---
slug: "CompositionEdge"
name: "CompositionEdge"
type: "Data Structures"
layer: "Infrastructure"
ref: "CompositionEdge#2be8"
sema_id: "sema:CompositionEdge#mh:SHA-256:2be81d974795a345a4518b540b6110bed48e2e1fc084363193dc0bb609616bbb"
tags: ["Infrastructure","Data Structures"]
updated: 2026-11-11
mindscape: "bootstrap"
index_url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/index.json
url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/CompositionEdge/
related: ["Synthesis","ConceptualDecomposition","MandatoryAbstraction","SolverDecomposition","Decompose","MECE","SpecializationEdge"]
---

# CompositionEdge

A link stating that a child supplies a differentiated contribution its parent's outward capability requires

Layer: Infrastructure · Category: Data Structures

## Mechanism

A composition edge records that a child supplies one differentiated contribution that its parent's outward capability requires: a restaurant needs nourishment, experience, flow, economics and identity, each linked to it as a contribution rather than as a kind. When the parent is invoked, its composition children can become executable work, and the parent's [Synthesis](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/Synthesis.md) states how their contributions, with routing and integration, realize its capability. The set is claimed complete for the parent's current outward promise, so a missing contribution is a defect of the carve, while siblings need only low coupling, not zero overlap. A contribution may serve several parents, each giving it its own role.

## Invariants

- The child supplies a contribution the parent's outward capability requires, differentiated from its siblings' contributions.
- A parent's composition children are claimed complete for its current outward promise.
- The parent declares a synthesis stating how its composition children's contributions realize its capability.

## Failure modes

- Kind filed as part: a kind of the parent is linked as one of its contributions, so the parent appears to need every kind in order to work.
- Procedural carve: the children are steps of one procedure rather than dimensions of the capability, so the set is complete for one workflow but not for the capability.
- Unstated synthesis: children are attached without saying how their contributions combine, so the parent's capability is asserted rather than shown.

## Data schema

```json
{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "parent",
    "child",
    "contribution",
    "synthesis"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "parent": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The capability the contribution helps realize"
    },
    "child": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The concept or Solver that supplies the contribution"
    },
    "contribution": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "What the child supplies that the parent's outward capability requires, stated so that it differs from its siblings' contributions"
    },
    "synthesis": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Reference to the parent's declared synthesis, which states how its composition children together realize its capability"
    },
    "role": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Optional parent-local role, constraints or acceptance criteria the parent gives the child; one child can serve several parents in different roles"
    }
  }
}
```

## Builds on

- [Synthesis](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/Synthesis.md) (Mind; References)

## Used by

- [ConceptualDecomposition](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/ConceptualDecomposition.md) (Mind; References)
- [MandatoryAbstraction](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/MandatoryAbstraction.md) (Mind; References)
- [SolverDecomposition](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/SolverDecomposition.md) (Mind; References)

## Identity

- Sema ID: `sema:CompositionEdge#mh:SHA-256:2be81d974795a345a4518b540b6110bed48e2e1fc084363193dc0bb609616bbb`
- Ref: `CompositionEdge#2be8`

## Links

- [Pattern page](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/CompositionEdge/)
- [View in the interactive graph](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/#CompositionEdge)
- [JSON](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/CompositionEdge.json)
- [Index of all patterns](https://mindscape.pages.dev/bootstrap/index.json)