What question did this study set out to answer?

To introduce a fourth primitive operator, compile, essential for canon-keeping AI agents' reasoning processes.

April 17, 2026Open Access

Compile: A Fourth Primitive for Canon-Keeping AI Agents

Key Points

To introduce a fourth primitive operator, compile, essential for canon-keeping AI agents' reasoning processes.
Named the compile(C, x) operator that organizes canon into a reasoning packet.
Defined structural requirements for the compile process.
Released a runnable reference implementation called Polycode under MIT license.
Identified compile as a necessary addition to the existing three operators: observe, decide, and remember.
Provided multiple new tools and features in version 2 of Polycode.
Implemented security measures like the identity gate to prevent information leakage.

Abstract

In Engine, Rules, and Canon (Salvo 2026b), the author proposed that a canon-keeping learner requires exactly three primitive operators: observe, decide, and remember. This document names a missing fourth operator compile (C, x) → P that materializes the canon into a bounded, well-typed reasoning packet before the decide step consults it, and extends Salvo (2026b) §3. 2 by one primitive. The compile primitive has two structural requirements: the substrate of the compiler must be disjoint from the substrate of the generator, and the final packet must be assembled by a deterministic non-LLM process. Polycode, the runnable reference implementation, ships these primitives under MIT license. Version 2 of this paper (v1. 1. 5 update) adds §6. 7 describing what shipped between v1. 1. 0 and v1. 1. 5: cross-platform pure-Node glob/grep, a zero-config hosted inference proxy at polylogicai. com/api/polycode/inference so users install via npx @polylogicai/polycode@latest with no environment variables, a describeᵢmage tool routed through Groq Llama 4 Scout vision, fetchᵤrl and webₛearch tools, a masked /key credential flow, a bracketed-paste-aware prompt, and a seventh witness primitive — the identity gate — that structurally prevents the generator from leaking pretraining-substrate provenance ("I was created by Anthropic"-class failures). The v1. 1. 5 harness is fifteen tests (T1–T10 functional, S1–S5 security). Install: npx @polylogicai/polycode@latest Source: github. com/polylogicai/polycode Package: npmjs. com/package/@polylogicai/polycode Disclosure. Polycode is inspired by Claude Code's public architecture at docs. claude. com. Polycode is not affiliated with Anthropic. No Claude Code code or system prompts are copied. Anthropic (compile tier) and Groq (generator tier) are consumed as arms-length paid API providers. Companion report: Polycode v1: A Context-Window-Free Agentic Coding CLI (Salvo 2026d-report), published alongside this v2 update. License: CC BY 4. 0 (this document). MIT (polycode source). Axiom: substrate cannot witness itself — applied to brand in v1. 1. 5 via the identity gate.

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