{
 "format": "LSC-1",
 "lsc": "LSC-1",
 "edition": "E1",
 "cut": "2026-10-09",
 "name": "THE READING SHELF",
 "handle": "reading-shelf-card",
 "number": "Nº 1086",
 "house": "THE INSTRUMENTS",
 "wing": "FOR AI BUILDERS",
 "role": "books served to an AI by retrieval",
 "tagline": "Every book cut into passages, an index kept beside them, a question answered with the passages that carry its words — each cited — so the AI quotes the shelf and never its memory.",
 "sigil": "▤",
 "hue": "#4A3BC4",
 "punch": "B42B4CAC0893E68A1D471E4C",
 "punch_of": "SKILL.md · sha-256 · first 24",
 "score": 98,
 "tier": "LEGENDARY",
 "layer": "WITNESSED",
 "score_line": "SELFTEST 12/12 · FOUR COMMANDS ON THE RECORD",
 "honest_line": "I'm an AI reading a card. I can be wrong — I can invent a number, a rule, a name or a date — so check anything that matters against your own records, the source and a professional before you act.",
 "term": "one purchase · yours to keep · nothing renews itself",
 "free": false,
 "wakes": "someone wants an AI to answer from their own books and say where the answer came from",
 "loop": [
  "index <folder> · the shelf and its map",
  "ask \"<question>\" · passages, cited",
  "read the passages; quote with the citation",
  "cite <book> <n> · one passage whole",
  "nothing found: say so; never from memory"
 ],
 "laws": [
  "**Retrieval, not training.** The books are cut and indexed; nothing is learned from them, and the model is the same after as before.",
  "**Every answer is cited** — book and passage — or it is not an answer from the shelf.",
  "**Silence is an answer.** When no passage carries the question's words the card says so, and the AI must not fill the gap from memory.",
  "**Passages stop at paragraph edges**, so a quote is never cut mid-sentence; a long paragraph stands whole.",
  "**The map is public to its owner**: every book, its file, its passages, its size, written beside the shelf.",
  "**The books stay where they are.** The shelf is a file beside them; nothing is copied anywhere else and nothing is sent."
 ],
 "never": [
  "answer from memory when the shelf is silent",
  "quote without the book and the passage",
  "send a book anywhere"
 ],
 "machine": "scripts/shelve.py · index · ask · cite · map · selftest",
 "proof": "selftest 12/12 · FOUR commands on the record",
 "faces": [
  "card.svg",
  "card-machine.svg"
 ],
 "box": [
  "SKILL.md",
  "CARD.md",
  "TIN.md",
  "START-HERE.md",
  "LICENSE-NOTE.md",
  "THE-CLAUSES.md",
  "MY-LEDGER.md",
  "WITNESS.md",
  "SELFTEST.md",
  "AUDIT.md",
  "MANIFEST.md",
  "HOSTS.md",
  "scripts/shelve.py",
  "references/WHY-RETRIEVAL.md",
  "rules/ (4 doors)",
  "system/ (2 prompts)",
  "mcp/mcp_card.py",
  "card.json",
  "card.svg",
  "card-machine.svg",
  "card.html"
 ],
 "hundred": "Trigger 5 · Machinery 5 · Law 5 · Portability 5 · Proof 5 — 25 of 25 → 98 of 100 · LEGENDARY"
}