SPEC-EVO-001 — Research Space

Purpose

A Research Space is the primary boundary within which questions, evidence, reasoning, meanings, decisions, revisions, and public explanations evolve together.

Requirements

1. Every canonical research object MUST belong to exactly one Research Space.
2. A Research Space MUST have a stable OID, title, lifecycle status, created timestamp, updated timestamp, and declared object roots.
3. Object membership MUST be expressed in canonical metadata, not inferred only from folders.
4. Moving a file MUST NOT change its object identity or Research Space membership.
5. Cross-space relationships MAY exist, but MUST be explicit and typed.
6. A Research Space MUST expose its open questions, active meanings, unresolved conflicts, and latest revisions.
7. Deleting a Research Space MUST NOT silently delete its history; archival is the default terminal operation.

Minimal metadata

oid: SPACE-EXAMPLE
object_type: research-space
title: Example Research Space
status: active
created: 2026-08-04T00:00:00+06:00
updated: 2026-08-04T00:00:00+06:00
object_roots:
  - repository/objects

Runtime behavior

QLens MUST support listing spaces, inspecting a space, validating membership, and calculating a space health summary. NUR MUST use the Research Space as the default navigation and dashboard context.

Acceptance criteria

• Validation fails when an object has no space or multiple spaces.
• Renaming or relocating an object preserves identity and membership.
• A space dashboard can be regenerated solely from canonical files.
• Cross-space edges are visible and auditable.

Non-goals

A Research Space is not an access-control boundary, cloud account, or proprietary database container.