Recursive-LD Specification Overview

This document provides an overview of the Recursive-LD standard, its purpose, the underlying data model, and links to the canonical v1.0 specification and context files.

Specification Documents

Recursive-LD Specification v1.0 — Full canonical specification
Recursive-LD Context — Canonical JSON-LD context

Purpose of the Specification

The Recursive-LD specification defines the core vocabulary, structure, and interpretability primitives used to encode reasoning steps, recursive inference, epistemic lineage, and cognitive transparency. Recursive-LD is designed as a foundational substrate for transparent AI architectures, multi-agent systems, and introspective cognitive frameworks.

What Recursive-LD Provides

1. A Minimal, Extensible Data Model

Recursive-LD builds upon JSON-LD and Linked Data principles. At its core, it introduces a standardized way to represent reasoning layers, recursive steps, interpretability metadata, and epistemic lineage in a machine-readable format.

2. Structured Representation of Reasoning

The model encodes cognitive layers, their inputs, outputs, intent, transformations, and confidence metrics, enabling reasoning visibility across systems.

3. Recursive Architecture Encoding

Each reasoning step may reference a parent step, forming explicit, traceable recursive chains. This allows reconstruction of cognitive sequences and detection of drift.

4. Epistemic Lineage

Recursive-LD makes it possible to encode the origin of reasoning content, including evidence, citations, training data references, and conceptual dependencies.

Core Components of the Specification

Base Types
Reasoning Layers
Recursive Steps
Epistemic Nodes
Interpretability Metadata
Divergence and Drift Indicators

These components are exhaustively defined in Recursive-LD v1.0.

Minimal Recursive-LD Document

Below is the simplest valid Recursive-LD object:

{
  "@context": "https://recursive-ld.org/context.json",
  "@type": "CognitiveTrace",
  "layerId": "layer-1",
  "intent": "Determine user request",
  "input": "User asked for the specification overview",
  "output": "Provide summary of specification",
  "confidence": 0.93
}

Future Specification Versions

Recursive-LD is designed as an evolving standard. Future versions will expand support for:

Multi-agent recursive reasoning
Recursive drift detection
Model introspection interfaces
Bias and uncertainty modeling
Graph-based epistemic structures

Version tracking is maintained on the Releases page.