Infrastructure · Data Structures
FailureTrace
Signed, clause-specific rejection evidence
Definition
Mechanism
A structured, verifiable record of a downstream consumer's claim that an artifact violates a specific clause of the AcceptSpec 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.
Invariants
- Clause-specific: the trace names exactly one AcceptSpec 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.
Risks
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.
Relationships
Builds on
References
Non-compensatory acceptance contract; consumer Verify yields Solution or FrameError
Attest to authorship or agreement
Used by
References
Society
Verification gate for signed, clause-specific rejection records
Reference
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"
}
}
}