Pattern Language Knowledge Base

type: namespace-overview

confidence: medium

updated: 2026-07-01

status: active

namespace: pattern-language

updated: 2026-07-01

Covers

The pattern-language namespace covers the abridged, hyper-textual pattern corpus from apl-md: 253 built-environment patterns, their Problem/Solution framing, related-pattern graph, provenance, license guardrails, and agent-facing retrieval guidance for spatial design and worldbuilding.

Not Covered

This namespace does not cover generic architecture theory outside the imported corpus, commercial training-data clearance, complete republication of the original book beyond the apl-md abridged material, or implementation of an Unreal MCP adapter. Unreal/worldbuilding adapter design is tracked as a deferred follow-up.

Current As Of

2026-07-01 — Initial namespace release imports 253 pattern documents from `zenodotus280/apl-md`, preserves related-pattern wikilinks, and adds agent retrieval/worldbuilding guidance plus deferred Unreal MCP adapter notes.

Agent access: /wiki/pattern-language/llms.txt /wiki/pattern-language/llms-full.txt /wiki/pattern-language/index.json

Structure

raw/ — raw Markdown provenance mirror for agents and source inspection.
wiki/ — synthesized knowledge pages: concepts, entities, summaries, and syntheses.
Schema and maintenance rules: see CLAUDE.md.

Usage

Add new sources: update canonical source notes in pixi-vault, then compile into this namespace.
Ask questions: agents read this wiki and cite raw/source paths.
Publish: regenerate pixi-wiki, run tests, then live-verify raw and HTML routes.

Pattern Language¶

Spatial-design pattern reference for agents, compiled from the abridged zenodotus280/apl-md Markdown manifestation of Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language.

Canonical Source Roots¶

External source repo: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
Source permission note: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/LICENSE.md
Imported corpus path: Patterns/*.md in the source repo
Pixi Wiki tracker: https://github.com/pixiiidust/pixi-wiki/issues/42

Provenance and License Guardrail¶

Non-commercial reuse with attribution is the governing guardrail. The source repo states that permission was granted on 2024-04-14 to reproduce and reuse portions of text from patternlanguage.com for non-commercial purposes and with proper attribution to Christopher Alexander and A Pattern Language. This namespace keeps that guardrail visible.

Use this corpus for private/internal/non-commercial reference, retrieval, critique, education, and design experiments. Do not present it as a commercial-clean training dataset or as unrestricted source material for redistribution.

Agent Use Contract¶

Start with For Agents — Spatial Pattern Retrieval.
Retrieve a bounded set of patterns, usually 5–12, before proposing a design.
Translate pattern Problem/Solution text into constraints, adjacency rules, scale cues, layout moves, and verification checks.
Cite pattern names/numbers in the design brief so a human can inspect the rationale.
Avoid quoting long source passages unless the user explicitly needs the source wording.

Public Output Contract¶

When published to pixi-wiki, this namespace should expose:

/raw/pattern-language/README.md
/raw/pattern-language/wiki/index.md
/wiki/pattern-language/README.md.html
/wiki/pattern-language/wiki/index.md.html
/wiki/pattern-language/llms.txt