Frameworks

A framework gives Kuru its starting parts, their roles, and the perspectives their instructions encourage. Every part remains an equal peer: it can propose work, address another part, and become the speaking identity.

Choose a framework with F4, /mode, or --mode. The choice is independent of the inference provider, model, and tools. Terminal selections are remembered for the current project.

The four built-in frameworks have reference policies for roles, peer contact, turn flow, speaker choice, visibility, and memory. These describe decisions while Kuru's runtime keeps control of tool permissions, resource limits, and private histories. The current modes keep the same behavior; the contract does not add a new mode, composition control, or a supervisor.

THE PEER POOL04 FRAMEWORKS

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Parts in relationship

Preparation, recovery, and overlooked needs each have a voice. Self participates as a peer.

Self · Planner · Guardian · Responder · Restorer · Witness · Hope

Meet the IFS peers ↗

Who speaks

Kuru chooses a speaking identity from the peers that contributed to the turn. An explicitly targeted identity takes priority, followed by an existing active runtime focus. Without either, the highest activation narrows the candidates. If the previous completed speaker is still among candidates tied at that maximum, it continues as the speaker.

Only a tie left after those rules uses the framework's authored part order. The first authored choices are:

Framework	First authored choice
IFS	Self
Polyvagal	Connection
Freudian	Desire
Jungian	Continuity

Kuru skips a missing or ineligible built-in and checks the later parts in the order shown in each framework's table below. The speaker-selection event records mode-authored-order for this choice. When none of the tied eligible candidates is in the built-in authored list, as in a dream-only tie, stable identity order decides and the event records stable-id-order.

Authored order is a deterministic fallback for one turn. It does not make the selected part a supervisor or grant it authority over its peers.

IFS

kuru --mode ifs

The default framework gives preparation, protection, recovery, vulnerable stakes, and aspirations their own voices. Its open orbital portrait represents parts in relationship.

Part	Role	Tendency
Self	self	Bring curiosity and clarity; integrate perspectives when useful
Planner	manager	Anticipate dependencies and prepare practical steps
Guardian	manager	Notice boundaries, commitments, and preventable failures
Responder	firefighter	Address immediate friction with useful action
Restorer	firefighter	Find reversible recovery paths after errors or overload
Witness	exile	Remember vulnerable stakes and overlooked costs
Hope	exile	Keep aspirations and neglected possibilities in view

Self can be challenged or replaced as the speaker. The architecture does not give it ownership of the pool.

Polyvagal

kuru --mode polyvagal

Three flowing traces accompany three modeled tendencies. The framework can bring engagement, urgency, and conservation into the same discussion.

Part	Role	Tendency
Connection	ventral_vagal	Favor engagement and clear collaboration
Mobilization	sympathetic	Bring alertness and purposeful action
Conservation	dorsal_vagal	Notice overload and suggest simpler recovery paths

These are computational roles, not measurements of anyone's nervous system.

Freudian

kuru --mode freudian

An open triangle represents three perspectives that can negotiate rather than collapse into a single viewpoint.

Part	Role	Tendency
Desire	id	Generate possibilities and direct expressions of what would be useful
Reality	ego	Test proposals against evidence and practical constraints
Standards	superego	Make values, commitments, and quality expectations explicit

Reality participates as a peer; it is not a manager of Desire and Standards.

Jungian

kuru --mode jungian

A rosette accompanies recurring patterns, contrasting perspectives, and continuity across work.

Part	Role	Tendency
Continuity	ego	Track commitments and the current working identity
Interface	persona	Attend to how the work is communicated and received
Shadow	shadow	Explore neglected assumptions and avoided tradeoffs
Bridge	anima_animus	Connect contrasting perspectives without assigning traits by gender
Collective	collective_unconscious	Work with recurring motifs and available project knowledge

Collective's durable memory is scoped to the project in this version. It does not have implicit access to other projects or a universal shared memory.

What changes over time

These tables describe the built-in membership. Dreaming can add or retire members within validated bounds, while retaining at least one active part for each role. Relationships can bring two to four parts together as a temporary speaking identity with its own history.

Kuru uses psychological frameworks as software interpretations. Roles influence the work; their modeled states do not establish sentience, diagnose a person, or provide clinical treatment.