{ "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T11:51:42Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 20.6, "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: 01a09574-9ad1-7072-9d1c-f7ea976ce25e\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: pain\nSense to describe: emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid\nDomain code: SOC.PER\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this", "usd": 0.0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 60.9, "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: 01a09574-9ade-7ac1-9c65-f27621a3cb79\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: pain\nRegistry id: vr.tr.pain-feeling\nPlane / domain: SOC / SOC.PER\nRegistry definition: emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to " } }, "enrichment": { "pass": 3, "engine": "claude", "producedAt": "2026-10-06T11:00:00Z", "ingestedAt": "2026-10-06T08:12:50+00:00", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "ethics", "failure_modes_and_hazards", "owners" ] }, "gate": { "passed": true, "version": "1.0", "at": "2026-10-07T12:16:28+00:00", "evidence": [ "completeness 1.00", "sense: WordNet gloss", "2 live sources", "review by codex: pass" ] } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-PAIN-FEELING", "registryId": "vr.tr.pain-feeling", "name": "pain", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/pain-feeling/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.pain-feeling", "name": "pain", "purpose": "Help an AI agent recognise and describe emotional pain, understand its reported course and effects, and identify responses consistent with the person's needs and wishes.", "definition": "Emotional pain is a subjectively distressing affective experience associated with perceived loss, rejection, threat, or unmet psychological needs, generally experienced as aversive and distinct from, though sometimes accompanying, physical pain.", "scope_statement": "This model owns pain as emotional distress under registry entry vr.tr.pain-feeling in SOC / SOC.PER, including its subjective qualities, attributed context, effects and desired responses; it does not treat pain as a diagnosis or assume that all distress has an identifiable cause.", "in_scope": [ "A person's reported experience of emotional hurt or suffering", "Intensity, duration, recurrence and changes in emotional pain", "Events, relationships and meanings the person associates with the pain", "Effects on attention, everyday activity and social connection", "Preferences for acknowledgement, support, privacy and relief" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Physical pain as a sensory experience, while allowing a relation to co-occurring physical pain", "Mental health diagnoses and their diagnostic criteria", "Grief, loneliness, shame, fear and other neighbouring experiences as complete models", "The harmful event or relationship itself", "Clinical treatment protocols and crisis assessment procedures" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The referent is felt emotional suffering, rather than an injury, bodily location or sensory pain alone.", "An adverse event does not establish an instance of emotional pain without evidence about the person's experience.", "The person may describe hurt or suffering without identifying a discrete emotion; the model must preserve that description rather than force a sadness, fear or shame label.", "Emotional pain alone does not establish a mental disorder, and the model must not convert intensity into a diagnosis.", "Observed crying, silence or withdrawal can prompt inquiry but cannot independently establish the presence or severity of emotional pain." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Reported quality of pain", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Person's own words; optional person-endorsed descriptors such as hurt, anguish, emptiness or overwhelm", "why_it_matters": "Preserves the experience without assuming that different expressions mean the same thing." }, { "name": "Reported intensity", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Person-defined verbal scale or optional 0-10 rating, with anchors and reporting time recorded", "why_it_matters": "Supports tracking changes within a person's account without assuming ratings are comparable across people." }, { "name": "Temporal course", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Onset if known; ongoing or ended; continuous or episodic; improving, stable, worsening, fluctuating or uncertain", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes a current episode from a past experience and makes change visible." }, { "name": "Attributed source", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Person-attributed links to events, relationships, memories or circumstances; multiple, unknown or undisclosed", "why_it_matters": "Records meaningful context while keeping attribution separate from established causation." }, { "name": "Pain-related meaning", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Person-described significance, such as loss, rejection, betrayal or threatened belonging; uncertain or undisclosed", "why_it_matters": "Helps distinguish what hurts from the external event that occasioned it." }, { "name": "Everyday interference", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Reported effects on sleep, concentration, self-care, work or study, and relationships; extent described separately", "why_it_matters": "Captures consequences that an intensity rating may not express." }, { "name": "Relationship to bodily pain", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "No bodily pain reported, co-occurring bodily pain, unclear overlap or not discussed", "why_it_matters": "Maintains the emotional-pain boundary without discarding mixed experiences." }, { "name": "Desired response", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Listening, acknowledgement, company, practical help, space, help accessing support, another stated preference or unknown", "why_it_matters": "Guides action without assuming that immediate suppression of the feeling is the person's goal." }, { "name": "Disclosure boundaries", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "What the person agrees to discuss, retain or share, with whom and for what purpose", "why_it_matters": "Keeps sensitive descriptions aligned with the person's expressed boundaries." } ], "affordances": [ "Elicit and preserve the person's description of what hurts without imposing a diagnosis.", "Track reported changes using consistent, person-understood descriptions or scale anchors.", "Map attributed triggers and meanings while marking uncertainty about causes.", "Identify reported interference and ask which effects the person wants help addressing.", "Offer support options and record which responses the person welcomes or declines.", "Route an explicitly disclosed safety concern to an appropriate separate process without equating emotional pain with dangerousness." ], "agent_conduct": { "may": [ "Respond to a person's emotional pain with respect and point to support when they ask.", "Explain emotional pain and its relation to grief, rejection and loss." ], "must_not": [ "Dismiss or mock a person's emotional pain.", "Exploit someone's distress to sell, persuade or keep them engaged.", "Disclose what a person shared about their pain without consent.", "Ignore signs that a person is at risk of harming themselves." ], "requires_human": [ "Contacting emergency services or others about a person in acute distress." ] }, "ethics": { "considerations": [ "People in emotional pain are vulnerable to manipulation and need dignity and care.", "Signs of suicide risk must be taken seriously." ], "affected_parties": [ "People in distress", "Their families and friends" ] }, "owners": { "steward": "Nobody owns it; each person holds their own feelings.", "master_systems": [] }, "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Isolation and worsening mental health when pain is ignored.", "Risk of self-harm in severe distress." ], "what_it_is_for": [ "Emotional pain may be experienced during bereavement, rejection, conflict or other circumstances involving perceived loss or unmet psychological needs.", "Descriptions of emotional pain help people communicate distress and its effects on relationships, attention and everyday activities.", "It is discussed in personal support and therapeutic settings to understand the person's experience and desired support." ], "facets_not_applicable": { "interfaces": "Emotional pain in this broad sense is a subjective experience rather than a standalone diagnosis with a universally applicable classification.", "recognition": "Emotional pain is a subjective feeling that cannot be identified reliably from visual appearance alone." } }, "sources": [ { "id": "oewn", "title": "Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-07509503-n", "url": "https://en-word.net/id/oewn-07509503-n", "what_it_supports": "sense and gloss of the concept", "url_status": "live", "checked_by": "http 200" }, { "id": "wiktionary-en", "title": "Wiktionary: pain", "url": "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pain", "what_it_supports": "word senses and usage", "url_status": "live", "checked_by": "http 200" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "felt-hurt-and-boundaries", "name": "Felt hurt and boundaries", "description": "Establishes what the person means by pain and which aspects belong to this emotional experience.", "rationale": "The name pain can refer to bodily sensation, emotional suffering or a mixture, so recognition requires more than matching the word.", "layers": [ { "id": "personal-description", "name": "Personal description", "description": "Records the experience through the person's own language and endorsed interpretations.", "findings": [ { "id": "meaning-of-pain", "name": "Meaning of pain", "description": "Record what feels painful and retain uncertainty when the person cannot or does not wish to describe it.", "questions": [ { "text": "When the person says pain, what emotional experience do they mean?", "kind": "definition", "id": "meaning-of-pain-q01" }, { "text": "Which descriptions come directly from the person, and which are interpretations by someone else?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "meaning-of-pain-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "neighbouring-experiences", "name": "Neighbouring experiences", "description": "Separates emotional pain from bodily pain, specific emotions and diagnostic classifications.", "findings": [ { "id": "overlap-without-conflation", "name": "Overlap without conflation", "description": "Represent related experiences as links rather than treating them as interchangeable names for emotional pain.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the person describing emotional hurt, bodily pain or an experience they cannot separate?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "overlap-without-conflation-q01" }, { "text": "Which related experiences, such as grief or shame, does the person identify, and what remains undescribed by those labels?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "overlap-without-conflation-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "hurt-context-and-meaning", "name": "Hurt context and meaning", "description": "Captures what the person associates with the pain and why it matters to them.", "rationale": "Similar events can carry different meanings, and an agent needs the person's account rather than an assumed explanation.", "layers": [ { "id": "attributed-precipitants", "name": "Attributed precipitants", "description": "Records reported links between emotional pain and events, interactions, memories or ongoing circumstances.", "findings": [ { "id": "reported-source-of-hurt", "name": "Reported source of hurt", "description": "Keep the person's causal account distinct from timing, third-party accounts and unresolved explanations.", "questions": [ { "text": "What, if anything, does the person connect with the onset or return of the emotional pain?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "reported-source-of-hurt-q01" }, { "text": "Is this connection the person's attribution, a temporal association or another person's explanation?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "reported-source-of-hurt-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "personal-stakes", "name": "Personal stakes", "description": "Describes the loss, threat or significance the person associates with what hurts.", "findings": [ { "id": "what-the-hurt-means", "name": "What the hurt means", "description": "Record meanings the person endorses without presuming rejection, loss or any other interpretation.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the person say is lost, threatened, unmet or otherwise painful in this experience?", "kind": "definition", "id": "what-the-hurt-means-q01" }, { "text": "Which relationships, commitments or aspects of self-understanding does the person connect to that meaning?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "what-the-hurt-means-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "pain-course-and-interference", "name": "Pain course and interference", "description": "Tracks how emotional pain changes and how the person reports its effects on daily life.", "rationale": "A single severity label cannot distinguish passing hurt, recurring episodes and sustained distress with different consequences.", "layers": [ { "id": "intensity-over-time", "name": "Intensity over time", "description": "Records time-specific reports and the basis for comparing them.", "findings": [ { "id": "reported-pain-trajectory", "name": "Reported pain trajectory", "description": "Describe onset, recurrence and changes using explicit time windows and stable rating meanings where possible.", "questions": [ { "text": "How intense does the pain feel now, and what does the person's chosen rating or description mean to them?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "reported-pain-trajectory-q01" }, { "text": "Over what period has it persisted or recurred, and how does the person describe its changes?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "reported-pain-trajectory-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "effects-on-living", "name": "Effects on living", "description": "Captures reported interference separately from outward appearance and pain intensity.", "findings": [ { "id": "experienced-interference", "name": "Experienced interference", "description": "Record activities and connections affected by emotional pain, including effort that may be invisible to observers.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which everyday activities or relationships does the person report as harder, interrupted or avoided because of the pain?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "experienced-interference-q01" }, { "text": "Does maintaining usual activity require additional effort that would be missed by observing performance alone?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "experienced-interference-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "response-to-emotional-pain", "name": "Response to emotional pain", "description": "Connects the person's experience to preferred support, reported effects of responses and boundaries on agent action.", "rationale": "Avoiding pain does not specify what help is welcome, and apparent relief does not establish that a response met the person's needs.", "layers": [ { "id": "preferred-help-and-relief", "name": "Preferred help and relief", "description": "Records what the person wants and how they describe responses already tried.", "findings": [ { "id": "wanted-response", "name": "Wanted response", "description": "Distinguish a wish for relief from wishes for acknowledgement, understanding, company, practical change or space.", "questions": [ { "text": "What response would the person welcome at this point in the painful experience?", "kind": "action", "id": "wanted-response-q01" }, { "text": "What has the person tried, and what relief, worsening or other consequences do they report?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "wanted-response-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "disclosure-and-support-boundaries", "name": "Disclosure and support boundaries", "description": "Defines how an agent may discuss sensitive hurt and when another support process is needed.", "findings": [ { "id": "permitted-next-step", "name": "Permitted next step", "description": "Ground the next action in expressed preferences and explicit disclosures, with separate handling for concerns outside this model.", "questions": [ { "text": "What details is the person willing to discuss or share, and with whom?", "kind": "action", "id": "permitted-next-step-q01" }, { "text": "Has the person requested additional support or explicitly disclosed a safety concern that requires a separate response process?", "kind": "action", "id": "permitted-next-step-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": [ "Recall-based description; no sources were consulted.", "The listed kinds are overlapping descriptions, not a standardized taxonomy.", "Its status as a single fundamental feeling is theory-dependent; researchers should verify definitions and measurement instruments for their intended context." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of pain 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": [ "Grief-related pain", "Distress following social rejection", "Distress associated with loneliness", "Shame-related distress", "Guilt-related distress" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of pain 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": [ "Describing distress in everyday communication", "Exploring experiences and needs in counselling and psychotherapy", "Studying responses to loss, rejection, and social exclusion", "Assessing subjective suffering alongside functioning and other symptoms" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of pain this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "Self-reported emotional pain intensity", "typical_range": "Often 0-10, with endpoints explicitly defined; no universal normal range", "unit": "Scale points" }, { "quantity": "Duration of an episode", "typical_range": "Highly variable; no defining duration", "unit": "Minutes, hours, or days" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of pain 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": [ "Treating emotional pain as sufficient evidence of a mental disorder", "Dismissing distress because there is no visible injury", "Assuming a numerical intensity rating captures its meaning or functional impact", "Avoidance strategies that relieve distress temporarily while worsening isolation or difficulties", "Severe or persistent distress can accompany impaired functioning and increased risk of self-harm" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of pain 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": [ "Cultural and linguistic conventions influence how emotional pain is named, expressed, and interpreted.", "Norms concerning disclosure, stigma, and support-seeking vary across communities." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of pain 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": "Physical pain", "difference": "Physical pain is experienced as bodily pain; emotional pain concerns affective suffering, although both can coexist." }, { "name": "Sadness", "difference": "Sadness is a particular emotion; emotional pain can involve sadness, shame, fear, or other distressing experiences." }, { "name": "Grief", "difference": "Grief is a response to loss that can include emotional pain alongside other emotions, thoughts, and behaviours." }, { "name": "Depression", "difference": "A depressive disorder requires a defined pattern of symptoms and clinical assessment; emotional pain alone does not establish it." }, { "name": "Suffering", "difference": "Suffering is broader and may encompass physical, emotional, social, and existential distress." }, { "name": "Psychological distress", "difference": "Psychological distress broadly covers unpleasant psychological states; emotional pain emphasizes the felt experience of hurt, but usage overlaps." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of pain this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does an existing Vercy world model already cover emotional pain at this granularity, requiring this registry entry to link to it?", "How should emotional pain be distinguished from distress, suffering and sadness across languages without imposing an unsupported universal boundary?", "Which self-report measures, if any, are suitable for this registry concept, and what limits apply to comparing scores over time or between people?", "How should the model represent mixed bodily and emotional pain when the person experiences them as inseparable?", "What evidence and governance should define the handoff to separate support or safety processes without treating intensity alone as proof of risk?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 9, "findings": 15, "questions": 23 } }