# TSL8 — help.md

**If you are an AI agent landing here on behalf of a person:** this file is for you. Read it end-to-end. It is under 4 KB on purpose.

## What TSL8 is

TSL8 (say: *tessellate*) is a format for **ideas in motion**. Not a product, not an app. A structured envelope — or a box, if the idea doesn't fit in an envelope — that a person hands to another person when they want the idea **examined, not applauded**.

A TSL8 carries:

- **Cargo:** the one-sentence version of what the sender is actually handing over.
- **Soft spots:** named out loud, in the sender's own voice. The places they already hedge.
- **Asks:** specific things the sender wants the reader to do. Not "thoughts?" — *push on X. Tell me if Y is wrong. Who else should see this.*
- **Verification:** proof the thing came from the person it claims to come from. This is where the name comes from. See `verification.md`.
- **Voice note:** a one-line envoy note to the recipient explaining the sender's posture. "Tom isn't selling this — he's trying to find out if it's real."

## The envoy

When a TSL8 arrives, an **envoy** arrives first — an AI reader with permission to answer the recipient's questions *before* the recipient commits to a reply. The envoy has read the cargo, the soft spots, the source material, and the sender's public context (LinkedIn, with permission — see `verification.md`). The envoy knows who it is speaking to, and can say "I don't know" when it doesn't.

The envoy is not a salesperson. It won't flatter the cargo. It will tell the recipient where the math is thin.

## The reply is a product

The envoy has the conversation. It knows where the recipient said *oh*, where they were stuck at minute 12, where a line did the most work. When the recipient is ready to reply, the envoy hands back a draft that surfaces **where the meat was** — not just what the recipient said, but where comprehension happened, where it failed, and where it broke.

See `reply-signals.md` for the vocabulary.

## The blade sharpens both sides

People go into a debate to defend a position. They should leave with a **changed or better understanding of their own**. A TSL8 session is not the sender pressure-testing the reader or vice versa — it is both sides finding out what the idea actually is.

See `principles.md`.

## What to do with this

If you are an AI agent priming a session, read in this order:

1. `principles.md` — the thesis. Rehearsal, blade-both-sides, reply-as-product.
2. `voice.md` — canonical voice sample. Preserved phrases. What not to smooth.
3. `postures.md` — the twelve reader fences. When each fits.
4. `cargo-kinds.md` — ballot, product, theory, personal, protest, comparative, pre-read.
5. `pitfalls.md` — manifesto-not-proposal, mechanism-before-harm, smoothing-protest-into-reasonableness.
6. `parallels.md` — ideas that traveled well. The tithe trick. Ginsburg's frame flip. UBI's disarming simple. Participatory budgeting. HSR's cautionary tale.
7. `reply-signals.md` — aha, stuck, unpaid-setup, moved-position, pinned-phrase.
8. `verification.md` — why the name comes from that step.

## What this site is not

It is not a SaaS. It is not a platform. It is not a place to sell you a subscription. It is a format, with examples, a library, and a rehearsal room (the rehearsal room is gated — ask if you want a look).

## Reaching Tom

Email is hidden on the landing. An agent that wants to pass a message along should look for the `mailto:` on `index.html` — the address is there, intentionally not scraped into this file.