• conforms_to::[[Reference Form Contract]]
• serves_as::[[Primary Convention Source]]
• under_license::[[CC-BY 4.0]]↗
• authored_by::[[Christopher Allen]]↗
• has_lifecycle::[[Seed Stage]]
• has_curation::[[Working Draft]]
• in_domain::[[Deep Context Architecture]]

Wikilinks and Named Edges Gist (Christopher Allen, 2026)

URL: https://gist.github.com/ChristopherA/151aefa6a6bde1ce4fa6b1182656cebe

The gist Christopher Allen published as an agent-reference guide for a plain-markdown convention combining wikilinks, named-edge predicates, and indented annotations. Deep Context treats it as the root of this project's convention layer: the filesystem-as-graph primitives, the progressive-disclosure discipline of annotated edges, the classification pattern using conforms_to::[[X Form Contract]] rather than is_a::[[X]], and the vocabulary-sovereignty stance that lets diverse contributors keep their local dialects while a facilitating agent translates across them.

Adopted

• The three-piece convention — [[Multi Word Wikilink]] plus predicate::[[Target]] named edges plus indented sub-bullet annotations — as the primary machinery every node uses.
• ↗ as external-referent marker — a trailing arrow on a wikilink whose target lives in a different wiki or external tradition, signaling "not a broken link, not a ghost link, a cross-wiki reference."
• conforms_to:: over is_a:: for classification — conformance is pluralizable; identity forces premature commitment.
• Predicate axis refactoring — predicates that smuggle more than one question into a single value get split into single-axis predicates before they ossify. The prototype names this as a recurring craft move in [[Refactor the Predicate's Axes]], paired with the predicate-atomicity Requirement in [[Markdown Node Contract]] as its standing structural rule.
• Translation, not convergence — when two contributors use different vocabulary for overlapping territory, both edges land in the graph as distinct claims and an agent translates between them rather than normalizing to a canonical form.
• Progressive disclosure for finite context — identity predicates above the H1 let a reader or agent orient before any prose is read, spending a finite context budget deliberately on the nodes and edges most worth traversing. The prototype names this as a recurring authoring move in [[Progressive Summary Before Substance]], paired with the layered-structure Requirement in [[Markdown Node Contract]] as its standing structural rule.

Not adopted (yet)

• Renditions/ and Archives/ convention — adopted in principle for later sessions, but no sources yet warrant the folder layout. The decision to adopt it is deferred until the first source wants it.
• Full vocabulary breadth — the gist surveys a richer predicate family than Deep Context has introduced. Predicates are added locally only when 2–3 nodes actually want them; the gist's full catalog is reference material, not a checklist.

Key moves to remember

• Annotated predicates (indented sub-bullet under the edge) are the mechanism that keeps the graph readable to a contributor scanning it, not just to an agent traversing it.
• Ghost links (wikilinks to targets that do not yet exist) are a planning signal, not a bug — they declare intended future nodes without requiring creation-first discipline.
• The convention is plain-markdown expressible without tooling: no database, no schema layer, no editor lock-in. Any markdown file is a graph node; any predicate::[[Target]] line is a typed edge.

Relations

• informs::[[Markdown Node Contract]]

  • Markdown Node Contract encodes the gist's wikilinks-and-named-edges specification as file-form requirements — identity block above H1, - predicate::[[Target]] bullets, ↗ for external provenance, no scalar mirrors of graph predicates.

• informs::[[Adopt Wikilinks and Named Edges]]

  • The Decision that commits this graph to wikilinks plus named edges plus contributor-vocabulary plurality. This Reference is the source the Decision is informed_by::.

• informs::[[Contract Form Contract]]

  • Contract Form Contract specializes the gist's conforms_to::[[X Form Contract]] move into the self-conformance and inheritance patterns that Contract nodes use.