Terminology
The words we use, and what they mean here.
ASTP
AI State Tree ProtocolThe open protocol for representing persistent cognitive state, structural relationships, provenance, and integrity.
ASTP is the protocol.
Ariadne
The research program through which the Cognitive Persistence and Verifiable Cognition concepts underlying ASTP were developed and continue to be explored.
Ariadne is research, not the protocol itself.
Ignis OS
Scorched Earth Labs’ cognitive substrate and implementation environment.
It contains the runtime mechanisms and implementation layers through which ASTP and other SEL research are operationalized.
Ignis OS is an implementation, not part of the ASTP specification.
Thermyt
The human-agent collaboration environment and primary interface into Ignis OS.
Poseidon
The intent-driven, graph-native, surface-independent UI composition architecture.
Cognitive Persistence
The preservation of meaningful cognitive state and continuity across time—not merely retrieval of previously stored information.
Verifiable Cognition
The ability to independently inspect and verify claims about recorded cognitive state, its provenance, and its evolution.
It does not mean proving that an AI conclusion is correct or exposing a model’s hidden internal chain of thought.
Episode
The fundamental unit of cognitive coherence in ASTP.
A session may contain multiple Episodes.
A Branch remains within an Episode.
A Fork creates a new Episode.
Relationships such as Continues and Supersedes preserve cognitive lineage among Episodes.