Facts
The state it reads and writes, stored as time-traveling triples with identity and provenance.
A new primitive for executable operations
Meta-Effects
A meta-effect is a single declaration that names what can happen in an operation: the facts it depends on, the constraints it enforces, the actions it may take, the views it exposes, and the agent tools allowed to invoke it.
The primitive
A meta-effect is the unit where meaning becomes execution.
It is not just a schema, workflow, API endpoint, queue job, dashboard, or agent tool. It is the declared join point that lets those surfaces share one source of truth.
Constraints
The invariants it continuously evaluates, including the violations operators must resolve.
Actions
The governed transitions and side effects that repair state or move work forward.
Agent tools
The machine-callable interface, permissions, inputs, outputs, and audit boundary.
End to end
The declaration compiles into the system that runs it.
(meta-effect VerifyWorkAuthorization
(:subject Employee)
(:facts
[employee/i9-status :enum pending verified rejected]
[employee/start-date :date]
[employee/work-country :country])
(:constraint missing-i9
(and (= employee/i9-status pending)
(> (days-since employee/start-date) 3)))
(:action request-documents
(:assignee employee/manager)
(:requires document/i9))
(:agent-tool verify-i9
(:input Employee)
(:allowed-when can-verify-i9))
(:view compliance-queue))MetaEffect {
subject: Employee
facts: 3
constraints: 1
actions: 1
agentTools: 1
views: 1
provenance: source span + module hash
}Forma
Author the declaration in Lisp-backed source.
Canonical IR
Lower it into a typed, protocol-checked artifact.
Open Ontology
Compose shared entities, policies, workflows, and views.
ontology.run
Deploy the graph into a hosted operational runtime.
Runtime
Evaluate constraints, create work, call tools, and keep history.
Open Ontology examples
Real domains become packages of reusable meta-effects.
Open Ontology supplies the shared vocabulary. Alpha Ontology supplies the operational forms. Meta-Effects names the executable boundary where each domain rule becomes inspectable, permissioned, and runnable.
Staffing: I-9, W-4, document routing, employer review, audit history
BizOps: employees, departments, projects, contracts, invoices, timesheets
Insurance: policies, coverage reasoning, claims, obligations, renewal windows
Agent infrastructure: models, tools, permissions, evaluations, invocation logs
The hosted product is where meta-effects run.
Deploy the declaration graph, bind handlers, persist facts, evaluate constraints, route work, expose agent tools, and keep the audit trail in one runtime.