Software

Software as a living system — and a pressure test of the Atlas ontology

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Does Ownership differ fundamentally from Stewardship in software?

q.ownership-stewardship

Questions

Does Ownership differ fundamentally from Stewardship in software? Construction distinguished them clearly; software conflates them in Git.

questionsownershipunder-test

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Open Questions

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Fields and provenance

question

Does Ownership differ fundamentally from Stewardship in software?

aboutIds

  • repo.atlas
  • agent.steward
  • identity.atlas
  • person.jarrod-cobb
  • org.endless-technologies

category

ownership

status

under-test

whyItMatters

Construction distinguished them clearly; software conflates them in Git.

stateHistory

  • status: open
    at: 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z
    source: Software Hub ontology pass — original question declaration.
    relationToPrior: initial
    evidence: src/modules/software/registry.ts QUESTIONS (Release 1 compilation).
    statement: OPEN: ownership and stewardship were declared as one unresolved question; Git conflates them under repository ownership.
  • status: under-test
    at: 2026-08-25T16:40:00.000Z
    source: Steward statement (Jarrod Cobb), ontology/provenance refinement request.
    relationToPrior: answer-candidate
    evidence: src/modules/software/identity-ontology.ts · mem/doctrine/identity-parentage-stewardship-ownership.md
    statement: ANSWER CANDIDATE: identity, parentage, stewardship and legal ownership are four distinct relationship types. The prior OPEN state is preserved, not replaced.

answerCandidate

statement: Yes. identity = self; parent = provenance relationship; founder = historical provenance role; steward = responsibility relationship; owner = legal or asset relationship where applicable. A parent is provenance, a steward is responsibility, and neither by itself grants ownership of another identity.
at: 2026-08-25T16:40:00.000Z
source: Steward statement (Jarrod Cobb).
evidence: ONTOLOGY_ROLES, ONTOLOGY_RELATIONS and ONTOLOGY_WITHHELD in src/modules/software/identity-ontology.ts.
invariants:
  • identity != parentage != stewardship != legal ownership.
  • A parent is provenance. A steward is responsibility.
  • Neither relationship, by itself, grants ownership of another identity.
  • Founding or creating an entity establishes a provenance relationship, not ownership of that entity's identity.
  • No relationship type may be inferred from another; each must be declared with its own provenance.
  • Legal ownership of assets is preserved separately and is neither disputed nor replaced by this model.
unresolved:
  • Git itself still exposes only one ownership notion; the four-way distinction is Atlas-side and cannot yet be read back from the host platform.
  • `owned-by` remains on repo.atlas → agent.lovable from the earlier model; it is retained rather than silently rewritten, and its correct kind is not yet established.
  • Whether stewardship should carry its own lifecycle ladder (assumed → active → handed over → withdrawn) is not decided.

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Open questions

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  • q.ownership-stewardship — under-test · Does Ownership differ fundamentally from Stewardship in software?