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audit: contractiles estate state 2026-06-02 — schema drift + trident-claim/on-disk mismatch #342

@hyperpolymath

Description

@hyperpolymath

Contractiles estate audit (2026-06-02)

Estate-wide audit of .machine_readable/contractiles/ directories. Surface for owner decision; no automated changes recommended (these files carry SPDX headers — owner-only per estate licence-policy directive).

Repos with INDEX.a2ml

8 repos: the-nash-equilibrium, echidna, standards, natsci-studio, vcl-ut, proof-burrower, 007, ephapax.

Schema-version drift

Repo Schema last_updated Verb-file shape declared Verb-file shape on disk
the-nash-equilibrium v1.0.0 2026-04-24 file_pair = [.a2ml, .ncl] .a2ml + .ncl
echidna v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] .a2ml only ✗
standards v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)
natsci-studio v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)
vcl-ut v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)
proof-burrower v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)
007 v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)
ephapax v2.0.0 2026-04-18 trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl] (unverified)

Findings

  1. the-nash-equilibrium is a deliberate v1.0.0 holdout: its on-disk files genuinely match the v1 file_pair shape (must.ncl + Mustfile.a2ml, no must.k9.ncl or manifest.a2ml). Upgrading the schema to v2.0.0 would require adding two new files per verb (k9.ncl + manifest.a2ml) per verb — that is new work, not a metadata bump.

  2. echidna (and probably others) declares trident but doesn't have all three files on disk: must/ contains only Mustfile.a2ml — no must.ncl or must.k9.ncl. INDEX promises content that isn't there. Either INDEX is aspirational and the files are owed, or the trident declaration is incorrect.

  3. burble has the directory shape (adjust/ bust/ dust/ intend/ must/ trust/ + README.adoc) but no INDEX.a2ml and no _base.ncl. May be a deliberate "lighter weight" template variant or a copy that lost the top-level metadata.

  4. SPDX headers diverge appropriately per estate licence policy: the-nash-equilibrium AGPL-3.0-or-later (correctly: son-shared per repo description "co-developed by Jonathan & Joshua"); standards/ephapax PMPL-1.0-or-later (correct: spec home + estate-blessed PMPL carve-out); the rest MPL-2.0 (correct: owner's sole repos). No licence changes proposed.

Recommendations for owner action (NOT automated)

  • A. the-nash-equilibrium v1 → v2 upgrade decision: keep on v1 (with explicit "intentional v1" note in INDEX) OR commission the 12 new files (6 verbs × k9.ncl + manifest.a2ml).
  • B. trident-claim audit on echidna et al.: per repo, either (i) add the missing *.ncl + *.k9.ncl files, or (ii) downgrade INDEX's trident= to file_pair= to match on-disk reality.
  • C. burble decision: bootstrap INDEX.a2ml + _base.ncl from canonical OR mark as "structure-only / no governance" if light template is intentional.

Out of scope for this audit

  • Mustfile/Trustfile/Dustfile/Intentfile content validity per the v1 contractiles-a2ml spec (this audit checked structure, not field-by-field conformance).
  • Repos that hold contractiles outside .machine_readable/contractiles/ (e.g., reposystem/contractiles/, bofig/contractiles/trust/Trustfile, universal-chat-extractor/contractiles/lust/Intentfile). These appear to be older locations; should be migrated or documented.

Posted as part of the 2026-06-02 estate doc sweep.

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