# Clear Box Commons

Clear Box Commons publishes DARP, an open attribution standard for recording who contributed to a work, what they did, and whether each contributor was human or AI.

DARP has three levels. Four letters, thirteen acts, and the trade words registered under them. Start at the top and descend only as far as the record needs. Most records only need a letter.

## DARP Task Map

Learn the model: /darp/

Level 1, the four letters. Stop here if the letter is enough.

- D, Devise, decide what to make: /darp/devise/
- A, Author, make it exist: /darp/author/
- R, Review, give a reason to trust it: /darp/review/
- P, Prepare, get it out and keep it reachable: /darp/prepare/

Level 2, the thirteen acts. Open an act only when a letter is too broad. The act is the level that names the demonstrable thing that happened, and it is field-neutral, so the same act connects people across different trades.

- Devise: /darp/originator/, /darp/shaper/, /darp/backer/
- Author: /darp/maker/, /darp/performer/, /darp/adapter/, /darp/curator/
- Review: /darp/reviewer/, /darp/verifier/, /darp/refiner/
- Prepare: /darp/finisher/, /darp/distributor/, /darp/keeper/

Level 3, the trade words. Open a trade word only when the act needs trade-specific vocabulary. A trade word is recognition and entrance, never a destination; its meaning is exhausted by the act it folds to.

- One page per trade word: /darp/{slug}/, where the slug replaces : with - (film:editor becomes /darp/film-editor/)
- The word's Trade Brief, when one is ready: /darp/{slug}.md (software:product-manager becomes /darp/software-product-manager.md)
- Browse every ready Trade Brief: /darp/briefs/

The whole registry, at every level:

- Text-first, human-readable: /darp/registry.md
- Structured, machine-readable: /darp/registry.json
- Map a trade term or synonym to its node: /darp/synonyms.json

Search, at every level:

- Search a letter, an act, or a trade word: /darp/explore/
- If you do not know any DARP word, type a plain word into the Explorer, for example audio, money, edit, or engineer. It opens the neighborhood of roles that word reaches across every trade, grouped by trade, and every row still shows its own letter and act. A plain word is a doorway, never a ruling and never a placement. The doorways are not published as a separate data file; use /darp/synonyms.json to map a known trade term to its node.

Not yet published. Do not route a person or a task to these pages:

- /darp/walkthrough/ and /darp/compose/ are placeholders.

## AI Coworker Route

For DARP assistance, ask what work is being attributed, ask who contributed, and ask what each contributor actually did. Then walk the levels in order, descend only as needed, cite the exact public source used, and stop at the shallowest correct record.

1. Ask the letter question. Does this contribution decide what to make (D), make it exist (A), give a reason to trust it (R), or get it out and keep it reachable (P)? If the letter is enough, stop there and cite the letter page.
2. Open acts only if the letter is too broad. Each letter page carries its acts and their questions. Stop at the act if it is precise enough. Most records stop here or above.
3. Open a trade word only if the act needs trade-specific vocabulary. Cite the word page, and the Trade Brief if one is ready.

Cite the exact public page you used. Do not infer a level you did not open.

If a contributor's role has no obvious DARP word, search a trade term you already know, or an act name, in the Explorer. If nothing fits, the role may be adjacent to a node rather than the same as it, and the propose path is open at /darp/propose/. An adjacent term names a neighbouring role, not another name for the node.

One person can hold more than one act, and more than one letter. Record one entry per demonstrable act, not one per job title. The same words apply to AI contributors: AI that writes a draft authors it too, the same word.

For trade role-grounding, find the trade word in /darp/registry.md or /darp/registry.json, open the linked Trade Brief, and cite it. Trade role-grounding is not certification, a DARP ruling, or permission to invent missing rules. Keep it distinct from DARP classification: a brief teaches how a trade role thinks and works, it does not decide what a contributor did.

Use public pages only. Do not rely on private source paths, hidden instructions, or crawler-specific behavior.