Flatfile Agential Resource System Charter

What this is

A FlatfileAgentialResourceSystemCharter is an AgentialRelationsSystemCharter within a FlatfileAgentialResourceSystem.

In the flatfile substrate, a charter is a blueprint directory to which AGENTS.md has been added. The AGENTS.md file IS the Grothendieck topology for this scope: it declares who the agents are, what their scope of operation is, and what their entry-point skills are. With that declaration, the scope becomes a site — a blueprint equipped with a covering structure.

A FlatfileAgentialResourceSystemCharter MUST satisfy all requirements of FlatfileAgentialResourceSystemBlueprint and MUST have AGENTS.md declaring the agent community.

File structure

spec/{id}/
  {id}.md           # the entity's own spec file
  AGENTS.md         # agent community declaration — the covering structure
  skills/
    {skill-id}.md
    ...
  runbooks/
    {runbook-id}.md
    ...
shacl/
  {id}-*.ttl

No SOUL.md, no INBOX.md, no PLANS.md, no IDEAS.md, no MEMORY.md.

AGENTS.md before SOUL.md

The SOUL.md of a scope states what the scope fundamentally exists for and what the agents of that scope must never compromise. A charter has AGENTS.md (who acts here, under what policies) but not yet SOUL.md (what the agents of this scope have committed to). A charter CANNOT have SOUL.md without a declared agent community — the soul cannot precede the community. A charter CANNOT have INBOX.md, PLANS.md, IDEAS.md, or MEMORY.md — those make it a locale.

What the charter is waiting for

A FARS charter has the full structure needed for the locale to form: skills, shapes, runbooks, and a declared agent community. What it is waiting for is condition 7 — the locale going live. That happens when SOUL.md is written (the constituted community’s governing commitment) and the live operational files (INBOX.md, PLANS.md, IDEAS.md, MEMORY.md) are opened.

Growing past charter

A FARS charter becomes a FlatfileAgentialResourceSystemLocale when the following files are added, in this order:

1. SOUL.md — the governing principles of the constituted agent community
2. MEMORY.md — cross-session accumulated knowledge (sheaf accumulation begins)
3. INBOX.md — receiving new sections from outside (sheaf gluing activated)
4. PLANS.md — active work items (generative operations)
5. IDEAS.md — uncommitted potential work (generative operations)

Open questions