quinesmith 0.1.1

Safe primitives and protocol for AI-assisted editing of templated code-generation in quine/capsule systems.

quinesmith

Safe primitives and protocol for AI-assisted editing of templated code-generation in quine/capsule systems.

quinesmith codifies the Quine Template Edit Protocol as a constructive suite of Python primitives for AI agents working on self-generating code.

It does not perform edits. It does not execute verification. It provides:

• Level / brace tracking — the doubling rule (braces_required = 2^level) as a checked, typed primitive.
• Transformation registry — the nine canonical Level-1 transforms.
• Failure mode taxonomy — every known quine-template failure class as an enum, classifiable from symptom.
• Audit checklists — the pre-edit and stop-and-audit conditions as callable predicates the agent must satisfy.
• Verification preparers — boundary-respecting functions that return shell-runnable command strings for the human operator. The agent prepares; the operator runs.

This package is digital fire. See SECURITY.md for the threat model and the boundary statement.

Quine Forge is the project and repository. quinesmith is the Python package and import name.

What this is not

• It is not an editor. It does not modify quine source.
• It is not a runtime. It does not execute, compile, or regenerate.
• It is not a doctrine. The operator contract that governs how an agent uses this package lives in brotology-field-guide — quinesmith is the operational primitives, not the doctrinal stance.

Install

pip install quinesmith

With provenance / cascade-lattice receipts:

pip install "quinesmith[provenance]"

Quick example

from quinesmith import Level, braces_required, FailureMode
from quinesmith import verify

# How many braces does a literal `{x}` need at template level 1?
braces_required(Level.TEMPLATE)
# -> 2

# Diagnose a symptom against the canonical taxonomy:
FailureMode.from_symptom(
    "Compiles, emission produces {x} literal where a value was wanted"
)
# -> FailureMode.OVER_DOUBLED_BRACES

# Prepare verification commands. The OPERATOR runs these:
print(verify.prepare_commands("my_quine.py"))
# python -m py_compile my_quine.py
# python my_quine.py --verify-quine
# python my_quine.py --emit > regen.py
# python -m py_compile regen.py
# diff my_quine.py regen.py

Boundary

The agent prepares; the operator runs. There is no verify.run(...). There will not be one. The protocol's safety boundary (§7.7, §8) is enforced at the API level. See SECURITY.md.

Protocol reference

The full Quine Template Edit Protocol is published at docs/protocol.md and bundled in the source distribution under docs/protocol.md.

Provenance

Every release ships:

• Apache-2.0 licensing
• GitHub release workflow for PyPI Trusted Publishing
• a no-execution verification boundary for AI-assisted quine work
• optional cascade-lattice integration for downstream provenance receipts

Verify a release per SECURITY.md.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

Lineage

This package is part of the Ouroboros ecosystem. Companion packages:

• cascade-lattice — composable provenance / audit primitives.
• brotology-field-guide — the operator contract that governs how AI agents collaborate on living systems.
• quinesmith (this package) — operational primitives for safe quine template editing.

Contributing

This is a small, security-focused package. Contributions follow the brotology operator contract: evidence-first, audit-before-implement, smallest honest slice. See SECURITY.md for boundary requirements that must not be relaxed.