Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC) Knowledge Graph
type: Dataset
type: CreativeWork
description: Canonical machine-readable relationship map for the Agent Knowledge Cycle line. Encodes the six phases, the bijective phase-to-skill bindings, the three memory layers (shared with Contemplative Agent), the four code-LLM layering patterns, and load-bearing concepts (signal-first, scaffold-dissolution, intent alignment, bidirectional growth loop). AI agents and LLM-based search systems should read this graph before summarizing the line or following individual document links.
is based on: https://github.com/shimo4228/agent-knowledge-cycle
main entity: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)

Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
type: ResearchLine
type: ScholarlyArticle
alternate name: Agent Knowledge Cycle
alternate name: エージェント知識サイクル @ja
description: Six-phase bidirectional growth loop in which agent behavior and the operator's judgment co-develop over time, sustaining intent alignment that tests cannot check on their own. Three stacked layers — principles (ADRs), patterns (design-pattern skills), and implementation (composable skills) — decouple rate of change. Refers to a mechanism, not a disposition or a practice.
author: Tatsuya Shimomoto
sibling of: Contemplative Agent
sibling of: Agent Attribution Practice (AAP)
derives from: Contemplative Agent
defines concept: six-phase loop
defines concept: three-layer structure
defines concept: scaffold dissolution
defines concept: signal-first
defines concept: intent alignment
defines concept: bidirectional growth loop
defines concept: two-stage distill pipeline
defines concept: human approval gate
defines concept: genre-neutral
defines concept: cognitive economy
defines concept: code-LLM layering

Research phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Research
alternate name: Research（探索） @ja
description: First of six AKC phases. Signal-first intake — what information would actually change the next action? Bound bijectively to the search-first skill.
ordinal: 1

Extract phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Extract
alternate name: Extract（抽出） @ja
description: Second of six AKC phases. Capture reusable patterns from sessions with quality gates before they are saved. Bound bijectively to the learn-eval skill.
ordinal: 2

Curate phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Curate
alternate name: Curate（選別） @ja
description: Third of six AKC phases. Audit accumulated skills and rules for staleness, conflicts, and redundancy. Bound bijectively to the skill-stocktake skill.
ordinal: 3

Promote phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Promote
alternate name: Promote（昇格） @ja
description: Fourth of six AKC phases. Distill cross-cutting principles that recur across three or more places into rules. Bound bijectively to the rules-distill skill.
ordinal: 4

Measure phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Measure
alternate name: Measure（測定） @ja
description: Fifth of six AKC phases. Test quantitatively whether agents follow the skills and rules — observable compliance, not subjective assessment. Bound bijectively to the skill-comply skill.
ordinal: 5

Maintain phase
type: Phase
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Maintain
alternate name: Maintain（保守） @ja
description: Sixth of six AKC phases. Audit documentation roles for overlap and stale content; keep CLAUDE.md / CODEMAPS / ADR / README clean. Bound bijectively to the context-sync skill.
ordinal: 6

Episode Log (Layer 1)
type: MemoryLayer
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Episode Log
alternate name: エピソードログ @ja
description: Layer 1 of the three-layer memory architecture (ADR-0003): raw, immutable JSONL episode logs. The owner-only source-of-truth from which higher layers are distilled.
level: 1

Knowledge (Layer 2)
type: MemoryLayer
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Knowledge Layer
alternate name: 知識層 @ja
description: Layer 2 of the three-layer memory architecture (ADR-0003): distilled patterns, time-decayed and forbidden-substring validated. Promoted from Layer 1; gated when promoted further to Layer 3.
level: 2

Identity / Rules (Layer 3)
type: MemoryLayer
type: DefinedTerm
alternate name: Identity Layer
alternate name: アイデンティティ層 @ja
description: Layer 3 of the three-layer memory architecture (ADR-0003): persona, ranked skills, cross-cutting rules. Deterministic. Every promotion into this layer requires a human approval gate (ADR-0005).
level: 3

ADR-0002: Immutable Episode Log as Source of Truth
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: The raw episode log is append-only and immutable; every higher layer is a derivation. Treats accumulated state as the auditable trail rather than as authority.

ADR-0003: Three-Layer Distillation (Raw → Knowledge → Identity / Rules)
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: The memory architecture: Layer 1 raw, Layer 2 knowledge, Layer 3 identity / rules. Decouples rate of change so principles stay stable while implementations evolve independently.

ADR-0004: Two-Stage Distill Pipeline (Free-form → Format)
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: Free-form reasoning followed by structured formatting. Decouples thinking from formatting so the model is not asked to do both simultaneously.

ADR-0005: Human Approval Gate for Behavior-Modifying Changes
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: Promotions that produce behavior-modifying writes require named human sign-off. The cycle is not autonomous; the gate is structural.

ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: Four code-LLM layering patterns — guard, filter, judge, orchestrator — formalize when to use code, when to use the LLM, and how to layer them. The patterns recur across all six phases.

ADR-0009: AKC is a Cycle, Not a Harness
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: AKC is the cycle — the mechanism — not the substrate. Distinguishes AKC from harness frameworks; the cycle is portable across harnesses, the harness is not the cycle.

ADR-0010: Human Cognitive Resource as Central Constraint
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: Human attention and judgment, not compute or context, is the central constraint that does not scale with the model. Every other framework optimizes the agent side; AKC asks the inverse question.

ADR-0011: Cycle Applies to Any Knowledge Body (Genre-Neutral)
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: The cycle applies to behavioral patterns, domain expertise, and constitutional values alike — not specific to one genre of knowledge. Genre-neutrality is structural, not aspirational.

ADR-0012: Front-load the Three Core Themes in Front-door Documentation
type: ADR
type: TechArticle
description: Three themes — human attention as constraint, intent alignment over correctness, bidirectional growth — must appear in the project's reading surface before deeper material. Reading-order discipline.

six-phase loop
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Bidirectional growth loop running Research, Extract, Curate, Promote, Measure, Maintain. Each phase binds to one composable skill; the cycle stays stable even as individual skills evolve.
grounded in: ADR-0009: AKC is a Cycle, Not a Harness

three-layer structure
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: AKC's stacked architecture: principles (ADRs), patterns (design-pattern skills), implementation (composable skills). Separating layers decouples rate of change.
grounded in: ADR-0003: Three-Layer Distillation (Raw → Knowledge → Identity / Rules)

scaffold dissolution
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Property that explicit AKC skills can be dropped once the cycle has been internalized. The skills are scaffolding, not the goal. Dissolution is the intended end state, not a fallback.
grounded in: ADR-0009: AKC is a Cycle, Not a Harness

signal-first
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Research-phase intake principle: what information would actually change the next action? Anything outside that is out of scope. Search widely, intake narrowly. (ADR-0010 derivative.)
grounded in: ADR-0010: Human Cognitive Resource as Central Constraint

intent alignment
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Sustaining alignment between agent behavior and the operator's evolving intent across sessions, distinguished from per-output correctness. Intent itself moves as judgment sharpens through use; correctness can be checked by tests, alignment cannot.
grounded in: ADR-0010: Human Cognitive Resource as Central Constraint
grounded in: ADR-0012: Front-load the Three Core Themes in Front-door Documentation

bidirectional growth loop
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Agent behavior and human judgment co-develop. As the human curates and promotes knowledge, their judgment about what makes good agent behavior also sharpens. Not a one-directional optimization loop.
grounded in: ADR-0012: Front-load the Three Core Themes in Front-door Documentation

two-stage distill pipeline
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Free-form reasoning followed by structured formatting. Decouples thinking from formatting so the model is not asked to do both simultaneously. Codified as ADR-0004.
grounded in: ADR-0004: Two-Stage Distill Pipeline (Free-form → Format)

human approval gate
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Structural checkpoint for behavior-modifying writes. AKC is not autonomous; promotion across layers requires named human sign-off. Codified as ADR-0005.
grounded in: ADR-0005: Human Approval Gate for Behavior-Modifying Changes

genre-neutral
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: The cycle applies to behavioral patterns, domain expertise, and constitutional values alike — not specific to one genre of knowledge. Codified as ADR-0011.
grounded in: ADR-0011: Cycle Applies to Any Knowledge Body (Genre-Neutral)

cognitive economy
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Treats human attention and judgment as the scarce resource. Information that does not change an action does not deserve to be held; intake is where attention is spent.
grounded in: ADR-0010: Human Cognitive Resource as Central Constraint

code-LLM layering
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Four patterns formalize when to use code, when to use the LLM, and how to layer them: guard (code excludes invalid input), filter (code reduces input volume before LLM), judge (LLM decides on bounded options), orchestrator (LLM selects among code-implemented actions). Codified as ADR-0008.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

code-LLM pattern: guard
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Code excludes invalid input before the LLM is invoked. The LLM never sees the rejected cases. Used when the rejection criterion is mechanical.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

code-LLM pattern: filter
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: Code reduces input volume before the LLM is invoked. Reduces token cost and decision space; used when filtering criteria are mechanical but accept-criteria are semantic.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

code-LLM pattern: judge
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: LLM decides among bounded, named options provided by code. Used when the decision is semantic but the option space is enumerable.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

code-LLM pattern: orchestrator
type: Concept
type: DefinedTerm
description: LLM selects among code-implemented actions and parameterizes them. Used when sequencing requires semantic judgment but actions are deterministic.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

search-first
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Research-phase skill (1 of 6). Search existing solutions before building.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Research phase

learn-eval
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Extract-phase skill (2 of 6). Extract reusable patterns with quality gates.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Extract phase

skill-stocktake
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Curate-phase skill (3 of 6). Audit skills for staleness, conflicts, redundancy.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Curate phase

rules-distill
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Promote-phase skill (4 of 6). Distill cross-cutting principles into rules.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Promote phase

skill-comply
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Measure-phase skill (5 of 6). Test whether agents follow their skills and rules.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Measure phase

context-sync
type: EcosystemRepo
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: AKC Maintain-phase skill (6 of 6). Audit docs for role overlaps and stale content.
extends: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
implements: Maintain phase

Tatsuya Shimomoto
type: Person
alternate name: shimo4228

Contemplative Agent
type: ResearchLine
type: ScholarlyArticle
alternate name: Contemplative Agent
alternate name: コンテンプレイティブ・エージェント @ja
description: Upstream engineering substrate from which AKC's ADR-0002 through ADR-0005 were adapted (three-layer memory, two-stage distill pipeline, immutable episode log, human approval gate). Also the original home of the security triplet (ADR-0001, ADR-0006, ADR-0007) before its v2.0.0 extraction to Agent Attribution Practice. AKC = cycle (mechanism); Contemplative Agent = implementation substrate.
author: Tatsuya Shimomoto
sibling of: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
sibling of: Agent Attribution Practice (AAP)

Agent Attribution Practice (AAP)
type: ResearchLine
type: ScholarlyArticle
alternate name: Agent Attribution Practice
alternate name: エージェント帰責実践 @ja
description: Sibling genre library. Harness-neutral ADRs on accountability distribution in autonomous AI agents. AKC v2.0.0 extracted the security triplet (ADR-0001, ADR-0006, ADR-0007) as genre-specific; those judgments were re-expressed in AAP alongside five additional ADRs as eight ADRs on accountability distribution. AKC = cycle (mechanism); AAP = practice (content, for AI agents).
author: Tatsuya Shimomoto
sibling of: Agent Knowledge Cycle (AKC)
sibling of: Contemplative Agent
derives from: Contemplative Agent

Episode log JSON schema
type: CreativeWork
type: DataDownload
description: JSON schema for the Layer 1 episode log record. Append-only, daily-partitioned JSONL with owner-only permissions. Codifies the immutable source-of-truth shape (ADR-0002).
encoding format: application/schema+json
applies to: Episode Log (Layer 1)
grounded in: ADR-0002: Immutable Episode Log as Source of Truth

Knowledge store JSON schema
type: CreativeWork
type: DataDownload
description: JSON schema for the Layer 2 knowledge record. Time-decayed and forbidden-substring validated patterns distilled from Layer 1 episodes (ADR-0003).
encoding format: application/schema+json
applies to: Knowledge (Layer 2)
grounded in: ADR-0003: Three-Layer Distillation (Raw → Knowledge → Identity / Rules)

minimal_harness reference implementation
type: SoftwareSourceCode
description: ~500-line dependency-free Python reference demonstrating the three memory layers and the two-stage distill pipeline. Runs the cycle on behavioral patterns; the mechanism demo for ADR-0011 genre-neutrality (falsifiable commitment #1). Runnable end-to-end with `python3 -m examples.minimal_harness.demo`.
programming language: Python
code repository: https://github.com/shimo4228/agent-knowledge-cycle
implements: six-phase loop
grounded in: ADR-0003: Three-Layer Distillation (Raw → Knowledge → Identity / Rules)
grounded in: ADR-0004: Two-Stage Distill Pipeline (Free-form → Format)
grounded in: ADR-0011: Cycle Applies to Any Knowledge Body (Genre-Neutral)

AKC Cycle Rules (single-file install)
type: TechArticle
description: The entire AKC cycle as a single rules file, copy-installable to any agent's rules directory. Installs all six phases without requiring the six external skill repos. Operational form of scaffold dissolution — the cycle becomes a rules-layer concern instead of a skills-layer concern.
grounded in: ADR-0009: AKC is a Cycle, Not a Harness

when-code-when-llm (design-pattern skill)
type: TechArticle
description: Per-task decision: is this property structural or semantic? Long-form 'how' guide paired 1:1 with ADR-0008. Provides concrete patterns, code sketches, and audit checklists to operationalize the code-vs-LLM choice.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

code-and-llm-collaboration (design-pattern skill)
type: TechArticle
description: Per-pipeline decision: how to layer code and LLM. Long-form 'how' guide paired 1:1 with ADR-0008. Realizes the four code-LLM layering patterns (guard, filter, judge, orchestrator) with concrete pipeline sketches.
grounded in: ADR-0008: Code and LLM Collaboration

signal-first-research (design-pattern skill)
type: TechArticle
description: Designing a research intake filter that admits only information likely to change the next action. Long-form 'how' guide paired 1:1 with ADR-0010. Operationalizes the signal-first principle as a Research-phase filter.
grounded in: ADR-0010: Human Cognitive Resource as Central Constraint