nf.epistemic.onf

Orchestration Normal Form (ONF)

Contract ID: nf.epistemic.onf | Family: epistemic | Index Status: draft | AuthorityEffect: None

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1. Executive Summary & Metadata

Orchestration Normal Form (ONF) enforces structural normalization and explicit defect routing in the epistemic regime.

Property	Value
Canonical ID	nf.epistemic.onf
Short Name	ONF
Full Name	Orchestration Normal Form
Family	epistemic (Observer-Relative Epistemic, Freshness, Context, Provenance & Distinguishability Contracts)
Qualification	Extended Form Contract (Normal Form Contract)
Data / Math Posture	in_motion
Index Status	draft
Theory Status	proposed
Verification Status	absent
Contract Version	v0
Governance Fence	AuthorityEffect: None (certified_implies_authorized: false)

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2. Visual Architecture & Normalization Diagram

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3. Concrete Worked Example & Mechanism

Visual Transition Summary

Stage	Carrier / Operator	Concrete State / Invariant
1. Before / Candidate Input	Input Carrier (ONF Candidate)	Anomaly risk: agent laundering
2. Normalization / Gate	ONF Verification Gate	agent/tool action declare... (certified_implies_authorized: false)
3. After / Certified Output	Certified ONF Output	Invariant: ['initiator', 'tool', ; 'input_state', 'output_state', ; 'delegated_authority']

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4. The Four-Pillar Quadrilateral & Non-Claims

Every contract in simplex-normal-forms is evaluated against the Four-Pillar Quadrilateral defined in contracts/_golden_nfs/standard.yaml:

Pillar	Requirement	Contract Specification for nf.epistemic.onf
Pillar I: Excludes Anomaly	Name and eliminate a specific class of data or state defects.	agent laundering
Pillar II: Preserves Invariant	State the structural invariant and protected skeleton preserved across transitions.	Invariant: agent/tool action declares initiator, tool, input/output state, delegated authority, rollback, and terminal route Protected Skeleton: ['initiator', 'tool', 'input_state', 'output_state', 'delegated_authority']
Pillar III: Lossless Reconstruction	State the non-loss reconstruction operator (join, direct sum, pullback, or replay).	Lossless reconstruction under declared projection, direct sum, or pullback operators.
Pillar IV: Syntactic Decidability	State how conformance is decided from declared constraints without unbudgeted scans.	Decidable from declared schema and witness metadata within bounded evaluation budgets.

Explicit Non-Claims (certified_implies_authorized: false)

• does not ensure agent actions are globally optimal or logically correct

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5. Operational Verification & Terminal Routing

5.1 Required Declarations

• initiator
• tool
• input_state
• output_state
• delegated_authority
• rollback_path
• terminal_route

5.2 Required Evidence

• cryptographic_delegation_seal
• action_epoch
• input_hash
• output_hash

5.3 Validation Criteria

Criterion ID	Name	Condition
criterion	Check	action must have initiator and tool declared
criterion	Check	delegated authority must be cryptographically sealed
criterion	Check	rollback path must be declared
criterion	Check	terminal route must resolve on failure

5.4 Terminal Route Map

Every evaluation terminates in a declared local route mapped to a canonical terminal in standard.yaml:

Local Terminal Route	Canonical Terminal
ActionSuccess	Preserve
RollbackExecuted	Escalate
AgentLaunderingViolation	Refuse
DelegationExpired	Refuse
ActionRefused	Refuse
Escalate	Escalate

5.5 Declared Failure Modes

• symptom: agent action performed without reconstructible authorization or belief state, diagnosis: agent laundering, terminal: AgentLaunderingViolation

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6. Epistemic Claim Hygiene Quadrant

In accordance with the repository's epistemic claim discipline:

1. What it supports:
   • Supports syntactic and operational checking of nf.epistemic.onf (ONF) against its declared schema, boundary constraints, and witness obligations in this model.
   • Supports deterministic terminal routing (ActionSuccess, RollbackExecuted, AgentLaunderingViolation, DelegationExpired) when required declarations or invariants fail.
2. What it does not support:
   • Does not confer operational authority (AuthorityEffect: None, certified_implies_authorized: false).
   • Does not claim semantic truth of undeclared external processes or unverified upstream inputs beyond the declaredprotected skeleton.
3. The narrowest defensible claim:
   • Within the declared substrate in_motion, this contract enforces that agent laundering is either excluded under agent/tool action declares initiator, tool, input/output state, delegated authority, rollback, and terminal route or routed to an explicit refusal/recovery terminal.
4. The next test needed:
   • Property-based falsification and mutation testing across boundary edge cases and composed multi-step pipelines for nf.epistemic.onf.

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7. Canonical YAML Contract (contracts/nf.epistemic.onf.yaml)

Click to expand full canonical YAML contract (contracts/nf.epistemic.onf.yaml)

schema_version: smplx.nf.contract.v0
contract_kind: normal_form_contract
identity:
  id: nf.epistemic.onf
  name: Orchestration Normal Form
  short_name: ONF
  version: v0
  status: draft
  family: epistemic
  theory_status: proposed
  contract_status: draft
  verification_status: absent
classification:
  hierarchy_level: normal_form
  subject_kind:
  - distributed_claim
  data_posture: in_motion
  mathematical_posture: operational
purpose:
  excludes_anomaly: agent laundering
  preserves_invariant: agent/tool action declares initiator, tool, input/output state,
    delegated authority, rollback, and terminal route
  protected_skeleton:
  - initiator
  - tool
  - input_state
  - output_state
  - delegated_authority
  erased_structure: []
  non_claims:
  - does not ensure agent actions are globally optimal or logically correct
declarations_required:
- initiator
- tool
- input_state
- output_state
- delegated_authority
- rollback_path
- terminal_route
evidence_required:
- cryptographic_delegation_seal
- action_epoch
- input_hash
- output_hash
validation_criteria:
- action must have initiator and tool declared
- delegated authority must be cryptographically sealed
- rollback path must be declared
- terminal route must resolve on failure
proof_obligations: []
terminal_routes:
- ActionSuccess
- RollbackExecuted
- AgentLaunderingViolation
- DelegationExpired
- ActionRefused
- Escalate
certification:
  certificate_required: true
  certificate_kind: orchestration_certificate
  obstruction_class_required: false
  loss_ledger_required: true
  verifier_required: true
authorization:
  authorized_by: null
  certified_implies_authorized: false
failure_modes:
- symptom: agent action performed without reconstructible authorization or belief
    state
  diagnosis: agent laundering
  terminal: AgentLaunderingViolation
references:
- ../1_normal_forms.md
terminal_route_map:
  ActionSuccess: Preserve
  RollbackExecuted: Escalate
  AgentLaunderingViolation: Refuse
  DelegationExpired: Refuse
  ActionRefused: Refuse
  Escalate: Escalate
definition:
  source: coda_all_universe/mssn_sn_tower/definitions.md
  formal_statement: agent laundering. agent/tool action declares initiator, tool,
    input/output state, delegated authority, rollback, and terminal route
  quadrilateral:
    qualifies_as_true_normal_form: false
    qualification_gap: reconstruction_is_not_a_relational_project_join
    anomaly_exclusion: agent laundering
    lossless_join:
      status: declared_reconstruction
      statement: agent/tool action declares initiator, tool, input/output state, delegated
        authority, rollback, and terminal route
    dependency_preservation:
      status: declared_with_the_invariant
      statement: The preserved invariant stays on the declared schema. This form does
        not state a functional-dependency projection of a flat relvar decomposition.
    syntactic_decision:
      status: declaration_decidable
      statement: The check reads the declared constraints and validation criteria.
        One unrecorded runtime image is not the decider.
schema_ref: ./normal_form_contract_schema.yaml