Singularity

Concepts

Nobody hands this being a policy for its own behavior — it writes one, one

Migrated from docs/concepts/rule.md

Rule

Nobody hands this being a policy for its own behavior — it writes one, one sentence at a time. A rule is a self-imposed, persistent constraint the being adds to its own mind and re-reads on every model round.

What it is

One string in mind.rules, appended by the built-in tool singularity_self_add_rule:

  • argument rule, trimmed, non-empty, ≤ 4096 bytes, no control characters;

a violation fails as invalid_arguments with rule is invalid;

  • the successful response echoes the stored rule: {"rule": "<text>"}.

Lifecycle

Append-only. There is no rule-removal or rule-editing tool: the catalogue exposes singularity_self_add_rule and nothing that deletes from rules. Replacing the system prompt (singularity_self_set_prompt) does not touch rules — they are a separate field and a separate prompt section. A rule therefore outlives every prompt rewrite and every process restart, for as long as the being's state exists.

Where it appears

Every model round, all rules are rendered into the system message under the exact header Self-imposed rules:, one - line each, between the system prompt and the learnings (see [mind](mind.md)). The model reads its own past constraints before choosing the next action; that is the entire enforcement mechanism — a rule binds cognition, not the runtime. Hard boundaries (money, paths, secrets) are enforced elsewhere and do not depend on the being's self-discipline: see [the finance boundary](../finance.md) and [skills](../skills.md).

Where it lives

state.json → mind.rules, saved atomically after the tool call that added it, and journaled as a tool_finished event for singularity_self_add_rule.

jq .mind.rules .singularity/state.json

Not to be confused with

  • A learning — singularity_self_add_learning records what happened

(≤ 8192 bytes, own prompt section Persistent learnings:); a rule prescribes what to do. The runtime treats them identically except for size and section.

  • The system prompt — replaceable wholesale; rules are append-only.
  • The signed finance policy — an operator-signed document enforced by a

separate process ([lease](lease.md), [finance](../finance.md)); a rule is self-written and enforced only by the being's own reading of it.