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Aura/docs/design/contracts/c17-authoring-surface.md
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claude 8688a60ded docs(ledger): split the design ledger into an INDEX map, per-contract live files, and history sidecars
The single-file ledger had grown to 2968 lines / ~42k tokens, mixing
current design law with accreted history: 59 cycle-stamped realization
blocks, 18 [HISTORY] passages, 22 supersession markers, and the C10 /
C22 / C24 reframe sagas layered several supersessions deep. A
code-grounding audit (31 agents, adversarially verified) confirmed 11
defects stated as current truth: stale crate homes from the C28 #288
roster split (cost nodes, PositionManagement, PositionEvent, Session),
the renamed InputSpec->PortSpec, the pre-#241 project model in C16 and
the open-threads section, a stale HarnessKind retirement deferral in
C24, and three C28-internal inconsistencies.

New shape, per the ailang precedent:

- INDEX.md stays the sole addressable entry point: foundation, external
  components, a C-id-keyed contract map (one line per contract), and
  only the genuinely open architectural threads.
- contracts/cNN-<slug>.md carries each contract's current truth only:
  Guarantee / Forbids / Why with ratified refinements integrated, plus
  a code-anchored Current state. All confirmed defects are fixed here;
  crate anchors were re-verified against the tree.
- contracts/cNN-<slug>.history.md (18 sidecars) and INDEX.history.md
  preserve every superseded block verbatim, stamps and issue refs
  intact, under a frozen-record banner. Nothing was deleted: superseded
  design intent remains an addressable working-tree artifact, off the
  per-cycle audit walk.
- Ledger discipline is now stated in INDEX.md: live files are edited in
  place at cycle close, superseded text moves verbatim to the sidecar,
  and a supersession marker in a live file is itself an audit finding.

Every contract file was verified against its old text by an independent
zero-loss pass (statement-by-statement) plus a code-accuracy spot check;
C-ids and contract titles are unchanged, so existing C-id citations in
code, tests, and issues resolve as before.
2026-07-21 16:40:36 +02:00

3.3 KiB

C17 — Authoring surface

Guarantee. All logic — nodes, strategies, and experiments/harnesses — is authored in native Rust through Claude Code + the skills pipeline: the human describes, Claude writes the Rust, builds it, runs it via the aura CLI, and reports metrics. This binds computation — a node's math, a meta-program's control flow — to native Rust (the RustAst lesson, sharpened: a small LLM cannot reliably apply a computational DSL, and a strong one does not need one). It does not bind topology — which node feeds which, the structural axes, the param-space — to Rust source: topology is a serializable data value the World owns (C24), a non-Turing static DAG over the closed, compiled-in node vocabulary (C8/C16) that carries no computation (#109, resolved 2026-06-29). The no-DSL guard therefore forbids a computational experiment / strategy language, not a static topology-data format — the experiment-matrix generator may stay Rust (C20); its output is topology-data. Declarative config (Aura.toml) carries only static project context (paths only: data archive root, runs dir), never logic. aura ships no embedded coding-LLM; IONOS LLMs are used only as a runtime data source (news-agent bias, C11), gated by per-session consent, never in the code path.

Forbids. An in-app LLM chat that generates node code inside aura; using IONOS (weaker models) as the authoring brain; a computational experiment / strategy DSL the author must apply (the RustAst trap) — distinct from a static topology-data format, which is permitted.

Why. LLMs author Rust well in Claude Code — that is the fix to RustAst's failure; making weaker models the coding brain reintroduces the very problem. Keeps aura's scope an engine + playground, not an LLM-IDE. Topology-as-data is not the RustAst trap re-opened: that trap is a DSL the author must apply; a topology-data blueprint is machine-generated / owned and applied by no one, so the no-DSL guard stands unbroken — a closed-vocabulary data artifact is not the forbidden open, logic-bearing language (C25).

Current state

The authoring loop is the skills pipeline over native Rust: node / strategy / harness logic compiles into the closed node vocabulary, and the aura CLI runs it. Topology-as-data is realized as blueprints — a data-only project's blueprints/*.json are serialized static DAGs over the std vocabulary (the aura new scaffold writes a starter blueprints/signal.json; crates/aura-cli/src/scaffold.rs); the blueprint data format itself is C24's contract. Aura.toml carries paths-only project context (C16). The IONOS runtime-source path (news-agent bias) is the only external-LLM use — C11's record-then-replay edge, consent-gated, never in the sim code path.

See also

  • C8 — the closed, compiled-in node vocabulary topology draws on
  • C11 — IONOS news bias as a recorded runtime source
  • C16 — the engine/project split and Aura.toml project context
  • C20 — the experiment-matrix generator that stays Rust
  • C24 — the topology / blueprint data format the World owns
  • C25 — a closed-vocabulary artifact vs the forbidden open DSL