Paper 4 — Wire Language

Wire is the author-facing language layer of Cortex: a small graph language for composing registered authority into executable topology and bounded structural proposals.

Status

Draft manuscript. See manuscript.md for the full text.

Abstract

This paper presents Wire, a source language for authoring typed workflow and reasoning graphs above the Cortex substrate. Its central claim is that authoring should keep authority closed and composition open: executors, contracts, tools, and policy are registered externally, while the language itself exposes a small algebra for composing them into executable graphs and candidate rewrite fragments. The paper argues for homogeneous topological edges, endpoint-owned compatibility, partial-node reuse, and a shared authoring surface for both initial topology and bounded structural proposals.

Figures

• Figures/index.md — figure inventory and export status.
• wire-layering-overview.mmd — source for the main Wire layering figure.
• Publication-exported vector figures are not checked in yet.

Related

• manuscript.md — full manuscript.
• ../Paper-2-algebraic-foundations/ — algebraic substrate beneath Wire.
• ../Paper-3-graph-substitution-semantics/ — substitution and materialization semantics that Wire hands off to.
• ../../Architecture/05-wire-language.md — architecture chapter.
• ../../Reference/Wire/grammar.md — current normative grammar surface.