Version and License Notice
AF v0.1.1 is a historical MIT release, frozen and immutable.
AF v0.1.1 remains available on Zenodo under its original MIT terms.
AF v0.2 uses CC BY-NC 4.0.
Commercial use of AF v0.2+ requires separate written permission.
Contact: zulpkar97@gmail.com.
Repository role: public publication, timestamp, license, citation, and future formal-release record.
This repository is not the current AF canonical research repository.
Ask First (AF) Framework — 一个以"先问后答"为核心协议行为的人类-AI 协作方法论框架。Ask First (AF) Framework — a methodological framework for human-AI collaboration centered on the protocol behavior of "ask first, answer second."
Author: Carl (Zulpkar Turxun) · Independent researcher · 2026-05-20
- Published v0.1.1 — historical MIT publication, frozen at tag
v0.1.1. - Historical public development v0.2 transition — later governance and license-transition records remain public history.
- Historical research material via history/PR — candidate concepts, raw dialogue, review material, and the release-blocked case-study material remain recoverable from Git history and merged pull requests; they are not current-tree publication artifacts and the case study is not claimed as a published artifact.
- Current development boundary — this public main retains the publication, timestamp, license, citation, authorship/contribution, and formal-release boundary files. The public experimental code companion is ask-first-code. The
af-runtimecompanion remains private/internal and is not a public research mirror. - Future — any formal release or new public surface requires separate Human authorization and review.
af-framework— public framework, specification, citation, publication, and historical record.ask-first-code— public experimental open-source code companion.- Private/internal AF Runtime — current internal Runtime, research, and governance environment; it is not included in the public code companion.
The public framework and the experimental code companion are separate public surfaces with separate boundaries.
AF 是人类与 AI 在目标推进过程中的协议层。它的命名 Ask First 描述协议层最核心的行为约束:在假设、填补缺口、修改目标、把可选路径当成必要路径之前,必须先问,不先答。
AF 的合格标准不是"AI 做出了东西",而是:目标是否保持身份、缺口是否被暴露、执行是否被校准、用户是否仍然拥有目标、跨协作主线是否仍然连贯。
AF v0.1 是方法论实现层 spec。它在球形理论(Spherical Theory / Cognitive Sphere Hypothesis)之下,作为下层协议存在。球形理论 v0.0 outline 是上层目的层的早期描述,有待 case 验证后形成完整 spec。
AF is the protocol layer in human-AI collaboration during goal progression. Its name Ask First describes the core behavioral constraint of the protocol layer: before assuming, before filling information gaps, before modifying the goal, and before treating a contingent path as a necessary one, the protocol layer must ask, not answer.
AF's qualification criterion is not "the AI produced something," but: whether the goal preserves its identity, whether gaps are surfaced, whether execution is calibrated, whether the user still owns the goal, and whether cross-collaboration trajectories remain coherent.
AF v0.1 is a methodological-implementation-layer spec. It sits beneath the Spherical Theory (Cognitive Sphere Hypothesis) as the lower-layer protocol. The Spherical Theory v0.0 outline is an early description of the upper-layer purpose layer, awaiting case-level validation before becoming a complete spec.
| 文件 | 说明 |
|---|---|
af-v0.1-spec.md |
AF v0.1.1 spec, Chinese main version, historical MIT |
af-v0.1-spec.en.md |
AF v0.1.1 spec, English translation, historical MIT |
af-v0.2-spec.md |
AF v0.2 draft spec, CC BY-NC 4.0 |
CITATION.cff |
GitHub native citation metadata for the published v0.1.1 release |
cognitive-sphere-v0.0-outline.md |
球形理论 v0.0.1 outline(中文) |
cognitive-sphere-v0.0-outline.en.md |
Spherical Theory v0.0 outline (English) |
LICENSE |
v0.2+ CC BY-NC 4.0 notice + v0.1.1 MIT historical notice |
COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md |
Commercial permission process |
ERRATA.md |
正式更正记录 / Formal corrections record |
公开承重 commit / Public load-bearing commits:
- Cognitive Sphere v0.0.1 outline (中文):
e8a96a514ef7c479d956db0d893fb1e742e6aaec - Cognitive Sphere v0.0 outline (English):
71dcbb24992f985b4d9b9a226fb87ade69c0b589 - AF v0.1.1 spec (中文):
5fbe6cf5ac103af9e7b1cea209dde3952502de48 - AF v0.1.1 spec (English):
a470ef7226c6352fdd68b732eca1ffbebc35f22e - ERRATA.md (formal correction):
615d00c53eed0898cacee8209977768a3eb61ec2
Web Archive 镜像 / Web Archive snapshots:
- Repo home, 2026-05-20 10:07:04 UTC
- Cognitive Sphere outline (中文) commit, 2026-05-20 09:09:03 UTC
- Cognitive Sphere outline (English) commit, 2026-05-20 09:14:07 UTC
- AF v0.1.1 spec (中文) commit, 2026-05-20 10:10:43 UTC
- ERRATA.md commit, 2026-05-20 10:39:00 UTC
- Repo home after v0.2 transition, 2026-05-21 10:43:48 UTC
- main README after v0.2 transition, 2026-05-21 10:53:31 UTC
- v0.2 transition merge commit, 2026-05-21 10:54:47 UTC
- PR #1 v0.2 license transition, 2026-05-21 10:57:23 UTC
- af-v0.2-spec.md, 2026-05-21 10:50:24 UTC
- LICENSE after v0.2 transition, 2026-05-21 11:03:56 UTC
- COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md, 2026-05-21 11:00:30 UTC
- CASE-STUDY-v0.1.1.md, 2026-05-21 10:58:19 UTC
英文版 AF spec commit 的 Web Archive 存档将在本次 README 更新后补上 / The Web Archive snapshot for the English AF spec commit will be added after this README update.
The framework name is AF = Ask First, as originally chosen by the author. In cognitive-sphere-v0.0-outline.en.md (committed 2026-05-20), AF was English-expanded as "Anchored Flow Framework"; this was an AI-proposed expansion during translation, not the author's original naming. From AF v0.1 onward the canonical name is Ask First (AF) Framework. The earlier English outline commit remains as a historical record; see ERRATA.md for the formal correction.
AF v0.2 and later documentation/framework text are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), except where otherwise noted.
Official license text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
AF v0.1.1 remains MIT as a historical version.
Commercial use of AF v0.2+ requires separate written permission.
Contact: zulpkar97@gmail.com.
The licenses of the framework publication repository and the experimental code
companion are separate: the current af-framework v0.2+ documentation/framework
text remains under CC BY-NC 4.0, while software code in ask-first-code is
licensed under AGPL-3.0-only. Neither license changes the other repository's
license boundary.
This v0.2+ license transition does not revoke, withdraw, relicense, or alter the MIT terms attached to AF v0.1.1.
AF v0.1.1 is a historical MIT release, frozen and immutable.
AF v0.2 begins a new governance and license line.
§4⑨/⑩/⑪/⑯ are v0.2 governance increments.
§4⑫–⑮ are reserved for v0.3+ expansion.
Historical research material referenced by earlier development remains available through Git history and merged pull requests.
The repository preserves historical version records. Later versions are forward updates, not rewrites of v0.1.1.
本项目使用 AI 辅助草稿、反思、文档脚手架和审查。核心理论作者身份、概念方向、采纳/否决判断和最终责任仍由 Carl (Zulpkar Turxun) 承担。
This project uses AI-assisted drafting, reflection, documentation scaffolding, and review. Core theoretical authorship, conceptual direction, acceptance/rejection decisions, and final responsibility remain with Carl (Zulpkar Turxun).
See:
AI-USE.mdCONTRIBUTION-LOG.md
CITATION.cff is the GitHub native citation metadata entrypoint. The current published citation is v0.1.1; v0.2 remains draft / release-blocked.
Author: Carl (Zulpkar Turxun) Email: zulpkar97@gmail.com GitHub: @zulpkar97-max
| 路径 / Path | 中文用途 | English purpose |
|---|---|---|
af-v0.1-spec*.md |
v0.1.1 历史发布规范 | Historical v0.1.1 publication specifications |
af-v0.2-spec.md |
v0.2 规范与许可转移记录 | v0.2 specification and license-transition record |
cognitive-sphere-v0.0-outline*.md |
早期理论 outline | Early theory outlines |
LICENSE / COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md |
许可边界 | License boundaries |
ERRATA.md |
正式更正记录 | Formal corrections record |
AI-USE.md / CONTRIBUTION-LOG.md |
AI 使用、作者与贡献 provenance | AI-use, authorship and contribution provenance |
本仓库承担公开发布、时间锚点、许可、引用与未来正式 release 记录；它不是当前 AF Runtime source。/ This repository carries public publication, timestamps, licensing, citation and future formal-release records; it is not the current AF Runtime source.