AAegis

Kernel Protocol · object specification

Candidate Principle

A proposed permanent reasoning rule, held under review until engineering accepts or refuses it.

All objects

Judgment protocol · lifecycle

kernel/v1.2
  1. 01Snapshot
  2. 02Investigation
  3. 03Recommendation
  4. 04Outcome
  5. 05Reflection
  6. 06Pattern
  7. 07Candidate Principle
  8. 08Constitution
  9. loopFuture Recommendation

↺ Constitution constrains every future recommendation. The pipeline is a closed loop, not a line.

§1 Versioning

Versioned

A proposal is negotiated. Each revision must be reviewable against the evidence that existed when it was written.

§2 Allowed operations

  • ProposeOpened by a pattern that crossed the evidence threshold.
  • ReviewEngineer reads evidence and challenges.
  • ApproveAccepts the rule for ratification.
  • RejectRefuses the rule, with a recorded reason.
  • Request More EvidenceReturns the proposal to accumulation.
  • SupersedeReplaced by a better-formed proposal.

§3 Forbidden operations

  • Auto-approveNo proposal enters the constitution without a human decision.
  • DeleteRejected proposals are the record of what was considered and refused.
  • Edit after approvalPost-approval changes belong to the constitution's versioning.

§4 Relationship types

  • Candidate Principle proposed by → Pattern

    Inherits the pattern's occurrence evidence.

  • Candidate Principle challenged by → Reflection

    Contradicting evidence is attached, not discarded.

  • Candidate Principle becomes → Constitution

    Approval ratifies it as a constitutional article.

§5 Lifecycle events

  1. Observed

    Behaviour seen once.

  2. Monitoring

    Evidence accumulating.

  3. Candidate

    Threshold reached; proposal written.

  4. Engineer Review

    Awaiting a human decision.

  5. Validated

    Approved and ratified.

  6. Superseded

    A later principle governs.

  7. Archived

    Rejected or retired; retained.

§6 State machine

initial: Observed · terminal: Validated, Superseded, Archived

FromToTrigger
Observed→ Monitoringevidence accumulating
Monitoring→ Candidatethreshold reached; proposal written
Candidate→ Engineer Reviewsubmitted for decision
Engineer Review→ Validatedapproved and ratified
Engineer Review→ Monitoringmore evidence requested
Engineer Review→ Archivedrejected with recorded reason
Validated→ Supersededa later principle governs

Forbidden transitions

  • Candidate ⇸ ValidatedGI-05: ratification requires a human decision.
  • Archived ⇸ Engineer ReviewA refused proposal is re-opened as a new candidate.

§7 Lineage

Ancestry — what must exist before this object

transitive: Pattern ← Reflection ← Investigation ← Outcome ← Snapshot ← Recommendation ← Constitution

Descendants — what this object can produce

transitive: Constitution → Recommendation → Outcome → Reflection → Pattern

§8 Invariants

  • Every state transition records who decided and on what evidence.
  • An open challenge blocks Approve until it is answered.

Global constraints binding this object

  • GI-04∀ p ∈ Pattern : state(p) = Candidate ⇒ |occurrences(p)| ≥ THRESHOLD

    A pattern may not propose a principle before crossing the evidence threshold.

  • GI-05∀ c ∈ CandidatePrinciple : approve(c) ⇒ decidedBy(c) ∈ Humans ∧ openChallenges(c) = ∅

    No candidate enters the constitution without a named human decision and zero open challenges.

  • GI-08∀ x ∈ Kernel : cites(x) ⊆ published(before(x))

    No object may cite evidence created after its own publication.