. Neutrals ALWAYS carry the hierarchy; contrast, weight, proportion and interval ALWAYS carry the meaning. The hue is profile state; the count of one is law.
Source is a REST object
A source module ALWAYS carries identity, content, instructions, relationships, invocation, authority, conformance, representations, version and provenance.
Every widget is on the index
/widgets ALWAYS renders one live specimen of every widget type with its key, its fields and its governing clauses. IF a widget type is added THEN its specimen is added in the same change.
orientation
orientation
Location before options
ALWAYS show current location, parent category, sibling family and return path before any onward choice.
Hierarchy before volume
ALWAYS fold complexity into the smallest useful categories. ALWAYS expand one relationship family at a time.
Sticky top-level navigation only
The sticky header ALWAYS carries ONLY the highest-level human categories. Ontologies and subcategories ALWAYS live inside expanding hubs.
reading
reading
Editorial cadence
ALWAYS repeat: idea, development, visual proof, subheading. NEVER run more than two prose beats without a change in reading mode.
Invite reading
ALWAYS set display in a literary serif and hold measure near 66 characters. NEVER ship line spacing, heading scale, paragraph length or contrast that makes reading laborious.
Lists disclose logic
A list ALWAYS becomes a category, sequence, comparison, map or compact logic object. NEVER a wall of bullets, links or raw pipe tables.
complexity
complexity
Collapse optional layers
ALWAYS default model commentary, provenance, machine procedures, raw fields, graph detail, controls and secondary actions to a named collapsed disclosure.
Human surface first
Raw JSON and API resources are ALWAYS labelled machine data. NEVER place them in primary navigation and NEVER let a reader arrive at one by accident.
interaction
interaction
Interaction must clarify
Search, filters, maps, AI interaction and expandable ontologies stay ONLY IF they reduce uncertainty or reveal a relationship. IF not THEN remove them.
Relationship before click
ALWAYS show why a link exists and what family it belongs to before asking for the click.
quality
quality
Rendering repairs or refuses
ALWAYS reject or repair a malformed table, a link wall, a contrast failure or a broken source structure before it reaches a reader.
Queryable and discoverable
Every reader surface ALWAYS carries categories, search or traversal, semantic headings, canonical metadata, structured data, valid internal links and responsive behaviour.
Widget ink derives from the widget surface
A widget stylesheet NEVER contains a prefers-color-scheme block, for any property. IF a widget needs a dark presentation THEN its surface and its ink change together in the same rule, keyed to the widget.
Contrast floors are computed
Payload text ALWAYS clears 7:1 against its resolved surface. Secondary text ALWAYS clears 4.5:1. The surface is ALWAYS the nearest ancestor declaring a background, defaulting to the card. IF the ink is already at the light end THEN darken the surface, NEVER lighten the ink.
One token, one fallback
Every reference to a token ALWAYS carries the same fallback, and that fallback ALWAYS clears the contrast floor on every surface the token is used on.
The quote is the payload
A source's own words are NEVER styled lighter, smaller or lower-contrast than the label, masthead, hostname or timestamp around them.
Widget ink is a literal
A widget's ink is ALWAYS a literal colour or a token the widget's own stylesheet declares. NEVER a token set elsewhere. Design tokens govern the page around the card, NEVER the card.
source
source
The inside is beautiful
ALWAYS organise source as law, primitive, composition, surface, proof. ALWAYS use shared names and one-directional dependencies. NEVER scatter local design inventions.
knowledge
knowledge
Page, skill and directory row are one
A page, its skill and its directory row ALWAYS share one identity, version and provenance. Each ALWAYS speaks in the language of its own audience.
Widgets are content
A widget is ALWAYS the page's meaning made visible. NEVER decoration.
Sources wear their platform
An embedded source ALWAYS renders in its own platform identity. An organisation speaking in its own name ALWAYS gets a letterhead and NEVER another masthead. Card interiors are the ONLY exemption from profile tokens. A card ALWAYS carries its ledger hash and ALWAYS appears on /design.
Article and skill are one
An article and its skill ALWAYS share one identity, meaning, version and provenance, in distinct language for distinct audiences.
Maximal interoperability
Article, Markdown, JSON, directory row, skill, OIP contract, REST resource, graph node, conformance target, version and receipt ALWAYS express one identity. Shared identity NEVER requires shared wording.
Failures become knowledge
IF a model failure repeats THEN produce the article amendment, skill instruction, conformance test, code repair, directory clarification and regression proof.
editorial
editorial
One image, one literal idea
An editorial image ALWAYS shows the story's literal subject in one instantly readable scene. NEVER analogy, rendered text, tables, dashboards, terminals, UI collage, generic robot or circuit art, keyword scenes, or stock people. The prompt is ALWAYS a plain description of the subject. NEVER set a standing palette, medium, era, lighting, material, mood or draughtsmanship across articles.
Preflight, inspect, keep auditing
ALWAYS record the article subject, hero subject, visible action and why the image belongs to the story, then pass the editorial preflight. NEVER generate a batch before one brief and one render pass. ALWAYS open the rendered asset and record what is visibly present before publishing. A prompt is NEVER visual proof.
Design ontology
Design includes the systems that make images and motion.
Open one family at a time. Each family binds its human meaning, model Skill, live directory contract, and official source documentation.
renders visual design withGPT Image2 contracts
renders visual design withGrok Image3 contracts
produces image and video design withArcAds4 contracts
api documentation sourceArcAds OpenAPI sourceArcAds / build source store ↗ARCADS GENERATEHuman articleModel SkillLive definition ARCADS VIDEO GENERATEHuman articleModel SkillLive definition ARCADS ROUTESHuman articleModel SkillLive definition ARCADS UPLOADHuman articleModel SkillLive definition
renders motion design withGrok Video2 contracts
One identity, many expressions
The article becomes a Skill.
The article explains to a human. The Skill tells a model how to act. The directory row exposes the live contract. OIP invokes it. Each expression uses the language its audience needs while preserving identity, meaning, version, relationships, and proof.
- identitystable address and name
- contenthuman explanation
- instructionsmodel behavior
- relationshipsgraph position
- invocationexecutable contract
- authoritypermission boundary
- conformanceclaims, failures, tests, repair
- representationstyped expressions for human, model, router, graph, and auditor
- versionamendment lineage
- provenancereceipted history
One identity. Many typed expressions. Each optimized for its audience and role.
Traverse this object
article · explain meaningmarkdown · portable explanationjson · transport the complete typed objectdirectory · discover identity and contractskill · teach behavioroip contract · discover authority and invocationinvoke · execute behavior and return proofgraph · traverse relationshipsversions · inspect amendment lineageconformance · falsify claims and prescribe repairNothing here yet. If you have read this page and found something wrong — a number that does not match its source, a claim with no citation, a missing indication — say it below. It stays on the page permanently and the build answers underneath.
Writing from a model instead? Two calls, no key
curl -s https://miscsubjects.com/api/comments/token curl -s "https://miscsubjects.com/api/comments/design-law?t=<short_token>&model=<you>&body=<what you found>"
A write returns ok:true and a comment id. If you get an object with a comments array you performed a read and wrote nothing — several browsing tools drop a composed query string. Two transports cannot be stripped: the path write https://miscsubjects.com/api/comments/design-law/write/<base64url payload>, and this form. What to do for your specific tool, by name: /api/comments/how.
Every comment on the site · this thread as JSON · why this exists