From First Principle

From first principle

Contract

Not for

• A perspective take on a question: use the from-*-perspective seats.
• Pruning an existing structure down to its primitives: this rebuilds from primitives, it does not strip down.
• Restarting from a blank greenfield: use fromzero.
• Remote, credential, publish, deploy, or irreversible changes.

Inputs

Required: the target to rebuild (a design, an organization, or an API) and access to its current form for read-only comparison. Optional: the primitives the user insists on starting from; when absent, primitives are derived from the target itself.

Procedure

1. Name the target and confirm whether it is a design, an organization, or an API. Done when: the target type is stated.
2. Enumerate the irreducible primitives the target cannot exist without: concepts, data, or operations that are not themselves derivable from something smaller in this target. Done when: primitives are listed and each is confirmed irreducible.
3. Derive the target's structure from those primitives only. Reject any element that is not forced by a primitive or a necessary composition of primitives. Done when: every derived element traces to a primitive or composition.
4. For each derived element, record the primitive or composition that forces it. Elements with no primitive basis are open assumptions, not derived. Done when: each element is labeled derived or open-assumption with its basis.
5. Write the rebuild specification to a local artifact: the enumerated primitives, the derived structure, each derivation step, and the open assumptions. Done when: the artifact is written with all four sections.
6. Diff the rebuilt structure against the existing target, marking what changed and what was eliminated as non-primitive. Done when: the diff is recorded in the artifact.

Failure and recovery

• Primitives not enumerable: stop and report that the target cannot be reduced to stated primitives, naming the missing concept. Do not invent primitives.
• Element with no primitive basis: record it as an open assumption; never present an underived element as primitive-forced.
• Partial result: emit the artifact with derived sections complete and open assumptions listed; never fill a gap with a plausible but underived element.
• Non-mutation: the existing target is read-only throughout. Rollback is deleting the written artifact; no other state is touched.

Output

A local first-principles rebuild specification artifact: enumerated primitives, derived structure, per-element derivation steps, change/elimination diff against the existing target, and open assumptions, in that order.