Principia

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What this is ​

How Principia is built and how a graded measurement record flows from source to prior to consumer.

Shape ​

Principia is book + database: markdown-first construct-family surveys alongside an engineered registry + measurement-engine substrate (REST/MCP per the portfolio service standard; MCP via @modelcontextprotocol/sdk, contracts via zod). It is the canonical registry of organizational science — the rows, graded — not a re-implementation of schemas.

The three roles (don't conflate them) ​

  1. @measurement/core — the canonical vocabulary (Construct, Instrument, Item, Measure, Model, EffectSize, Publication, StudyQualityGrade).
  2. Principia — the canonical registry: the actual graded construct surveys, instrument inventories, and effect-size tables.
  3. Sibling apps (toolbox, CanonicAI, Vela) — consumers via @measurement/core-typed reads.

Data flow (source → prior → consumer) ​

CanonicAI pipelines  → ConstructCard / InstrumentCard / Citation   (authoritative source-side records)
   → Principia resolved-side spine  (CanonicalVariable, CanonicalSurveyItem — sits on top, not in place of)
   → grading + citation verification + novelty pass
   → synthesis → Bayesian priors  (Credible → Living → Useful)
   → @measurement/core-typed reads + /api/v1/* engines  → siblings & analysts

Measurement engines (/api/v1/*) ​

Methods advisor · credible-synthesis priors/posterior · local closed-loop validity · open-text coding to constructs · assemble-battery · Scoring Engine (scoring/confidence → θ̂) · response diagnostics (INFIT/OUTFIT + RT anomalies). MCP: principia tools.

Expansion & enrichment pipeline ​

  • Expansion — continuous discovery via watchlists (Scholar, Scite, OpenAlex), deep-research dispatches, and a manual-acquisition queue for paywalled/gray literature.
  • Enrichment — every entity deepened over time; psychometrics re-extracted as new papers cite known instruments; priors updated as evidence arrives.

Asset identity ​

Reuses CanonicAI's {domain}:{type}:{source_id} scheme verbatim; AssetDomain /AssetType enums live in @measurement/core/asset-id.ts and are consumed by type import.

Honest scope ​

Content is scaffolded and growing construct-family by construct-family; the engineering substrate is live (2026-05-19, PRN-010/011/013). Trust PIPELINE_STATUS.md and SPEC.md over this page for current coverage.

See also ​

Concepts · APIs & Data Contracts · Trust & Grading