Society · Protocols
ReceptivityGate
Verification gate for signed, clause-specific rejection records
Definition
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 FailureTrace naming the violated AcceptSpec 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 PathwayMemory. 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.
Invariants
- Trace-required: no rejection is accepted without a well-formed FailureTrace.
- 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 FailureTrace payload; identity-only proof is insufficient.
- Drop-on-fail: invalid traces produce no update to PathwayMemory rather than partial absorption.
Risks
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.
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.
Relationships
Builds on
Composes with
Infrastructure
Verifying inputs conform to expected schema
References
Infrastructure
Non-compensatory acceptance contract; consumer Verify yields Solution or FrameError
Infrastructure
Signed, clause-specific rejection evidence
Mind
Learned routing memory: problem_class → route → outcome_quality
Used by
References
Interpret-Plan-Rollout Lifecycle
Infrastructure
Typed artifact emitted by a Solver's Feedback surface — downstream evaluation that feeds Pathway Memory
Reference