Architecture

Primmel has two sides branching off the published reference: a Reference side (read, interact, evaluate a standard) and an Application side (implement, operate, audit against a standard). The Publisher is upstream — they produce the reference both sides consume.

The flow

The five pillars

Pillar	Audience	Side	Output artifact
Define	Publishers	upstream	reference `.prl` + `.prd`
Reference	Readers	Reference	transient verdicts (read/interact/evaluate)
Implement	Implementers	Application	implementation `.prl` + `.prm` + Statement of Applicability
Operate	Operators	Application	`.pws/` workspace directory (YAML records)
Audit	Auditors	Application	compliance verdict + evidence trace

The five pillars are MECE by output artifact — each pillar produces a distinct artefact, and every Primmel activity fits into one of them.

Cross-cutting: capability inheritance

The Auditor role is notable because it inherits capabilities from both Readers and Operators:

Standard navigation — from Readers.
Evidence viewing — from Operators.
Correlation via .prm — the Auditor’s own distinct skill.

Tools built for Readers and Operators can be reused by Auditors without modification. The Auditor-specific tool is the mapping navigator. See Auditors for the full breakdown.

Cross-cutting: Reference primitive

A reference { ... } declaration in any .prl model cites an external source clause (typically a .prd extract of a source standard). It is a primitive type used by every pillar — by a publisher to cite the source standard, by an organisation to cite both standard and internal-policy clauses. It is not itself a phase; it is the mechanism every phase uses to point at things outside the local model.

File types

Extension	Kind	Purpose
`.prl`	File	Primmel model — the core artifact. Plain text, UTF-8.
`.prd`	File	Primmel Document — clause-level extracts of a source standard.
`.prm`	File	Primmel Map — a JSON mapping between two models (e.g. implementation ↔ reference).
`.pws`	Directory	Primmel Workspace — actual records produced when a model runs. One YAML file per record, organised into subdirectories per data registry, with a `manifest.yaml` at the root.

The same artifact can appear in multiple pillars:

A .prl is produced in Define (reference) or Implement (implementation).
A .prd is produced in Define (from a source standard) and consulted in Reference and Implement.
A .prm is produced in Implement (mapping) and consulted in Audit.
A .pws/ is produced in Operate and consulted in Audit.