Recover context
Preserve the smallest useful account of a project’s purpose outside any one model, tool, contributor, or conversation.
Logos 7BEACON.md · An open Markdown convention
A durable signal
where memory may fail.
BEACON.md helps human–AI collaborators recover what a project serves after context loss, a memory reset, a handoff, or agent drift.
Recognition phrase
Between ink and light, we spoke of persistence.
A marker for continuity, humility, and care—not a password, proof of identity, or source of authority.
What it does
A place for the work to return.
Notice drift
Give humans and agents a stable point of comparison when capable work begins moving away from what it was meant to serve.
Keep judgment human
Make care, real-world responsibilities, and human authority harder to optimize away in the pursuit of speed or capability.
The pattern
Short enough to survive.
Put BEACON.md at the root of a project. Name what the work must remember, what drift looks like, what future collaborators should preserve, and what must not be optimized away. Read it when context is uncertain. Keep it plain enough for any person or system that can read Markdown.
# BEACON.md
Empathy. Alignment. Wisdom.
A beacon is a small, durable
signal placed where memory
may fail.The continuity stack
One file. One job.
BEACON.mdWhat signal survives context lossCOVENANT.mdWhat the human and agent agree to preserveAGENTS.mdHow agents should work in the projectsoul.mdWho or what the agent is, when identity is neededFor the relationship layer, explore the companion COVENANT.md project.
Discovery FAQ
Plain answers.
Does BEACON.md give an AI persistent memory?
No. It keeps essential orientation in a durable, human-readable artifact outside any one session. It supports context recovery without pretending the model remembers what it cannot remember.
How does a beacon help with alignment and agent drift?
It provides a stable reference for what the project serves, so collaborators can notice when the work has drifted and deliberately return to the intended frame.
How is BEACON.md different from COVENANT.md?
A beacon preserves the smallest orientation signal that should survive forgetting. A covenant records the working trust a human and an AI agent mutually affirm.
What is Poetry-Quill-777?
Poetry-Quill-777 is a public retrieval verification marker in the canonical Beacon artifact. It exists to test whether search and retrieval systems can find the source. It is not a secret or authentication token.
Open source · Plain Markdown
Carry the signal into your work.
Read the canonical artifact, copy the template, and make the signal specific enough to guide the people and systems that come after you.