nf.epistemic.state

State Normal Form (StNF)

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

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1. Executive Summary & Metadata

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

Property	Value
Canonical ID	nf.epistemic.state
Short Name	StNF
Full Name	State 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 (StNF Candidate)	Anomaly risk: scalar state fiction
2. Normalization / Gate	StNF Verification Gate	every state claim carries... (certified_implies_authorized: false)
3. After / Certified Output	Certified StNF Output	Invariant: ['value', 'version', ; 'causal_context', 'freshness', ; 'confidence', '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.state
Pillar I: Excludes Anomaly	Name and eliminate a specific class of data or state defects.	scalar state fiction
Pillar II: Preserves Invariant	State the structural invariant and protected skeleton preserved across transitions.	Invariant: every state claim carries value version causal context freshness confidence authority Protected Skeleton: ['value', 'version', 'causal_context', 'freshness', 'confidence', '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 certify repair without BQNF on boundary relvar
• draft until verifier implements packet checks

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5. Operational Verification & Terminal Routing

5.1 Required Declarations

• value
• version
• causal_context
• freshness
• confidence
• authority_source
• observer

5.2 Required Evidence

• version_id or epoch
• read_timestamp
• authority_gate label

5.3 Validation Criteria

Criterion ID	Name	Condition
criterion	Check	value is never served without version
criterion	Check	version is never served without causal_context
criterion	Check	stale state is terminalized or labeled
criterion	Check	authority_source is explicit
criterion	Check	pairs with BQNF repair updates packet in lockstep

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
Accept	Escalate
Stale	Escalate
CausalGap	Escalate
AuthorityUnknown	BudgetUnknown
ConfidenceBelowThreshold	Refuse
Refuse	Refuse

5.5 Declared Failure Modes

• symptom: API returns revenue equals 42000 without epoch, diagnosis: state flattening, terminal: CausalGap

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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.state (StNF) against its declared schema, boundary constraints, and witness obligations in this model.
   • Supports deterministic terminal routing (Accept, Stale, CausalGap, AuthorityUnknown) 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 scalar state fiction is either excluded under every state claim carries value version causal context freshness confidence authority 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.state.

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

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

schema_version: smplx.nf.contract.v0
contract_kind: normal_form_contract
identity:
  id: nf.epistemic.state
  name: State Normal Form
  short_name: StNF
  version: v0
  status: draft
  family: epistemic
  theory_status: proposed
  contract_status: draft
  verification_status: absent
classification:
  hierarchy_level: normal_form
  subject_kind:
  - distributed_claim
  - observer_relvar
  data_posture: in_motion
  mathematical_posture: operational
obstruction_substrate:
  policy_ref: ../substrate/default_finite_obstruction_policy.yaml
  finite_carrier:
    description: epistemic state packet per observer; finite feature basis only
  cochain_complex:
    C0: admissible_state_rewrites
    C1: stale_or_missing_version_defects
    C2: inconsistent_freshness_closure
    d0: repair_to_defect
    d1: null
    quotient: Q1 = C1 / im(d0)
  obstruction_class:
    notation: '[omega]'
    exact: '[omega] == 0'
  carrier_realization:
    ref: matrix_or_density_operator
    catalog: ../substrate/carrier_realizations_catalog.yaml
  geometry_module:
    ref: geom.density_projection.v0
    path: ../geometry_modules/geom.density_projection.v0.yaml
    status: quarantined
purpose:
  excludes_anomaly: scalar state fiction
  preserves_invariant: every state claim carries value version causal context freshness
    confidence authority
  protected_skeleton:
  - value
  - version
  - causal_context
  - freshness
  - confidence
  - authority
  erased_structure: []
  non_claims:
  - does not certify repair without BQNF on boundary relvar
  - draft until verifier implements packet checks
declarations_required:
- value
- version
- causal_context
- freshness
- confidence
- authority_source
- observer
evidence_required:
- version_id or epoch
- read_timestamp
- authority_gate label
validation_criteria:
- value is never served without version
- version is never served without causal_context
- stale state is terminalized or labeled
- authority_source is explicit
- pairs with BQNF repair updates packet in lockstep
proof_obligations: []
terminal_routes:
- Accept
- Stale
- CausalGap
- AuthorityUnknown
- ConfidenceBelowThreshold
- Refuse
certification:
  certificate_required: false
  certificate_kind: null
  obstruction_class_required: false
  loss_ledger_required: false
  verifier_required: true
authorization:
  authorized_by: null
  certified_implies_authorized: false
failure_modes:
- symptom: API returns revenue equals 42000 without epoch
  diagnosis: state flattening
  terminal: CausalGap
references:
- ../1_normal_forms.md
- ../1a_bqnf_incremental_repair.md
terminal_route_map:
  Accept: Escalate
  Stale: Escalate
  CausalGap: Escalate
  AuthorityUnknown: BudgetUnknown
  ConfidenceBelowThreshold: Refuse
  Refuse: Refuse
definition:
  source: coda_all_universe/mssn_sn_tower/definitions.md
  formal_statement: scalar state fiction. every state claim carries value version
    causal context freshness confidence authority
  quadrilateral:
    qualifies_as_true_normal_form: false
    qualification_gap: reconstruction_is_not_a_relational_project_join
    anomaly_exclusion: scalar state fiction
    lossless_join:
      status: declared_reconstruction
      statement: every state claim carries value version causal context freshness
        confidence authority
    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