Palette: Current brand

Design language 0.2 · Proposal for founder review

The Living Trace

From one human testimony to a constellation of cultural memory. A working metaphor, not an official slogan: a point is an origin, a line is a relationship with a known basis, a boundary is consent and community authority, and every trace stays connected to its source.

Everything on this page is a synthetic demonstration. It is excluded from search indexes and from every record count. The narrative version runs on the homepage.

Six primitives, one grammar

These are not decorations.

Each primitive has one meaning and is used only for it. A visible connection always carries a type and a path back to its source; uncertainty is drawn differently from attestation.

01 Origin
A source, person, record, or place. Drawn from the mark's own circumpunct. Hollow and dotted where an origin is expected but not on record.
02 Trace
A typed, evidence-linked relationship. Continuous only when the basis is recorded or attested.
03 Constellation
Plural records, navigable and never merged. Always paired with a text list of the same relationships.
04 Boundary
Consent and community authority, including absence. A quiet double rule, never a padlock, blur, or unlock button. Enforced in data, not CSS.
1. v0.1
  Created
  Recorded
05 Time
Versions, continuity, and change: a record's own history, never a claim that a culture is linear.
06 Voice
Human presence, never wallpaper. Without consented audio, the honest waveform is a silent one. Always opt-in, always with a text path.

Evidence states: how a trace is drawn

Recorded: Present in the source material itself.
Attested: Stated by an identified source, with a reference you can follow.
Inferred: An interpretation, not a verified claim. The interpreter is named.
Contested: Accounts disagree. Each account is kept and attributed; none is overwritten.
Unknown: No evidence on record. The absence is shown rather than filled in.

Proof A · Narrative

The Origin

The approved mark, unaltered, is the opening composition. Its resonance line keeps going: it becomes the spine of the homepage, and each movement begins at its own origin point on that line.

Origin: The mark's circumpunct: where a memory, and the visit, begins.
Transmission: The mark's triangle, left exactly as approved.
Resonance → trace: The mark's last line continues as the page's spine. One line, from origin onward.
Movement origin: Each of the six movements starts on the spine, so the page is itself a trace.
Statement: TIRO's founding premise, not a new slogan: “There is enlightenment in exploration, but empathy is essential.”
Without motion: The spine draws downward once on load. With reduced motion it is simply present. Nothing waits on animation.

View Proof A on the homepage

Proof B · Interface

The Record

A working archival view in the Paper register: source, authority, consent and access, context, transcript, provenance, and related records, each claim carrying its evidence state. Synthetic, and labeled before anything else.

Memory record DEMO-LT-0001

Synthetic demonstration

Synthetic demonstration. No real person, community, place, testimony, or consent is represented. Fields show how a record is structured, not what any record contains.

An oral account, held with its context intact

A specimen record showing how TIRO structures a single testimony for custody: who the source is, who holds authority, what each use permits, and how every claim about it is evidenced. It contains no testimony.

Schema proposal: no approved Memory Record Specification yet

Source

Synthetic source S-01

Not a real person. A real record identifies its human source here, as the source chooses to be identified.

Voice and transcript

Listen: No audio attached; No audio attached. TIRO never autoplays a voice; a real recording would play only when you choose, with a transcript alongside.
Read: No transcript; No transcript. A synthetic record has no source media. A real record shows the source-language transcript and its attributed translation side by side.
Access notes: Demonstration fields only; Published (demonstration fields only)

Context

Language: Not specifiedUnknownA real record names the language and variety as the source identifies them.
Place: Not specifiedUnknown
Date of account: Not specifiedUnknown
Translator / context: NoneRecordedTranslations are attributed to a named translator and kept beside the source text.
AI processing: Disabled. No transcription, translation, or model processing has been applied.

Source of the account from Source S-01Recorded
Record DEMO-LT-0001 names this source in its own source field. For a real record, the consent receipt behind it stays restricted. Claimed by: Record source field (synthetic). Recorded by: Record DEMO-LT-0001.
View source chain
Translated as to Translation of ARecorded
A translation is a derivative of Record A, attributed to its translator and kept beside the source. It is not a new source. Claimed by: Synthetic translator X-01 (illustrative role). Recorded by: Synthetic translator X-01 (illustrative role).
View source chain
Spoken in to LanguageAttested
The language as the source identifies it. In this specimen the value is not specified; the link shows where the claim would come from. Claimed by: Synthetic source S-01. Recorded by: Record DEMO-LT-0001.
View source chain
Refers to to PlaceAttested
A place named in Record A's account. Claimed by: Synthetic source S-01. Plus 1 account from a restricted source, acknowledged only. Recorded by: Record DEMO-LT-0001.
View source chain
Describes to Event describedAttested
Record A gives an account of this event. Claimed by: Synthetic source S-01. Recorded by: Record DEMO-LT-0001.
View source chain
Differ on when the event happened to Record BContested
The two accounts place the event at different times. Both are kept and attributed; neither corrects the other. Claimed by: Synthetic source S-01; Synthetic source S-02. Recorded by: TIRO curator (illustrative role): noted that the accounts differ, without deciding between them.
View source chain
Interpreted in to Curatorial noteInferred
A curatorial reading of Record A: TIRO's interpretation, kept apart from the account and labeled as such. Claimed by: TIRO curator (illustrative role). Recorded by: TIRO curator (illustrative role).
View source chain

Authority and capacities

Source authority: Demonstration only. No authority is claimed.; Unknown
Legal rights holder: Not assessed. Unknown rights need assessment, not assumed clearance.; Unknown
Collector: None. Nothing was collected.; Recorded
Contributor: None.; Recorded
Subject: None. No person is represented.; Recorded
Signer capacity: Not applicable. No consent was signed.; Recorded

Collector, contributor, subject, source authority, rights holder, and signer are separate capacities. One person may hold several only with supporting evidence.

Publication: Published (demonstration fields only)
Custody: Not ingested. No archival object exists.

Permitted uses, each on its own

Recording / collectionNot applicableDoes not imply retention or public access.
PreservationNot applicableNo automatic publication.
PublicationLimitedNamed audience and channels only.
ResearchNot grantedSeparate access and output conditions.
DerivativesNot grantedTranslation or adaptation within approved scope.
Model trainingNot grantedOnly when specifically authorized.
Synthetic reproductionNot grantedVoice or likeness needs distinct authorization.
Commercial reuseNot grantedEducational access never grants it.

Withdrawal

For a real record, this states who may request withdrawal or restriction, how, and what withdrawal does to the record and its derivatives. This demonstration has no source who could withdraw it. Read the governing policy.

Revision and provenance

2026-10-16
Specimen created as a design study
TIRO design (Living Trace v0.1)
Recorded
No date
No original media attached
Unknown
No date
No review or verification. None is implied.
Unknown

Notice first: The synthetic label precedes every field that looks like an archival claim (docs/ethos.txt §6.1).
Capacities kept apart: Source authority, rights holder, collector, contributor, subject, and signer are separate rows (§3.2).
Purpose does not transfer: Each of the eight uses in §3.3 has its own state. Only “granted” is drawn solid.
Absence made visible: No audio is shown as a silent waveform, not an invented one. Unknown values say “not specified.”
Every link typed: Related records show relation type, evidence state, basis, who asserted it, and a source-chain link.
Two statuses: Publication and custody are independent (§12), so they are shown separately.

Proof C · Stewardship

The Boundary

What a visitor is permitted to know, and nothing more. Two states, enforced by what the server sends rather than by what the browser hides.

Restricted · authorized notice

This material is not available for public access.

This material is held for preservation and is not available for public access. Its rights authority has authorized only this notice: no title, description, or other details.

Reference: DEMO-LT-0002
What this page will never show: Title or description
People, places, or dates
Media or transcript
Relationships to other records

If you believe you hold authority over this material, or have a question about it, contact a steward with the reference above. A request does not by itself grant access.

Undiscoverable

Some records are not shown at all, and not marked as hidden.

No record object rendered

No title, placeholder, count, or “hidden item” marker. The server sends nothing, so there is nothing here to reveal.

Ask for an undiscoverable record by its ID and you get the same “not found” as for an ID that never existed. We can't point you to an example. Naming one would disclose that it exists.

Allow-list projection: src/lib/livingTrace/projection.ts builds every public object field by field. A field added later is withheld by default.
Same 404: An undiscoverable record has no generated page; dynamicParams = false gives it the same 404 as an ID that never existed.
No counts: Nothing reports how many records are withheld. A count would disclose that they exist.
Not in the graph: A relationship to a restricted record is metadata about it, so restricted records never appear in Discover.
No notice, no record: A restricted record without an authorized notice is treated as undiscoverable.
Proved by tests: projection.test.ts plants canary strings in restricted data and fails if any projection carries one.

Open the restricted notice as its own record page

Movement 03 · Interaction

Connection without collapse

Select any relationship or point, in the drawing or the list, to see its accounts, who made each claim, who recorded it, and each account's own chain back to its source. The selection is kept in the address, so it can be linked to.

Synthetic demonstration graph · not archival data

Relationships (13)

Source S-01 → Record ASource of the account · Recorded
Source S-02 → Record BSource of the account · Recorded
Source S-03 → Record CSource of the account · Recorded
Record A → Translation of ATranslated as · Recorded
Record A → LanguageSpoken in · Attested
Record C → LanguageSpoken in · Attested
Record A → PlaceRefers to · Attested · 2 accounts
Record A → Event describedDescribes · Attested
Record B → Event describedDescribes · Attested
Record A → Record BDiffer on when the event happened · Contested · 2 accounts
Record A → Curatorial noteInterpreted in · Inferred
Record C → PlaceSame place as Record A? · Unknown
Record C → Event describedMentions · Attested

Accounts, not facts: A relationship holds one or more attributed accounts. A disagreement keeps every account, each with its own origin; none is merged or corrected away.
Claimant ≠ recorder: Who made each claim is shown apart from who recorded or interpreted the relationship. A curator who notes a disagreement decides nothing.
Provenance is not connectivity: Chains follow source links only (source of the account, translated from). Two records meeting at a place are connected, not corroborated.
Independence is checked: Accounts that trace to the same origin are reported as not independent, however many there are.
The claim is the unit of disclosure: A restricted record's notice authorizes nothing about its claims. A claim appears as “withheld” only with its own grants for existence AND association with that relationship; otherwise it leaves no trace. A withheld claim never decides what a relationship says: a disagreement that rests on one is not shown at all.
Built to grow: Nodes are placed by a deterministic layered layout (origins → records → derived → shared context), tested with 30-record collections. There are no hand-placed coordinates.

Foundations

Tokens and type roles

Swatches render live from the tokens, so the palette switch above changes them. Contrast ratios for both palettes, in both themes, are listed in docs/design/living-trace.md.

Field
--tiro-bg
Immersive field
Raised
--tiro-raised
Panels, inspectors
Text
--tiro-text
Reading surface ink
Accent
--tiro-accent
Origin and its own line
Mineral
--tiro-mineral
Relationships between records
Contested
--tiro-contested
Disagreeing accounts

Editorial · Spectral: Listen with care.; Statements and attributed quotations only.
Interface · Karla: A restrained interface stays legible for decades.; Body, navigation, fields, and controls.
Catalog · Space Mono: Sources. Context. Consent.; Labels and identifiers, sparingly. Never paragraphs.