nf.epistemic.replica

Replica Normal Form (RNF)

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

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1. Executive Summary & Metadata

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

Property	Value
Canonical ID	nf.epistemic.replica
Short Name	RNF
Full Name	Replica 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 (RNF Candidate)	Anomaly risk: false sameness
2. Normalization / Gate	RNF Verification Gate	every copy declares origi... (certified_implies_authorized: false)
3. After / Certified Output	Certified RNF Output	Invariant: ['origin', 'epoch', ; 'causal_frontier', ; 'divergence_budget']

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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.replica
Pillar I: Excludes Anomaly	Name and eliminate a specific class of data or state defects.	false sameness
Pillar II: Preserves Invariant	State the structural invariant and protected skeleton preserved across transitions.	Invariant: every copy declares origin epoch causal frontier divergence budget reconciliation Protected Skeleton: ['origin', 'epoch', 'causal_frontier', 'divergence_budget']
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)

• eventual consistency is not equivalence without declared budget

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5. Operational Verification & Terminal Routing

5.1 Required Declarations

• origin
• epoch
• causal_frontier
• divergence_budget
• reconciliation_rule

5.2 Required Evidence

• replica_identity
• frontier_vector or lamport_clock

5.3 Validation Criteria

Criterion ID	Name	Condition
criterion	Check	replicas are not compared without declared frontier
criterion	Check	merge requires reconciliation_rule terminal when budget exceeded
criterion	Check	aligns with BQNF Serialize terminal when concurrent defects do not commute

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
Reconciled	Preserve
Converging	Repair
DivergenceExceeded	Escalate
Serialize	Serialize
Refuse	Refuse

5.5 Declared Failure Modes

All defects route explicitly through the Terminal Route Map above.

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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.replica (RNF) against its declared schema, boundary constraints, and witness obligations in this model.
   • Supports deterministic terminal routing (Reconciled, Converging, DivergenceExceeded, Serialize) 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 false sameness is either excluded under every copy declares origin epoch causal frontier divergence budget reconciliation 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.replica.

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

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

schema_version: smplx.nf.contract.v0
contract_kind: normal_form_contract
identity:
  id: nf.epistemic.replica
  name: Replica Normal Form
  short_name: RNF
  version: v0
  status: draft
  family: epistemic
  theory_status: proposed
  contract_status: draft
  verification_status: absent
classification:
  hierarchy_level: normal_form
  subject_kind:
  - distributed_claim
  - relvar
  data_posture: in_motion
  mathematical_posture: operational
purpose:
  excludes_anomaly: false sameness
  preserves_invariant: every copy declares origin epoch causal frontier divergence
    budget reconciliation
  protected_skeleton:
  - origin
  - epoch
  - causal_frontier
  - divergence_budget
  erased_structure: []
  non_claims:
  - eventual consistency is not equivalence without declared budget
declarations_required:
- origin
- epoch
- causal_frontier
- divergence_budget
- reconciliation_rule
evidence_required:
- replica_identity
- frontier_vector or lamport_clock
validation_criteria:
- replicas are not compared without declared frontier
- merge requires reconciliation_rule terminal when budget exceeded
- aligns with BQNF Serialize terminal when concurrent defects do not commute
proof_obligations: []
terminal_routes:
- Reconciled
- Converging
- DivergenceExceeded
- Serialize
- Refuse
certification:
  certificate_required: true
  certificate_kind: replica_witness
  obstruction_class_required: false
  loss_ledger_required: false
  verifier_required: true
authorization:
  authorized_by: null
  certified_implies_authorized: false
references:
- ../1_normal_forms.md
terminal_route_map:
  Reconciled: Preserve
  Converging: Repair
  DivergenceExceeded: Escalate
  Serialize: Serialize
  Refuse: Refuse
definition:
  source: coda_all_universe/mssn_sn_tower/definitions.md
  formal_statement: false sameness. every copy declares origin epoch causal frontier
    divergence budget reconciliation
  quadrilateral:
    qualifies_as_true_normal_form: false
    qualification_gap: reconstruction_is_not_a_relational_project_join
    anomaly_exclusion: false sameness
    lossless_join:
      status: declared_reconstruction
      statement: every copy declares origin epoch causal frontier divergence budget
        reconciliation
    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