Directed link between two components, with evidence. Click a node in the graph to pre-fill Source.
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Analysis stage
Every record carries the stage it belongs to. Baseline view shows only Stage-1 records and suppresses the analytical grammar (edge weights, Nail dashes, ◇ / ‖ glyphs, black-box fills) — the chart as the proponents describe it, nothing more.
Provenance / perspectives
Every node & relation is stamped family:source — baseline:… for the engineerist/official account (Stage 1: vendor pages, programme-office interviews), other families (e.g. counter:some-report) for accounts outside it, and plain analysis for your own inferences. Colour follows the family; show/hide works per source.
Overlays & stacks
Alternative renderings of the same graph, derived from tags — the graph underneath never changes. Switch views from the toolbar dropdown.
Stack lenses
A lens arranges components into named horizontal layers by their prefix:Layer tags. Bratton is built-in; define your own (Data / Ontology / Engineering …).
Tag highlight 0
Toggle any tag to give its components a coloured halo — without dimming the rest. Stackable.
Filter — dim non-matching
By tag
By component kind
By relation kind
Graph metrics
Structural signals to inform your judgments — not to make them. Degree = connections. Betweenness = brokers on shortest paths. Cut-vertices = single points whose removal fragments the assemblage. Deciding one is a chokepoint is your move: ＋tag applies it.
Degree — most connected
not computed
Betweenness — brokers
not computed
Cut-vertices — keystones
not computed
Entanglement & alignment
Entanglement is local & vertical (a platform + a workflow). Alignment is distributed & horizontal — one dependency instantiated several times, carried by an agent. Spotlight dims all but the alignment edges & their carriers.
Ripple walk — tracing stack alignment
Qualitative instrument, per the working definition: alignment is the ripple effects of one system's integration across other layers of the stack, through knock-on effects, compatibility requirements, and system affordances. Select a focal system (default: MSS-N); its cross-layer relations are laid out layer by layer. Of each layer, ask: knock-on — what new dependency did the integration force here? compatibility — what had to be made to fit? affordance — what practice reshaped around what the system makes possible? Record answers as Alignment demonstrations on the edges that carry them; flag ‖ only then.
Alignments by carrier
no alignment edges yet
Eight-stage process
The iterative link-analysis method. Tick stages as you work; each is a reminder, not a lock.
Baseline & snapshots
Stage 1 saves the official account as a baseline; stage 8 reads omissions by diffing your current graph against it.
Omissions — diff vs baseline
Dissonance register 0
Stage 7 — conflicting accounts of roles, responsibilities, relationships.
Association matrix
Stage 3 of the classic method — every known association at a glance. ● = a directed relation exists.
Share
Your graph is shared as a read-only web page at a fixed link (pan, zoom, overlays, metrics). It's a snapshot of the last version published — after you make changes, export your JSON and it gets republished to the same link. For a no-link option, just send the exported JSON file and the recipient imports it.
Export
Current view as vector/image, or the whole graph as JSON.
Import / reset
Older files with a single Bratton layer field migrate automatically to bratton: tags.
Component kinds — suggestions
Relation kinds — suggestions
Interactive exhibit · read-only — explore freely, nothing you do here is saved.
Actant feature
Element — structural object
Agent — connects elements ↔ conditions
Condition — abstract machine / field
◇-ringed node — obligatory passage point (with demonstration)
Black-box index (fill)
Open to scrutiny
Proprietary / subscription
Classified
Relation — confers (weight)
Power
Influence
Direction
Line of flight — Nail (style)
Relative-negative (reproduces)
Relative-positive (departs)
Absolute-negative (undermines)
Absolute-positive (creates anew)
Flag
◇ Obligatory passage point
‖ Alignment (double line, with demonstration + carrier)