# Knowledge: what the work draws on

> Give your assistant the sources your practice works from: external references, your firm’s data and the provenance that makes each source useful.

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## External references — What they are

A manifest, not a library. Each reference records the authority that publishes it, the edition or date, the URL of the original and the jurisdiction it applies to. The original is the only version that counts, so the assistant reads it through its own browsing or connections; there are no copies or summaries to go stale between editions.

The starting set is what the nine practice areas need, and New York City is the first jurisdiction because those skills were built and tested there. Every entry begins on check-original-source: nobody at your firm has confirmed edition and scope yet. Confirm it once and the entry is yours.



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## External references — Use them

A skill routes a question to sources by place and by category: a NYC zoning question reaches the Zoning Resolution, a flood question reaches FEMA, a product question reaches the EPD programs. The finding comes back with source, edition or effective date, section and link, and says what it could not reach instead of filling the gap.

Ask Norma: Norma, answer this code question with sources: [question about a NYC interior alteration]. Show me which references you routed to, the edition you read, the section you cite, and separate what the code says from your interpretation.



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## External references — Add your own

A jurisdiction is a place in the tree with its own authorities: name it and its parent, list the authorities and their sources with edition and URL, route the practice areas that need them, and keep each entry on check-original-source until someone has opened the original. A standard is a category-level source: pick the category, add the entry, attach it to the skills that should cite it, and record the edition you adopted.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me add my jurisdiction’s sources: [city or region]. List the authorities for codes, zoning, property records and hazards, draft one manifest entry per source with edition and URL, and tell me which practice areas should route to them.

One entry from the starting set · New York City:

{
  "id": "source:nyc-construction-codes",
  "title": "NYC Construction Codes",
  "authority": "NYC Department of Buildings",
  "jurisdiction": "jurisdiction:us-ny-nyc",
  "edition": null,
  "url": "https://www.nyc.gov/site/buildings/codes/codes.page",
  "reviewStatus": "check-original-source"
}



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## Your firm’s data — What it is

Standards, templates, precedents and reviewed lessons: material that can guide many projects, with ownership and access set by your firm. It lives at studio scope, so every project draws on the same set, and it stays in your workspace; connecting Arch Studio does not upload, index or synchronize it.



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## Your firm’s data — Use it

Give the assistant access to the studio and the skills read firm material the way they read external references, citing it by name and date. A firm standard used as evidence is knowledge; the project’s reviewed decision to apply it is memory.

Ask Norma: Norma, apply our firm standard for [door schedules or another standard in the studio] to this project. Tell me which document you read, its date, and where the project departs from it.



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## Your firm’s data — Bring your own

Register the standard in the studio with its scope, date and owner. A project lesson becomes firm guidance when your team decides it should, not by accumulation.

Ask Norma: Norma, register our firm standards in the studio: [list or folder]. For each, record scope, date and owner, and tell me which skills will cite it.

- [Studio workspace](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-studio)

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## Provenance — What it is

Provenance is attached at three points. In the manifest, each source carries its origin, publisher, edition and jurisdiction. In the skill, a finding returns with the source, edition, section and link it was read from. In the record, the cited requirement is kept separate from interpretation and anything unresolved is flagged for a person.

A cited fact, an assumption and an interpretation are three different things, and the finding says which is which.



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## Provenance — Read it

Every finding shows its trail and its review status. Missing or conflicting sources are made visible rather than reconciled silently.

Ask Norma: Norma, show me the trail behind this finding: [paste a finding]. Which source, which edition, which section, which parts are cited and which are your interpretation, and what is its review status.



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## Provenance — Tighten it

How much evidence a decision needs before it is accepted is a governance rule. Set it per deliverable there, and the completion report is checked against it.

- [Assurance in Studio](https://architecturestudio.ai/framework/governance#quality-controls)

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## Practice areas — What they are

A practice area collects the skills, tools, agents, workflows and references for one kind of work into one place: due diligence is property records plus permits plus violations plus the NYC sources behind them. It is an index over the framework, not a pillar of it. Nine come with the release, each with three starting points.



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## Practice areas — Find by practice area

Start from the work your firm does. Each area names its starting points and links to the rest of its capabilities in the catalog.

Ask Norma: Norma, show me what Arch Studio has for [practice area, for example due diligence]: the skills, tools and references it collects, and which one to start with for [the task at hand].



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## Practice areas — Compose your own

Name the kind of work, pick the skills, tools and references it bundles, and set who reviews the result. Areas describe work intent, independently of geography; the references carry the jurisdiction.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me define a practice area for [kind of work our firm does]: which existing skills, tools and references it should collect, what is missing, and who reviews its results.



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## Get started.

Connect Arch Studio to the Claude or ChatGPT account your firm already uses, then paste this into a new chat.

Norma, show me the references Arch Studio routes to for [city or region]. Answer one code question with sources and editions, then tell me how to add my firm’s standards and the jurisdictions we work in.

- [Connect Arch Studio](https://architecturestudio.ai/docs/install)
- [All four pillars](https://architecturestudio.ai/#framework)