• conforms_to::[[Contract Form Contract]]
• extends_contract::[[Gloss Form Contract]]
• authored_by::[[Deep Context Community]]
• has_lifecycle::[[Seed Stage]]
• has_curation::[[Working Draft]]
• in_domain::[[Deep Context Architecture]]

Predicate Form Contract

A Predicate is a node that defines a typed edge-predicate used elsewhere in the graph. It carries the positive sense of the predicate — the shape of claim it makes when attached as an edge — together with the crescent distinctions that separate it from adjacent predicates and the subject-and-object typing that constrains where it may legitimately attach.

A Predicate is a specialization of Gloss: it defines a term, and that term happens to be a predicate name. It inherits Gloss's filename-carries-definition pattern and restate-and-elaborate body opening. It adds structural obligations specific to predicates — the [[Crescent -- the distinction a predicate holds against an adjacent predicate|Crescent]] section that documents what this predicate holds that its near-neighbors don't, and the Typing section that names the node shapes it connects.

The Predicate Form exists because the project holds vocabulary diversity load-bearing: adjacent predicates are not interchangeable, and the distinctions between them are the content the graph is committed to preserving. A Predicate node is the structural home for those distinctions. The Crescent section is required — not optional — because an undocumented crescent is a silent invitation to merge the predicate into a neighbor under later convergence pressure. The term comes from a Venn-diagram picture of two adjacent predicates as overlapping circles: they share an intersection, and each holds a crescent-shaped arc outside the intersection — the ## Crescent section carries that arc's content as prose.

Requirements

Inherits Gloss Form Contract

• All requirements of [[Gloss Form Contract]] apply, including the double-hyphen filename pattern, the bare-concept H1, and the restate-and-elaborate body opening.
• The requirements below are additions or refinements for Predicate nodes specifically.

Filename pattern

• The filename MUST follow <predicate> -- <one-clause sense>.md, inherited from Gloss.
• The concept side MUST be the predicate name without the trailing ::. Filesystems do not reliably carry ::, and the predicate's name as a concept (how other nodes wikilink to it) is distinct from its syntactic role as an edge marker.
• The one-clause sense SHOULD name the shape of the claim the predicate makes, not a category label. Prefer critiques -- principled disagreement with a position over critiques -- a disagreement predicate.

Identity predicate block

• The identity block above the H1 MUST include conforms_to::[[Predicate Form Contract]].
• The identity block SHOULD include in_domain::[[<Domain>]].

Body: Carries

Enforces [[Require Carries Section in Predicate Nodes]].

• The body MUST include a ## Carries section stating the positive sense of the predicate — what claim it makes when attached as an edge, what stance it encodes, what web of associations it activates.
• The Carries section MUST be written positively, not comparatively. Comparative content belongs in Crescent.
• Two to four sentences is typical. A Predicate load-bearing enough to earn its own node can usually sustain a longer Carries paragraph.

Body: Crescent

Enforces [[Document Predicate Crescents Against Adjacent Predicates]].

• The body MUST include a ## Crescent section when the Predicate declares one or more contrasts_with:: edges.
• Each adjacent predicate MUST have its own H3 subsection headed ### Against [[adjacent predicate]].
• Each Crescent subsection MUST state what this predicate carries that the adjacent one does not — the distinction that would be destroyed by merging them.
• The Crescent content on two adjacent Predicate nodes is NOT required to be symmetric. critiques -- ...'s crescent against challenges names what critiques holds; challenges -- ...'s crescent against critiques names what challenges holds. Each node carries its own account; the two accounts together are the full pairing.
• A Predicate with no declared contrasts_with:: edges MAY omit the Crescent section, but SHOULD include a sentence in the Carries section noting that no adjacent predicate has yet emerged.

Body: Typing

• The body MUST include a ## Typing section that names the subject and object shape the predicate expects.
• The subject is the node attaching the edge; the object is the wikilink target.
• Either side MAY be polymorphic — if so, state the polymorphism explicitly rather than leaving it undefined.
• If the predicate expects a specific node form (e.g., "the object MUST be a Contract"), state it here.

Body: Instances (Optional)

• An ## Instances section MAY list concrete uses of the predicate in the graph, to ground the Carries and Crescent sections in real edges.
• Each instance SHOULD name the subject node, the object node, and a one-clause gloss of what the edge claims in that context.

Relations section

• A Predicate MUST include contrasts_with::[[Adjacent Predicate]] for every adjacent predicate whose Crescent it documents. The contrasts_with:: edge is the pairing; the Crescent section is the content. Together they make the near-neighbor relationship structurally visible.
• A Predicate MAY include composes_with::[[Related Predicate]] when two predicates are routinely used alongside each other.
• A Predicate SHOULD include grounded_in::[[Vocabulary Diversity Is a Feature]] when its Crescent section is a direct instance of the conviction that vocabulary diversity is load-bearing.

Vocabulary registration

• A Predicate node's existence is the project's structural way of admitting a predicate to the local vocabulary. Creating a Predicate node SHOULD coincide with adding the predicate to CONVENTIONS.md.
• A predicate used in the graph without a corresponding Predicate node is a drift signal — the vocabulary is accreting without its distinctions being documented.

Relations

• extends_contract::[[Gloss Form Contract]]

  • Inherits the double-hyphen filename pattern and the restate-and-elaborate body opening; adds the required Carries, Crescent, and Typing sections and the contrasts_with:: edge for every documented crescent.

• conforms_to::[[Contract Form Contract]]

  • This file is itself a Contract; it conforms to the meta-contract that specifies what Contract nodes look like.

• grounded_in::[[Vocabulary Diversity Is a Feature]]

  • The conviction this contract realizes. The Crescent section is the structural home for the distinctions that conviction holds load-bearing, and the required contrasts_with:: pairing is what keeps adjacent predicates from being silently merged.

• grounded_in::[[Document Predicate Crescents Against Adjacent Predicates]]

  • Grounds the Crescent-per-neighbor Requirement.

• grounded_in::[[Require Carries Section in Predicate Nodes]]

  • Grounds the Carries Requirement and its positive-not-comparative framing.

• contrasts_with::[[Gloss Form Contract]]

  • A Gloss defines any term; a Predicate defines a term used as a typed edge and therefore carries subject-object typing and per-neighbor crescents. A Predicate is a Gloss with stricter body obligations and required adjacency relations.

• informed_by::[[Crescent -- the distinction a predicate holds against an adjacent predicate|Crescent]]

  • The Gloss that carries the Venn-non-overlap metaphor underwriting the ## Crescent section's shape. The per-neighbor H3 structure and the asymmetry of crescents across adjacent nodes both follow from the geometric picture.