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ASCENT 1.0 - One-page abstract

Status: Release Candidate (1.0.0-rc1)
Category: Proposed encoding / stream grammar
Obsoletes: (none - coexists with ASCII and Unicode)
Requires: Bit-identical classic 7-bit ASCII on 0x00-0x7F

Abstract

ASCENT (ASCII Successor with Compatible Encoding of Named Text) is a byte-stream encoding and control grammar for text, agent directives, multimodal references, quantum-safe control envelopes, and optional deep-space error-corrected frames. Every byte less than 0x80 is classic 7-bit ASCII, bit-identical to ANSI X3.4 / ISO 646 IRV, forever. Higher capability is introduced only through fixed C1 fences, length-prefixed frames, and a clean-room variable-width data plane (ASCENT-V) that does not use UTF-16 surrogate pairs and does not dual-stack UTF-8 on the native wire.

ASCENT is not a marketing rename of Unicode. It is a wire contract: greppable pure-ASCII subsets remain greppable; agents and media share one stream; unknown length-declared units are skipped under caps; deep-space profile D hard-erases units that fail outer parity rather than inventing mojibake. SkyPulse PATHHINT (appendix) is LEO path foresight for usable session bandwidth; it does not increase Starlink physical RF Mbps and is not a bare "bandwidth upgrade."

1. Motivation

  1. Preserve the 1963 identity plane that still underpins shebangs, SMTP 7-bit paths, and greppers.
  2. Carry LLM/agent control tokens in-band without overloading printable prose.
  3. Attach multimodal refs and short payloads with content hashes.
  4. Ship quantum-safe control sequences with an append-only algorithm registry and no silent downgrade.
  5. Support long-haul links with an outer ECC profile (RS default, optional LDPC).
  6. Remain self-describing: a valid document can embed plane maps, registries, and version history.

2. Design laws

Law Statement
Identity byte < 0x80 => classic ASCII, width 1, forever
No overlongs Multi-byte forms MUST NOT encode 0x00-0x7F
No surrogates One scalar = one unit; emoji via scalar sequences (incl. ZWJ)
Fixed control P1 fences + P2 length-declared headers; big-endian integers
Skip-unknown Unknown unit with valid length => skip under max-frame
Erase-on-fail (D) Outer parity/CRC fail => discard unit, hunt next sync

3. Plane map (summary)

ID Role Leads / notes
P0 ASCII identity 0x00-0x7F
P1 C1 controls 0x80-0x9F; 9A/9B agent; 9C crypto; 9D MM
P2 Escape nucleus C0 DEF, C1 AGENT_OP, CF private
P3/P4 Scripts / emoji ASCENT-V V-width
P5-P8 Agent, MM, PQ, self-map Frame grammars
P9 Deep-space outer Sync D5 E5 C0 DE
P10+ Private Cannot redefine P0-P2

4. Profiles

  • ASCENT-7 - pure ASCII identity
  • ASCENT-E - Earth interchange (full control)
  • ASCENT-E-LEO - usage of E: SkyPulse PATHHINT, light integrity on LEO IP (not a parse fork)
  • ASCENT-D - deep-space (RS(255,223) default, MAX_UNIT 8192, ref-prefer MM)
  • ASCENT-A - archive / DEF-heavy

Profile is orthogonal to semver: e.g. ASCENT-E/1.0.

5. Control sketches

Agent:  9A | C1 ver opcode flags len args | 9B
MM:     9D 4D kind codec flags hash-alg hash len [body]
Crypto: 9C 4B alg kid nonce ct
DEF:    "ASCENT/1.0\n" | C0 schema len body
OuterD: D5 E5 C0 DE | profile | ecc | len | unit | parity

Initial agent opcodes: STOP, ROLE, TOOL, THINK, HANDOFF, CAP, SAFETY.

SkyPulse PATHHINT (P2 0xC5 schema 0x01): required path_id, next_capacity (predicted sender bottleneck bits/s, not RF PHY), freeze_until, confidence, ttl; optional obstruction/elev. Fail-closed erase on CRC/short-RS fail, stale TTL, or unknown version. Light integrity on Starlink IP/QUIC (CRC or short RS); full RS(255,223) P9 is spool/deep-space only. Usage profile ASCENT-E-LEO vs ASCENT-D.

Registered companion encryption suite AEGIR (design/AEGIR.md) occupies P7 alg ids 0x0100-0x010B (suite envelope, dual-core hybrid KEM, AEAD, HBOP outer pad, IMS seal, DEMO). No silent downgrade; keys out of band.

6. Compatibility guarantees

  1. Pure classic ASCII files are valid ASCENT-7 / identity subset of E.
  2. P0 never remapped; IDs never recycled (append-only deprecation).
  3. Major version only when control grammar breaks.
  4. PQ algorithm freezes allowed for mid-cruise probes.
  5. UTF-8 bridge is import/export only; native wire is ASCENT-V.

7. Governance (sketch)

ASCENT Joint Maintenance Group (AJMG) dual-liaises ISO/IEC JTC 1 and IETF. Registries public and secret-free. Neither track may weaken P0-P2 parse law alone.

8. Example

Stream begins ASCENT/1.0\nHello, Universe.\n, then agent ROLE=guide (9A C1 01 00 02 ... 9B), then multimodal REF (9D 4D ...). See SPEC.md section E and ref/ascent_decode.py.

9. Status of this memo

Informative one-page face for the normative draft at SPEC.md. Not an IETF RFC number assignment. Ship when implementers stop arguing about the stairs and start climbing them.

ASCENT - keep every classic ASCII byte sacred.