Aistra is a small prototype language for describing human felt states in a more structured and testable way. Instead of treating a feeling as one vague blob, it breaks it into parts like valence, arousal, intensity, location, texture, contour, certainty, source, and action tendency. It is already real enough to run as a serious prototype, but it is still a prototype and not finished science.

Read docs/frontdoor/PROJECT_PURPOSE_AND_USE_CASES.md for the shortest honest summary of what the project is trying to do, what it is useful for right now, and what it does not claim.

Read docs/frontdoor/COHERENCE_AND_CONTROL_SURFACE.md for the shortest map of the package safeguards, checks, and limits. Read docs/frontdoor/SCIENTIFIC_GROUNDING.md for the shortest map of the research layer.

The project and language name is Aistra. See docs/frontdoor/NAME_DECISION.md.

Current package posture:

• Route 1: pilot_ready as an operational package-status label, one initial human pilot completed, not broadly validated
• Route 2: pre_human

Read in this order:

1. START_HERE.md
2. docs/frontdoor/PROJECT_PURPOSE_AND_USE_CASES.md
3. docs/frontdoor/COHERENCE_AND_CONTROL_SURFACE.md
4. docs/frontdoor/SCIENTIFIC_GROUNDING.md
5. docs/state/PROJECT_STATUS.md
6. docs/state/CURRENT_EXECUTION_ORDER.md
7. docs/frontdoor/CURRENT_OPERATOR_START_HERE.md
8. docs/frontdoor/HUMAN_PILOT_PACK_GUIDE.md
9. governance/AUTHORITATIVE_INDEX_v0_1.md
10. docs/frontdoor/SKEPTICAL_AUDIT_AND_HARDENING.md
11. docs/frontdoor/TRUST_AND_STYLE_POLICY.md

• docs/frontdoor/ = the shortest honest explanations, verification, and operator guidance
• docs/state/ = current project posture and next-step sequencing
• docs/specs/ = ontology, scoring, validity, and design docs
• docs/ops/ = operator memos, instructions, checklists, and templates
• docs/history/ = condensed development history worth keeping
• core/route1/ = Route 1 assets and code
• core/common/ = shared route-control code
• apps/human_pilot/ = local Route 1 app
• research/grounding/ = literature-linked grounding and prehuman justification
• governance/ = authoritative maps, integrity, and file-governance rules
• archive/reports/generated/ = regenerated check outputs and run reports

• research/examples/ are examples, not launch artifacts.
• archive/deprecated/ contains superseded material retained for traceability.
• archive/reports/generated/ contains generated reports, not canonical definitions.

• python package_doctor.py
• python route1_launch_gate.py

Use START_HERE.md, governance/AUTHORITATIVE_INDEX_v0_1.md, and governance/AUTHORITATIVE_SOURCES_v0_2.json to find the live files.

This is still not yet broadly validated science. In this package, pilot_ready means the bounded workflow is operationally runnable under current controls; it is not an evidence-grade validation label.