Syntax Reference¶

Terse reads like English. No braces. No semicolons. Indentation defines structure.

Facts¶

Declare knowledge about a node.

know dog is animal
know dog has fur
know dog weight 0.87
know dog has legs 4

Relationships¶

Declare a directed edge between two nodes.

dog chases cat
cat fears dog

Any two-word line where the first word is a known node is a relationship declaration.

Inference Rules¶

Declare a rule: if a condition is true, derive a new fact.

when has fur then is mammal
when is mammal then has warm blood

Inference¶

Apply all known rules to a node and derive new facts.

infer dog

Terse walks the inference rules, checks the node's facts, and adds derived facts automatically.

Sequence Learning¶

Teach Terse a chain of concepts. Builds Markov chain transition probabilities.

learn dog chases cat runs away
learn dog chases cat hides

Prediction¶

Predict the most likely next concept after a given concept.

predict after chases

Returns the concept with the highest transition probability, with a confidence score.

Generation¶

Chain predictions into a sequence starting from a concept.

generate from dog steps 3

Follows the most likely path through the Markov chain for N steps.

Functions¶

Define a reusable block with a parameter.

to classify thing
  infer thing
  return thing

Call it:

classify dog

to opens a function definition
The next word is the function name
The word after is the parameter name
Indented lines are the body
return returns a value

Each Loop¶

Iterate over all nodes of a given type.

each creature in animal
  classify creature

Finds all nodes where is == animal and runs the body for each, with creature bound to each node in turn.

While Loop¶

Repeat while a condition holds.

while running is true
  infer model

Has a 100 iteration safety limit during development.

Comments¶

// This is a comment

Keywords¶

know, is, has, when, then, infer, each, in, to, return,
and, or, compress, expand, can, needs, if, while, not,
true, false, weight, node, graph, edge, tensor, query,
onboard, ethics, rule, deny, allow, learn, predict,
generate, after, from, steps

Design Principles¶

Two-word lines are function calls — classify dog calls the classify function with dog as argument
Three-word lines are relationships — dog chases cat declares an edge
Indentation defines scope — function bodies are indented, no braces needed
Nodes never decay — same principle as NCI. Explicit deprecation only.
The compiler absorbs complexity — memory management, type layout, tensor representation are compiler responsibilities, not programmer responsibilities