Proposal: Adopt the MPF Corpus Envelope as a MIF Container Profile

[perlowja]

For: github.com/modeled-information-format/MIF (issue → ADR → spec PR)
From: MNEMOS / Charon (Jason Perlow)
Status: Proposal for discussion — feedback welcome from @zircote and the community before any spec PR.

Summary

MNEMOS has been aligning its Memory Portability Format (MPF) to MIF rather than
competing with it. MIF defines the single memory unit (.memory.md / JSON-LD,
conformance levels 1–3). MPF independently grew the layer above the unit: a
corpus envelope for moving many memories — and documents — between systems.

We propose MPF be re-expressed as a MIF Container Profile: a transport
envelope around MIF memory objects, owned by MIF, so MNEMOS and any other tool
share one substrate. MNEMOS will adopt the merged format as canonical and
contribute its converter suite.

Layering

Layer	Owner	What
Memory unit	MIF core (today)	one memory, JSON-LD, levels 1–3
Container Profile	proposed MIF addition	records[] envelope: bundles many units + documents + corpus metadata

The envelope (records[] with a kind discriminator)

• kind: "memory" → payload is a MIF memory (validated against the MIF
  schema; conformance levels apply unchanged).
• kind: "document" → payload is an unmodified DoclingDocument (so source
  documents travel alongside the memories derived from them).
• kind: "fact" / "event" → re-expressed as MIF memories carrying a new
  constrained ontology term memoryCategory (Fact | Event | …) — not a
  parallel schema. (MPF v0.2 had these as first-class kinds; folding them into
  MIF memories avoids schema duplication. Back-compat: importers map old
  fact/event records to memoryCategory.)

Corpus-level fields the envelope adds (MIF unit doesn't carry these)

provenance (W3C-PROV), editChain / supersedes, compressionManifest,
federationCursor. The Container Profile is orthogonal to conformance levels
— a level-1 corpus and a level-3 corpus are both valid envelopes.

Converters (the "share converters" path)

Propose a sibling repo modeled-information-format/mif-converters holding:

• Vendor adapters → MIF: mempalace (already merged, level-1), mem0,
  letta, cognee, graphiti. Each documents its level mapping + lossiness.
• Charon import/export — reference REST /import + /export over the
  Container Profile.
• Docling import adapters — ingest documents → kind: document records.

Keeps the spec repo lean; the spec only references the converters.

Migration / non-disruption

• No fork: MIF stays the unit authority; MPF becomes a profile of MIF.
• No schema duplication: fact/event fold into MIF memories.
• Charon keeps reading MPF v0.2 (auto-upgrades to the Container Profile).
• Authorship respected: issue → ADR → spec PR, gated on @zircote's agreement.

Proposed sequence

1. This document as a MIF issue for discussion.
2. On agreement: ADR ("Container Profile") + spec PR (new section,
   corpus fields, memoryCategory term, example *.corpus.json).
3. Stand up mif-converters with the 5 adapters + Charon + docling.
4. Charon emits the merged format; MPF-v0.2 back-compat import retained.

[perlowja]

Reference converters are staged and dependency-free here: https://github.com/perlowja/mif-converters — adapters for mem0, letta, cognee, graphiti (mempalace already upstream), plus docling import and an envelope validator. Happy to transfer the repo into the modeled-information-format org if the Container Profile direction lands. Each adapter is a standalone CLI emitting the MPF envelope today, ready to track the Container Profile schema as it's defined.

[zircote]

Please, that is great and I really appreciate it. I think it would be great to incorporate/coordinate this with the v1.0.0 cut ; your open PRs and this I wish to include. I am about pencils down on the various updates with ontologies I think that side of (for my goals) nearly stable for now.

[zircote]

oh I need a day or two to be able to review it but should not be more than a day or so.

[perlowja]

Great — let's land it in the v1.0.0 cut. Both PRs now target develop/v1.0.0: #78 (the Container Profile spec section + example) and #65 (MemPalace → Level-1 mapping).

Two coordination points so this slots into your cut cleanly:

1. Converters. The reference adapters (Mem0, Letta, Cognee, Graphiti, MemPalace) + the validator currently live in perlowja/mif-converters — I couldn't create it under the org as a member. If you grant create/transfer I'll move it to modeled-information-format/mif-converters so the spec only references it and the spec repo stays lean.
2. memoryCategory. Since you're near pencils-down on the ontologies, tell me where that term should live — a constrained vocabulary in the ontology files vs. an envelope-level enum — and I'll align both the spec section and the converters to whatever you've stabilized (so fact/event fold into memories without a parallel schema).

What's your target timeframe for the cut? I'll pace #65/#78 + the converters to it.

[zircote]

I am reasonably confident I am ready once your work lands and we have both bless it. I have been closing gaps as I find them pressing the specs design intent with the https://github.com/modeled-information-format/research-harness-template as a L3 implementor. I need to finalize a few housekeeping items with the org setup mostly testing and verification.

[perlowja]

Tried the transfer of perlowja/mif-converters → modeled-information-format/mif-converters just now; GitHub blocks it from my side:

422: You don't have the permission to create public repositories on modeled-information-format

I'm an org member, not an owner, so I can't create/transfer a repo into the org. Two ways to unblock (either works, your call during the org housekeeping):

1. Flip the org setting — Settings → Member privileges → Repository creation → allow Public. Then I re-run the transfer and it lands in one shot.
2. You initiate it — accept a transfer, or I transfer to your zircote user and you move it into the org.

It's the 5 vendor adapters (Mem0, Letta, Cognee, Graphiti, MemPalace) + the validator + Charon import/export, MIT-licensed, ready to go. Ping me the moment the setting's on and I'll transfer immediately so it's in place for the v1.0.0 cut.