Links and relations

A link is a typed, directed edge.

link [alias:] <from> <relation> <to>

link load-test-passed supports cache-is-safe
link cache-hypothesis: cache-eviction causes latency-spike
  The proposed mechanism: evicted hot keys force slow cold reads.
  weight 0.85

Anatomy

Part	Source
`id`	the `alias:`, or generated `<from>-<relation>-<to>`
`from`, `relation`, `to`	the header
`weight`	a `weight` field (0..1 evidential strength)
`probability`	a `probability` field (0..1, `leads-to` only)
`basis`	a provenance keyword on the number
`body`	the indented prose (why the relation holds)

Evidence bundles (authoring shortcut)

When many sources share one relation and target — the common “several observations → one claim” shape — a bundle collapses the repetition. A bare <relation> <target> header lists its sources, one per line:

supports customer-pain-points
  late-fees-problem      weight 0.90 assumed
  limited-availability   weight 0.85
  long-travel-time

Each line desugars to an ordinary link <source> <relation> <target> carrying its optional weight and provenance — identical to writing the links out longhand. A bare source (no weight) is a normal, full-strength link.

The relations

Evidence (defeasible)

Relation	Polarity	Meaning
`supports`	+	source is evidence for target
`opposes`	−	source rebuts target (a node attack)
`undercuts`	−	source attacks an inference (usually a link target)

These three drive the mirror’s derived confidence and argument status. opposes and undercuts are the two attacks.

Structural and causal

Relation	Meaning
`causes`	source brings about target
`enables`	source makes target possible
`prevents`	source stops target
`depends-on`	target is required for source
`blocks`	source holds target up (the desugaring of `until`)
`answers`	source resolves a question
`revises`	source supersedes target (see Time / tutorial ch. 6)

causes and depends-on are expected to be acyclic — a cycle among them is flagged (an impossible circular dependency).

Decision

Relation	Meaning
`leads-to`	an option leads to an outcome; carries `probability`
`option-of`	an option belongs to a decision

These power decision expected value.

Membership and candidacy (non-evidential)

Relation	Meaning
`part-of`	source is one item in the target (a collection member)
`candidate-for`	source is a proposed answer to a question — not a resolved one

These exist to keep enumerations out of the evidence graph. Using supports for the items of a list — SWOT strengths, competitors, success factors — silently inflates the target’s derived confidence: the mirror counts each list item as evidence, so “Netflix has strengths” reads as 100%-certain just for naming them. part-of says “this is one of the things,” not “this is evidence it’s true” — it has no evidence polarity, so it never touches confidence, argument status, or leverage. candidate-for does the same for a question’s options: a candidate is a proposal, not the resolved answers.

Both compose with the bundle shortcut:

part-of netflix-strengths
  strong-global-brand
  large-subscriber-base
  advanced-algorithms

What can be linked

A link’s from and to may resolve to a focus, question, or link. Targeting a stance or a scope is an error. Targeting a non-existent id is a warning (unresolved reference).

`opposes` vs. `undercuts`, and what’s not here

opposes rebuts a node: “that claim is false.”
undercuts attacks an inference: “that step doesn’t follow.” When its target is a link, the mirror weakens that connection rather than the claim.

There is no rejects relation and no mitigates relation — both were removed in v0.1.0 because they only duplicated opposes. A hard rejection is opposes; defending X is attacking X’s attacker (guard opposes risk), which the grounded argument status reinstates uniformly. (Note rejects still exists as a posture — an agent ruling something out — just not as a relation.)

Weight and probability are not interchangeable

weight is evidential strength (any evidence/structural link).
probability is outcome likelihood (leads-to only).

Putting probability on a non-leads-to link, or weight on a leads-to link, is ignored with a warning.

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