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A form type is a knowledge object category with a known internal structure — a contract about its shape. Each form type answers a distinct question and serves a distinct purpose.
Form types belong to five categories:
What matters? What do we believe?
| Form Type | Core Question |
|---|---|
| [[Conviction Form]] | What do we believe is true about the world? |
| [[Value Form]] | What do we care about? |
| [[Principle Form]] | What must we always or never do? |
How do things relate? What do we understand?
| Form Type | Core Question |
|---|---|
| [[Model Form]] | How do these elements relate to each other? |
| [[Reference Form]]↑ | What do I need to know about this domain to act effectively? |
| [[Gloss Form]] | What does this specific source or concept mean? |
| [[Citation Form]] | What do I need to know about this source? |
| [[Opus Form]] | What am I saying here, and how does it connect? |
| [[Domain Form]] | What knowledge area does this cluster of forms belong to? |
What to do? What happened?
| Form Type | Core Question |
|---|---|
| [[Pattern Form]] | What resolves this recurring tension? |
| [[Case Form]]↑ | What happened when this was tried? |
| [[Decision Form]] | Why did we choose this over the alternatives? |
| [[Protocol Form]]↑ | How do independent parties coordinate reliably? |
| [[Skill Form]]↑ | How does an agent execute this reliably? |
What should we investigate? What might happen?
| Form Type | Core Question |
|---|---|
| [[Inquiry Form]] | What should we think about X, and how would we find out? |
| [[Scenario Form]]↑ | What might happen if these forces play out? |
Who decides? How do rules change?
| Form Type | Core Question |
|---|---|
| [[Boundary Form]] | Where does this system’s authority end? |
All 17 form types have definition pages. 14 types have instantiated nodes in the garden; 3 types (Protocol, Skill, Scenario) have definition pages but no content nodes yet. Opus Form is new (2026-03-15) and awaits its first exemplar.
Form types serve two precincts within the deep context architecture. [[Garden Precinct]] nodes (the 16 types above) carry structural contracts — required sections, specific shapes, enforceable constraints. [[Vault Precinct]] nodes (Meeting Note, Transcript, Person Note, Chat Log, Sidecar) are operational templates with conventions but lighter structural requirements. Both precincts use is_a:: predicates, typed edges, and the same graph infrastructure. Some form types (Status Stages, Domain Form) serve both precincts.
The two precincts solve different problems — the garden curates durable knowledge, the vault captures operational information — rather than representing different maturity levels of the same thing.
Taxonomy from [[Deep Context as an Architecture for Captured Reasoning]], “The Forms” section.