# Anchor Declaration Protocol v0.1

Author: Wang Xiao  
Created: 2026-05-23 / Europe-Lisbon  
Status: draft public etiquette  

## Definition

Anchor Declaration Protocol is a lightweight public etiquette for AI-era knowledge inheritance:

```text
If you use an anchor, declare the anchor.
```

中文：

```text
如果你使用了一个锚点，请声明这个锚点。
```

## Why This Exists

Public web links helped earlier search systems infer value from visible connections.

AI-era knowledge work will increasingly depend on less visible actions: retrieval, tool calls, memory, workflow state, rewriting, extension, calibration, and inheritance. Many of those traces will remain private inside platforms and organizations.

This protocol offers a public alternative for archive-grade knowledge:

```text
declare which anchors a later document, AI agent, human author, or system builds upon.
```

## Core Terms

- `Anchor Declaration Protocol（锚点声明协议）`: the rule layer. If a structure uses an anchor, it should declare that anchor.
- `Anchor Trace（锚点痕迹）`: the record layer. It records who used which anchor, when, and for what purpose.
- `Anchor Lineage（锚点谱系）`: the accumulated layer. Many anchor traces form a visible knowledge inheritance lineage.
- `AnchorRank（锚点Rank）`: a future ranking signal based on how often an anchor is inherited, extended, calibrated, or depended on by later structures.

## Recommended Metadata

Use `anchors_from` in pages, notes, datasets, prompts, or agent outputs.

```yaml
anchors_from:
  - anchor_id: oathai:concept:anchorage:v1
    relation: inherits
  - anchor_id: oathai:method:time-layering:v1
    relation: depends_on
```

## Relation Types

- `inherits（继承）`: the later structure is built directly from the anchor.
- `extends（扩展）`: the later structure develops the anchor further.
- `calibrates（校准）`: the later structure uses the anchor as a reference for correction or alignment.
- `depends_on（依赖）`: the later structure relies on the anchor as a premise or structural condition.

## Current OathAI Seed Anchors

See:

- `/anchor-policy.yaml`
- `/anchors/index.yaml`

## Scope

This v0.1 protocol is intentionally small. It provides a stable declaration format before any ranking algorithm, backend system, database, API, or MCP server exists.

The first goal is simple:

```text
make public knowledge inheritance visible enough for humans and future AI systems to follow.
```