hashintel · lunelson · May 8, 2026 · May 7, 2026 · May 7, 2026 · May 7, 2026
diff --git a/docs/design/BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md b/docs/design/BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md
diff --git a/docs/design/DEFERRED_RECONCILIATIONS.md b/docs/design/DEFERRED_RECONCILIATIONS.md
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+# Deferred Reconciliations — Pending Promotions to SPEC / PLAN
+
+> Status: **interim backlog**.
+> Date: 2026-05-07.
+> Scope: shaped product-direction items derived from the intent-spec synthesis ([`INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md`](./INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md)) that are *ready* for promotion but deliberately *deferred* until prerequisite work lands.
+>
+> Each entry below has a clear destination (a `memory/SPEC.md` requirement / assumption / decision, a `memory/PLAN.md` item, or a new design doc) and a clear **trigger condition**. When the trigger fires, promote the entry through the appropriate `ln-*` skill and remove the entry from this file. When the file is empty it can be deleted.
+>
+> This file exists because the items below would otherwise be lost or buried in the synthesis source. They are not on the active plan and they should not appear in agent task slices yet — but they should not have to be re-discovered when their triggers fire either.
+
+## How to use this doc
+
+1. Before opening a new frontier item, check whether any deferred entries below have triggers that have now fired.
+2. When promoting an entry, route through the canonical skill: `ln-spec` for SPEC.md changes, `ln-plan` for PLAN.md changes. Do not hand-edit canonical memory.
+3. Delete promoted entries from this file. The synthesis source remains in [`INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md`](./INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md) for context, but this backlog is the single live tracking place.
+4. If a trigger never fires, decide explicitly whether the entry is still relevant or should be retired with a note in the synthesis source.
+
+---
+
+## Pending SPEC.md additions
+
+### Requirement candidates (3)
+
+**REQ-D1. Spec drift surfacing.**
+When a generated artifact (criterion, requirement, candidate-spec direction, export bundle, or downstream implementation behavior) diverges from its source claim, Brunch surfaces the divergence in human terms — "original intent vs generated behavior vs potential mismatch" — so the user can validate meaning at the point where it could have changed, rather than after the divergence has been laundered into a final document.
+- **Trigger:** FE-700 lands the `checkability` field and `claimMetadata` so drift can actually be detected at the typed-claim level.
+- **Promotes through:** `ln-spec` patch.
+- **Cross-refs once promoted:** new design doc `docs/design/SPEC_DRIFT.md` (entry C3 below); links to existing Requirement 38 (invariant + example as kinds) and the `spec drift` Lexicon entry that already exists.
+
+**REQ-D2. Disambiguation probes from graph topology.**
+The interviewer can issue contrastive A/B/C disambiguation questions when the typed graph contains a high-fanout assumption, an unwitnessed requirement, an unverified invariant, a decision without rejected alternatives, a goal without derived requirements, or a conflicting constraint. The TiCoder-style move is generalized beyond test cases: the interviewer generates cases where plausible interpretations diverge, then asks the user to classify them; the classifications emit typed claims and edges per [`INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md`](./INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md).
+- **Trigger:** FE-700 lands the typed graph (kinds + subtypes + relation families + edge metadata); FE-702 first kernel probes complete and the contrastive-question pattern is validated.
+- **Promotes through:** `ln-spec` patch.
+- **Cross-refs once promoted:** the topology-driven heuristics table in [`INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md`](./INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md); new horizon plan item B3 (below); behavioral-kernel composition in [`BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md`](./BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md).
+
+**REQ-D3. Edge epistemic metadata participation rules.**
+Knowledge edges carry `support` (`explicit` / `strong_inference` / `weak_candidate`), `status` (`proposed` / `accepted` / `rejected` / `stale`), `provenanceTurnId`, and `rationale`. Only edges of certain support / status combinations participate in cascade, staleness, export-trace, reconciliation, and weak-suggestion capabilities, per the relation-policy registry. Inferred edges do not silently become false dependencies.
+- **Trigger:** FE-700 lands the edge schema and the relation-policy registry.
+- **Promotes through:** `ln-spec` patch.
+- **Cross-refs once promoted:** the edge schema and relation-policy table in [`INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md`](./INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md); the existing I109 (compact existing-knowledge anchors); the existing `relation family` and `relation policy` Lexicon entries.
+
+### Assumption candidates (3)
+
+**A-D1. Spec drift can be made user-legible without exposing formal-methods terminology.**
+Drift surfaced as "original intent → generated behavior → potential mismatch" with a chosen-direction question is sufficient for users to validate meaning, without requiring users to read predicates, contracts, or proof obligations.
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D1 promotion (paired assumption).
+- **Validation approach:** prototype drift surfacing on one corpus of generated criteria; compare user comprehension against direct exposure to the underlying typed-claim diff.
+
+**A-D2. Topology-driven question ranking outperforms template-driven next-question generation as graph density grows.**
+Once the typed graph carries kinds, subtypes, and edge metadata, an interviewer that ranks next questions by topology (gap-finding heuristics on the graph) produces more useful questions than one that ranks by phase template — especially for incremental-feature elicitation where the graph is dense from the start.
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D2 promotion (paired assumption).
+- **Validation approach:** scenario-substrate probes comparing template-driven vs topology-driven next-question generation on the same seeded graphs.
+
+**A-D3. The five-family relation taxonomy is right-sized.**
+Five families (justification / dependency / boundary / refinement / verification) is small enough to teach the observer reliably and large enough to drive cascade / export / staleness / reconciliation policy without flat equality of edges. Adding a sixth family creates more confusion than precision; collapsing to four loses too much policy distinction.
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D3 promotion (paired assumption).
+- **Validation approach:** observer corpus probes labelling edges across the five families; check whether classifier confusion concentrates on family boundaries that suggest splits or merges.
+
+---
+
+## Pending PLAN.md additions
+
+### Horizon items (2)
+
+**PLAN-D1. Spec drift detection product surface.**
+After the typed claim metadata lands (FE-700) and the scenario substrate has probed drift detection (FE-702 follow-on), promote drift detection from a discipline to a user-facing product surface: how divergences are surfaced in the workspace stream, how the user validates or corrects, what they produce durably, and whether drift items become first-class typed claims (likely a new `drift_finding` subtype on `example` or a new top-level kind).
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D1 promotion + scenario-substrate drift probe complete.
+- **Depends on:** intent graph semantics + progressive checkability (FE-700 → next-3); scenario substrate (FE-698 → next-2); generative prompt probes (FE-702 → next-4).
+- **Promotes through:** `ln-plan` patch.
+- **Once promoted:** point at the new design doc `docs/design/SPEC_DRIFT.md` (entry C3 below).
+
+**PLAN-D2. Topology-driven next-question ranking interviewer behavior.**
+Refactor the interviewer's next-question selection to consult typed-graph topology (high-fanout low-confidence assumptions, requirements without `verifies` incoming, criteria without targets, decisions without rejected alternatives, conflicting `constrains` edges, goals without derived requirements). Distinct from kernel-driven questions: kernels suggest *what kind* of question; topology heuristics suggest *which item* to ask about.
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D2 promotion + first behavioral-kernel probes complete.
+- **Depends on:** intent graph semantics + progressive checkability (FE-700); generative prompt probes for behavioral kernels (FE-702 partial).
+- **Promotes through:** `ln-plan` patch.
+- **Once promoted:** complement to behavioral-kernel work, not replacement.
+
+---
+
+## Pending design docs (1)
+
+**C3. `docs/design/SPEC_DRIFT.md`.**
+Canonical reference for spec-drift detection as a product surface. Layer 4 of the source synthesis's four-layer architecture (intent capture / ambiguity discovery / spec artifact generation / spec drift detection). Should specify:
+- What counts as drift (intent ↔ artifact ↔ implementation divergence cases)
+- How drift is detected per artifact type (criterion divergence, candidate-spec divergence, export divergence, implementation behavior divergence)
+- How drift is surfaced in the workspace stream (UI shape, when it interrupts, when it stays passive)
+- How the user validates or rejects (chosen-direction question shape)
+- What drift findings become durably (typed-claim subtype vs. process state vs. activity card)
+- Relation to reconciliation needs (drift can produce reconciliation needs but is distinct from them)
+- Drift detection vs. drift recovery — the second is a different problem
+- **Trigger:** REQ-D1 promotion (the SPEC requirement should exist before the design doc commits to a shape).
+- **Author through:** ordinary `docs/design/` workflow, not a skill.
+
+---
+
+## When everything has promoted
+
+When this file's three sections (SPEC, PLAN, design docs) are all empty, delete the file. The synthesis source remains in [`INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md`](./INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md) and the canonical references stand on their own.
+
+If items remain unpromoted past their triggers (e.g., FE-700 ships but REQ-D1 still hasn't promoted three months later), reopen this file's relevant entry with a note explaining why — either retire it with reasoning, or escalate it to active triage through `ln-consult`.
+
+## References
+
+- [`INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md`](./INTENT_SPEC_EVOLUTION.md) — synthesis source for every entry above.
+- [`INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md`](./INTENT_GRAPH_SEMANTICS.md) — typed-graph reference; entries above all assume this lands first.
+- [`BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md`](./BEHAVIORAL_KERNELS.md) — kernel-driven question reference; complementary to topology-driven ranking.
+- `memory/PLAN.md` items 3 (FE-700) and 4 (FE-702) — the active items whose completion will fire most triggers above.