---
term: navigation
category: spatial
status: canonical
authority: world.elonn.local
---

Navigation

The model governing how a member moves through runtime space. Navigation in Elonn is spatial — movement between surfaces and regions, not traversal of a document or menu hierarchy.

Elonn currently trends toward: spatial stack navigation.

Navigation models:
- stack — linear push/pop
- spatial — positional movement through space
- radial — arc-based arrangement
- hierarchical — tree structure
- linear — single axis

Sub-concepts:
- focus — the currently targeted interactive entity within the runtime
- context shift — movement between conceptually distinct states (e.g., messages → maps, calendar → navigation)

Interaction primitives:
- gesture — continuous user movement input (drag, swipe, pinch, rotate, hold)
- gesture capture — system ownership of input during an active gesture
- commit — finalize a state transition after the snap threshold is met
- settle — animated stabilization after interaction ends
- rebound — return to previous state after a failed threshold crossing

Allowed:
- navigation
- navigation model
- context shift
- gesture

Forbidden:
- routing (implies URL or page model)
- page navigation (implies a document or website model)
- forward (there is no forward step; only a back control)
- menu navigation (implies command-list traversal)

Notes:
- Navigation describes spatial movement, not document traversal. Do not import browser or filesystem navigation metaphors.
- Within an opened Object, navigation is defined by [layout.md](../canonical/layout.md) (Object navigation): following a link navigates in place within that Object; the back control returns the Object to its previous navigation state; navigation history belongs to the Object. Following a link within an Object never opens another Object on Carry. This "back" is the Object's back step, not a browser history model.
- Gesture interaction is the primary input model; programmatic, voice, gaze, and keyboard transitions are also valid.

Related:
- object
- runtime