Specification · Chapter 3 of 8

Core Concepts

Note

Chapter 3 of the v1.0 reading path, carried verbatim from docs/Specification/ in the canonical repository. This page is one chapter of the normative specification, published on its own URL for reading and citation by chapter; the one-page edition carries all eight chapters and the citation metadata. Each concept is defined in full in the granular documents (Core Vocabulary and Models); this reading path cites them and never replaces them.

Core Concepts SPEC-03

Draft v1.0 docs/Specification/03 Core Concepts.md

Purpose

This chapter orients the reader before the detailed Meta Model (Chapter 4) and Object Model (Chapter 5). It introduces, at a glance, the concepts that everything else in this specification is built from.

Object

Object is the universal abstraction within OCOM. It is an identifiable and governable element that exists within the operational model — something that can be described, managed, related, evaluated, or governed throughout its lifecycle, independently of implementation technology or business domain.

All managed concepts defined by this specification — Entity, Organization, Domain, Workflow, Event, Lifecycle, Policy, Contract, and others — are specializations of Object.

Entity

Entity is the primary operational construct built from Object. Every operational model defined by this specification is composed of entities and the relationships between them. An entity possesses identity, belongs to exactly one primary Domain, has defined ownership, contains attributes, defines one or more states, and follows a lifecycle.

Domain

Domain is an operational boundary responsible for governing one or more entities. A Domain organizes responsibility rather than organizational structure — it represents what is governed, not who performs the work.

Relationship and Reference

Relationship is a governed, semantic association between Objects — it expresses meaning ("Campaign targets Player"). Reference is a directed association that identifies a target Object without carrying semantic meaning. The two are deliberately distinct: a Reference is a pointer, a Relationship carries business meaning.

Lifecycle, State, and Event

State is a discrete operational condition describing an entity's status at a point in time. Lifecycle is the complete set of states and permitted state transitions that define an entity's operational existence — every entity has exactly one. Event is an immutable record of something that has occurred; events describe facts and do not themselves define behavior.

Workflow

Workflow is a structured sequence of operational activities that performs defined state transitions. Where Relationship and Event describe structure and facts, Workflow represents behavior.

Capability, Policy, and Contract

Capability is a governed description of an ability possessed or provided by an Object — potential functionality, not a specific execution. Policy is a governed set of rules that defines expected behavior or constraints applicable to one or more Objects. Contract is a governed agreement between two or more Objects specifying the conditions under which they interact.

How These Concepts Relate

Object
  |
  |-- is specialized by ----> Entity, Organization, Domain, Workflow, Event,
  |                            Lifecycle, Policy, Contract, Registry, ...
  |
  |-- is described by ------> Identity, Metadata, Classification, Ownership
  |
  |-- is connected by ------> Relationship (meaningful) / Reference (structural)
  |
  `-- is governed by -------> Policy, Constraint, Contract

An Entity belongs to a Domain, follows a Lifecycle expressed through States, is affected by Events, participates in Relationships with other Entities, and may be acted upon by Workflows.

What Is Deliberately Not Introduced Here

This reading path compiles the Meta Model, the Object Model and the Lifecycle Model (Chapters 4 to 6). Memory, Knowledge, Context and AI Agents are defined in their own sections of the repository (docs/Memory/, docs/AI/) and are governed by Core/Constitution.md; they are outside this reading path, neither prerequisites for Chapters 4 to 6 nor extensions of them. Runtime and execution semantics are not defined by the Core. Core Conformance (Chapter 8) is defined over Chapters 4 to 6.

Revision History

Version Date Description
0.2 22 July 2026 Compiled reading path, approved by the Architecture Committee with editorial changes (Specification/Committee Review Package.md).
1.0 17 September 2026 Organization added to the specializations of Object (prose and diagram) per Meta/Organization.md; the Policy sentence restated from Meta/Policy.md; the closing section restated: Memory, Knowledge, Context and AI Agents are defined in their own sections and governed by the Constitution, outside this reading path rather than extensions of it.

Source: synthesized from Meta/Object.md, Meta/Relationship.md, Meta/Reference.md, Meta/Capability.md, Meta/Policy.md, Meta/Contract.md, Models/Entity.md, Models/Domain.md, Models/Relationship.md, Models/Event.md, Models/State.md, Models/Lifecycle.md, Models/Workflow.md, Meta/Organization.md, Core/Constitution.md. No new concepts introduced. (17 September 2026: recompiled as v1.0 against the canonical documents as of this date; see Revision History)