Six Primitives

Reference table for the six fixed protocol primitives. Authoritative contract: .nimi/spec/platform/protocol.md and rule family P-PROTO-*.

The Six

Primitive	Rule	Carries
Timeflow	`P-PROTO-100`	Progression, timing, temporal meaning
Social	`P-PROTO-101`	Relationships, social graph semantics
Economy	`P-PROTO-102`	Value, exchange, economic state
Transit	`P-PROTO-103`	Movement between worlds or contexts
Context	`P-PROTO-104`	Shared situational meaning
Presence	`P-PROTO-105`	Who or what is present, and under what conditions

Each primitive is a contract surface. Worlds may define their own internal rules; meaning that crosses worlds must fit one of these six contracts.

Authority

Layer	Role
Platform protocol	Defines the primitives' shape and version policy
Realm	Owns the source of truth and semantic execution for the six primitives
Apps	Consume and observe; do not execute

The P-PROTO-003 rule pins primitive semantic execution and truth source to Realm.

Cross-Consistency

A world transition that involves multiple primitives must satisfy all relevant primitive contracts simultaneously:

Constraint	Why
A transit must satisfy Social + Economy + Context simultaneously	Transit moves a participant across worlds; social standing, economic standing, and contextual meaning must all align
Presence cannot bypass social admission	Being "present" in a world requires social admission first
Timeflow cannot break economy settlement windows	Time progression must respect economic settlement boundaries

The six primitives are not independent enums. They are mutually constraining.

Versioning Posture

Property	Value
Strategy	`strict-only`
Cross-minor handshakes	Forbidden
Backward compatibility shims	Forbidden
Failure mode	Fail-close on contract violation

Clients must match. There is no graceful degradation pretending compatibility while violating contracts.

Authorization Presets

Apps interact with primitives under scoped authorization. The platform admits three preset templates that all share the same token shape and validation chain:

Preset	Read	Write	Delegate
`readOnly`	yes	no	no
`full`	yes	yes	no
`delegate`	yes	yes	one level

delegate allows up to one level of further delegation by default.

App Modes

Mode	Primitive read	Primitive write	Active count per world
`render-app`	yes	no	many
`extension-app`	yes	yes	at most one active per world

Audit Events

Cross-primitive actions emit audit events recorded under the platform audit dictionary (.nimi/spec/platform/kernel/tables/audit-events.yaml).

Six Primitives ​

The Six ​

Authority ​

Cross-Consistency ​

Versioning Posture ​

Authorization Presets ​

App Modes ​

Audit Events ​

Source Basis ​