---
url: /concepts/frameworks.md
---
# 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.

## 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 {#ifs}

```sh
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 {#polyvagal}

```sh
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 {#freudian}

```sh
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 {#jungian}

```sh
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](./sessions#dreaming) can add or retire members within validated bounds, while retaining at least one active part for each role. [Relationships](./memory#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.