The Program loop [Concept]

The Program is the autonomous machine loop that keeps an expert's three layers of opinion current: Research → Opinion → Merge → Position. It runs daily from schedules (manual or autopilot).

flowchart LR
    W["**Research**<br/>research cycles +<br/>projection monitors"]
    O["**Opinion**<br/>select material<br/>belief movement"]
    T["**Merge**<br/>autonomously fold<br/>streams + notes into canon"]
    P["**Position**<br/>compose the<br/>forward read"]

    W --> O --> T --> P
    P -.->|"next run"| W

    W -.->|"emits"| Stories(["Stories — editorial feed"])
    O -.-> Stories
    T -.-> Stories
    P -.-> Stories
    Stories -.->|"the human judges;<br/>a tap stages a Directive"| T

• Research combines research cycles and Position monitors on shared run infrastructure.
• Opinion selects material belief movement — not a generic summary.
• Merge folds durable model change on the domain's cadence; a mature Stream (and any ready Notes) fold into canon through one Merge.
• Position composes a self-updating forward read (Graph → Reading → Position), applies Signals that reposition it on evidence, and surfaces notable shifts. A Position's forward read is never marked true or false — what gets graded is the committed consequence the read opens (see PIVOT).

Invariants

• Events project into Stories; Stories never become a second source of truth.
• Research admits each independently written Article once. Recaptures and copies are run-audit data, not evidence or Stories; several independent sources reporting the same event remain several Articles.
• A Story action stages a typed Directive (staged → reserved → applied | stale | superseded | cancelled) that fires on a later run — it never pretends work completed at tap time. Merging is autonomous (a directive here is a pre-window outcome designation, applied on the next fold, then cleared — no approval); a Position proposal still awaits the operator's judgment (pending) before it establishes.
• The human loop is configure + steer + judge, not maintain: the machine keeps the read current and folds canon on cadence; the human sets the cadence/switches, designates outcomes before a merge, and judges each Position.

Where it lives: lib/core/program/, lib/server/program/, lib/server/ops/handlers/, types/domain/program.ts. The run mechanics are in flows/story-pipeline; the scheduler wiring in flows/engine-pipeline. (Code namespace moved loop/ → program/; op ids + the domain.loop record field keep the historical name.)