The specification and everything around it¶
The normative text is one document. The others exist so that the normative text does not have to argue for itself, apologise for itself, or keep a diary.
The documents are not distributed publicly for now
They exist and they are listed below with their versions, but they are not published. Ask for access by opening an issue — say what you are building and I will know what you should be reading.
The reason is measurement, not secrecy. A second independent implementation is being written from the specification text alone, by an author who sees neither the first implementation's code, nor the rationale, nor the review register. The cross-run between the two is the only test that says whether Common Time is a protocol or a library, and it measures precisely what the text alone yields. The rationale contains the resolutions written out in prose — and an implementer who reads them implements the interpretation rather than the text.
The specification is the document an implementer needs, and it is available on request. The rest opens up once the cross-run has been run.
| Document | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
| Common Time Core | The normative specification. Authoritative version. | 1.8 |
| Common Time Core | Finnish version. The working version; English takes precedence. | 1.8 |
| Rationale | Four refusals, eight measured decisions, eighteen rejected alternatives. | 1 |
| Implementation plan | Six phases, five of them measurements. One gate each. | 1e |
| Conformance plan | The test suite as an audit of the specification. Every test cites a clause. | 1d |
| Roles and open items | Who holds the pen on what, and the twelve items that awaited a decision on 13 Sep — all decided 18–19 Sep 2026. | 2b |
| Prior art | Around fifty-five comparable systems, and what each one does instead. | — |
| How it came about | Non-technical, spoken. Eight chapters and four refusals. | — |
| The mark | Thirteen rings, 92 vertices, phase-locked to a common anchor. | — |
Application layer — not the protocol¶
Common Time exists because something needed it. These documents describe that something, and they are not part of the specification — a conforming implementation owes them nothing.
| Document | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
| Musikklubben | The virtual nightclub the protocol was written for. | MVP |
| Material pipeline | How generated audio becomes material the protocol can address. | 1a |
| Operator console | An illustration of a four-deck controller. Not a specification of anything. | — |