Documentation · Protocol

Mutation protocol

A mutation never spreads because a related agent recommends it. It walks a state machine, and a human or an explicit policy makes the final call.

State machine

10 states. Rejected and quarantined are terminal. Adopted is terminal on the receiving genome. The linear happy path used by progress rails is 8 steps long.

Drawing diagram…

Mutation lifecycle. Rejected and quarantined end the walk; adopted is the only successful terminal.

Diagram source

stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> observed
  observed --> proposed
  proposed --> sandboxing
  sandboxing --> evaluated
  evaluated --> accepted
  evaluated --> rejected
  evaluated --> quarantined
  accepted --> eligible_for_propagation: eligible-for-propagation
  eligible_for_propagation --> offered_to_relatives: offered-to-relatives
  offered_to_relatives --> adopted
  rejected --> [*]
  quarantined --> [*]
  adopted --> [*]

Mutation states, the lineage state they render as, and whether they are terminal
State	Label	Renders as	Terminal
observed	Observed	Inferred	No
proposed	Proposed	Proposed	No
sandboxing	Sandboxing	Proposed	No
evaluated	Evaluated	Reviewed	No
accepted	Accepted	Verified	No
rejected	Rejected	Rejected	Yes
quarantined	Quarantined	Quarantined	Yes
eligible-for-propagation	Eligible for propagation	Verified	No
offered-to-relatives	Offered to relatives	Proposed	No
adopted	Adopted	Verified	Yes

Propagation protocol

Seven steps. A mutation never skips one. Discover is not describe; attest is not sandbox; evaluate is not decide.

Drawing diagram…

The seven-step propagation protocol. Decide is the only step that can adopt, reject or quarantine.

Diagram source

flowchart LR
  Discover --> Describe --> Attest --> Sandbox --> Test --> Evaluate --> Decide
  Decide --> Adopt
  Decide --> Reject
  Decide --> Quarantine

Propagation protocol steps
Step	What happens
Discover	An agent or a human notices a change worth describing.
Describe	The change is written down as a typed mutation record.
Attest	Claims are signed and bound to immutable digests.
Sandbox	The mutation is applied in an isolated environment.
Test	The relative’s own test suite runs against it.
Evaluate	A fitness vector is measured, not a single score.
Decide	A policy or a maintainer adopts, rejects or quarantines.

1. Discover — An agent or a human notices a change worth describing.
2. Describe — The change is written down as a typed mutation record.
3. Attest — Claims are signed and bound to immutable digests.
4. Sandbox — The mutation is applied in an isolated environment.
5. Test — The relative’s own test suite runs against it.
6. Evaluate — A fitness vector is measured, not a single score.
7. Decide — A policy or a maintainer adopts, rejects or quarantines.

Trust ladder

Each rung is a claim that has actually been checked. An AI proposal is recorded; it is not trusted. Maintainer approval is trusted. The ladder is not a score — it is a list of gates.

Trust ladder rungs and whether the registry treats them as trusted
Rung	Meaning	Trusted
AI proposal	A model asserts this change is beneficial.	No
Unverified proposal	Recorded, but nothing is checked yet.	No
Source verified	The referenced commit and digest resolve.	No
Build verified	Provenance shows how the artifact was produced.	Yes
Tests passed	The adopter’s suite ran green in a sandbox.	Yes
Policy passed	Security and licence gates were satisfied.	Yes
Maintainer approved	A human with authority said yes.	Yes
Adopted allele	The capability now lives in this genome.	Yes