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CKS Runtime Charter

Status: Draft

Applies to: CKS Runtime Standard

1. Mission

CKS Runtime provides the canonical operational environment for Canonical Knowledge Structures while preserving the semantic guarantees established by the CKS Core Standard.

Runtime orchestrates the operational lifecycle of canonical knowledge.

Core defines the semantics of canonical knowledge.

2. Vision

The long-term vision of the CKS ecosystem is to establish a family of interoperable standards that collectively define the complete lifecycle of canonical knowledge.

Within this ecosystem:

  • CKS Core defines knowledge.
  • CKS Runtime orchestrates the operational lifecycle of knowledge.
  • Adapters expose knowledge.
  • Applications consume knowledge.

Runtime is intended to become the canonical operational environment shared by every CKS-compatible implementation.

The Runtime Standard establishes a common operational contract that enables interoperability between independent implementations.

3. Scope

The Runtime Standard specifies operational services for Canonical Knowledge Structures.

These include:

  • session management;
  • lifecycle management;
  • transaction management;
  • persistence orchestration;
  • storage abstraction;
  • version history;
  • runtime diagnostics aggregation;
  • explainability orchestration;
  • runtime operational environment;
  • runtime state management.

Runtime does not define, modify or reinterpret the semantics of Canonical Knowledge Structures.

4. Non-Goals

CKS Runtime shall not define or redefine:

  • the canonical knowledge model;
  • object semantics;
  • relation semantics;
  • canonical identities;
  • canonical serialization;
  • canonical parsing;
  • canonical validation;
  • canonical constraints;
  • canonical diagnostics;
  • semantic evolution rules.

These responsibilities permanently belong to CKS Core.

5. Principles

5.1 Core First

CKS Core is the semantic foundation of the entire ecosystem.

Runtime extends Core operationally but never semantically.

5.2 Runtime Is Not a Semantic Authority

Runtime coordinates semantic services provided by CKS Core.

Runtime shall never:

  • implement semantic behaviour;
  • duplicate semantic behaviour;
  • redefine semantic behaviour;
  • become an alternative semantic authority.

The semantic authority of the CKS ecosystem permanently resides in CKS Core.

5.3 Specification Before Implementation

Every architectural capability shall be specified before implementation.

Implementation is a consequence of the specification, never its source.

5.4 Determinism

Runtime behaviour shall remain deterministic whenever required by:

  • CKS Core semantics;
  • Runtime specifications;
  • conformance requirements.

Operational services shall never introduce semantic ambiguity.

5.5 Separation of Concerns

Each architectural layer owns exactly one category of responsibility.

No layer shall redefine the responsibilities of another.

5.6 Observable Behaviour

The Runtime Standard defines requirements through externally observable behaviour.

Conformance shall be evaluated solely through externally observable behaviour.

5.7 Transport Independence

Runtime shall remain independent of any communication protocol.

MCP, CLI, HTTP and future transports are adapters rather than components of Runtime itself.

5.8 Implementation Independence

The Runtime Standard does not prescribe implementation structure, technology choices or internal algorithms.

Multiple independent implementations are expected.

5.9 Backward Compatibility

Runtime evolution shall preserve compatibility with supported versions of the CKS Core Standard.

Breaking changes shall require explicit versioning.

6. Architectural Position

The CKS ecosystem is organized into independent architectural layers.

Applications
        │
        ▼
Adapters
        │
        ▼
CKS Runtime
        │
        ▼
Public CKS Core API
        │
        ▼
CKS Core

Runtime communicates with CKS Core exclusively through the public semantic API exposed by CKS Core.

Operational dependencies flow downward.

Operational authority resides within CKS Runtime.

Semantic authority originates exclusively from CKS Core.

7. Standardization Process

Development of the Runtime Standard follows a specification-first methodology.

The expected workflow is:

Charter
    ↓
Analysis
    ↓
Specifications
    ↓
Architecture Decision Records
    ↓
Reference Implementation
    ↓
Adapters
    ↓
RFC

Every conforming implementation capability shall be preceded by its corresponding specification.

8. Relationship to CKS Core

CKS Runtime depends upon CKS Core.

CKS Core shall never depend upon Runtime.

Runtime operates exclusively on Canonical Knowledge Structures defined by Core.

Runtime shall treat the Core Standard as its normative semantic dependency.

Runtime communicates with CKS Core exclusively through its public semantic API.

Official Runtime implementations may integrate automatically with the official CKS Core package while preserving this architectural boundary.

Runtime shall not introduce an alternative semantic authority.

All semantic interpretation remains the responsibility of Core.

Runtime provides operational capabilities without modifying semantic meaning.

9. Long-Term Roadmap

The initial Runtime Standard comprises the following normative specifications:

  • Runtime Overview (SPEC‑001)
  • Session Model (SPEC‑002)
  • Runtime API (SPEC‑003)
  • Diagnostics (SPEC‑004)
  • Transactions (SPEC‑005)
  • Storage Abstraction (SPEC‑006)
  • Version History (SPEC‑007)
  • Conformance (SPEC‑008)

Future specifications may extend Runtime while preserving the architectural principles established by this Charter.

10. Long-Term Ecosystem

The CKS initiative is intended to evolve into a family of interoperable standards.

CKS Standards

Semantic Layer

├── Core Standard

Operational Layer

├── Runtime Standard

Exposure Layer

├── MCP Adapter Standard
├── CLI Adapter Standard
└── HTTP Adapter Standard

Verification Layer

└── Conformance Suite

Each standard addresses a distinct architectural concern while remaining interoperable through the canonical semantics defined by CKS Core.

11. Summary

CKS Runtime exists to operationalize canonical knowledge without redefining it.

Runtime orchestrates semantic services provided by CKS Core while managing operational lifecycle, transactions, persistence and execution.

The semantic authority of the CKS ecosystem permanently resides in CKS Core.

This separation establishes a stable architectural foundation upon which independent Runtime implementations, adapter standards and future ecosystem specifications may evolve while preserving a single canonical definition of knowledge.