Concepts

Natural fields

field-ui does not copy physics into the interface. It translates the four fundamental fields into interface behavior. Every interface already has priority, polarity, binding, and transformation — physics already has a language for those relations.

Natural fields are conceptual. Engine primitives are translations. Canonical forces are designed verbs. Natural fields are not tokens; tokens are translations. This reframe changes nothing the particles do — it only gives each behavior a clean place in the hierarchy:

field → translation → runtime token → metric → diagnostic → recipe

The vocabulary lanes

field-ui keeps these categories separate on purpose. A reader should never have to guess whether a word is a runtime token, a metric, or a diagnostic — the lane says so:

Natural field: conceptual translation — gravity, electromagnetic, strong, weak
Runtime token: a real passported engine force (attract, gravity, fieldflow…) — strict, conformance-gated
Concept: human-facing product language (orbit, spring, trust, staleness) — not a token
Metric: measured / semantic state (mass, attention, pressure, confidence)
Diagnostic: inspection or render mode (potential, topology, causality, field-lines)
Condition: activation logic (dwell, threshold, stale, in-view, focused)
Scheduler phase: runtime step — discover → read → compute → state → write → render
Compatibility alias: older naming (--d, --mass) — kept, but not the primary path

The four fields

Gravity

priority, convergence, hierarchy

the field of what matters — important bodies bend attention and gather related matter into stable wells.

Use for priority · ranking · search relevance · centrality · anchoring · settling · attention wells

Expressions gravity

Electromagnetic

polarity, signal, field lines, flow

the field of difference and signal. Electric fields push; magnetic fields bend; fieldflow carries.

Use for polarity · contrast · signal · routing · state opposition · field lines · guided flow · activation

Expressions chargemagnetismpropagate

Strong

binding, cohesion, structure

the field of what holds together — groups, clusters, bonds, constraints, and durable local structure.

Use for grouping · relationship strength · clusters · bonds · constraints · local structure · material integrity

Expressions crystallizealigncohesionpressurelink

Weak

transformation, decay, release

the field of change — fading, mutation, release, phase shift, expiration, and handoff.

Use for state change · release · decay · expiration · handoff · transformation · instability

Expressions morph

Electric fields push. Magnetic fields bend. Fieldflow carries. Do not make magnetism.apply() follow magnetic field lines — field-aligned transport belongs to fieldflow. And attract is not gravity; repel is not charge — those are designed UI verbs.

Author each field — the data-attribute patterns

You express a field's translation with data attributes on semantic HTML, using honest runtime tokens only. A token's field is its classification, not a separate API — there is no <gravity> element, only data-body="gravity". Strong binding is the clearest case: a native href (or data-field-relation / data-field-target) is the relationship — the graph is discovered from the DOM, not declared in code.

<!-- Gravity → priority: the element converges attention -->
<section data-body="gravity" data-field-role="priority" data-strength="0.9">
  <h2>What matters most</h2>
</section>

<!-- Electromagnetic → polarity / signal. Electric pushes, magnetic bends. -->
<button data-body="charge" data-spin="1" data-range="280">positive</button>
<button data-body="charge" data-spin="-1" data-range="280">negative</button>
<!-- magnetism bends matter along the field; fieldflow carries it along the lines -->

<!-- Strong → binding. A native link IS the relationship — no new API. -->
<p id="claim">The runtime is renderer-agnostic.</p>
<a href="#claim" data-field-relation="supports" data-field-target="#claim">
  Evidence: the boundary test
</a>

<!-- Weak → transformation / decay. Not a fake force — state that ages. -->
<article data-body="morph" data-field-role="revising">
  <!-- or: a memory metric that decays, or a recipe that releases over time -->
</article>

Live — gravity bodies carrying a supplied priority; applyRecipe() frozen · @fundamental-engine/platform writes it back as --field-priority and the CSS reads it (gravity's interface translation, running):

Headline — converges attention

Supporting detail

Fine print

data-body="gravity" + supplied priority → applyRecipe() → --field-priority → this element Each row supplies a different value, so the field's feedback is visible at a glance — the readout shows what the field actually wrote back.

Fields vs primitives vs forces

Every catalog token has a place. This grouping is read straight from the engine's classification:

Field primitive

gravitychargemagnetismpropagate

Material analogue

crystallizealigncohesionpressurelinkmorph

Transport

pigmentfieldflow

Derived behavior

thermalcollidediffuse

Metric

memory

Designed UI verb

attractrepelswirlstreamviscosityjettetherwallsinklensgatebuoyancyshearwindhuntspawnresonatespotlightscreenwarp

Interface translation table

One need, separated into lanes: the runtime tokens that execute it, the metrics it measures, and the diagnostics that reveal it.

Interface need	Natural field	Runtime tokens	Metrics	Diagnostics
Show importance	Gravity	gravity attract	mass priority attention	potential prediction
Route signal	Electromagnetic	charge propagate fieldflow stream	signal strength	field-lines force-vectors
Show relationship	Strong + EM	link cohesion	relation-strength	topology causality
Keep things grouped	Strong	cohesion crystallize align	cluster density	topology heatmap
Show change / decay	Weak	morph memory	decay age	causality contours
Show flow through structure	EM + transport	fieldflow stream	flow velocity	field-lines prediction
Show reading history	Memory (metric)	memory	attention recency	heatmap inspector

Diagnostics by field

Each diagnostic answers “which invisible relation am I revealing?” — all shipped (see them live). Diagnostics are inspection modes, not runtime tokens.

Diagnostic	Reveals	Field
Potential	wells and energy landscape	Gravity
Field lines	electromagnetic structure	Electromagnetic
Topology	binding and relationships	Strong
Causality	which primitive caused change	any
Prediction	near-future path	Gravity / flow
Contours	scalar fields	derived

Four fields. Many expressions. One DOM runtime. Every interface has priority, polarity, binding, and transformation. field-ui gives those relations a field model.