Six items from fox's de-novo synthesis (2026-05-01) landing as one
atomic commit. Each item references its motivation and respects the
v9.8 honesty boundary (no claims of semantic truth, no proof-path
contamination by soft signals).
NEW DOCS
--------
docs/cti-architecture.md
Maps today's modules onto the architectural layer cake fox named
in his synthesis: PROMETHEUS-Σ (controller) / CTI (claim-lattice
reasoning IR) / Merkle-AGI-DAG (commitment) / Reverse-RAG
(evidence direction) / v9.8 Providence (admissibility ledger) /
Hermes (weak proposer). Per-layer responsibility table + module
map showing which existing files implement which layer. The
architecture is real; the labels above name what's already there.
docs/naming-deferral.md
Argues why we keep internal terms (claim_lattice,
claim_lattice_pointer, verify_claim_lattice) instead of renaming
to architectural labels (CTI, PROMETHEUS-Σ). The rename costs
cache invalidation, ~150 test fixture references, schema CHECK
migration, blame-history disconnect, mesh peer coordination.
The bridge is the cti-architecture mapping doc — read it once,
then read code in code's vocabulary and prose in prose's
vocabulary. Lists four triggers that would invert the decision.
docs/self-reference-distillation-design.md
Successor to docs/self-reference-thought-chains-design.md (the
flat-source MVP). Maps STRICT claims onto the existing Distiller
/ Core / derivations infrastructure: each STRICT record becomes
a Fact-Core via a new ProvidenceDistiller, with per-cited-chunk
Merkle inclusion proofs back to Wikipedia source_roots. The
fact-graph grows; new claims attach by inheriting the proof
chain. CompositionDistiller (combining facts into new claims)
is explicitly deferred — that's reasoning machinery, not
infrastructure.
docs/test-coverage-audit-2026-05-01.md
Maps fox's §11 test list (16 items) against the codebase. 16/16
covered. Documents item #9's manual-quote-rule lifecycle: the
rule was retired from pointer mode in commit 224bfd6 after the
bench journey identified it was rejecting factually correct
claims; retained in JSON variant where the punctuation-rationale
argument doesn't apply. The audit doc itself is the requirements-
drift defense.
CODE
----
aborist/qa/keys.py:verifier_policy_hash
New pure function. Hashes the verifier-relevant subset of policy
(answer_mode + claim_lattice_* verifier knobs + entity_policy
fields + base_version). Folded into cache_key as an optional
9th dimension via a new keyword arg with backward-compat default
None — legacy 8-dim callers continue to work and produce the
pre-2026-05-01 hash result.
aborist/qa/{runner,query}.py
Compute verifier_policy_hash from the policy_variant and pass
to cache_key as the 9th dim. Records written from this commit
forward bind to the verifier-policy identity. Pre-existing 8-dim
records become cache-misses on next lookup — same migration cost
as any governance_policy_hash bump. The 9-dim form makes the
question "did the verifier rules change?" answerable from
cache_key diff alone, separate from "did the prompt change?"
CLAUDE.md
Adds "old maps vs runtime maps" engineering discipline to the
bench-maxing section. Codifies the principle: every base model
carries old maps from training time; the runtime carries the
fresh map; when they disagree, the runtime wins. Move authority
OUT of the model's prior and INTO runtime artifacts (pointer IDs
the runtime mints, source spans the runtime interpolates by
offset, evidence maps assembled per query, policy hashes that
fold prompt/verifier/retrieval into cache_key, hard checks run
by the verifier). Hermes' content-addressed-evidence-id
hallucination (commit bb8450d) is the canonical case study.
TESTS
-----
tests/test_keys.py
Six new tests for verifier_policy_hash:
- only hashes verifier subset (non-verifier fields don't change it)
- changes when verifier-relevant field changes
- empty-policy → stable
- 9-dim cache_key distinct from 8-dim
- 9-dim distinct under different verifier hashes
- 8-dim form preserved for legacy callers (None == omit)
DEFERRED (per fox + naming-deferral.md)
---------------------------------------
- PROMETHEUS-Σ as an extracted controller module — the dispatch
logic in runner.py + query.py already IS PROMETHEUS-Σ; an
explicit prometheus.py is a refactor with no behavior change.
Defer until a §5-rename-trigger fires.
507 tests pass (was 501 before, +6 from verifier_policy_hash
coverage).
russell@unturf.com
5990834ce8