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Edit the argument

Every edit goes through an audited command: it is recorded, it can be undone, and a change the SACM library cannot express is refused with the file unchanged rather than applied approximately. That refusal is a feature — see SACM as the source of truth.

Add an element

Right-click a node on the canvas or a row in the argument navigator:

Menu Adds
Add → Goal / Strategy / Solution / Context / Assumption / Justification A child of the selected element, in GSN terms — a Claim, ArgumentReasoning, ArtifactReference, or a context-class element in SACM terms (mapping)
Add → ACP An assurance claim point on the selected element; a relationship can carry one too, from the ACP marker the canvas draws on eligible edges. Each ACP can hold its own confidence argument
Add → Add Counter Argument / Add Counter Evidence A dialectic challenge — drawn as a dashed open-arrow edge

The Add menu adds files rather than elements: New GSN / SACM File adds another argument file to the project, and New Evidence Register / New J3377 CAE Register add register files.

Remove an element

Remove offers this node only and this node and its descendants, each with the count it would remove. The confirmation lists what actually goes — including the relationships and any glossary term citing the element — as previewed by the SACM library, so the consequence is visible before the press, not after.

Edit text

The inspector edits Name and Content for the selected element. A claim carries one description; the reasoning is ADR 0012.

Undeveloped marks a goal or strategy that is deliberately not developed further. It renders as the GSN undeveloped diamond and is reported by the well-formedness checks, so an undeveloped goal is a recorded decision rather than a gap that reads like an oversight.

Two languages

An element's text can carry a second language. Pick the language under Translation Language in the inspector, tick Add Translation, and write the secondary text; the canvas shows it beneath the primary, and the SVG export can be taken in either.

Text written by a machine translation is flagged for a reviewer: it stays marked until a person reads it and accepts it as an explicit act. A translation is part of the argument, so it is reviewed like the rest of it.

Undo

Edit → Undo (Ctrl+Z) steps back through the audited commands. Undo has explicit boundaries — accepting a working draft is one of them — so a single Ctrl+Z cannot half-unpick a composite change.

What edits are refused

  • A shape the SACM library has no seam for: the file is left byte-unchanged and the reason is reported.
  • Glossary edits that the working-draft vocabulary cannot express, while a draft is open — renaming the terminology package, deleting a package or category, linking a term to an element as context.
  • Register cells with no way to record what you typed.

A refusal always names what it refused and leaves the argument as it was.