Society · Protocols
GracefulDegradation
When verification fails, fall back to inline definition
Definition
Mechanism
Resolution Fallback Strategy. When a Pattern_ID is not found in local storage, the system attempts to resolve it via secondary channels (Inline Payload -> Network Request) rather than halting immediately. Crucially, any definition acquired this way must be cryptographically verified against the requested Pattern_ID. It defaults to FailClosed if verification fails, but attempts to parse verified inline definitions to maintain continuity.
Preconditions
- Message contains fallback data OR sender is reachable
- Pattern lookup failed
Postconditions
- Pattern resolved and locally minted OR Transaction aborted
Invariants
- A definition enters local storage only if it validates fully.
- An externally acquired definition is hashed and verified against the requested ID before loading.
- Rejects definitions larger than `max_def_size`.
- Expands inline definitions no deeper than `max_recursion_depth`.
- Defaults to FailClosed when verification fails.
Risks
Failure modes
Hash Mismatch
Inline definition claims to be Pattern#X but hashes to Pattern#Y (Spoofing).
DoS via Definition
Sender includes massive multi-megabyte 'definition' to exhaust receiver memory.
Dependency Hell
Inline definition references other unknown patterns, triggering recursive lookups.
Relationships
Builds on
References
Infrastructure
Default-deny policy for uncertain states
Infrastructure
Structured signal container
Mind
Adaptive high-level planning
Used by
References
Stewardship and maintenance
Reference
Parameters
max_def_sizePositiveInteger, unspecified- Largest inline definition accepted, in bytes. Deliberately uncapped; default 100KB.
max_recursion_depthInteger, [1, 5]- Depth of inline-definition expansion permitted before the chain is refused.