Intenture Canvas

Single Source of Truth

The Canvas is the authoritative representation of an intenture. All other forms (Object Card, AI-facing form) derive from it. All information is collected in the Canvas, then presented in two forms:

• Human-facing form - natural language texts and diagrams for the human
• AI-facing form - normalized structure for AI agents

Three Block Classes

Critical Blocks (Must be answered for CRT)

• Intent - What do you want to achieve?
• Object - What does the intent act upon?
• Constraints - What boundaries must not be violated?
• Expected Output - What is the concrete deliverable?

Supporting Blocks

• Context - Background and circumstances
• Value - What value does this create?
• Actors - Who is involved? [primary] / [supporting]
• Evidence - Facts and data. [fact] / [to-collect] / [assumed]
• Metrics - How is success measured? [target: value]

Development Blocks

• Conception - By what approach?
• Vision - What does the ideal result look like?
• States - Lifecycle phases. [complete] / [partial]
• Transitions - Movement between states. [trigger: condition]
• Signals - Observable events. [type: severity]
• Risks - Identified threats
• Open Questions - Unresolved items

6 Block Statuses

Assumed by AI vs Accepted Assumption: "Assumed by AI" means "AI assumed, human has not yet seen it." "Accepted Assumption" means "AI assumed, human saw it and accepted." The difference from Answered: the human did not confirm a fact but consciously accepted risk - the assumption remains an assumption, but the human takes responsibility for realization on its basis.

Three Paths for Resolving "Assumed by AI"

Every block with status "Assumed by AI" must be resolved through one of three paths:

Confirm - the human confirms the assumption matches reality. Status changes to Answered.

Accept as assumption - the human acknowledges this is an assumption, not fact, but considers it a sufficient basis for starting. Status changes to Accepted Assumption.

Reject - the human disagrees with the assumption. Status changes to Unknown Yet (becomes blocking if this is a Critical Block or Specialized Readiness Block).

For blocks with [safety] and [legal] type Constraints, the "Accept as assumption" path is not permitted. Assumptions in safety and legal areas can only be confirmed (-> Answered) or rejected (-> Unknown Yet). Vergil must explicitly warn the human if an assumption concerns a safety or legal Constraint.

Entry Principle

The human can enter the intenture from any convenient block. AI is obligated to normalize what is collected into the canonical structure.

Canvas in Composition Hierarchy (introduced in v1.8)

In the context of Composition Hierarchy each intenture - a separable unit - always has its own full Canvas. This includes the root intenture (parent in hierarchy), all sub-intentures (children), and leaf intentures.

Principle: parent in Composition hierarchy is itself an intenture, and its Canvas is built by the same rules. Parent is not a "container without substance" - parent has its own Intent, Object, Constraints, Expected Output, Value items.

Structural elements of parent that are NOT separable intentures (modules inside an agent, sections inside a document, configuration parameters) are expressed as Canvas blocks within parent's Canvas - not as sub-intentures. The boundary is determined by the Separability Principle (4 tests - see Composition Hierarchy chapter).