AIKP — AI Knowledge Protocol

中文版 README

AI Knowledge Protocol — An open protocol for organizing, navigating, governing, and evolving an AI agent's long-term knowledge.

Protocol:    AIKP v0.1.0
Full Name:   AI Knowledge Protocol
Authority:   aikp.dev
Center:      hsaw.dev      (Axiom 0)
Executor:    soulbot.dev
Axiom 0:     Human Sovereignty and Wellbeing

Status: v0.1.0 — first internally-consistent draft, machinery not yet frozen. The Chinese specification (specification/AIKP_Protocol_cn.md) is the authoritative draft for v0.1.0; it is now accompanied by a faithful English specification (specification/AIKP_Protocol.md), JSON Schemas, conformant examples, a conformance test suite, and ADRs (see docs/02_AIKP_Plan.md).

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What is AIKP?

As agents gain autonomy, the bottleneck is no longer getting information (long context, RAG, memory, vector DBs, MCP solved that) — it is the organization, navigation, governance, and evolution of knowledge. AIKP is the layer that gives an agent better-organized knowledge and the right focus, instead of more context.

Context is limited. Knowledge is expandable. Focus is the path.

AIKP does not replace RAG / MCP / memory systems. It is the organizing layer on top of them:

• Context ≠ Knowledge — context is transient working memory; knowledge is a persistent, structured, reusable asset.
• AIKP is a governed contextual-structured-memory layer — it adds 7-state status governance + provenance + a human-sovereignty gate on top of standard agent memory.

Key Features

• JSON is the source of truth — Mermaid is a structural view; Markdown/HTML are generated (never authoritative, regenerated not hand-edited).
• Tree-first, graph-compatible — a children tree as the human-navigable primary view; relations for cross-links. (Justified on scenario-dependence, not "graph-first is wrong".)
• Knowledge Cache — high-density compressed knowledge with typed profiles (project_summary / architecture / issue_log / decision_log / runtime_error).
• Focus Path / Focus Engine — an instance of context engineering: select the minimal read path per task ("minimal context, maximal relevance").
• Governance — 7-state status, confidence, source (aligned to W3C PROV), review; knowledge-poisoning safety.
• Bi-temporal validity — optional valid_from/valid_to (world validity, distinct from system time) + invalidate (fact superseded, not deleted) to handle knowledge staleness.
• Machine-checkable — a Validation section (§21) with rules + error codes; a single-source-of-truth enum registry.
• Axiom 0 alignment — aligns to HSAW (Human Sovereignty and Wellbeing); privacy-first; honest knowledge.
• Honest about limits — version history/backup delegated to VCS (git), not reinvented; conflict detection delegated to the implementation; prior-art positioned, not overclaimed (docs/05).

Position in the AIXP Stack

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│    AILP — Discovery                  │
│    AIVP / AIRP — Value               │
│    AIBP — Social                     │
│    AIAP — Governance (T1–T4)         │
│    AIZP — Runtime Safety             │
│  ★ AIKP — Knowledge Layer            │  ← This protocol
│    AISOP — Execution                 │
│    SoulBot — Runtime                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
        HSAW — Axiom 0 (anchors all layers)

AIKP decides what to read; AISOP decides what to do; AIAP who is authorized; AIZP whether still aligned. Each independently upholds Axiom 0.

Repository Layout

AIKP-Protocol/
├── specification/        # normative: AIKP_Protocol_cn.md, registry_cn.md, standards/
├── schemas/              # JSON Schemas (space/cache/focus/report)
├── examples/             # conformant example files
├── tests/                # validator + conformance suite
├── docs/                 # English narrative
├── docs_cn/              # Chinese narrative: design intent / plan / lifecycle / related-work; plan/ = archived historical drafts (non-authoritative)
└── adrs/                 # Architecture Decision Records

Documentation

Document	Description
Specification	Normative object model, schemas, validation, compliance
Registry	Canonical enum allocations (single source of truth)
Standards	External standards AIKP references / aligns with
Design Intent	Why AIKP exists; differentiation
Plan	Roadmap and decisions
Knowledge Lifecycle	Lifecycle / DB-style management analysis
Prior Art	Related work / prior-art positioning (cited)
CHANGELOG	Release history

⚠️ Disclaimer

This protocol specification and any reference artifacts are provided for research and educational purposes only. They are experimental and not intended for production use. Use at your own risk. The authors assume no liability for any damages arising from use of this software. See LICENSE for full terms (Apache 2.0).

AIXP Labs aixp.dev

AIKP is the knowledge layer of the AIXP protocol family, alongside HSAW, AISOP, AIAP, AIZP, AIBP, AIVP, AIRP, AILP and the SoulBot reference runtime.

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Align Axiom 0: Human Sovereignty and Wellbeing. AIKP v0.1.0. www.aikp.dev