# PAG and the method

> A PAG document is one instrument, a single input inside the loop the method owns, as shown in one input].

Page: PAG · Introduction
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/pag#pag-and-the-method

This section is stop 14 of 102 in the learning route. Previous: [02 - Why it works](https://banes-lab.com/pag/introduction/why-pag-works.md). Next: [01 - Writing a first document](https://banes-lab.com/pag/guide/getting-started.md). It builds on [02 - Why it works](https://banes-lab.com/pag/introduction/why-pag-works.md).

A PAG document is one instrument, a single input inside [the loop](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-loop.md) the method owns, as shown in [C1·a one input](https://banes-lab.com/pag#pag-and-the-method-panel-a). It shapes what a model reads, but nothing about it decides whether the work was worth doing, whether the result is true, or how several parties share one tree. Those questions are handled on the methodology page, in [worth before work](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/plan/worth-before-work.md), [it looked right](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/it-looked-right.md) and [coordination is software](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/collaborate/coordination-is-software.md). Where a section of this page touches them, it shows how a document expresses them and leaves the reasoning where it lives.

### One instrument inside a method

A document that reads well invites the belief that it did what it says, and a document cannot verify itself. A team writes careful documents, skips the checks because the documents read as complete, and discovers in production that a gate the model reported as passed was never evaluated by anything. A well-shaped input reads as a guarantee because the output usually matches it, and the failures live in the runs where it does not.

For this reason the grammar shapes an input, and the method holds the work around it. The checks sit outside the document, in a gate the method runs, rather than inside it as sentences the model completes. In practice, a document shapes one input: the instruction a party reads before it acts. Everything around that input is held by the method. Worth is decided before the document is written, the output is checked by a gate the document did not run, and parties coordinate through surfaces the document only reads.

To check this, take a document that reported every gate as passed and run the checks the method names over its output. A gate the checks contradict was a sentence the model completed, and the document could not have known. A collaboration with no tools and no shared tree is a conversation, and a document there is a well-shaped message. The instrument does its work where an adapter can perform what the document names.

What a document adds to a collaboration is concrete, as listed in [C1·b what it adds](https://banes-lab.com/pag#pag-and-the-method-panel-b), and each addition narrows the set of completions without promising what the model will do with them. What a document cannot add is stated under [limits](https://banes-lab.com/pag/validation/limitations.md); those absences are real, and the methodology page covers them in it looked right, [verify the verifier](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/verify-the-verifier.md) and [a report, not a checkbox](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/a-report-not-a-checkbox.md).
[#### Methodology

The loop, who does what, the stance, the gates and the coordination the grammar is written inside.](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology) [#### Architecture

The principle canon, the tensions and the decay paths a document's constraints are drawn from.](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture)

C1·a one input

```mermaid
flowchart TB
subgraph method["The method · holds the work"]
worth["Worth before work"]
gates["Checks that hold the rules"]
evidence["Evidence, never a claim"]
seats["Coordination between parties"]
end
subgraph grammar["The grammar · shapes one input"]
doc["A document · typed, contracted, gated, bounded"]
end
worth --> doc
doc --> gates
gates --> evidence
seats -. every party reads the same document .-> doc
```

C1·b what it adds

```mermaid
flowchart LR
subgraph adds["What the grammar adds"]
tokens["Tokens the model weights"]
order["A processing order"]
exits["Explicit exit criteria"]
bounds["Boundaries the model can quote"]
end
narrow["A narrower completion set · never a promise about the completion"]
tokens --> narrow
order --> narrow
exits --> narrow
bounds --> narrow
```

## Links to

- [The loop](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-loop.md)
- [Worth before work](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/plan/worth-before-work.md)
- [It looked right](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/it-looked-right.md)
- [Coordination is software](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/collaborate/coordination-is-software.md)
- [Limits](https://banes-lab.com/pag/validation/limitations.md)
- [Verify the verifier](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/verify-the-verifier.md)
- [A report, not a checkbox](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/a-report-not-a-checkbox.md)