Pursuit intent continuity formal candidate

Pursuit Intent Continuity Formal Candidate

Candidate · KFD-7 formal reference · Candidate registry

Status: experimental
Normative: no
Formal candidate version: 1
Authority: drafts/pursuit-intent-continuity.md
Slot binding: non-binding

Purpose

This page preserves the pre-promotion Pursuit formal candidate. KFD-9 now owns the authoritative draft rule and docs/KFD-9-formal.md owns its current non-normative formal reference. Neither prescribes one universal work hierarchy.

Object model

At a declared Fact cut f, a Pursuit version is:

P^v = (
  pursuit_id,
  version_root,
  continuing_direction,
  progress_relation,
  success_conditions,
  decomposition_relations,
  dependencies,
  settlement_policy,
  lineage
)

pursuit_id preserves continuity across Episodes, participants, tools, plans, and sessions. version_root freezes one declaration of direction and consequence semantics. A change to implementation plan need not create a new Pursuit; a material change to direction or success meaning must remain visible as revision, fork, or successor rather than silent prose replacement.

Direction and progress

For candidate action u:

Advances_P(f, u) =
  u is prospectively relevant to the direction declared by P^v

After an Episode E, actual progress requires a declared consequence view:

Progressed(P^v, E, A_after) =
  Consequences(E) interpreted through A_after
  satisfy ProgressRelation(P^v)

Prospective relevance, technical success, progress, completion, and settlement are distinct:

Advances_P does not imply Progressed
Progressed does not imply Completed
Completed does not imply Settled

Settlement may require review, responsibility acceptance, or another bounded action under a Warrant.

Typed relation graph

Pursuit structure is a typed graph rather than one universal tree:

decomposes-to
depends-on
contributes-to
revises
supersedes

An adopting Profile may require decomposes-to or supersedes to be acyclic. It must not collapse all relation types into parent-child inheritance. Decomposition does not transfer authority, perspective, completion, or trust.

Equivalence

For a bounded decision domain D:

PursuitEquivalent_D(P1, P2) iff
  for all f, u in D:
    Advances_P1(f, u) = Advances_P2(f, u)
  and their progress, success, settlement, and lineage consequences are
      interchangeable for D

Equivalent wording or identifiers do not establish this relation. Behavioral equivalence for one domain does not merge object identity or erase lineage.

Transitions

Declare(direction, success_conditions) -> P^1
Revise(P^v, compatible_change)          -> P^(v+1)
Decompose(P^v, children)                -> typed relation additions
Fork(P^v, divergent_direction)          -> distinct Pursuit identities
Pause(P^v, reason)                      -> inspectable non-terminal state
Settle(P^v, evidence, review)           -> bounded settlement claim
Abandon(P^v, reason)                    -> inspectable terminal decision
Supersede(P^v, successor)               -> lineage-preserving ref movement

Concrete lifecycle enums remain Profile-owned. The candidate requires that continuation, revision, pause, settlement, abandonment, and supersession remain distinguishable when they change future action.

Invariants

P1  Pursuit identity outlives any one session, plan, task body, or Episode.
P2  Pursuit does not imply Atlas or Warrant.
P3  Technical success or Episode sealing does not imply completion.
P4  Child progress or completion does not silently settle a parent.
P5  Decomposition does not grant descendant authority.
P6  Material direction or success-condition change preserves revision lineage.
P7  Settlement remains bound to declared consequence evidence and review.

Session projection

Inside the KFD-7 low-complexity boundary:

Pursuit -> one local goal or work item

Compression is valid only while one durable direction, one bounded success meaning, and one local continuation fit the session. It must stop when work branches, survives handoff, spans several Episodes, changes success meaning, or requires independent settlement.

Derived action binding

A proposed action may reference one exact Pursuit version:

ActionBinding.pursuit_root = root(P^v)

The binding states which continuing direction the action claims to advance. It does not grant authority or prove progress. The later Episode and declared consequence Atlas provide the evidence for review.

Proof obligations

Preserve intent continuity across non-isomorphic sessions, tools, plans, and participants.
Demonstrate histories where a stable Pursuit survives several Episodes.
Distinguish plan revision from direction revision, fork, and supersession.
Demonstrate that technical success, progress, completion, and settlement can vary independently.
Compare typed graph relations with task trees, workflow DAGs, project IDs, cases, and provider goals.
Show a session round trip and the breakpoint where Pursuit identity must become explicit.

Invalid states

A mutable task body is the only identity of continuing intent.
Reusing an identifier is treated as continuity.
A command exit or artifact is treated as real-world completion.
Child completion silently completes a parent.
Changing success conditions rewrites prior judgments.
A Pursuit assignment is treated as authority.

Non-claims

This historical model does not prove universal necessity, require one hierarchy, make every task durable, or define domain-specific value. KFD-9 allocates the number and canonical term; concrete lifecycle vocabulary and success policy remain Domain Profile-owned.

Pursuit intent continuity formal candidate