{
  "handle": "ReceptivityGate",
  "mechanism": "A Gate that guards a Solver's Feedback surface against malformed and unattributable evaluation. When a downstream orchestrator rejects an artifact, it must submit a typed {{failure_trace}} naming the violated {{accept_spec}} clause. The upstream Solver's ReceptivityGate runs {{validate}} before accepting it: it checks that the cited clause exists, that the cited evidence is present in the artifact, and that `trace_signature` verifies under `evaluator_ref` for this exact FailureTrace payload. Invalid traces are dropped rather than absorbed into {{pathway_memory}}. What the gate establishes is citation and attribution integrity — that a rejection refers to real things and that this evaluator signed this unaltered trace. It does not adjudicate whether the cited evidence actually violates the cited clause; that requires a judge and belongs to a descendant.",
  "gloss": "Verification gate for signed, clause-specific rejection records",
  "invariants": [
    "Trace-required: no rejection is accepted without a well-formed {{failure_trace}}.",
    "Clause-verified: the cited AcceptSpec clause must exist.",
    "Evidence-verified: the cited evidence must be present in the rejected artifact.",
    "Content-signature-verified: `trace_signature` must verify under `evaluator_ref` for this exact {{failure_trace}} payload; identity-only proof is insufficient.",
    "Drop-on-fail: invalid traces produce no update to {{pathway_memory}} rather than partial absorption."
  ],
  "failure_modes": [
    "Valid-but-false rejection: a well-formed trace cites a real clause and real evidence under a valid signature while asserting a violation that does not hold. Every check passes, because the gate verifies that citations resolve and not that they entail.",
    "Over-strict: legitimate but imperfect traces are dropped, starving the Solver of real learning signal.",
    "Under-strict: malformed traces that pass checks still corrupt pathway memory.",
    "Bypass by privileged peer: a downstream orchestrator with elevated trust skips the gate and injects raw feedback.",
    "DoS via trace flood: malicious actors swamp the gate with valid-looking traces to exhaust verification budget."
  ],
  "_meta": {
    "tier": 1,
    "ring": 1,
    "caution": "Required at any Feedback surface exposed to untrusted downstream consumers. Without it, the Solver absorbs fabricated penalties as if they were genuine learning signal.",
    "path": [
      "Society",
      "Protocols"
    ],
    "supersedes": [
      "sema:ReceptivityGate#mh:SHA-256:27099802d49cf3b086d4149bd9697dd2e7ff680de09f3e1395172cf4e45c2096",
      "sema:ReceptivityGate#mh:SHA-256:8e7475b2e900e202bc7c509092b69889445c217a526e2bf692a70629ac2bfcdf",
      "sema:ReceptivityGate#mh:SHA-256:56672e19478b968dacc6ffdaaf69627f85e5fedf06ee1256993b641a4380b571"
    ]
  },
  "sema_id": "sema:ReceptivityGate#mh:SHA-256:0db58374b9595734af888df1f152aa802e6da20fb24e2786e44f1837f2a4f4fa",
  "sema_ref": "ReceptivityGate#0db5",
  "sema_stub": "0db5",
  "dependencies": {
    "composes_with": {
      "validate": "sema:Validate#mh:SHA-256:ffd128811cea63d7a4dac2c45c95fd8ac1d8a7d3788423fb6710b622167305ed"
    },
    "references": {
      "accept_spec": "sema:AcceptSpec#mh:SHA-256:37fa28b93d390f8c8eb171eaab54ff4f9e57a95ef67af024422f823545a291cc",
      "failure_trace": "sema:FailureTrace#mh:SHA-256:8085febc5bf923c52ce1856893c7739e5d9be3bdc021767766ad949f717a974e",
      "pathway_memory": "sema:PathwayMemory#mh:SHA-256:ce2e6ce822404fae0e60a43fc2c6fbe2e4d51ab9aefee1e7a9e21da75893e722"
    }
  },
  "sema_layer": "Society",
  "sema_category": "Protocols",
  "used_by": {
    "references": {
      "OrchestrationLoop": "sema:OrchestrationLoop#mh:SHA-256:e8ba5873bab7bc8a60c971462d4c5a19d86ecf67c4526a516242e20aa388762e",
      "PerformanceSignal": "sema:PerformanceSignal#mh:SHA-256:9dfb41dd2ac3f271ca5d4a3ab67219a5a18aa8dbd970cdb410e7c9c1ec85488c"
    }
  }
}