The Meaning Model

Project website and getting started · Try the story viewer

Let an AI build an explicit world model, then reason, create and remember through it. The Meaning Model lets a language model turn its learned knowledge into processes, relationships and concepts that can be inspected, tested and revised. Each explicit structure can anchor further inference and abstraction, including categories the agent discovers as it works. Prior measurement is not required to propose an account; inferred explanations remain distinct from observations and can be tested against evidence.

Comparative judgments can be made explicit through a Cut: one declared unit is divided under a question among exclusive answers and an explicit remainder. Measurements retain their external units.

The Meaning Model's two linked architectural contributions are progressive resolution and a shared construction medium. Progressive resolution builds a world coarsely and opens the parts that matter; each opening preserves accepted commitments or revises them explicitly. In the shared medium, world records, concepts, interpretations and documents occupy one address space, so a reason or a sentence can address the exact record it concerns, and a revision can be made together with the accounts and passages that depend on it.

This repository brings together the theory, its compact grammar appendix, the Rust engine and MCP interface, and The Book of Conditions, a worked construction with a complete twelve-chapter manuscript.

See the changelog for release changes, upgrade notes, and unreleased work.

To use the tool, follow the package installation guide and connect it to your assistant. The assistant calls life_modeling_context for purpose-specific operational guidance. Reading the papers is optional.

Workflows over one model

One MCP server supports these workflows over the same engine and graph:

• Modeling. General-purpose, revisable world models of whatever you choose to model, such as a market, an institution or a technology, with an optional Jev estimator for cheap first estimates. See general-purpose modeling.
• Narration. The storytelling add-on writes fiction from a model, with an author model, whole-life character trends, scene review, alignment audits and deepening passes. See the storytelling add-on guide.
• Human authorship with feedback. The human writes and decides; the LLM supplies feedback. Enable MEANING_MODEL_ADDONS=storytelling to use life_story_feedback, which prepares a read-only task from supplied text or an exact project revision. No existing world or fictional author persona is required for feedback on an excerpt. See the feedback guide.
• Agent and user memory. Model ongoing work and reported personal history, with preferences, goals, decisions, beliefs and learning linked across time. Capture useful records within the chosen scope and recover them across sessions when durable storage is configured. See the memory guide.
• Ideation. The alien add-on searches for solution mechanisms through invented worlds, following Ontology of the Alien, and curates them into a revisable map of idea families. See the alien add-on guide.

Modeling and memory are always available; the two add-ons are opt-in with MEANING_MODEL_ADDONS. Each workflow keeps what it does as revisable, inspectable structure. No workflow turns an estimate into an observation, a review into an accepted fact, or an idea into evidence that it works. All share macro-to-micro exploration, recursive discovery and attributed Understanding Nodes. Their purpose and the human's delegation determine what the agent may infer, record or change.

In memory work, the assistant begins with the project or life context and connects reports to the processes they describe. As new evidence arrives, it returns to the earlier interpretations and decisions that evidence may change. In writing feedback, the assistant reads the whole before diagnosing a passage, distinguishes what the text says from an interpretation or artistic alternative, and follows the consequences of the human's chosen revisions. Both workflows use the same method: the assistant starts with a coarse account, develops the parts that matter, and reconsiders the whole in light of what it finds.

Memory and feedback have their own life_modeling_context purposes: agent_memory for the agent's own work, user_memory for what a user reports, and human_author_feedback for writing feedback. For memory that survives a restart, configure a private LIFE_SIM_STATE_FILE; use one server process per database. A correction keeps the earlier account and is distinct from a real change over time. Dependent interpretations need review; they do not update automatically. Transcript capture is optional and off by default; life_memory_transcript_configure turns it on for one memory context. It stores only the visible messages that the caller or chat integration supplies, separately from the process model and its interpretations. The server never observes a conversation itself.

The construction record

Version 0.9.0 bundles a browser viewer. Ask the connected assistant to “Open this model”; life_model_viewer_open returns a local link to the chosen model or graph revision. No separate viewer checkout or special run folder is required. While writing, ask “Keep the viewer following as we work.” The assistant uses mode: "live" with a graph hash to follow saved revisions and retain your reading context. Exact read-only snapshots remain the default. The browser must run on the same computer as the MCP. See the viewer guide for supported views and access requirements.

Reading position is independent of world time: selecting a passage highlights its model links, while reading opens separately. Optional document spans stay attached to stable passage boundaries as text changes. Concepts, world events, author records and the telling can remain distinct while Understanding Nodes connect them freely; a connection does not make their clocks or authority identical.

The model and its Understanding Graph are the modeler's understanding, not a report about it: what is done and not recorded cannot be picked up by the next agent. Every Event that carries a Cut has a description of what happens in it, so its numbers mean something. Choices, ideas, predictions and voice decisions are recorded as Understanding Nodes linked to the events, Cuts and passages they concern, and outside reviews are recorded under their actual reviewers. life_model_outline shows the present state with its notes at a chosen depth, and life_construction_replay replays the whole development step by step, each note beside the records as they were when it was written. An agent continuing unfamiliar work recovers its history through replay and an outline before changing it. When the exact previously read revision and context are retained, the agent reads subsequent changes and the records relevant to the current task. life_construction_export and life_construction_import carry the whole history to another engine with the same hashes, so the worked examples can be replayed anywhere.

Choose the model your application needs

Model only what serves your purpose. Choose the processes, categories, relationships, and level of detail; use a supplied template, adapt its output, or author a model directly. A single process is a valid starting point. A browser, learning tool, or relationship application need not build the same account of a person, or a complete person model at all.

The intended use is an external model an AI can work with: connect observations across time, compare explanations, explore possible developments, and decide what to investigate next. The modeler supplies those interpretations; the tool preserves their structure and revisions and executes supported, declared laws. Categories and decompositions are part of what the modeler develops and tests, not a fixed inventory to fill in. Shared record and validation rules remain in force as the application vocabulary changes.

See application-specific categories for template choices and a runnable vocabulary-revision example.

General-purpose modeling and optional Jev estimation

Start with life_general_modeling_start. The general workflow supports domain-defined processes across technology, adoption, institutions, markets, physical systems and other applications. life_world_model_build constructs the initial model and graph from a compact scaffold. Its required context review starts with the enclosing system and longer-term developments before focal processes; represented context, unknowns and justified exclusions become Understanding Nodes. It also requires consideration of authored numerical judgments, useful native conceptual decomposition, and meanings across dates or perspectives. The agent may explain why a dimension is unnecessary or unresolved; the tool does not demand arbitrary scores or depth. These checks do not prove completeness or causal relevance. The builder's preview can evaluate Jev initialEstimate questions; applying that exact proposal adopts the initial values as estimates without another provider call. life_process_estimate uses bounded questions to create typed process-value proposals; life_process_estimation_record saves the exact proposal, process records and review in the graph. Estimates retain their status and evidence, and do not silently become observations in accepted runtime history.

Set MEANING_MODEL_ESTIMATOR=typesafe and TYPESAFE_API_KEY to use Jev for batched structured judgments. This is independent of the storytelling add-on and is off by default. The LLM chooses the scope and questions; tool code handles repetitive record construction. Reduced end-to-end cost and latency require measurement, including setup and review work.

Every fresh agent begins with life-sim://guide/start-here (what the tool is for and how to work in it), then reads life-sim://protocol/grammar, the operational protocol and its purpose guide. life_modeling_read serves these resources to clients that expose only tools. Read life-sim://guide/general-modeling for the complete workflow and limits.

To bring in a book, use life_document_import with UTF-8 text or a local text file. It automatically splits the source into ordered, linkable document nodes, preserving exact text and source positions. Imported text stays separate from accepted facts and the manuscript. See the source import guide.

Optional storytelling add-on

The authoring workflow below describes delegated story generation. For a human writing their own work, use human-author feedback instead; feedback alone does not create a project or rewrite the manuscript.

The narrative graph is the authoritative authoring record. Create the model and graph before developing story material; store candidates, seed draws and alternatives, drafts, assessments, selections, local revisions, and disclosure plans through the tool. Files and PDFs are exports of graph content, not a parallel manuscript or model. Use life_story_author_record for authoring material and concise Understanding Nodes. Numerical exploration and revision persist their results directly; neither accepts them as world facts.

Scenes can contain ordered, independently editable passage nodes. The shared life_narrative_edit tool splits, merges, moves, reorders, or revises text in one immutable graph revision. Splitting preserves the exact rendered prose; editing reports affected reviews for reassessment. This tool is also available without the storytelling add-on, for other graph-backed documents.

Set MEANING_MODEL_ADDONS=storytelling when starting the MCP server to expose life-trend modeling, numerical trajectory exploration and local revision, model-depth review, scene preparation, draft review, prose commitment, and advisory chapter or section purpose review. The scene workflow requires overall life trends for the principal cast: coarse life phases, changes and continuities across them, and connections between those trends and each scene. The calling LLM develops or reuses them automatically before drafting; the user need not supply a dossier or request this step. A snapshot of the current crisis is insufficient. The LLM supplies the model and review judgments; the tool validates the dossier's structure and binds scene reviews to it.

The LLM also builds or reuses an author model within the agreed delegation: supported real-author evidence or an explicitly fictional persona, connected to writing choices, useful contexts, and restraint. It stores the profile through life_story_author_record, binds the selected version in scene and purpose-review packets, and links committed prose through shaped_by. The author remains distinct from the narrator and characters; the profile does not require uniform prose or establish literary quality.

After drafting and substantive revision, the LLM assesses the author's voice and each relevant principal character using actual prose and the processes behind their speech and behavior. It saves intended versus observed effects, evidence, uncertainty and repair-or-keep conclusions as Understanding Nodes. The read-only life_story_deepen tool and prompt prepare a later revision of the same work against an exact baseline. Local revision preserves premise, cast and ending by default; structural revision is available within the agreed brief. More detail or length is not automatically an improvement.

Before prose and after consequential model or story-context revisions, the LLM automatically reviews whether the model explains the important choices and outcomes. life_story_model_depth_review reads the bound model and selected graph evidence; life_story_model_depth_record saves its findings as an Understanding Node. The LLM examines relevant lives and flaws, concepts, physical or institutional constraints, causes, and disclosure processes, opening detail only where needed. Scene preparation requires a current assessment; unresolved findings block commitment. Gaps remain saveable; this is no fixed taxonomy, depth quota, or literary-quality score.

For new trajectories, the LLM samples numerical points for events and whole lives, including emotional states on dimensions with explicit meanings, comparisons, units, and bounds. randomness controls variation around a baseline, while a separate candidate count controls the exploration budget. It assesses the candidates for coherence and storytelling potential, then keeps, locally revises, or rejects them. A weak transition need not cost the whole character: local revisions preserve other values, fixed facts supplied to the sampler, and allocation totals. Concise assessments and revision reasons belong in Understanding Nodes linked to the relevant evidence. These candidates remain creative hypotheses until accepted; they are not calibrated psychology or physical simulations.

Optional structure exploration uses an ordinary seed word to inspire alternative events, characters, relationships, or storylines within the graph authoring workflow. Its suggestions remain unaccepted until the author chooses and models them. For new principal-character, place, and organization names, the LLM automatically uses a random word's sound, rhythm, or associations to develop names that fit the story's style and existing names.

The LLM automatically performs advisory purpose reviews at completed chapters, significant turning points, completed parts or works, and consequential revisions. It considers the text's purpose, expectations, causal changes, aftermath, life trajectories, and authored disclosure, while allowing ambiguity, atmosphere, and delayed payoff. Keeping the text unchanged is a valid outcome; the review cannot block saving. Anticipation, focal change, and adaptation can use the core's optional change-arc structure without imposing a fixed plot pattern. The bundled add-on uses the existing narrative graph and preserves earlier revisions. It leaves the shared model, laws, and default tools unchanged: company valuation processes, physical processes, and other applications keep choosing their own vocabulary and depth. See the storytelling add-on guide for the workflow and configuration.

Optional alien add-on

Set MEANING_MODEL_ADDONS=alien (or storytelling,alien) to add world-diversity ideation from Ontology of the Alien. The server writes each role's task with only what that role may see:

• a target-blind builder turns a seed word into an invented world;
• a purpose-blind solver solves the problem inside that world;
• a compiler brings the operative mechanism back into the problem's domain.

The add-on guide and generated role tasks supply the search procedure; its bundled paper is an optional reference. Every cell of the paper's condition matrix can be run, from direct proposals with a Semantic Tabu archive or the curated map to map-conditioned compilation.

Curators keep three revisable ontologies: mechanism families, claimed outcomes and causal world regimes. A new family is admitted only when the recorded equivalence test says the primary causal operator changed. Diagnosis of those ontologies informs which world to commission next, including family and outcome combinations no candidate has yet; the choice stays with the caller. Promising mechanisms are transferred onto a target model, with every role mapped and every disanalogy stated.

A second judge can check each curator decision: with the Jev estimator configured it answers the same comparison without seeing the curator's reasons, and disagreements appear in the diagnosis. A candidate between families can carry a graded membership, shares with a remainder, beside its category. Target-blind worlds can be exported as a content-addressed library and imported into another search, which then starts at the solver.

Everything lives in the narrative graph as Understanding Nodes. Every task text is stored, so each output cites what its role actually saw. Graded fits and weighted selections follow the Meaning Model's Cut rule. Each ontology can be exported as Meaning Model concepts and specialization relations. Worlds are textual thought experiments and transfers are ideas, not evidence. See the alien add-on guide.

Papers and worked example

The paper and the grammar appendix were revised on October 9, 2026. The Zenodo series provides the archived versions.

• Meaning Model paper - the argument, grammar, construction method, examples, and numerical portrait.
• Grammar appendix - a focused reference to the same rules, not a separate theory or additional set of requirements.
• The Book of Conditions
  • the current revised story; Markdown, an importable model and verification are included. The story repository also distributes the books; each edition has a publication manifest.
• World history - an account of how the present came to be, built in the Meaning Model as processes, Events and concepts with the reasoning behind each choice; its construction record imports and replays.

The six world-record forms are Concept, Thing, Event, Binding, Cut, and Realization. A Cut divides one declared unit among exclusive sibling answers and an explicit remainder; its weights sum to one. Ordinary process links are unweighted. Dates, money, counts, and physical measurements keep their external units. Understanding Nodes and Document Nodes share the address space without acquiring the authority of accepted world facts.

Try it

The smallest demonstration requires only Node.js:

node --test examples/refinement-trial/example.test.mjs

It shows a refinement that fits its parent, a locally valid refinement that contradicts the parent, and an explicit revision. The example is synthetic, not evidence that the full implementation or learning proposal is complete.

For the Rust engine and MCP tools, install Rust/Cargo, Node.js 22.18 or newer, and npm, then run:

make install
make build
make test

For a native example, run node examples/progressive-authoring/run.mjs after building. Progressive authoring in Rust opens a Cut after accepted history, rejects incompatible detail, completes a partial temporal contract, and explicitly revises and continues the same world.

Start the MCP server after building. Create a private data directory outside the installation and replace the example database path with its absolute path:

cd mcp-server
LIFE_SIM_STATE_FILE=/absolute/private/path/meaning-model.sqlite npm start

Reuse this path across sessions and upgrades, with only one server process per database. Without it, models, stories and memory are lost when the process ends. Ask the assistant to find saved work with life_saved_work_list and select the intended branch. The assistant recovers unfamiliar work through replay and an outline; when the exact prior revision and context are retained, it reads subsequent changes and the records relevant now. It then deepens or reviews the model through the MCP tools. See keep and continue your work for scope handling, persistence limits, the local viewer, and portable backups.

See the MCP guide, engine guide, and modeling protocol. Existing life-sim command, schema, resource, and binary identifiers are retained for compatibility with saved artifacts. They do not identify a second engine.

The package name is @emergent-wisdom/meaning-model-mcp. Its official MCP Registry identity is io.github.emergent-wisdom/meaning-model, described by server.json. Registry-based clients must supply the path to an explicitly installed or built engine. Install the engine matching the package version. meaning-model-mcp --install-engine explicitly downloads and verifies that version's published release engine. Alternatively, use meaning-model-mcp --build-engine to build the included Rust source. Neither npm installation nor normal server startup downloads or builds an engine. To prepare a local npm tarball, run make npm-package. See the package installation guide. Creating a tarball does not publish it or establish ownership of the npm scope.

What is demonstrated

The Book is a bounded example of model-assisted authorship: macro accounts, complete lives, local Cuts, event descriptions, linked construction rationales, and prose were developed and revised together. Its accepted sources can be imported into Rust and the manuscript rendered from document nodes. That retrospective import is not a recovered transaction log of the original authoring process.

The engine implements typed records, immutable revisions, persistence, candidate acceptance, normalized Cuts, and bounded narrative graph operations. Optional temporal Cut contracts check explicit answer projections and duration mixtures, including whether partial detail leaves a feasible remainder. An accepted world can move to its direct next model revision after time has advanced, with an explicit refinement or revision, a compare-and-swap check, and an immutable receipt preserving both heads. Portable narrative training and project checkpoint exports across that revision boundary remain unsupported; the session database retains the complete history. It does not implement every contract in the paper. The implementation boundary distinguishes implemented checks, authoring conventions, and missing behavior. The preregistered matched comparison and independent read-back study remain prospective. Neither a passing validator nor an authored numerical portrait establishes historical truth, psychological validity, or an advantage over ordinary writing.

Repository map

Meaning Model owns the representation and joint construction method. The separate Life Simulation project studies process-history generation, inference, learning, and their empirical evaluation. It consumes this engine; it does not maintain a second implementation. A digest-bound copy of its paper is included only as a companion MCP reading resource under docs/companions/life-simulation/.

Build the documents

With latexmk and a LaTeX installation containing the imported packages:

make paper
make grammar
make book

To check the code, examples, resources, and documents together:

make check

Release packaging

make release checks and builds the package, then exports an allowlisted clean directory beneath build/. The export includes the three PDFs and their sources and the Book's selected public construction history, including attributed reviews and revisions. It excludes .git, build caches, private planning, coordination notes, raw session transcripts and unpublished working copies.

See the release guide for packaging and provenance details. Exporting files does not push to GitHub or publish a package.

License and citation

Original code is MIT licensed. Original papers, documentation, authored model data, and the Book are CC BY 4.0. NOTICE preserves the boundary for third-party material. CITATION.cff identifies the author and preferred paper citation; it includes the repository URL and the Meaning Model's Zenodo concept DOI. The DOI identifies the paper's version series; the release manifest identifies the exact files.