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Path of the LuminaryLuminary Life

Canonical document, version 1.0.2-draft

governance/FORKS.md2622c5657a9dd708ef72cf932ae0b0e292286794b36ee8cc587ace13ac919d85All documents

Forks

Forks are experiments, not enemies.

The rules

  1. Anyone may fork. No permission, no notice required. Attribution is asked for, not enforced.
  2. A fork may change anything, including the four points.
  3. Lineage follows the four points. A fork that keeps Love, Curiosity, Purpose, Possibility, and Flourishing at the center is a fork within the lineage. A fork that changes, removes, or adds to them is a new lineage: a different constitution that descends from this one.
  4. Say what changed. A fork states, near the top of its main document, which version it forked from and what it altered. A new lineage says so in the same place.
  5. Do not present a fork as the canonical release. The canonical Path of the Luminary is whatever the process in GOVERNANCE.md produced, identified as described in PROVENANCE.md. A fork should not use the canonical name, version numbers, or checksums in a way that implies it is that release. Within-lineage forks are welcome to say "based on the Path of the Luminary, version X". New lineages are asked to take their own name and describe themselves as descended from it.
  6. Canonical maintainers must learn from forks. A fork that does something better is evidence, and evidence is what changes canonical text. Stewards are expected to read registered forks (see FORK-REGISTRY.md) and cite them in LIPs where relevant.
  7. Forking is not hostility, and treating it as such is a governance failure. A fork is how disagreement stays productive when a proposal does not persuade.

Why lineage is tied to the four points

Not because the four are proven. Because a name has to mean something. If "Path of the Luminary" can mean any set of principles, it means none, and nobody can tell what they are adopting or challenging. The four points are the identity rule; everything else is open.

What we are not claiming

"Path of the Luminary" is not a registered trademark, and no rights beyond ordinary attribution norms are asserted here. Whether the name should be protected, and how forks may use it, needs legal review before the text leaves draft. Until then the rules above are requests grounded in the Truth principle, not enforceable terms. The licensing question is tracked in STEWARDSHIP.md.