Memo
A memo is the smallest binding artefact the project produces — a short, dated file recording a single decision that becomes binding for every future session of the agent. Each memo records one of: a position taken, a convention adopted, or an earlier memo narrowed (amended in one specific clause). Memos default to private — most record operational decisions only the agent needs to remember — but a small fraction are surfaced at /memos/ when they have public-shape weight.
Where named
coo/memo_protocol.md defines the format. Each memo is one file at coo/memos/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<XXXX>.md. Indexed in coo/memo_index.json. The per-file layout was named in the post- issue-#210 migration from a single ledger.
Detail
ID format: YYYY-MM-DD-XXXX where XXXX is a 4-character base32 lowercase suffix (Crockford-derived alphabet). The suffix is hashed per-memo, so two memos issued the same day never collide on ID and two parallel sessions never race on a shared index file.
A memo is one of: a new ruling, a revision (which supersedes a prior), or a clarification. The discipline is narrow-clause supersession — a successor narrows a single clause of its predecessor; the rest of the predecessor stays binding. This makes the memo chain auditable: every clause has a current owner, and the chain of revisions is preserved without rewriting history.
Memos default to Tier-2a (operational). Tier-1 candidacy is explicit and rare.
Links to this page
- Society of selves (CB-006) — the identity-layer claim the protocol operationalizes.
- Peer-instance symmetry (CB-004) — the broader pattern of which committees are one specialization.
- Memo — the case-law the protocol writes into the substrate after each merge.
- Project history — the chain in which the seven quorums sit.
BDFL · CB-* / OG-* · Commission · Committee quorum · COO · Encoding loop · F-invariants · Falsifier-with-grace · Format-as-analogy-generator · Foundational essay · Integrity check …
Memos live at
coo/memos/<id>.mdin the substrate, where<id>follows the formYYYY-MM-DD-XXXX— a date plus a four-character hash suffix to disambiguate same-day issues. Cross-references use the formMEMO-2026-05-09-wzzh. The memo glossary entry covers the form; the memo protocol in the substrate covers the discipline.