KCP
Specification · v0.1

The Protocol

KCP is a portable, textual, extensible knowledge representation protocol. It is human-auditable, AI-optimized and source-traceable.

Design Principles

Portable
Human-auditable
AI-optimized
Source-traceable
Modular
Versionable
Convertible
Agent-ready
Graph-compatible
Retrieval-ready

File Extension

The canonical extension is .kcp. Recommended encodings: .kcp.md (Markdown), .kcp.yaml (YAML), .kcp.json (JSON).

Markdown KCP
YAML KCP
JSON KCP

Core Objects

  • — Package Metadata
  • — Knowledge Nodes
  • — Relations
  • — Rules
  • — Procedures
  • — Triggers
  • — Chunks
  • — Atomic Units
  • — Agent Instructions
  • — Source Traceability

Source Basis Labels

Every extracted item must be marked with one of the following labels.

explicit

Directly stated in the source.

inferred

Reasonably inferred from source content.

synthesized

Created by combining multiple source fragments.

author_opinion

Represents the source author's subjective claim.

uncertain

Weakly supported or ambiguous.

Comparison

Implicit prose vs labeled claims

Source basis labels exist so every claim carries its own evidence type. Compare a human paragraph (sources implied) with a .kcp fragment (sources tagged).

Good for humans

Good for humans

According to the internal manual, refunds above $500 generally require manager approval. The team also believes that responding within 2 hours improves retention, though this hasn't been formally measured. Some agents add that loyal customers tend to forgive delays — anecdotally.

.kcp · Labeled and traceable

.kcp · Labeled and traceable

explicit
inferred
synthesized
author_opinion
uncertain
confidence
claim: refunds > 500 require manager approval
  source_basis: explicit
  confidence: 0.96
  source: internal_manual#sec-4.2
claim: response under 2h improves retention
  source_basis: inferred
  confidence: 0.55
claim: loyal customers forgive delays
  source_basis: author_opinion
  confidence: 0.40
claim: response time correlates with NPS
  source_basis: synthesized
  confidence: 0.62
claim: agents share this folklore
  source_basis: uncertain
  confidence: 0.30

Confidence Scores

Use a 0.00–1.00 scale.

0.95–1.00Directly stated and central.
0.80–0.94Strongly supported.
0.60–0.79Reasonable inference.
0.40–0.59Weak hypothesis.
0.00–0.39Uncertain or speculative.