---
title: adotom automaton · core enquiry
kind: enquiry-stake
captured: 2026-05-21
mode: reverse-socratic
---

# Core Enquiry

> The reverse-socratic move: do not ask the captain what they want. State what
> they have already implied, in one sentence, and let the captain push back if
> the framing is wrong.

## The captain's ask, in one sentence

*"Build me a to-do list that is actually a node-view of my 6D schema — local
today, server-portable tomorrow, Asana-shaped at the seam, Clockify-clocked
on the active task, viewer-skinned, cron-backed-up, and ready for me to use
on real tasks the moment it boots."*

## What the captain is NOT asking for

- A new schema. The 6D structure exists already (Principia Triskelion: six
  pairs across three lobes — Time/Word, Substance/Scale, Unity/Bound).
  This project slots in; it does not invent.
- A polished SaaS. The captain explicitly said *files on disk, HTML + JSON,
  cron backups*. Polish lives in the viewer skin, not the data layer.
- Asana-as-master. Asana is a downstream surface; the local nodes.json is the
  source of truth. The adapter pushes, the adapter does not pull-and-overwrite.
- A clock that only runs when the user remembers to start it. The clock is
  ambient. If a task is active, the clock is on. The captain wants to *try
  the system out* by working in it — that is the falsification test.

## The three-property test (from executing-as-architecting)

| Property | This project? |
|---|---|
| Ships | Yes — captain has a working URL by end of run |
| Recurs | Yes — every day, every task, every session |
| Generalizes | Yes — the 6D schema and the viewer skin are reusable across all of root |

Three of three. Parallel mode (execute + architect + document at once) is
the right shape.

## The reverse-socratic check

If after the build the captain says *"this is just a to-do list"*, the schema
failed. If the captain says *"this is the schema, finally with a body to use
it through"*, the schema landed.

## The drift-detection rule

Every artifact this run gets a stamp in its frontmatter linking back to this
file. If an artifact stops being able to point back to a line of this enquiry,
the artifact has drifted. **Drift response:** downscale — strip the artifact
back to the smallest version that still answers a line above.

## Falsifiers

- If after one working session the captain has to manually start the clock
  more than twice — diegetic-clock principle failed.
- If after one week the nodes.json has zero entries that exist *only* as a
  to-do (i.e., every node also exists in the cradle as a chapter or a
  character) — the to-do view did not extend the schema, it only mirrored it.
- If the Synology lift requires more than a `rsync` and a Web Station vhost
  edit — local-first portability failed.