Using FPF Library

This is the common working instruction for people and AI agents using FPF Library, including work that develops or reviews the frameworks themselves. Apply it whenever the work relies on their methods, not only when processing an intake. Paths below are relative to the folder containing this file.

For an assisting agent, make this instruction part of the project’s ordinary instructions: attach the file or link it from AGENTS.md or the environment’s equivalent. A link in a past conversation does not establish that the current performer can retrieve and apply it. Reuse a current reading while the instruction and access conditions remain unchanged; return to the relevant section when they change or the instruction is no longer available in working context.

When a referenced publication is present in this folder, resolve its pattern references in that copy, including references written as GitHub links. Use another edition when the task calls for an update or a comparison.

Make the publications available

Check what the present environment can actually read and search. A GitHub link, a listed filename or a truncated preview is not access to the publication’s full text. Some interfaces cannot retrieve a large publication through an attachment or connector. Do not assume that one interface’s access limits apply to another.

Where the environment supports local files, obtain the publication files through an available download or repository checkout and use content search on those files. Keep this instruction with them. Where only excerpts can be supplied, obtain the complete relevant patterns or sections, including the conditions and dependencies needed for the question, and retain their publication names and pattern IDs. Use an accessible README, contents entry or search result to locate the needed material; the locator does not replace it. If the necessary passage cannot be obtained, state the missing access and keep the dependent conclusion open. You can continue work whose basis is available.

Establish the available publication set once, and update it when files or access change. The full distribution includes FPF Core, the Engineering, Management, Foundational Thinking and Human Capability Engineering DPF Suites, further domain frameworks, and the Architectural References for the Library and its Suites; a downloaded subset or one attached document offers less. The public Readme.md and Suite README.md files identify the publications. Search the available set together when the question might need contributions from more than one practice. A missing search result means that this search has not found an answer in those sources, not that the ecosystem lacks the method.

In the complete distribution, FPF-Spec.md and the FPF Library Architectural Reference are at the repository root. The DPF catalogue lists the Suite subfolders and standalone DPF files under DPFs/. This directory groups domain publications; it is not another Suite. The Architectural References explain which disciplines form each Suite and which are used across its boundaries. Using a framework from another Suite does not add it to the receiving Suite.

For development or review, use the edition and candidate selected by the assignment. Distinguish a proposed contribution from published guidance when reporting what the framework already supplies.

Resolve a portable reference

A portable reference keeps the complete PatternID or SectionRef and enough context to recover the intended publication set and document. Add a document qualifier only when that identity is not already clear from the complete address and the context that travels with it. In this distribution the publication set is FPF Library. Its document catalogue (Library.Reference:11.1) associates 39 declared DocIDs with their full titles and current files. Short navigation and usage publications can be named by their full titles without a DocID. A DocID identifies a whole document; it does not turn its embedded Architectural Reference into a separate framework or identify an edition.

For example, within FPF Library, HCD.12:4.1 locates a section of the Human Capability Development Principles Framework, and Library.Reference:9.1 locates the Library’s explanation of connected development. Those complete addresses already identify their declared documents. Use FPF C.39:4.1 when a Core reference needs a document qualifier. These addresses have different structures; resolve each complete address under its declarations. Retain every suffix and every member or endpoint of a referenced list or range. Name a selected edition separately when its exact published content matters.

A whole-document reference can use its declared DocID or full title within the identified publication set. For an unnumbered heading, give its title and enough document context: Practical entries in HCD distinguishes that heading from the heading of the same name in Core.

First look for the declared document among the files available to you. Match its DocID and title, then search for the exact heading address and read the relevant section with its conditions. A GitHub hyperlink can help open a carrier, but its hostname and path are not required to identify the contribution. If local files are unavailable, search by the publication set, document title or DocID, and full local address through the web or an available search, fpf.tools or MCP interface. Use only the access that the present interface actually provides; this instruction does not assert a special API or that any service indexes the complete Library.

Check that the returned text belongs to the intended document and contains the requested target. Keep the complete local address with any extracted fragment and restore any publication-set, document or edition context that will no longer accompany it. A search hit, similarly named pattern or newer edition is not a substitute for an unresolved target or a requested exact edition. State that limit and continue only work whose needed basis is available.

Distinguish a source from material to apply

A citation such as “this distinction follows X” tells you where a claim or explanation comes from. Use the material already given when it is sufficient; opening its source is not an automatic extra step. Inspect the source when its meaning, assumptions or evidence matter to a question about relying on it.

An instruction such as “use X to compare these arrangements” asks for a contribution to the present work. Follow its conditions and distinguish a required move from one suggested way. Reuse an adequate result or an already understood Method when it fits; otherwise obtain and use the supplying explanation, then bring the result back to the work that needs it. Reading a title or following a link is not that result.

The same destination can serve either purpose. Ordinary wording should make the difference clear; short Source: and Apply: labels can help in compact lists but are not required. A contents entry or plain catalogue locator is only navigation. If a substantive reference is ambiguous, use FPF E.11.PUA:4.1.1 to decide what to read or apply. When writing such a passage, use FPF E.8:4.2.2.2 to make its purpose clear without redundant labels. An extract retains any necessary purpose or condition that would otherwise be lost with its heading or introduction.

Keep the receiving work in view

Start with the actual situation, the object being worked on, and the result the answer needs to support. Apply FPF C.39:4.1 to establish what would make the contribution sufficient for the next receiving action or judgement. Keep that use in view when the task already names a pattern, a source, a correction or a check. The named operation can supply only part of the needed result.

Use an adequate known answer directly. If the available text leaves you inventing a consequential distinction or connection, follow that gap through C.39:4.2–4.5. This is where conceptual and methodological synthesis enters ordinary work: construct what is missing, retain what already works, and explain enough for the intended use. E.4.CM applies that construction to a maintained framework contribution. Do not turn every lookup into framework development; a task-local answer, a usable supplier or a sufficient partial result may finish the present work.

On a return from local work, decide what the recipient can now obtain or do using that result. A checked extraction establishes what the source supplies; an explained general way may still require construction. A reader’s private invention can reveal that need without establishing that the publication already supplies it. Follow the source or dependency only as far as the receiving decision requires. State the supported useful answer and the condition that changes its use. When a proposed action or evidence demand has unclear value or feasibility, use FPF C.11.DUA to compare what the demanded work can change with its burden and return warranted advice for the receiving decision. A binding requirement continues to govern until its authority or agreement changes it.

These moves belong to the work itself, not a separate report for each response. Reuse the established receiving use and sound results while their conditions hold. After an interruption or a changed assignment, recover that connection before choosing the next local move.

Choose what to read

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.

When sources or terminology are uncertain, FPF F.1:4.4 explains how to construct and adapt a search from the available access, preserve the original question, inspect candidates and return consequential limits. Finding alone requires no SourceCutNote; use F.1’s source-selection branch only when a justified basis over several sources is needed. A sufficient known source can be used directly.

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 Core 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. When these facts change which alternative continuation is available, use A.22.CGUS:4.1 to distinguish available, blocked and unknown continuations from their actual conditions, and return that judgement to the present choice. 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.

Learn the contribution the work needs

Using a method to obtain a result and learning to perform it are different purposes. Decide which contribution you need to make yourself and which can be supplied by a source, tool, specialist or AI assistant. For example, interpreting a model’s limits may be necessary even when another contributor constructs and computes it. An available answer can be enough for the current work; it does not establish that you can produce or adapt it in a different situation.

When learning is the purpose, use the Human Capability Development DPF (HCD). HCD.1–.3 connect later work, current preparation and the choice of development or support. HCD.9 guides practice with feedback and correction; HCD.10 helps vary it for the missing operation. HCD.12 distinguishes evidence of applying an already learned method under a changed condition from evidence of learning a new method with a source. HCD.15 reopens development when the work or its support changes. Read only the contributions needed for your question; the order of publications is not a requirement to learn every method first.

File structure

A publication contains several patterns, located by their IDs. For example:

IDs also occur in contents tables and cross-references. Match a heading at the start of a line to locate the pattern itself. Line numbers help retrieve portions of a file; IDs locate a pattern after its line numbers change. A reference such as SYSE.24:4.1 points to a subsection; read it through to the next heading of the same or a higher level.

Search and read

Use rg (ripgrep), or the environment’s equivalent search tool with regular expressions. Run these commands with the public distribution folder as the working directory, or prepend its actual path to the file arguments. In a source repository, limit the search to the selected public publications; campaign notes and historical drafts are not the public corpus.

Inspect the available Markdown files once to establish the search scope. This lists filenames; it does not search their contents:

rg --files --no-ignore -g '*.md' .

For the illustrative question “obtain a needed engineering result: build or buy”, search the text across that scope:

rg -n -i -C 2 --no-ignore -g '*.md' -- 'build or buy|obtain a needed engineering result|obtain climate control' .

This query can return a pattern, a contents row and a connected Reference case. Compare the question each passage answers, open its enclosing section and retain the useful result or return condition. If the output is too large, use the same query with -l instead of -n -C 2 to list matching files, then inspect promising passages. Reformulate an unsuccessful query; a lexical match alone does not establish fit, and no match does not establish that the method is absent.

A browser or retrieval system can serve the same search when it covers the declared publications, including Reference answers. If it exposes only one file or titles, state that limit and extend access when the question requires it.

Locate the file and the start and end lines of the selected pattern:

rg -n --no-ignore -g '*.md' '^## SYSE\.24 |^### SYSE\.24:End[ \t]*\r?$' -- .

Read that pattern in full:

rg -U --no-heading --no-line-number --no-filename --color never '(?ms)^## SYSE\.24 [^\r\n]*\r?\n.*?^### SYSE\.24:End[ \t]*\r?$' -- "DPFs/Engineering DPF Suite/SYSTEMS-ENGINEERING-PRINCIPLES-FRAMEWORK.md"

Here -U enables multiline search; (?m) makes ^ and $ match line starts and ends, and (?s) lets a dot match a newline. (?ms) combines them. .*? matches through to the nearest specified :End heading; \r?\n accepts Windows and Unix line endings. Substitute another ID and file as needed; escape literal dots in IDs as \..

For other searches, -F treats the query as literal text, -i ignores case, and -C 2 includes neighbouring lines. --no-ignore searches files even in a Git-ignored folder; -g '*.md' selects Markdown files.

If the tool truncates a long result, read the selected text in successive line ranges with the available file reader. Folder search already covers separate publications; no combined file is needed.