A Language-First Governance Framework for ShelfHub

This paper presents a language-first governance framework and build blueprint for ShelfHub. Rather than auditing a fully verified deployed state, it specifies the architecture being constructed: search, recent-upload visibility, category browsing, multilingual support, API documentation, auto-review tooling, and an open submission path. The central claim is that, in a human--LLM writing environment, epistemic reliability cannot depend only on institutional filtering speed; it must also depend on disciplined language structures that are interpretable by both people and machines. The paper formalizes a five-part constructive method (Claim, Scope, Grounding, Uncertainty, Follow-up), introduces an entropy-to-order recovery model for open preprint ecosystems, and defines how API-mediated indexing may restore site-level coherence without centralized editorial gatekeeping. It concludes with bounded governance language that separates design intention from correctness certification while preserving transparency, interoperability, and iterative correction.