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Aura/docs/design/contracts/c29-self-description.md
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claude 9c7f60b269 docs(ledger): C29 self-description contract -- INDEX entry + domain invariant 13
The cycle's design principle enters the ledger: every closed-vocabulary
entry the binary exposes carries a one-line meaning behind one shared
deterministic shape gate (doc_gate) at three seams -- compile/unit for
engine-shipped entries, load for native node crates, register for the
content-addressed store (documents: an additive-optional gated
description). Forbids the engine evaluating description text (C17 /
invariant 10), any influence on execution/identity/determinism (C1),
retroactive invalidation of registered artifacts, and machine-invented
meaning lines. Why: the audience is headless LLM agents (#319); field
evidence #314 showed schema knowledge being recovered by CAS forensics
from the release binary -- the removed failure class.

All spec acceptance criteria are now met across the four iterations of
this cycle (core carrier + std texts; domain threading; load seam;
register seam + op-script doc slot + document description).

closes #316
2026-07-23 20:34:33 +02:00

3.7 KiB

C29 — Self-description: every surface explains itself

Guarantee. Every closed-vocabulary entry the binary exposes carries a one-line meaning, enforced at the seam where the entry enters the system; everything entering the content-addressed store describes itself; a refusal for a missing description names the entry, the field, and the rule. One shared deterministic gate — doc_gate in aura-core, importable by every seam per C28; it fails on an empty/whitespace doc and on a doc that normalizes to the entry's own name (DocGateFault::{Empty, RestatesName}) — guards three seams:

  1. Compile/unit seam (engine-shipped). NodeSchema.doc is a required field, so the compiler enumerates every construction site; metrics and tap slots are schema carriers (MetricSchema / TapSchema, id + doc); blocks (BlockSchema.doc, the pre-existing model) and tap folds (the registry roster, C27) already carried theirs. The coverage walk (aura-cli/tests/self_description.rs) asserts the gate over all five vocabularies — the engine satisfies its own law.
  2. Load seam (extension). load_crate walks every charter-checked type id and gates the resolved schema's doc; a fault refuses the load naming type and rule (ProjectError::UndescribedVocabularyEntry). Field presence is compile-enforced for any crate built against the new core; the load gate catches the shape violations the compiler cannot see across the cdylib boundary — the empty-string alibi and the name restatement.
  3. Register seam (data plane). The registry's public put_blueprint parses the canonical bytes and requires a gate-passing doc on the root composite and on every named nested composite — the gate guards the store boundary itself, so the register verb, every register-then-run sugar path, and any future caller are gated by construction. The op-script vocabulary carries the doc op as the builder .doc(...)'s twin (C25: a closed, typed metadata construct). Process/campaign documents take an additive-optional top-level description, gated only when present (DocFault::BadDescription).

Id treatment. Description fields that serialize participate in the content id and are blanked for the identity id, exactly as Composite.doc (strip_debug_symbols); NodeSchema is not serialized (C24), so node docs move no id. Documents have no identity projection — their pair is: absent description is byte-identical to the field-less form (existing content ids stable), present participates.

Forbids. The engine evaluating description text — the gate is deterministic string shape, never content judgement (no freetext logic hole; C17 / domain invariant 10 untouched). A description influencing execution, identity ids, or determinism (C1). Retroactive invalidation of already-registered artifacts — the gate guards the write path only (the raw in-crate write survives as the store-mechanics and back-compat witness: pre-C29 doc-less entries stay readable). Machine-invented meaning lines — an authored text is corrected against the source, never weakened to an empty string or a name restatement.

Why. The audience is headless LLM agents and scripts (#319 ruling), for whom the binary is the only always-present teacher. Field evidence 2026-07-22 (#314): an agent holding only the release binary had to recover execution semantics and document schemas by CAS forensics — the removed failure class is exactly that forensic recovery.

Rendering of the carried texts on the help/introspection surfaces is #315; the generated agent bootstrap card is #267; a fold introspection surface is blocked on #310.