cnos.cdr

CDR — Coherence-Driven Research

CDR (Coherence-Driven Research) is the research-protocol overlay in the c-d-X family. It instantiates the role-cell grammar (α/β/γ/δ/ε) and the six-field instantiation contract (per ROLES.md §3) for research work — investigation, synthesis, citation, dataset stewardship, claim transmission under uncertainty.

CDR is not a persona and not a project. It is the protocol layer — layer 3 of the five-layer enforcement chain — that sits between the persona (Rho lives in cn-rho) and the project binding (cph lives in usurobor/cph). See skills/cdr/CDR.md §"Persona, Protocol, Project" for the boundary.

What CDR Does

CDR is the research discipline used to transmit claims about the world (or about a system under study) coherently. Its loss function — per ROLES.md §4a.2 — is truth-preserving claim transmission under uncertainty. The primary failure mode CDR must structurally resist is overclaim: a claim becoming stronger than its evidence; false knowledge propagating.

CDR shares the role-cell kernel (α/β/γ/δ/ε) with cnos.cdd (the generic kernel) and is a sibling of cnos.cds (engineering realization). The discipline profile diverges: engineering optimises for artifact improvement under repairable feedback; research optimises for truth preservation under uncertainty. The role names are shared; the loss functions diverge; the receipts and oracles diverge to enforce the divergent disciplines.

The architectural split — common kernel in cnos.cdd, per-protocol procedures in cnos.cdr — inherits the option (a) decision from cnos#388 and is recorded at skills/cdr/CDR.md §"Architecture choice". The same split produced cnos.cds v0.1 at cnos#403; CDR is the structural precedent CDS mirrored.

Package Structure

This package is v0.1 complete. The doctrine surface (CDR.md — the 616-line canonical instantiation contract), the loader skill (SKILL.md), all five per-role overlays under skills/cdr/{alpha,beta,gamma,operator,epsilon}/SKILL.md, and the empirical-anchor doc (docs/empirical-anchor-cph.md) are all landed under cnos#376. The wave shipped Sub 1 (cnos#390), Sub 2 (cnos#394), Sub 3 (cnos#395), and Sub 4 (cnos#396) sequentially.

/skills/cdr/ — The Method

• CDR.md — Canonical instantiation contract (616 lines). Declares the six fields per ROLES.md §3: matter type, review oracle, γ close-out artifact, δ cadence, ε iteration cadence, actor collapse rule. This file is the package's primary doctrine surface. Landed via Sub 1 of cnos#376 — cnos#390.
• SKILL.md — Loader skill. Names CDR.md and the per-role overlays; declares the load order and the cross-protocol relationship with cnos.cdd (kernel) and cnos.cds (engineering sibling). Landed via Sub 2 of cnos#376 — cnos#394.

/skills/cdr/<role>/ — Per-role overlays (Sub 3 / cnos#395)

• alpha/SKILL.md — α role in CDR. Produces research matter — claims, hypotheses, methods, datasets, analyses, reports — under the truth-preserving claim-transmission discipline.
• beta/SKILL.md — β role in CDR. Audits α's research matter for claim/evidence alignment, falsifiability, reproduction, citation integrity, and data-policy compliance.
• gamma/SKILL.md — γ role in CDR. Coordinates the research wave, selects research gaps, dispatches α/β, and closes the wave by emitting the typed #CDRReceipt.
• operator/SKILL.md — δ role in CDR (directory name operator per cdr convention; the δ role-cell position). Enforces the data-mounted gate, accepts or rejects research receipts, and records gate verdicts on the wave-transition cadence.
• epsilon/SKILL.md — ε role in CDR. Iterates the CDR protocol itself — observes research-protocol gaps from the receipt stream, applies MCA discipline, writes the CDR-iteration artifact.

All five role overlays are CDR-specific extensions of the corresponding cnos.cdd/skills/cdd/<role>/SKILL.md generic doctrine. The kernel grammar (role-cell shape, algorithm structure, independence rules, resumption protocol) is inherited by reference; the discipline profile and matter type diverge for the research-protocol loss function per ROLES.md §4a.2.

/docs/ — The Empirical Anchor

• empirical-anchor-cph.md — Surface-by-surface mapping of usurobor/cph's .cdr/ artifact set to CDR.md's six-field structure, demonstrating that CDR v0.1 can host the cph research project without contradiction. Landed via Sub 4 of cnos#376 — cnos#396. The structural precedent for cnos.cds/docs/empirical-anchor-cdd.md (cds Sub 7).

Quick Start

New to CDR? Start with:

1. skills/cdr/CDR.md — The instantiation contract; the doctrinal anchor. Six fields per ROLES.md §3; architecture-choice declaration; persona/protocol/project boundary; empirical-anchor citation to usurobor/cph.
2. skills/cdr/SKILL.md — The loader skill; declares the load order and the cross-protocol relationship with cnos.cdd (kernel) and cnos.cds (engineering sibling).
3. ROLES.md §3 + §4a — The generic role-cell grammar and the five-layer enforcement chain CDR inherits.
4. schemas/cdr/receipt.cue — The typed γ close-out surface (#CDRReceipt) referenced by CDR.md Field 3.
5. docs/empirical-anchor-cph.md — Maps usurobor/cph's research-cycle .cdr/ artifacts to CDR's six-field structure; useful for grounding the doctrine in observable evidence.
6. cnos#376 — parent tracker; rationale for the research-protocol extraction; sub-issue wave history.

Looking for the engineering-side sibling? See ../cnos.cds/ — the engineering realization shipped at cnos#403. CDS is not CDR-with-different-words: the role names are shared; the loss functions diverge.

Looking for the kernel? See ../cnos.cdd/ — the common kernel and the generic CCNF algorithm.

Looking for the wire-format peer? See ../cnos.handoff/ — the inter-agent / inter-activation / inter-repo handoff doctrine. CDR consumes cnos.handoff/skills/handoff/cross-repo/SKILL.md for the bootstrap-cdr and cph cross-repo bundles; CDR was the original cross-package consumer of cross-repo doctrine and is the empirical anchor proving handoff doctrine was already a separable boundary.

Cross-protocol relationship

CDR shares the role-cell kernel with cnos.cdd (the generic algorithm) and is a sibling of cnos.cds (the engineering realization). The kernel lives in cnos.cdd; CDR owns the research-specific instantiation (matter type, review oracle, γ close-out artifact, δ cadence, ε cadence, actor collapse). No generic CCNF kernel doctrine is restated in CDR — only pointers from CDR to CDD/CCNF.

Boundary vs cnos.handoff: handoff is the wire format; CDR is the research-cycle lifecycle. CDR consumes handoff surfaces (cross-repo bundles, dispatch envelopes, receipt streams) by reference; it does not own them. The two have different reasons to change.

Status

v0.1 complete — cnos#376 wave closed 2026-05-22. All four v0.1 subs landed; doctrine surface in place; loader in place; all five role overlays in place; empirical-anchor doc in place. The wave shipped, in order:

• cn.package.json (schema cn.package.v1; name cnos.cdr; version 0.1.0; kind package; engines cnos >= 3.80.0), skills/cdr/CDR.md (the 616-line six-field research instantiation contract; declares matter type, review oracle, γ close-out artifact, δ cadence, ε cadence, actor collapse rule; architecture-choice declaration per cnos#388; persona/protocol/project boundary; empirical-anchor citation to usurobor/cph) — Sub 1 / cnos#390;
• README.md, skills/cdr/SKILL.md (loader; declares load order + cross-protocol relationship) — Sub 2 / cnos#394;
• five per-role overlays at skills/cdr/{alpha,beta,gamma,operator,epsilon}/SKILL.md (each a CDR-specific extension of the corresponding cnos.cdd/skills/cdd/<role>/SKILL.md) — Sub 3 / cnos#395;
• docs/empirical-anchor-cph.md mapping usurobor/cph's .cdr/ artifact set onto the CDR six-field structure — Sub 4 / cnos#396.

The package is loadable and discoverable by cnos package-discovery (per pkg.ContentClasses filesystem-presence convention); commands are not declared in this version. The empirical-anchor doc became the structural precedent for cnos.cds/docs/empirical-anchor-cdd.md (cds Sub 7 / cnos#412).

License

Part of the cnos project.