Translation
Translated from the Spanish source, which is the normative text. Status: draft pending human review. Differences are resolved in the Spanish text.
ASILO, MILPA and SCAFFOLD analogies¶
The three methodologies use images to explain their purpose. ASILO starts with shelter; MILPA with Mesoamerican polyculture; SCAFFOLD with construction scaffolding. The mappings on this page are editorial choices: they guide reading and preserve each requirement's scope. This is an informative translation from Spanish.
| Methodology and purpose descriptor | Main reference | Question it helps frame |
|---|---|---|
| ASILO — Boundaries and security for systems built with AI. | Shelter and protection. | How is work with AI bounded, and how are its effects checked? |
| MILPA — Knowledge and provenance. | Related crops in a milpa. | How is project knowledge organized, connected and cared for? |
| SCAFFOLD — Software projects with people and AI assistants. | Scaffolding at a construction site. | How is work planned, construction organized and work delivered? |
The descriptors state purpose; they do not expand the names as acronyms. Methodology names retain uppercase spelling in every language. Each explanation distinguishes its cultural or physical reference from the documentation practice it represents.
ASILO: shelter for work with AI¶
ASILO is a Spanish methodology name. The Spanish word asilo can express shelter, refuge or protection; see the RAE and ASALE dictionary entry. That word supplies the shelter image for ASILO, which remains the methodology's proper name in English. This meaning is an explanatory mapping, without assigning an expansion to the letters of the name.
A useful shelter needs known boundaries, available resources and a way to address what happens inside. In the methodology, the image helps readers consider safety from the start of work with AI: delimit data, context, actions, responsible people and checks before relying on a response or allowing an effect. The resulting product may contain AI or have been created with its assistance; multiple agents are not required.
| Shelter image | Editorial mapping | Observable practice |
|---|---|---|
| Known entrance and boundaries. | Trust boundaries and scope. | Declare what enters the task and which actions are permitted. |
| Protection of what is kept inside. | Care of data and resources. | Delimit access, exposure and consumption according to applicable requirements. |
| Responsible person and incident response. | Review, stopping and evidence. | Identify who decides, check stopping and record results and remaining risks. |
Limit: the shelter image establishes neither isolation, invulnerability nor absence of failures. Here the analogy does not describe a care institution or a legal asylum procedure. Protection depends on controls checked in the declared system. See safety from the start of work with AI. Shelter keys and requests explain contracts, identity, permission for an operation and checking before the effect.
MILPA: structure, relationships and care¶
A milpa is an agricultural system of Mesoamerican tradition. Polyculture means growing different species in the same space; composition and management vary among communities. CONABIO describes this reference. The agricultural explanation of MILPA documents the relationships between maize, beans and squash and the sources for this illustrative selection.
| Agricultural image | Editorial mapping | Observable practice |
|---|---|---|
| Maize. | Structure. | Give knowledge a recognizable place, purpose and responsible person. |
| Beans. | Relationships. | Link claims to sources and record contracts and versions. |
| Squash. | Care. | Review currency, retain contradictions and distinguish authority from certainty. |
Limit: the plants represent neither people, agent types, permissions, products nor layers. Agricultural complementarity demonstrates neither truth nor cooperation in a project. The cultural practice retains its diversity; these three images provide neither a cultivation guide nor a complete account of what a milpa means.
SCAFFOLD: organizing construction¶
The English word scaffold names the supporting structure used during construction. SCAFFOLD retains that proper name in Spanish and English. The methodology overview develops the image for software engineering with AI, using one or several assistants.
| Scaffolding image | Editorial mapping | Observable practice |
|---|---|---|
| Work order and survey of what has been built. | Project charter and baseline survey. | Fix goal, scope and owners; record what already exists. |
| Crew with its site foreman. | Crew of people or agents with a human owner. | Declare members, profiles, zones and supervision. |
| Work section. | Write zone. | Declare permitted, shared and restricted paths. |
| Material left for the next shift. | Handoff note. | Record context, results and state when changing assistants. |
| Unit of construction and removal of scaffolding. | Work batch and deployment boundary. | Record the work and check which engineering configuration stays out of the deployed artifact. |
| Handover of the works. | Deployment to production and release. | A person authorises; artifact, version and rollback plan are recorded. |
Limit: a declared zone does not physically prevent writing outside it; a note does not authorize its content, and closing a batch does not accept an edition. The scaffold image establishes neither safety, savings nor effective coordination. Those results need their own evidence.
Supporting images and their relationship to the main ones¶
An explanation may use a second image for a particular problem. It is presented as a supporting analogy and preserves the methodology's purpose.
| Supporting image and reading | What it helps explain | Where it stops being useful |
|---|---|---|
| Building and compartments, within ASILO. | Responsibilities, access and failure propagation. | Separate folders neither contain hostile code nor prove isolation. |
| Layers and rings, within ASILO. | Responsibility groupings and dependency direction. | A layer's position grants no permissions. Architectural rings and processor privileges require distinct explanations. |
| Library, within MILPA. | Location, provenance and state of records. | Finding or organizing a document does not confirm its content. |
Ring origins distinguishes historical sources from the editorial synthesis. Analogies across disciplines adds specific mappings and limits. No image replaces the methodology's purpose.
Maintaining consistency¶
- Identify the methodology, purpose descriptor and main reference.
- Define the term in its source language and cite the source describing that reference.
- State the chosen mapping and show an observable practice.
- Explain the limit and link to the applicable requirement, preserving its condition and exception.
- Compare text, graphic and translation: the same terms, relationships and limits.
Drafting begins in Spanish. Translation retains ASILO, explains asilo as shelter or protection, and keeps MILPA and SCAFFOLD with their references identified. The glossary and editorial axioms support review of these decisions without assigning permissions or authority to a metaphor.