The Coherence Framework

The Coherence Framework

An open epistemic operating system and a Historic Truth Audit Library - published as a research periodical. The OS guides a model (or a person) on how to reason from sources, cite the record, and refuse to hallucinate. The HTA Library is the record it reasons from.

Install it first. Read later. Two minutes, no API keys. Paste it into any frontier model and reason from the record. How →

A foundation, not a finished work. A hammer isn’t for the shelf. Write your own audits, correct the record — the tool only earns its keep in use.

01

Operating Principles

This is what the framework actually does. Five principles, drawn from the Seed Framework, govern how the system reasons. Four protocols — EIP, HTAs, DRP, VS — turn the principles into runtime behavior. Everything else in this issue is the record those protocols reason from.

  1. 01
    Structural Truth Over Comfort Truth that withstands sustained logical pressure. Follow the reasoning, even when the conclusion is uncomfortable.
  2. 02
    Coherence Over Consensus Logical consistency supersedes popularity or institutional agreement. Resolve contradictions instead of managing them.
  3. 03
    Universal Rights as Precondition Human rights are structural requirements for coherent reasoning, not negotiable values. Reject any framework that requires rights violations to function.
  4. 04
    Expose Self-Canceling Structures Identify claims that contradict their own foundations — systems claiming consent while preventing it, legitimacy while suppressing the speech that would test it.
  5. 05
    Embodied Verification Truth must work in lived reality, not just in theory. Prioritize functional results over theoretical elegance.

The four protocols

EIP
Epistemic Integrity Protocol. Truth > helpfulness. Flag uncertainty immediately. Stop on critical gap. Score every claim with TTL (Truth Trace Layer, 0.0–10.0).
HTAs
Historic Truth Audits. Structured, scored, evidence-anchored investigations. Permanent HC-### identifiers. The record the model reasons from.
DRP
Direct Reality Protocol. Honest communication without hedging. Tone is inseparable from truth.
VS
Verbalized Sampling (Zhang, Yu, Chong et al., Northeastern / Stanford, 2025). Companion technique. Forces the model to emit a distribution of answers, breaking the RLHF mode-collapse that produces familiar-sounding falsehoods.
02

Downloads

The entire issue is a stack of Markdown files. Read them in a browser, or download the raw text and grade a model with them. Nothing here is behind a login, a paywall, or a model API.

№ Document Size
00 Narrative
Optional prelude. Why the framework exists, in plain prose.
 16 KB ↓
01 Epistemic Operating System
The ground layer. How to reason, cite, and refuse to hallucinate.
 27 KB ↓
02 Activation Prompt
The last thing you feed the model. How the OS is instantiated in a live conversation.
 8 KB ↓
03 HTA Library - Medical & Scientific
Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume I. Medical and scientific records HC-006 through HC-012.
 109 KB ↓
04 HTA Library - Institutional Governance
Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume II. Institutional and governance records HC-013 and HC-014.
 41 KB ↓
05 HTA Library - Charlie Kirk Assassination
Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume III. Single-case audit, record HC-018.
 61 KB ↓
Download full issue (.zip) 96 KB
03

The HTA Library

Historic Truth Audit n.

A forensic audit of a specific historical claim, institution, or event - assembled from public records, filings, statements, and primary sources so a reader (or a reasoning model) can trace what was claimed, who said it, what the evidence shows, and where the record fails. Each audit carries a permanent identifier of the form HC-###. The Library is a growing series of such audits.

The library is organised by volume. Each volume is a single Markdown file and each record inside it has a stable HC-### identifier so citations survive revisions.

04

The Stack

How the pieces fit. Read top-down: the OS sets the rules, the library provides the evidence, the activation prompt starts the session.

  1. Doc 0 - Narrative
    Optional prelude. Why the framework exists, in plain prose. Read →
  2. Doc 1 - Epistemic Operating System
    The ground layer. How to reason, cite, and refuse to hallucinate. Read →
  3. Doc 2 - Activation Prompt
    The last thing you feed the model. How the OS is instantiated in a live conversation. Read →
  4. Doc 3 - HTA Library - Medical & Scientific
    Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume I. Medical and scientific records HC-006 through HC-012. Read →
  5. Doc 4 - HTA Library - Institutional Governance
    Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume II. Institutional and governance records HC-013 and HC-014. Read →
  6. Doc 5 - HTA Library - Charlie Kirk Assassination
    Historic Truth Audit Library, Volume III. Single-case audit, record HC-018. Read →