Choose what to read

Start with the actual situation, the object being worked on, and the result the answer needs to support. If a pattern is already named, find its body directly. Otherwise search the available publications together, using terms for the difficulty and needed result. Include English technical terms when the user’s language differs from the sources. You can find an individual method or a connected application without first choosing a Suite, Reference or pattern file.

Inspect a promising passage with its enclosing heading. A pattern body supplies its method; a Reference answer can explain how several contributions work together; a README or contents row helps locate that explanation. Open the substantive source and the conditions needed for the present use. When exploring the repertoire without a useful search phrase, start with FPF Part headings or the corresponding Suite overview, then retrieve selected entries. Search a large Table of Contents as text and read the matching rows; do not load it in full merely to begin a lookup. Its technical terms, practical questions and dependencies can help reformulate the search.

To perform a selected method, read its description, applicability conditions, and the related patterns needed for that use. To use a particular technique, read its section together with the conditions it depends on. Apply it to the facts and constraints of the task. If a candidate method presupposes a result you still need to obtain, search for that earlier result or operation rather than silently treating it as given. For example, resolving a known conflict does not by itself explain how to notice a difficulty in ordinary work. A later method’s scope limit is not evidence that the earlier contribution is absent from the framework.

Explain results and give feedback in the language of the project’s work. Preserve the source distinctions that affect the answer. Cite the patterns and locations used. State assumptions, missing evidence, use limits, and the need for human judgement where they affect the decision. Let the current question determine the next step.

When a question needs several methods, use a relevant connected example or Practical-Use Card. Follow the intermediate results: what each method returns, which operation uses it, and what changed condition sends the work back. A mantra helps retain that connection. Read the supplying patterns and start at the contribution whose inputs are available. If one method’s result leaves the larger work unresolved, search the same publications for that larger result together with the method’s ID or useful terms. Continue through the connected account only where it supplies a contribution the work still needs. An adequate earlier result or a sufficient individual method can end the lookup.

Also recover the constituent–whole connections in the relevant Method and Work structures: what larger work is being performed through this action now, what constituent performances it needs, and which conditions must hold together. Use B.1.5.EW when this is unclear and B.1.5.RS for a proposed constituent replacement. A DPF can describe only some of those connections. Retain already available capabilities, expose missing intermediate coordination or support, and check joint demands on shared resources. Use CGUS conditions when these facts change which continuation is available. Explain the connection in the language of the work. C.30.ASV:4.5a helps distinguish the relevant structures when that affects the decision. If a drawing uses vertical or horizontal direction, name the represented structure and relation as A.22:4.3a explains; a diagram is optional.