Relational System Skill
What this is
A RelationalSystemSkill is a named reasoning unit in R. It is a morphism in R that occupies exactly one position in the nuclear quartet: Process, Procedure, Derivation, or Inquiry. Its position is declared by closure-kind.
A RelationalSystemSkill is itself a RelationalEntity: it has id and description and is in R.
This is what it means for reasoning to be structured — the reasoning unit is not ephemeral, it is a named object the system can reference, shape, and compose.
A RelationalSystemSkill encapsulates one step of judgment. Sequencing, I/O, looping, and orchestration belong in a Runbook, not in a skill. The boundary between skill and runbook is the boundary between one judgment and the structure that sequences judgments.
Position in the nuclear quartet
The four positions correspond to the four closure kinds in the nuclear quartet:
| Position | ClosureKind | What the skill does |
|---|---|---|
| Process | process | Executes a named transformation on entities |
| Procedure | procedure | Follows prescribed steps to produce an output |
| Derivation | derivation | Derives a value from existing entities by rule |
| Inquiry | inquiry | Investigates a question and reports findings |
A skill MUST occupy exactly one position. A skill that crosses positions is two skills.
Scope
A RelationalSystemSkill is always scoped.
It operates on entities of a specific kind, declared by its domain: and codomain: fields.
There is no scope-independent skill.
The scope determines which entities are valid inputs and which entities are valid outputs.
A RelationalSystemSkill MUST be itself an entity in R: it has id and description and is referenceable from frontmatter.
A RelationalSystemSkill MUST take RelationalEntities as inputs and produce RelationalEntities as outputs.
A RelationalSystemSkill MUST occupy exactly one nuclear quartet position.
Relationship to Runbooks
A Runbook sequences skills. A Skill does not sequence itself — it does not know what comes before or after. The same skill can appear in multiple runbooks without duplication. This decouples judgment (Skill) from orchestration (Runbook).
Open questions
- Whether the nuclear quartet position is a property of the skill’s type (its morphism class in the categorical structure) or a property of its runtime behavior. The current model treats it as a declared property.
- The formal type system for skill inputs and outputs — what it means for two skills to compose cleanly — is not yet specified. Blocked by skill-object-types spec.