Example gallery

The reference implementation ships a corpus of twenty example documents in examples/. Every one parses strict-clean (zero errors, zero warnings) under default options — a test enforces it. They double as the playground’s example tray.

Open any of them in the playground to see the graph, or run thoughtml <file> (add --compute for the second reading, --audit for the mirror). The set is designed to span the language: many kinds and relations, both mirror conflicts, the temporal layer, the compute layer, profiles, and imports — across engineering, ops, medicine, science, business, product, security, and AI-agent scenarios.

Start here

Example	What it teaches
`ship-the-hotfix.thml`	A clean document the mirror still flags — the `confidence-vs-status` conflict. The flagship demo.
`triage-742.thml`	The canonical minimal document: noticed → question → suspects → hold-until. The smallest complete piece of reasoning.
`weekend-plan.thml`	The plainest shape: a goal, two options, and the pick — proof it reads naturally for low-stakes reasoning.

Arguments and decisions

Example	What it teaches
`pr-feedback.thml`	`undercuts` (attack an inference) versus `opposes` (attack a claim) — the two distinct ways to push back.
`hiring-panel.thml`	Several interviewers on one call: shared evidence, different confidence, `because`, per-stance notes.
`choose-datastore.thml`	An ADR as a graph: options weighed, one rejected and kept `abandoned`, a blocking benchmark (`until`), the question `settled`.
`differential-dx.thml`	A clinician’s differential: competing hypotheses, `candidate-for` proposals versus the `answers` that resolves.
`moderation-decision.thml`	An AI moderation call emitted for a human to audit — the confidence and evidence made inspectable.

Time and memory

Example	What it teaches
`launch-readiness.thml`	A belief revised twice as evidence lands; earlier versions `superseded`, not erased. Replay with `--as-of`.
`assistant-memory.thml`	An assistant’s evolving memory: noticed, infers-from sources, remembers, revises, an unknown (`?`).
`merge-conflict-beliefs.thml`	The second mirror conflict: two agents define one focus two ways — `definition-divergence`, kept losslessly.

Causes, collections, and everyday reasoning

Example	What it teaches
`prod-outage.thml`	A postmortem as an acyclic `causes`/`enables`/`prevents` graph, with nested scopes and `-by` attribution.
`roadmap-priorities.thml`	`part-of` for grouping (not evidence), and a question that contains its candidate options as a thought-tree.
`bad-oyster.thml`	Everyday causal reasoning: `suspects` a cause and `asks` the question that would settle it.
`replication-study.thml`	Weighing a scientific claim: a critique that `undercuts` a failed replication, with `measured`/`estimated` bases.

The compute layer

Example	What it teaches
`cloud-bill.thml`	A cost model that computes itself: `= formulas` over line items with full unit-checking (USD/hour × hour = USD).
`ship-or-hold.thml`	The whole compute layer in one decision: formula payoffs, a probability borrowed from derived confidence, EV ranking, and a what-if that flips it.

Dialects and modularity (advanced)

Example	What it teaches
`threat-model.thml`	A `profile` declaring a security dialect — custom `threat`/`control` kinds, `mitigates`/`aggravates` relations, `likelihood`/`severity` fields, a `flags` posture.
`control-library.thml`	A minimal importable library — the building block the rollout imports.
`compliance-rollout.thml`	`import … as` and namespaced cross-document references. Run as a project with its library.

A walkthrough: `ship-the-hotfix.thml`

The most instructive example is the smallest interesting one:

focus hotfix-is-safe
  kind claim
  The payments hotfix is safe to ship to production now.

focus suite-is-green
  kind observation
  The full unit and integration suite passed on the release branch.

focus canary-errored
  kind observation
  The 5% canary threw a spike of HTTP 500s on checkout within ten minutes.

link suite-is-green supports hotfix-is-safe
link canary-errored opposes hotfix-is-safe

oncall holds hotfix-is-safe
  confidence 0.9 assumed
  note Shipping — the suite is green and the release window closes at 17:00.

Read it through the mirror:

Argument status. canary-errored has no attackers → in. It opposes hotfix-is-safe, so hotfix-is-safe → out (defeated by its own recorded counter-evidence, even though a passing suite supports it).
Conflict. The on-call holds the now-out claim at 0.9 (≥ 0.66) → a confidence-vs-status error.
Provenance. That 0.9 is assumed — the mirror shows not just how sure the engineer is, but on what footing.

The document is structurally clean. The mirror surfaces the contradiction the form can’t — and leaves the call to you. That’s ThoughtML in one screen.

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