Poesis
The Generative System Model — the governed world model.
The vendor-neutral standard for defining systems — governance as code, not governance as prose. GSM is to the world's THINK–BUILD–RUN what OpenTelemetry's semantic conventions are to observability: one shared model every tool can use.
It is grounded in systemics — synthesizing Beer's Viable System Model, von Bertalanffy's General System Theory, Wiener and Ashby's cybernetics, and Maturana and Varela's autopoiesis into a single generative definition of systems.
Why it matters
Governance as code — the definition layer beneath the projects you already run.
What OpenTelemetry is to RUN, GSM is to THINK.
OTel set one open, vendor-neutral standard for how systems are observed. GSM does the same for how they are defined and governed — so every obligation is portable across tools instead of trapped in proprietary silos. RUN measures reality; THINK defines intent; both reference the same object.
Delivered by Specifications
Kubernetes defines infrastructure to operate it. GSM defines the world to govern it.
Kubernetes proved infrastructure is best declared and driven to a desired state by control loops. GSM generalizes that exact pattern — schema-typed Archetypes, reconciling Mechanisms, an explicit governance grammar and lifecycle — lifted off containers and onto any governed subject. A CRD is an Archetype. The result is an explicit, governed world model — declared, not learned.
Delivered by Specifications
Governance as code, composed with policy as code.
GSM holds the definition; the cloud-native ecosystem realizes it — OPA / Kyverno compile enforcement from Directives and Norms, sigstore / SLSA supply attestation evidence, OpenTelemetry / Prometheus supply the measurements Norms are evaluated against, Argo realizes delivery guardrails.
Emerges from Specifications · Ontology
Trust the standard, not the vendor.
The spec is prepared for neutral, multi-stakeholder stewardship (the OASIS Open standards track) with conformance defined so independent implementations interoperate, and every sourced framework cites the authority’s clause it derives from — the trust chain runs to the standard and its sources, never through a vendor.
Delivered by Specifications · Ontology
The mental model
The governed world model, simplified.
Two anchors you already know: GSM is to THINK what OpenTelemetry’s semantic conventions are to RUN — one shared, vendor-neutral model every tool can speak — and an Archetype is to the model what a CRD is to Kubernetes: a typed schema that makes new kinds of subjects definable and governable. Together they make GSM what learned world models cannot be: an explicit, causal, governed world model of your organization.
Everything is a governed Definition. Ascriptions version it as governed snapshots; Archetypes — themselves definitions — type it; and the DNA grammar, Directives operationalized by Norms, governs it all under one lifecycle. Why learned world models cannot give you this →
DRAFT → PROPOSED → APPROVED → ACTIVE → DEPRECATED → RETIRED — every transition is a validated state change with referee preconditions; retirement cascades follow dependent definitions; identity-bound properties never change across versions. Products
The specification — and the ontologies sourced into it.
Specifications
The core spec — eight primitives, DNA grammar, Archetyping, and the systemic lifecycle.
Features
Ontology
Domain, standard, and legal vocabularies — sourced into GSM, ready to enforce.
Features
Research Lab
The non-normative research product — the Generative Governance program, promoted into GSM Change Proposals when it graduates.
Features