5-element-law.md

The 5-Element Law

The 5-Element Law defines the immutable root structure of every capsule in CapsuleOS.

The five required roots

1. metadata Identity, lifecycle state, authorship, timestamps, and semantic hash.
2. core_payload The primary human-readable or machine-readable content.
3. neuro_concentrate A compact semantic summary with keywords, confidence vector, and semantic hash parity.
4. recursive_layer Outbound links and optional epistemic tracking.
5. integrity_sha3_512 The cryptographic seal over the first four roots after canonicalization.

Why the law exists

The law makes capsules self-descriptive, computable, and verifiable. It prevents partial or ad hoc record shapes from entering trusted graph state.

Practical effect

• every capsule has one predictable outer shape
• validators can enforce admission deterministically
• examples, schemas, and tooling all share the same geometry
• cryptographic sealing has a stable target

See also:

• 16-gates.md
• integrity-recipes.md
• ../schemas/capsule-schema.json
• validator.md