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docs: correct false upstream-filing commitments to honest declining status - #138

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Brian Krabach (bkrabach) merged 1 commit into
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docs/honest-upstream-action-values
Aug 6, 2026
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docs: correct false upstream-filing commitments to honest declining status#138
Brian Krabach (bkrabach) merged 1 commit into
mainfrom
docs/honest-upstream-action-values

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What

specs/EXTENSIONS.md §25, §29, and §33 each carried upstream action: deferred, reason: ..., review-by: 2026-09-05 — a commitment to file spec-correction
PRs against strongdm/attractor. That commitment was written into a shipped
public ledger even though the principal had already explicitly declined this
action weeks earlier ("skip #2"). This PR corrects it.

Why the previous value was false

Re-verified independently rather than taking the prior claim on faith:

Filing another spec-correction PR there would not land. declining is the
honest value; deferred, ..., review-by: <date> was not.

What changed

  1. §25, §29, §33: upstream action: changed from deferred, reason: ..., review-by: 2026-09-05 to declining, reason: <one-line, evidence-based>,
    stating plainly that the divergence stays tracked in this ledger instead —
    which is what actually serves consumers of this engine, filing or no
    filing.
  2. Entry Format section: the format block only documented two legal
    upstream action: values (a real link, or deferred-with-date). Extended
    it to explicitly permit declining, reason: <one-line reason> as a third
    legal form — otherwise the three corrected entries above would violate
    the very format they sit under. The existing "no non-date review-by
    values" rule is unchanged.
  3. Sweep: checked SPEC_CONFORMANCE.md, README.md, PRINCIPLES.md,
    docs/, and the rest of specs/EXTENSIONS.md for any other undated
    promise of an upstream spec-correction PR. Found none carrying the same
    false commitment. PRINCIPLES.md's two walk-upstream notes (§25, §33) and
    feedback.py's docstring (§29) describe the recommended upstream change
    and point readers to the ledger entry for current disposition, but make
    no dated or otherwise falsifiable promise of their own — left unchanged.
  4. Guard test: extended
    modules/loop-pipeline/tests/test_extensions_ledger_integrity.py with a
    structural check that every upstream action: value in the live ledger
    opens with one of the legal forms (link / deferred-with-date / declining
    / not applicable), and that every deferred value carries a real
    review-by: YYYY-MM-DD date. Proven RED against a synthetic vague-promise
    value and GREEN against one example of each legal form plus the live
    file. This cannot (and does not try to) judge whether a given reason is
    true — only that the value is shaped like a legal form at all.

Gates

  • test_extensions_ledger_integrity.py: 8/8 passed (4 pre-existing + 4 new).
  • test_engine_semantics_doc_guard.py + test_topological_lint.py +
    test_command_content_lint.py + test_examples_lint_clean.py: 135/135
    passed.
  • Full loop-pipeline suite: 1794 passed, 1 skipped (pre-existing skip,
    unrelated).
  • git diff --check: clean.
  • Ledger section-heading contiguity (§1–§35, no gaps/duplicates): verified
    by the existing guard test, still green after this change (no headings
    touched, only body/value text).

Not in scope

This PR does not re-litigate whether §25/§29/§33 are the right
engineering decisions — only that their upstream action: field states the
true plan rather than a plan already known to be false.

🤖 Generated with Amplifier

Co-Authored-By: Amplifier 240397093+microsoft-amplifier@users.noreply.github.com

…tatus

specs/EXTENSIONS.md §25, §29, and §33 each carried `upstream action: deferred,
..., review-by: 2026-09-05` — a commitment to file spec-correction PRs at
strongdm/attractor. That commitment was never real: the principal had already
declined this action, and the evidence rules it out independently of that:
strongdm/attractor has had no commits since 2026-03-17 (~5 months), has
issues disabled, has no CONTRIBUTING guide, and its own open community
spec-correction PRs (#9 'Correct Attractor spec inconsistencies', #10 '8 spec
improvements from building a PHP/Laravel implementation') have sat unmerged
for 4+ months. Our own earlier attempt there (#6) was closed, not merged.

Changed all three entries from the deferred-with-date form to
`declining, reason: <one-line>`, stating plainly that the divergence is
tracked in this ledger instead — which is what actually serves consumers of
this engine, filing or no filing.

The Entry Format section only documented two legal `upstream action:` forms
(a real link, or deferred-with-date); extended it to explicitly permit
`declining, reason: <one-line reason>` as a third legal form, with a note on
when it applies and what would warrant reopening the entry. The
non-date-review-by prohibition is unchanged.

Swept SPEC_CONFORMANCE.md, README.md, PRINCIPLES.md, docs/, and the rest of
specs/EXTENSIONS.md for other undated promises of an upstream spec-correction
PR: found none carrying a similar false commitment (PRINCIPLES.md's two
walk-upstream notes and feedback.py's docstring describe a recommended
upstream change and point readers to the ledger for current disposition, but
make no dated or otherwise falsifiable promise of their own).

Extended modules/loop-pipeline/tests/test_extensions_ledger_integrity.py with
a structural guard: every `upstream action:` value in the live ledger must
open with one of the legal forms (link / deferred-with-date / declining /
not applicable), and every `deferred` value must carry a real
`review-by: YYYY-MM-DD` date. Proven RED against a synthetic vague-promise
value and GREEN against one example of each legal form, plus the live
ledger itself. This does not (and cannot) judge whether a given reason is
factually true — only that the value is shaped like one of the ledger's
legal forms at all.

🤖 Generated with [Amplifier](https://github.com/microsoft/amplifier)

Co-Authored-By: Amplifier <240397093+microsoft-amplifier@users.noreply.github.com>
@bkrabach
Brian Krabach (bkrabach) merged commit b33e894 into main Aug 6, 2026
30 checks passed
@bkrabach
Brian Krabach (bkrabach) deleted the docs/honest-upstream-action-values branch August 6, 2026 00:12
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