---
slug: "Skeleton"
name: "Skeleton"
type: "Data Structures"
layer: "Infrastructure"
ref: "Skeleton#d950"
sema_id: "sema:Skeleton#mh:SHA-256:d9508eade0664b98581ab94a0f86b22d9e6b4cb39c33838097592c2e6c1cb285"
tags: ["Infrastructure","Data Structures"]
updated: 2026-11-11
mindscape: "bootstrap"
index_url: https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap.json
url: https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/Skeleton/
related: ["Topology","SkeletonOfThought"]
---

# Skeleton

Parallel outline-first topology

Layer: Infrastructure · Category: Data Structures

## Mechanism

A [Topology](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Topology.md) in which one root outline fans out into points that can be expanded concurrently: a single level of breadth with no edges between siblings. The shape is what buys latency — every point is independent, so expansion parallelises — and what costs depth, since no point can build on another's result. Names the structure only; the generate-then-expand procedure over it belongs to its consumers.

## Invariants

- Independence: no point's expansion may depend on another point's expansion.
- Single level: the outline is one level of breadth — a point that itself fans out is a [Topology](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Topology.md) of a different shape.

## Failure modes

—

## Data schema

```json
{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "outline"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "outline": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      },
      "description": "High-level points to be expanded"
    },
    "expansions": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Map of outline point index to expanded content"
    }
  }
}
```

## Builds on

- [Topology](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Topology.md) (Infrastructure; References)

## Used by

- [SkeletonOfThought](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/SkeletonOfThought.md) (Mind; References)

## Identity

- Sema ID: `sema:Skeleton#mh:SHA-256:d9508eade0664b98581ab94a0f86b22d9e6b4cb39c33838097592c2e6c1cb285`
- Ref: `Skeleton#d950`
- Supersedes:
  - `sema:Skeleton#mh:SHA-256:c47d47fcefb07fc006ebfc53a7a6ce8e6bdc57da37a7feb5743e3f9563ab6907`

## Links

- [Pattern page](https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/Skeleton/)
- [View in the interactive graph](https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/#Skeleton)
- [JSON](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Skeleton.json)
- [Index of all patterns](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap.json)