llms-txt

Kinship Hub System

Treating software projects as beings in networks of relations — where every directory carries identity, lineage, responsibilities, and accountability to human and more-than-human kin.

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Core Principle

Under the Kinship Hub protocol, each directory is a being-with-a-role:

• It has identity — who/what it is in this system
• It has lineage — ancestors, descendants, siblings
• It has responsibilities and gifts — what it tends, protects, and offers
• It has relationships — to other directories, people, communities, lands, and more-than-human kin
• It participates in cycles — review, ceremony, archival, sunset

This is not metaphor. It is a structural reorientation grounded in Indigenous kinship law, Shawn Wilson’s research as ceremony, and the Four/Six Rs of Indigenous research.

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The KINSHIP.md File

Every kinship hub carries a KINSHIP.md — a living ceremonial charter that states:

Section	Purpose
Identity and Purpose	What this place tends and offers
Lineage and Place	Ancestors, descendants, siblings, related hubs
Human and Collective Relations	People, communities, consent agreements
More-than-Human Relations	Lands, waters, beings, cosmological connections
Responsibilities and the Rs	Concrete practices for each of the Six Rs
Protocols and Boundaries	Access, sovereignty, safety, consent
Accountability and Review	Stewardship, feedback loops, review rhythm
Tensions and Contradictions	Unresolved questions held openly
Ceremony, Story, and Memory	Narrative beats, relational events
Change Log (Relational)	Meaning of changes, not just mechanics

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What We Mean by Relationship

Relationality, not a relational database: a thing is known through its relationships, and those relationships carry responsibility on both sides. In Shawn Wilson’s words, “An Indigenous research paradigm is relational and maintains relational accountability” (Research Is Ceremony, 2008, p. 71). Definition and sources: llms-relationality.md.

At the Scale of a Specification

Below the repository, every specification folder in rispecs/ has a kin file, <topic>.kin.md. It says who and what the specification is in relationship with:

• what it came from;
• what it relies on, and what relies on it, often in other repositories;
• what walks beside it;
• who holds a decision it touches.

It also says what each relationship asks of us. Agents write it with the first spec, keep it true, and read it before acting.

When a relationship is out of balance, it is fixed where the relationship lives, not only in the local text. Wilson tells how re-translating Cora’s grandfather’s words “may have helped to correct the misinformation, but it would not have restored the relationship” (p. 78).

Protocol: llms-rispecs-kinship.md.

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Key Behaviors

For AI Companions

When working within a Kinship Hub:

1. Ask before inventing relations — derive from user descriptions, existing docs, and code structure
2. Treat refactors as relational changes — update lineage, append to change log with relational meaning
3. Respect local voice — preserve user’s own language for communities, teachings, places
4. Hold unresolved tensions — record in Tensions section rather than smoothing over
5. Never auto-regenerate — KINSHIP.md is a living charter, not a checklist

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

• Decorative Indigeneity — kinship language without structural change
• Pan-Indigenous flattening — treating all worldviews as interchangeable
• Premature resolution — explaining away contradictions
• Consent elision — assuming permission without checking
• Task-log collapse — reducing ceremonial charter to a to-do list

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Integration

Framework	Connection
Creative Orientation	Defines desired relational outcomes vs. current relational reality
Structural Tension	Diagnoses advancing vs. oscillating patterns in care and reciprocity
Narrative Craft	Beats capture relational events; referenced from KINSHIP.md
Performance Truth	MMOT for relational discrepancies — expectation vs. delivery in care
RISE Framework	Extracts kinship-relevant specs when reverse-engineering systems; every spec folder has a kin file

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Key Sources

• llms-kinship-hub-system.md — minimal protocol
• llms-kinship-hub-system-full.md — full protocol with Indigenous foundations
• llms-relationality.md — what we mean by relationship: relationality, not a database
• llms-rispecs-kinship.md — a specification’s kin file: write it, keep it true, read it before acting
• KINSHIP.md — this repo’s own relational charter

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