Appendix B: Core Vocabulary

Direction and State

• Map: A structured, versioned representation of intent or observed system structure. A Map is authoritative only for the declared property and scope granted by its adopted source or policy.
• Terrain: The system state a loop can observe or affect, including source, configuration, infrastructure, runtime behavior, and external operational facts.
• Candidate: A proposed state, not admitted Terrain.

Work and Evidence

• Workflow: A finite, governed execution graph of sequential, conditional, or parallel steps with declared authority, effects, transitions, stopping conditions, evidence requirements, and admission path.
• Loop: Repetition of a step, subsequence, or complete workflow at a declared scale. Each workflow run remains finite and ends with a sealed result.
• Mission Object: A versioned work-contract artifact. Before activation it is a proposal; activation fixes the exact objective, authority, effects, outputs, checks, budgets, routing, and approval policy that govern one run.
• Run Record: The logically append-only execution record and retained evidence for one activated Mission. Every terminal result is sealed; later intervention creates a linked record.
• Context Graph: The versioned structure from which a bounded input is selected. Its nodes identify sources; its typed edges record why those sources relate.
• Context Packet: The bounded, ordered, provenance-bearing input assembled for one Mission from fixed authority and evidence.
• Ledger: Logically append-only, reconstructable evidence for authority, attempts, effects, findings, decisions, terminal results, and admission. Its guarantees depend on a protected sink and trust root.
• Oracle: The source or decision procedure allowed to settle a declared property.
• Software Development as Code (SDaC) Engine: The complete runtime that executes governed workflows while keeping probabilistic steps inside fixed authority, evidence, stopping, and admission boundaries.
• Governed Loop Network: A composed system of finite governed workflows whose declared contracts, effects, evidence, terminal outcomes, and failure semantics let them operate as reusable capabilities without inheriting undeclared authority.
• Semantic Density: The concentration of distinct, decision-bearing meaning in context. Useful context combines Semantic Density, Correctness, and Relevance rather than maximizing volume.

Roles and Controls

• Sensor: A read-only measurement of Terrain or retained evidence that emits structured observations with provenance.
• Effector: A bounded transformation that proposes a declared change to Terrain or a Map surface. It does not admit its own output.
• Stochastic Generator: A probabilistic model invocation that proposes a bounded candidate from declared inputs. It is one component of the system, not the system itself.
• Validator: A declared check of one property that emits a structured report. A Validator supplies evidence; it does not independently widen authority or admit a candidate.
• Judge: A policy-bound decision role used when evidence can support more than one allowed transition. Its implementation may vary; runtime enforcement still limits transitions and keeps admission separate.
• Map-Updater: A governed Terrain-to-Map workflow that proposes a bounded change to selected Map surfaces without changing Terrain.
• Maintenance Controller: A recurring selector that senses, qualifies, and ranks eligible maintenance work without inheriting authority to perform it.
• Governance Mission: A separately activated workflow for proposing a bounded change to protected policy or control surfaces. It cannot adopt its own proposal.
• Scope Guard: Runtime enforcement of the declared effect boundary, including attempted filesystem, process, network, credential, platform, data, and deployment effects.
• Mission Gate: The independent admission check that revalidates a sealed proposal against current base, policy, effects, evidence, and approvals.
• Ratchet: A protected non-regression rule measured by one fixed protocol. Its floor advances only after admission.
• Physics: The protected constraints that shape execution: schemas, Validators, effect boundaries, budgets, gates, and stopping conditions. The name is a control-model metaphor, not a claim that the checks are complete truth.
• Protected Control Plane: The authority boundary around policy, trusted Validators, credentials, execution limits, evidence sinks, and admission mechanisms that ordinary work cannot rewrite.
• Deterministic Sandwich: Deterministic preparation and validation around one bounded probabilistic invocation and its candidate output.
• Bounded Refinement Loop: The governed Propose -> Check -> Decide -> Refine cycle. An Effector proposes, Validators produce findings, and a Judge is used when evidence can support more than one permitted transition. Authority, scope, budgets, and stopping rules remain fixed.

Outcomes

• complete: A sealed terminal result indicating that a changed candidate satisfied the run’s declared completion conditions.
• complete_noop: A sealed terminal result indicating that the required property already held and no candidate effect exists.
• blocked: A sealed terminal result naming an external authority, oracle, contradiction, or environment repair required before a new linked run can proceed.
• failed_with_evidence: A sealed terminal result for exhausted, non-convergent, or otherwise unsuccessful execution that does not depend on an external unblock.
• Admission: The separately authorized event that makes a candidate effective in Terrain.
• Adoption: The separately authorized event that makes a proposed Map or policy authoritative.