Operators

The entire language. Every operator describes a relationship between signals. No assignment. No arithmetic. Connections.

Flow

How signals move through the graph. Every program is built from these.

Operator	Name	Meaning
->	flow	Signal flows from left to right
~>	tap	Observe without affecting (read-only)
-x>	sever	Cut a wire (disconnect, unfollow, block)
<->	exchange	Bidirectional — request/response, ack
@	pin	Run on specific hardware

.zpflow operators

// signal flows left to right
sensor -> gate(> 20cm) -> motor

// tap observes without affecting
controller -> motor
controller ~> dashboard

// sever cuts a connection
user -x> feed

// exchange is bidirectional
request <-> handler -> response

// pin to hardware
detect @ goya(0) -> objects

Structure

How signals combine and split. Merge converges. Fork diverges. Chain sequences.

Operator	Name	Meaning
\|	merge	Multiple signals converge into one point
{}	fork	One signal splits to multiple paths simultaneously
-> chain	chain	A -> B -> C — signal flows through a pipeline

.zpstructure

// merge — three signals converge
sonar  -> |
camera -> | -> decision
lidar  -> |

// fork — one signal, multiple paths
camera -> {
    display,
    detect -> classify -> act
}

// chain — pipeline
raw -> filter -> normalize -> store

Logic

Signal evaluation. Gates pass or block. Delta measures change. These are keywords, not functions.

Operator	Name	Meaning
gate()	gate	Signal passes or doesn't
knee:	knee	Smooth transition zone (no hard cutoff)
delta()	delta	Rate of change: t - t-1

.zplogic

// gate — threshold
signal -> gate(> 80C) -> alarm

// gate with knee — smooth transition
temp -> gate(< 72F, knee: 3F) -> heater

// delta — rate of change
delta(temp) -> gate(> 2C) -> rising_fast

Temporal

Time is a first-class dimension. Every signal has history. The OS maintains it.

Operator	Name	Meaning
t	now	Current signal value
t-1	previous	One step back
t-N	history	N steps back
on_silence()	silence	Nothing arrived for duration
on_block	blocked	Gate rejected the signal
sustained:	sustained	Gate must hold for duration
within()	confluence	Signals must arrive within time window
then	sequence	A then B — ordered temporal coincidence
debounce()	debounce	Collapse rapid signals into one
throttle()	throttle	Limit signal rate
decay()	decay	Signal strength decreases over time
tick()	clock	Emit signal at fixed rate

.zptemporal

// sustained — must hold for duration
errors -> rate(per: 1m) -> gate(> 10, sustained: 5m) -> alarm

// silence detection
sensor -> on_silence(> 100ms) -> failover

// confluence — within a time window
a -> |
b -> | within(100ms) | -> fused

// clock
heartbeat : tick(rate: 60Hz) -> frame

Value

Pattern matching on signal values. Range, any-of, negation, sigma.

Operator	Name	Meaning
~	range	Between two values: 0.6 ~ 0.9
any()	or-match	Match any of several values
not:	negate	Exclude matches
σ	sigma	Standard deviations from baseline

.zpvalue

// range
signal -> gate(0.6 ~ 0.9) -> tier_general

// any-of
signal -> gate(command: any("set", "del")) -> writes

// negation
signal -> gate(not: "*.tmp", ".git/*") -> clean

// sigma
dev -> gate(> 2σ, knee: 1σ) -> anomaly

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