901f028f32
Eight component cards in 20-component-cards/: the four zero-subsystem zones
(comprehend-organ, determine-phase, realize-phase, sensorium-falsification)
plus always-on-process, derivation-organs, surface-selection,
attention-allocation. Plus 05-phase3-findings.md and correction banners on
the M6 and M4 layer cards.
CORRECTIONS (C-1..C-5):
- THREE more map live-serving labels demoted to live-internal:
comprehend-organ (a MATH SETUP ROUTER, not chat comprehension — imported
by neither serving entrypoint), determine-phase and realize-phase (both
behind accrue_realized_knowledge=False / idle flags; NO default-config
serving turn touches any of the three).
- Phase 2's M6 card overstated ephemerality: Shape B+ persistence exists
(persist_session_state, daemon-forced, "restored bit-exactly").
- Phase 2's M4 card understated the resolver: surface_resolution.py IS a
declared-precedence resolver for the pipeline seam; only the upstream
composer arms remain ordered branches. Third Door refines to "extend the
existing pattern upstream."
- 34-vs-18 RESOLVED: 18 resolve_promotable_* organs existed AT the ADR-0252
ratification commit; "34" counted modules (~32-33). No consolidation has
occurred; the governing ADR's headline number has no stated basis.
- The 2026-07-25 verification doc's claim that accrual "is enabled by the
production L10 process" is contradicted: CONTINUOUS_LIFE_CONFIG_FLAGS is
exactly {persist_session_state, consolidate_determinations,
strict_identity_continuity}.
NEW FINDINGS (F-6..F-10):
- F-6 THE CONTINUOUS LIFE MAY CONSOLIDATE AN EMPTY SET: the daemon forces
the consolidator ON but not the accruer, and realize_comprehension — the
only turn-path writer of realized facts — sits behind the accrual flag.
The two halves of the lived learning loop are gated by different flags
and only one is forced. Undocumented either way.
- F-7 ADR-0008's Allocation Physics LANDED, mutated, ungoverned: curvature
kernel -> salience adapter -> attention threshold plan -> candidate
intersection, with budget feedback making attention SELF-NARROWING
across a walk. InhibitionMask is decoration. top_k=16/threshold=0.3 have
no recorded derivation. CR-1 closes with a one-page ADR.
- F-8 two load-bearing naming traps (comprehend-organ; realize vs realizer).
- F-9 REALIZE is sound; its ceiling is the reader that feeds it (the #138
fabrication locus — measured/pinned/held, recorded not re-discovered).
- F-10 _accrue_in_turn swallows exceptions into a no-op with no telemetry.
Phase 4 seed list consolidated: 8 hindrance candidates, 10 gap candidates,
each with its deciding authority. Method note recorded: three phases of
corrections, and nothing in the chain was caught by re-reading documents.
4.8 KiB
surface-selection — the arms and the resolver
Kind: component (mechanism spanning chat/runtime.py + core/cognition/surface_resolution.py) · Parent: M4 · Assessor: Fable 5 (Phase 3)
Verified at: 8927c563 (2026-07-27)
Liveness: live-serving · Fitness: strained — refined from Phase 2 · Topology role: runtime boundary
The mechanism that decides which of several candidate surfaces the user actually reads. Every truth property CORE claims converges here.
Correction/refinement to the Phase 2 M4 card
Phase 2 recorded "no single place states the precedence order as an executable rule." Partially wrong. core/cognition/surface_resolution.py (494 lines) is a declared-precedence resolver — resolve_surface plus _base_runtime_surface ("select the runtime-owned base surface by declared precedence": served response_surface always wins; then pre_decoration_surface; then canonical_surface), _truth_path_base (canonical-first, the register-invariant identity folded into trace_hash — deliberately the reverse preference of the served base, each serving its own invariant), _abstention_resolution, _grounded_open_hedge_resolution (with an explicit admissibility predicate), and _substrate_supreme. The historical note in its docstring says why it exists: "historically these mutated one string in evaluation order."
What remains true: the resolver governs the pipeline seam (base/truth-path/abstention/hedge/fold axes). The composer arms upstream in ChatRuntime.respond are still ordered branches, verified at their call sites:
| Arm | Site | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| deduction_grounded_surface | chat/runtime.py:1834 |
deduction_serving_enabled (ON, ratified) |
| curriculum_grounded_surface | :1850 |
curriculum_serving_enabled (OFF) |
| pack_grounded_comparison | :1871 |
pack-grounding conditions |
| narrative_grounded_surface | :1898 |
— |
| example_grounded_surface | :1915 |
— |
| pack relation-confirmation | :1936 |
— |
| determination override (Step B-2) | _surface_determination → :1303 |
accrue_realized_knowledge (OFF) |
| disclosed estimate (Step E) | _surface_estimate → :1312–1340 |
estimation_enabled (OFF) + earned SERVE license |
| unknown-domain gate stub | :188 _UNKNOWN_DOMAIN_SURFACE |
gate fires |
| grounded-open hedge (ADR-0254) | via resolver admissibility | — |
| register decoration (ADR-0071/0077) | post-selection | never moves trace_hash |
| logos-morph override | pipeline :526 |
answer-authority seam |
So the true architecture is two strata: ordered composer branches choose the candidate; the declared-precedence resolver reconciles runtime vs pipeline vs abstention vs hedge. The Phase 2 Third-Door candidate refines to: extend the resolver's declared-precedence pattern upstream to the composer stratum, rather than "create a resolver" — half the work is already done and proves the pattern fits this codebase.
Contract & evidence
- Served-bytes-wins and its rationale are documented with the falsifiable contract that catches regression: preferring canonical would strip the register axis while
trace_hashstays green — "the register-tour claims are the falsifiable contract that catches it" (surface_resolution.py:113–116). This is the sabotage test applied prospectively, in-code — worth naming as a model. - Estimate arm:
govern_responsereturns STRICT for an unlicensed class → surface unchanged;shape_surfaceguarantees the[approximate]prefix because a converse guess isUNVERIFIED_POSSIBLE, never in APPROXIMATE's admissible set — "a wrong estimate is always a DISCLOSED wrong" (:1312–1340). - Selection-not-rewrite: determination and gate arms
replace(response, surface=…), retaining articulation/walk surfaces as evidence.
Judgment
Fitness: strained — but more tractably than Phase 2 suggested. The resolver stratum is well-designed and self-documenting; the composer stratum is where arms accrete. With only deduction ON today, the live branch complexity is modest; the strain is prospective (each new capability adds an arm ahead of any declared order).
Honest wrinkles: the composer arms and the resolver are in different packages with different owners (chat/ vs core/cognition/), so nothing structurally prevents a new arm from bypassing the resolver's disciplines. The M4 empty-string refusal wrinkle (typed refusal discarded at the public str boundary) sits in this same mechanism and remains the sharpest single dishonesty on the serving path — not because anything lies, but because the truth that exists goes unserved.
Open questions: declarative composer-arm precedence (→ Phase 4 Third-Door, refined); materialise refusal_reason (→ ruling, plumbing already landed).