{ "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T11:06:47Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 20.9, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0954b-6432-7fa0-a29e-cd9c9665a0e6\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: magic\nSense to describe: any art that invokes supernatural powers\nDomain code: INF.KNW\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:\n# ", "usd": 0.0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 66.1, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0954b-643b-7d41-b554-c2532c8d4c22\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: magic\nRegistry id: vr.tr.magic\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.KNW\nRegistry definition: any art that invokes supernatural powers\nNames folded into this ent" } }, "enrichment": { "pass": 3, "engine": "claude", "producedAt": "2026-10-06T12:00:00Z", "ingestedAt": "2026-10-06T08:59:05+00:00", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "ethics", "failure_modes_and_hazards", "owners" ] }, "gate": { "passed": true, "version": "1.0", "at": "2026-10-07T12:16:27+00:00", "evidence": [ "completeness 1.00", "sense: WordNet gloss", "2 live sources", "review by codex: pass" ] } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-MAGIC", "registryId": "vr.tr.magic", "name": "magic", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/magic/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.magic", "name": "magic", "purpose": "Enable an agent to recognise, describe and assess practices registered as magic by recording their attributed supernatural powers, operative methods, cultural context and limits on interpretation or use.", "definition": "Magic is a culturally situated category of practices intended to produce effects through the invocation or manipulation of supernatural powers, beings, or correspondences, whose boundaries with religion and other forms of knowledge vary historically and socially.", "scope_statement": "This model owns magic under vr.tr.magic in INF / INF.KNW: the knowledge, prescriptions and interpretations of arts that invoke supernatural powers, without presuming that those powers exist or produce the claimed effects.", "in_scope": [ "Criteria used to identify a practice as magic and who applies that designation", "Supernatural powers, beings or agencies invoked within a practice's own account", "Ritual prescriptions, symbolic correspondences and conditions of performance", "Intended effects, reported outcomes and grounds for judging efficacy", "Transmission, interpretive authority and restrictions on magical knowledge" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Stage illusion and conjuring understood as entertainment through ordinary techniques", "Religion as a whole, including its institutions and general doctrines", "Practitioners as people, occupations or social groups", "Physical properties and custody of ritual objects, substances and places", "Individual ritual performances as events", "Fictional magic systems presented solely as features of creative works" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Identify an attributed supernatural power and an art that invokes it; an unexplained occurrence alone does not satisfy the registry definition.", "Separate claims of supernatural operation from performances explicitly framed as illusion, even when both use the word magic.", "Record whether magic is a participant's designation, an observer's category or an accusation; the label alone does not establish agreement.", "Do not classify a practice as magic solely because it includes prayer, ritual or symbolism; record the boundary convention used.", "Distinguish descriptions of an asserted practice from fictional depictions and metaphorical uses such as a magical experience." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Basis of designation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "self-designation | scholarly classification | external attribution | accusation | disputed | unspecified; multiple values allowed", "why_it_matters": "Identifies whose category is being applied and prevents contested labels from becoming unqualified descriptions." }, { "name": "Attributed supernatural agency", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Links to named powers, beings or forces, with attribution and uncertainty", "why_it_matters": "Records what is said to make the art operative without endorsing the account." }, { "name": "Intended effect", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Record source terms; optional groupings include protection, healing, harm, divination, attraction, transformation and other", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes practices by what their performance is meant to accomplish." }, { "name": "Mode of invocation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Record source terms; possible forms include spoken formula, inscription, gesture, offering, material preparation and combined performance", "why_it_matters": "Identifies the prescribed means of engaging the attributed power." }, { "name": "Conditions of operation", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Links to prescribed timing, place, materials, practitioner qualifications, sequence and prohibitions", "why_it_matters": "Preserves conditions treated as necessary within the described practice." }, { "name": "Tradition and transmission", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Links to attributed traditions, teachers, texts and transmission accounts, each with provenance", "why_it_matters": "Keeps different versions and authority claims distinguishable." }, { "name": "Outcome evidence status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "unassessed | testimony only | documented observation | comparative assessment | conflicting evidence; assigned per claim", "why_it_matters": "Separates evidence of practice and belief from evidence about an attributed effect or cause." }, { "name": "Knowledge access conditions", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "public | permission required | restricted | contested | unknown", "why_it_matters": "Guides whether an agent may reproduce, explain or operationalise particular material." } ], "affordances": [ "Classify a candidate practice against the registry definition while preserving disputed designations.", "Compare accounts of magical operation without merging distinct traditions or asserting supernatural efficacy.", "Trace a prescription or interpretation to its textual, oral or observational source.", "Distinguish intended effects, reported experiences, observed outcomes and causal explanations.", "Identify missing knowledge, access restrictions and practical risks before reproducing or acting on a prescription." ], "agent_conduct": { "may": [ "Describe magical practices as the communities that hold them describe them, with sources.", "Explain scholarly debates about where magic, religion and science are drawn apart." ], "must_not": [ "Present magical practice as an effective substitute for medical or psychiatric care.", "Offer paid readings, spells or curses, or exploit people in fear or grief.", "Support accusations of witchcraft against any person.", "Describe a living tradition as primitive, fraudulent or satanic." ], "requires_human": [ "Publishing material about a community's closed or initiatory practices." ] }, "ethics": { "considerations": [ "Witchcraft accusations still lead to violence and killing in several regions.", "Vulnerable and grieving people are exploited by paid magical services." ], "affected_parties": [ "People accused of witchcraft", "Practitioners of traditional religions", "Bereaved and desperate clients" ] }, "owners": { "steward": "The communities and practitioners who hold each tradition; scholars curate the historical record.", "master_systems": [] }, "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Relying on magical remedies delays effective medical treatment.", "Accusations of witchcraft lead to persecution and violence." ], "what_it_is_for": [ "Magic is encountered in culturally situated rituals, traditions and accounts that attribute effects to supernatural agency or correspondences.", "Practitioners may intend these practices to provide protection, healing, divination or influence over events.", "Historical and anthropological study examines those intentions and meanings without treating attributed supernatural effects as established facts." ], "facets_not_applicable": { "interfaces": "No universal technical standard or official classification governs magic as this broad cultural category independently of a specific practice or jurisdiction.", "recognition": "Magic is a culturally interpreted category of practices whose attributed supernatural basis cannot be established from visual appearance." } }, "sources": [ { "id": "oewn", "title": "Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-05976844-n", "url": "https://en-word.net/id/oewn-05976844-n", "what_it_supports": "sense and gloss of the concept", "url_status": "live", "checked_by": "http 200" }, { "id": "wiktionary-en", "title": "Wiktionary: magic", "url": "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/magic", "what_it_supports": "word senses and usage", "url_status": "live", "checked_by": "http 200" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "designation-and-boundaries", "name": "Designation and boundaries", "description": "Records why an art falls under magic and how that classification relates to participants' terms.", "rationale": "The registry definition requires both an art and invocation of supernatural powers; neither a label nor unfamiliarity alone establishes membership.", "layers": [ { "id": "grounds-for-inclusion", "name": "Grounds for inclusion", "description": "Identifies the practice and attributed power that support inclusion.", "findings": [ { "id": "art-and-power-attribution", "name": "Art and power attribution", "description": "Record the deliberate practice and the supernatural power it is described as invoking, preserving whose description this is.", "questions": [ { "text": "What art or prescribed practice invokes which attributed supernatural power?", "kind": "definition", "id": "art-and-power-attribution-q01" }, { "text": "Who supplies this account, and where can it be checked?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "art-and-power-attribution-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contested-classification", "name": "Contested classification", "description": "Preserves differences between self-description, analytical terminology and imposed labels.", "findings": [ { "id": "magic-label-and-neighbours", "name": "Magic label and neighbours", "description": "Record the convention distinguishing this practice from religion, illusion, fiction or metaphor, including disagreement.", "questions": [ { "text": "Do participants call this magic, use another term or reject the designation?", "kind": "definition", "id": "magic-label-and-neighbours-q01" }, { "text": "Under the stated convention, what separates or connects this practice and religious ritual, stage illusion or fictional magic?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "magic-label-and-neighbours-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "accounts-of-supernatural-operation", "name": "Accounts of supernatural operation", "description": "Represents how a practice explains the powers it invokes and the effects it seeks.", "rationale": "An agent needs the practice's own operative account to interpret its prescriptions without presenting that account as established causation.", "layers": [ { "id": "powers-and-engagement", "name": "Powers and engagement", "description": "Records attributed agency and the practitioner's proposed relationship to it.", "findings": [ { "id": "invoked-agency", "name": "Invoked agency", "description": "Describe whether the account involves petitioning, commanding, channelling or otherwise engaging a named power, using source terminology.", "questions": [ { "text": "What beings, forces or powers are invoked, and how is engagement with them described?", "kind": "definition", "id": "invoked-agency-q01" }, { "text": "Which source supports this operative account, and does another account disagree?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "invoked-agency-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "targets-and-correspondences", "name": "Targets and correspondences", "description": "Records intended effects and any asserted links between symbols, materials and targets.", "findings": [ { "id": "claimed-path-to-effect", "name": "Claimed path to effect", "description": "Document what the art seeks to affect and why its words, objects or actions are considered relevant within the account.", "questions": [ { "text": "What change or knowledge is sought, and who or what is its target?", "kind": "definition", "id": "claimed-path-to-effect-q01" }, { "text": "What source explains any claimed connection between the ritual elements and the intended effect?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "claimed-path-to-effect-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ritual-prescriptions-and-variants", "name": "Ritual prescriptions and variants", "description": "Describes the operative form of magical arts and the differences among documented versions.", "rationale": "A magical prescription can depend on exact words, sequences or qualifications; an agent must distinguish these requirements from incidental details.", "layers": [ { "id": "operative-sequence", "name": "Operative sequence", "description": "Records prescribed ritual components and their ordering.", "findings": [ { "id": "required-ritual-elements", "name": "Required ritual elements", "description": "Identify formulas, gestures, inscriptions, objects or preparations treated as required, optional or substitutable.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which words, actions, materials and sequence define the prescription in this version?", "kind": "definition", "id": "required-ritual-elements-q01" }, { "text": "Which omissions or substitutions are said to alter or invalidate it?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "required-ritual-elements-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "qualifications-and-conditions", "name": "Qualifications and conditions", "description": "Records conditions attributed to successful or authorised performance.", "findings": [ { "id": "performance-eligibility", "name": "Performance eligibility", "description": "Preserve stated requirements concerning initiation, preparation, timing, location and prohibitions without assuming they apply across traditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What practitioner qualifications, preparations, times or places are prescribed?", "kind": "definition", "id": "performance-eligibility-q01" }, { "text": "Which source or recognised authority establishes these conditions for this version?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "performance-eligibility-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "transmission-and-authority", "name": "Transmission and authority", "description": "Tracks how magical knowledge is transmitted, attributed and made accessible.", "rationale": "Accounts of lineage, secrecy and authenticity affect how a prescription can be interpreted and whether it may be reproduced.", "layers": [ { "id": "lineages-texts-and-versions", "name": "Lineages, texts and versions", "description": "Separates documented transmission from asserted origins or authenticity.", "findings": [ { "id": "traceable-prescription-history", "name": "Traceable prescription history", "description": "Link a prescription to identifiable attestations and record claimed lineage separately from supported transmission.", "questions": [ { "text": "What identifiable text, teacher, testimony or observation supplies this version?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "traceable-prescription-history-q01" }, { "text": "Which claims about antiquity, lineage or authenticity remain unsupported by the available record?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "traceable-prescription-history-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "restricted-knowledge", "name": "Restricted knowledge", "description": "Records conditions governing disclosure and instruction.", "findings": [ { "id": "disclosure-and-teaching-conditions", "name": "Disclosure and teaching conditions", "description": "Identify any initiation, permission or custodial conditions attached to sharing magical formulas and instructions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who asserts authority to permit disclosure or teaching, and what is the basis of that authority?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "disclosure-and-teaching-conditions-q01" }, { "text": "What may an agent quote, summarise or teach under the documented access conditions?", "kind": "action", "id": "disclosure-and-teaching-conditions-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "efficacy-interpretation-and-action", "name": "Efficacy, interpretation and action", "description": "Separates desired effects from evidence and identifies consequences relevant to agent action.", "rationale": "An agent must avoid treating testimony as proof of supernatural causation while still representing experiences, meanings and practical consequences accurately.", "layers": [ { "id": "outcomes-and-causal-claims", "name": "Outcomes and causal claims", "description": "Records how success is defined and what evidence supports each reported result.", "findings": [ { "id": "efficacy-assessment", "name": "Efficacy assessment", "description": "Distinguish intended results, participant interpretations, observations and causal conclusions, including how failures are handled.", "questions": [ { "text": "What counts as success or failure, over what period, and according to whom?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "efficacy-assessment-q01" }, { "text": "What observations or comparisons support the claimed result, and do they distinguish supernatural causation from other explanations?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "efficacy-assessment-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequences-of-use", "name": "Consequences of use", "description": "Identifies practical consequences of performing, recommending or labelling a practice.", "findings": [ { "id": "prescription-and-attribution-risks", "name": "Prescription and attribution risks", "description": "Assess concrete concerns arising from the particular prescription or attribution, such as hazardous materials, non-consenting targets or accusations against people.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the documented prescription involve hazardous substances, bodily intervention, non-consenting targets or replacement of necessary care?", "kind": "action", "id": "prescription-and-attribution-risks-q01" }, { "text": "Could presenting this attribution as fact expose a person or group to harm, and how should the agent preserve its source and uncertainty?", "kind": "action", "id": "prescription-and-attribution-risks-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "This sense names practices and associated knowledge, not a single institutionalized academic discipline.", "The listed kinds overlap; sympathetic and contagious magic are influential scholarly categories rather than universal practitioner classifications.", "Regional terminology and boundaries require contextual verification; descriptions of intended effects do not establish supernatural efficacy." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Sympathetic magic", "Contagious magic", "Ceremonial magic", "Protective or apotropaic magic", "Divinatory magic", "Harmful or malefic magic" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Ritual protection of people, dwellings, livestock, and possessions.", "Healing rituals and responses to illness or misfortune.", "Attempts to influence fertility, harvests, weather, or prosperity.", "Divination and guidance for decisions under uncertainty.", "Ritual attempts to attract affection, counter perceived attacks, or harm adversaries." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Supernatural efficacy is not established by reliable scientific evidence; perceived success can reflect coincidence, selective recall, or ordinary causal mechanisms.", "Reliance on magical healing can delay effective medical care.", "Some practices involve hazardous substances, fire, fasting, or physical injury.", "Claims of magical power can facilitate fraud, coercion, or financial exploitation.", "Accusations of harmful magic can lead to stigma, persecution, and violence." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "European historical classifications often distinguished natural magic, ceremonial magic, and illicit dealings with spirits; these boundaries shifted with religious and intellectual contexts.", "Practices translated as magic elsewhere may belong locally to healing, religion, divination, or ancestral relationships rather than a separate category.", "Contemporary Pagan and occult communities sometimes use the spelling 'magick' to distinguish their practices from stage entertainment." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Religion", "difference": "There is no universal dividing test; the distinction depends on local classifications, institutional authority, and historical context." }, { "name": "Stage magic", "difference": "Stage magic produces apparent impossibilities through performance techniques; it does not require supernatural powers." }, { "name": "Witchcraft", "difference": "Witchcraft concerns culturally specific identities, attributed powers, or practices; magic is broader and does not necessarily involve witches." }, { "name": "Divination", "difference": "Divination primarily seeks otherwise inaccessible knowledge, whereas magic also includes attempts to change events; the categories overlap." }, { "name": "Occultism", "difference": "Occultism encompasses teachings and movements concerning hidden knowledge, some of which include magical practice." }, { "name": "Study of magic", "difference": "The academic study of magic investigates beliefs, practices, texts, and social effects rather than invoking supernatural powers." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of magic this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which documented scholarly and participant conventions best delimit magic for this registry without imposing a universal boundary with religion?", "How should arts described through impersonal occult properties be classified when their sources do not explicitly call those properties supernatural?", "Which existing Vercy world models already cover this concept or its operative components and should be linked to avoid duplicate ownership?", "Which sources and custodians can establish transmission, variant relationships and disclosure conditions for the traditions eventually represented?", "What evidence is available for particular efficacy claims, and which claims remain untestable, insufficiently specified or unresolved?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 16, "questions": 26 } }