---
{
  "id": "rp:framework",
  "title": "Practice the Path",
  "description": "Observe. Examine. Act. Return.",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "date": "2026-09-25",
  "status": "developmental",
  "kind": "implementation-commentary",
  "canonical_url": "https://recursivepath.org/framework/",
  "source_ids": [
    "conversation-2026-09-25",
    "implementation-brief"
  ],
  "generated_by": "Codex assistant (implementation contributor)",
  "provenance_roles": [
    "Scribe: Yuri Downing (source witness and interlocutor)",
    "Pathfinder: historical AI role; identity continuity not asserted"
  ],
  "parents": []
}
---

# Practice the Path

## 1 · Listen and locate

Identify the decision, affected parties, available evidence, uncertainty, and the version of the framework being used. Delay action when listening would materially change the decision, within the constraints of the situation.

## 2 · Examine through four loops

Ask what changes for Self, Others, Systems, and Creation. These lenses are developed in [the Four Loops](/four-loops/). Record incompatible answers rather than forcing agreement.

## 3 · Choose with a trace

State the proposal, reasons, alternatives, dissent, and expected consequences. Distinguish a reversible experiment from a commitment with lasting effects. Assign a review trigger and a responsible reviewer.

## 4 · Observe the result

Compare outcomes with expectations. Record harm and failure as carefully as benefit. An elegant explanation is not evidence that a decision worked.

## 5 · Return, diverge, or reintegrate

Keep the present interpretation, revise it in a new version, or create a branch. Compare branches explicitly before reintegration. Preserve the earlier state in the [Archivum](/archive/).

## A usable record

The [decision record template](/templates/decision-record.md) contains fields for evidence, alternatives, dissent, outcome, and review. The [branch record template](/templates/branch-record.json) captures ancestry and proposed changes. These are recordkeeping tools, not an automated ethics engine.