Primitive element of an atomic finite-surjection sheaf

An element $x\in F(n)$ is primitive if it does not descend along any surjection $n\to n-1$. All elements at cardinality one are primitive. Repeated descent reaches a primitive ancestor in finitely many steps, and the primitive-element kernel rigidity lemma makes the ancestor unique up to bijection.

Partition the elements of a sheaf by their primitive-ancestor equivalence classes under bijection. Each class gives a sheaf subfunctor, because its membership is preserved and reflected along covering surjections. A representative primitive element names an epic representable map onto its class component. Thus every sheaf is the coproduct of these components, each an atom in a topos.

If primitive elements have equal restrictions along $\alpha :P\to m$ and $\beta :P\to n$, then these surjections have equal kernels. To rule out $\alpha (a)=\alpha (b)$ with unequal $\beta$ images, identify those two images by $q:n\to n-1$. The set of pairs equal under $\alpha$ and $q\beta$ maps surjectively both to $P$ by projection and to the kernel pair of $q$ by applying $\beta$. Injective restrictions force the kernel-pair matching condition on the primitive element, contradicting descent along $q$.