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

grounded_in

A predicate declaring that the subject rests on the object as its normative or structural foundation — a substrate the subject cannot hold without. The relationship is stronger than influence: a subject grounded_in:: a target depends on that target for its own coherence, and removing the target would undermine the subject's claim to stand.

The edge lands in Relations when the subject is a node whose grounding is load-bearing for its authority — a Contract grounded in a Decision, a Requirement grounded in a Conviction, a Pattern grounded in a prior Pattern whose Forces the new Pattern inherits.

Carries

The predicate names a foundation: the subject rests on the object as substrate, and the object's authority is what the subject's authority flows from. When a Contract's Requirement is grounded_in::[[X Decision]], the Decision is what the Requirement cites as its source of commitment — the Requirement enforces what the Decision commits. When a Conviction is grounded_in::[[Y Substrate Conviction]], the derivative Conviction specializes the substrate one and inherits its normative force. The web of associations the predicate activates is the stack of grounding under any claim in the graph — a reader traversing grounded_in:: edges from a Requirement backwards reads the chain of commitments the Requirement rests on.

Grounding is structural, not decorative. A subject removed from its grounding is a subject without a foundation, and its authority is not recoverable from any other edge on the node. This is what distinguishes grounding from weaker influence relations like precedent or inspiration.

Crescent

Against [[informed_by -- weaker influence than grounded_in]]

informed_by:: names weaker influence: the subject draws on the object as precedent or shape, but the object is not the subject's substrate. A subject informed_by:: a target continues to stand if the target is weakened or withdrawn; a subject grounded_in:: a target does not. The distinction is between shape-without-dependence (informed_by) and structural dependence (grounded_in). Authors making the choice between them signal how load-bearing the relation is: choosing grounded_in:: is a stronger commitment than choosing informed_by::, and the predicate carries that weight.

Against [[derived_from]]

Ghost link; derived_from:: is not yet seeded as a Predicate. derived_from:: is construction provenance — how this node came to exist, the antecedent conversation or meeting or prior reasoning that produced it. grounded_in:: is normative or structural foundation — what this node rests on for its authority. The distinction is between construction (how it was built) and foundation (what it stands on). The same source can sometimes ground a node and be its construction antecedent; when that happens, both edges are appropriate, each carrying a distinct kind of relationship to the same target.

Typing

• Subject: Any node whose coherence rests on a substrate — typically Contracts, Requirements, Convictions, Patterns, or other nodes whose authority is claim-bearing.
• Object: Typically a Conviction, Decision, or established Reference. The object MUST be a node whose own authority can bear the subject's weight.

Instances

• prototype/nodes/Contracts/Gloss Form Contract.md carries grounded_in::[[Use Double-Hyphen Separator for Gloss Definitions]] — the Contract's filename-pattern Requirement rests on the Decision's commitment. Removing the Decision from the graph would leave the Requirement without a basis.
• prototype/nodes/Convictions/Translation Over Convergence.md carries grounded_in::[[Vocabulary Diversity Is a Feature]] — the specialized Conviction rests on the substrate Conviction. The translation-over-convergence operational rule has no normative basis without the diversity-is-a-feature stance underneath it.

Relations

• contrasts_with::[[informed_by -- weaker influence than grounded_in]]

  • Same direction, different weight. grounded_in:: is structural dependence; informed_by:: is shape-without-dependence. The author's choice between them signals the relation's load-bearing level.

• contrasts_with::[[derived_from]]

  • Ghost link; target Predicate not yet seeded. The Crescent names the distinction between normative/structural foundation (grounded_in) and construction provenance (derived_from).

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

  • The Conviction that makes naming the grounded_in-vs-informed_by distinction load-bearing at the predicate layer. The distinction encodes a specific kind of dependence that the project commits to preserving against convergence pressure.