{
  "handle": "FailureTrace",
  "mechanism": "A structured, verifiable record of a downstream consumer's claim that an artifact violates a specific clause of the {{accept_spec}} it was measured against. When a consumer returns a rejection through a Solver's Feedback surface, the rejection carries a FailureTrace naming the clause, citing evidence, identifying the evaluator, and carrying a {{sign}} proof bound to the trace's content. The upstream Solver can therefore distinguish attributable, unaltered feedback from anonymous, forged, or modified traces. Invalid clause or evidence references, or a signature that does not verify for this trace, cause the feedback to be dropped. The record proves attribution and content integrity, not that the cited evidence entails the claimed violation.",
  "gloss": "Signed, clause-specific rejection evidence",
  "invariants": [
    "Clause-specific: the trace names exactly one {{accept_spec}} clause per violation, not a generic 'doesn't meet bar'.",
    "Evidence-bound: the violation claim is paired with citeable evidence from the artifact.",
    "Content-bound and timed: the trace carries the evaluator's identity, a signing-time assertion, and a {{sign}} proof over every other field; altering any covered field invalidates the proof."
  ],
  "failure_modes": [
    "Ghost clauses: the trace cites an AcceptSpec clause that does not exist (detectable via schema lookup).",
    "Evidence fabrication: the trace cites evidence the artifact does not contain (detectable via content hash).",
    "Signature failure: the evaluator identity is forged or a valid signature is attached to different trace content (detectable because the signature must verify for this trace).",
    "Duplicate replay: an unchanged, valid trace is resubmitted; content binding provides integrity, not freshness or deduplication.",
    "Clause-dancing: the consumer rejects for clause A while the real objection is clause B they did not invoke — no trace schema catches this by itself.",
    "Evidence too weak to entail: the cited evidence exists and does not establish the violation. All three invariants pass — they establish that citations resolve, not that they entail."
  ],
  "data_schema": {
    "type": "object",
    "required": [
      "accept_spec_ref",
      "violated_clause",
      "evidence",
      "evaluator_ref",
      "signed_at",
      "trace_signature"
    ],
    "properties": {
      "accept_spec_ref": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "sema_id of the AcceptSpec the artifact was measured against"
      },
      "violated_clause": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Identifier of the specific clause claimed violated"
      },
      "evidence": {
        "type": "object",
        "description": "Citeable evidence from the artifact supporting the violation claim"
      },
      "evaluator_ref": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Evaluator identity and verification-key reference"
      },
      "severity": {
        "type": "string",
        "enum": [
          "blocking",
          "advisory"
        ],
        "description": "Whether the violation halts progress or is informational"
      },
      "signed_at": {
        "type": "string",
        "format": "date-time",
        "description": "Evaluator-asserted signing time covered by trace_signature; key-validity and trusted-time policy are caller-supplied"
      },
      "trace_signature": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "A {{sign}} proof binding evaluator_ref to every other field in this FailureTrace; changing any other field invalidates the proof"
      }
    }
  },
  "_meta": {
    "tier": 1,
    "ring": 1,
    "path": [
      "Infrastructure",
      "Data Structures"
    ],
    "supersedes": [
      "sema:FailureTrace#mh:SHA-256:416b450eb20e20b2b24b71d19b0bd43da9e9a7c0249dbdc2973797f68deb392f",
      "sema:FailureTrace#mh:SHA-256:967649a371e7b5262536ec16d0556dde9447070001b841eab18734a93a8a0dbd"
    ]
  },
  "sema_id": "sema:FailureTrace#mh:SHA-256:8085febc5bf923c52ce1856893c7739e5d9be3bdc021767766ad949f717a974e",
  "sema_ref": "FailureTrace#8085",
  "sema_stub": "8085",
  "dependencies": {
    "references": {
      "accept_spec": "sema:AcceptSpec#mh:SHA-256:37fa28b93d390f8c8eb171eaab54ff4f9e57a95ef67af024422f823545a291cc",
      "sign": "sema:Sign#mh:SHA-256:b2020447ec4c2725a139c6117c764cf464643e6e83379e86263267f95e4965ee"
    }
  },
  "sema_layer": "Infrastructure",
  "sema_category": "Data Structures",
  "used_by": {
    "references": {
      "ReceptivityGate": "sema:ReceptivityGate#mh:SHA-256:0db58374b9595734af888df1f152aa802e6da20fb24e2786e44f1837f2a4f4fa"
    }
  }
}