The Principia Machina/Tutorial/4 Write the Measure Set

The Principia Machina: map
Reading the diagrams Structure key Process key Definition of terms Roles
Reading by audience Start here: the walk through The operator's guide Tutorial: create a UUID Workspace Container (UWC) Public Recorder inputs Sponsors: your first agent
The specification Contents: parts, tables, diagrams TPS 0.5.0 (declared 2026-10-03, revision 8; machine-optimized text) Decisions (the foundations record, one line each)

Tutorial: create a new UWC. One small example - a mass on a spring, moving along one line, with nothing else in its world - is taken from a blank file to a declared UWC in eight steps. Each step says what runs today and what is specified but not yet built. It explains; the specification governs. Field-by-field reference: Public Recorder inputs.

Purpose

Write the third zone, the last gate: the parameters, the named constants, and a yardstick.

Explains: TPS 0.3.0 (declared final on 2026-09-28 at revision 6; it follows TPS 0.1.1, declared final on 2026-09-26), whose sections 2.2 to 2.5 carry the zone schemas with the optional declared form, the ROLE field, the D variable and the structure check (records D92.1, D98.1, D99.1, D100.1, D103.1-D105.1, D106.1-D108.1, D132.1, D176.1, D177.1, D179.1 and D186.1); TPC-PY 0.1.0 (declared on 2026-09-28, tree digest a00161c1b321fd66abc591209007d46a7fa6290097835060e50f381426259043, conformed TPS 0.3.0; tpc_zone 0.5.0, tpc_units 0.1.1, tpc_tests 0.2.0, tpc_form 0.2.0, tpc_eom 0.1.0; schema 0.5.0) with check_draft 0.5.0. Where this page and the specification differ, the specification governs.

Step 4.1: the parameters

"PARAMETERS": {
  "STEP_CONVENTION": "one application of an inference rule or algebraic identity is one step",
  "K": "2",
  "N_X": 2,
  "S_MAX": 10
}

• STEP_CONVENTION: what counts as one derivation step. Say it plainly; every step count in this UWC is read under it.
• K: the multiplier in the test of whether two measured values contradict. A string.
• N_X: how many independent contradictions of a standing record open an audit on it. A whole number, no quotes.
• S_MAX: the depth T3 is bounded by. A whole number, no quotes. What the machine runs of T3 today stops at depth 1; the rest of the search to S_MAX is the declaring authority's inspection (TPS 2.2).

The example leaves out IC2_POLICY, PROMOTION_FLOOR and STRUCTURE_CHECK, so their defaults apply: an untied degree of freedom (DOF) is a named gap, a result needs falsifier class F2 to be promoted, and the structure check runs at the final pass. Writing the defaults out gives the same digest. The accepted ranges are on Inputs: the Measure Set.

Step 4.2: the constants

A yardstick uses no literal numbers, so its weights are named here:

"CONSTANTS": [
  {"NAME": "w_a", "VALUE": "1"},
  {"NAME": "w_s", "VALUE": "0.5"}
]

These constants belong to the Measure Set, not to the physics: they weigh records against each other and never enter a law.

Step 4.3: a yardstick

A yardstick is optional. This one orders records first by whether they contradict the TFK, then by (assumptions + 0.5 x steps), then by steps:

"YARDSTICKS": [
  {
    "NAME": "combined_distance",
    "KEY": ["SR1", "WSUM:w_a*A;w_s*S", "S"],
    "LIMITING": []
  }
]

It meets the key rules: it begins with SR1, its weights are named constants, and one more assumption never makes a record closer. See Inputs: yardsticks.

Step 4.4: check

Add "TMS": { ... } and run the checker. With all three zones present it now runs every check, runs the yardstick on the synthetic record suite, runs the final pass - T3 over the constraints and over the laws whose every name has a value, IC2_POLICY and the structure check - and prints the EOM map, the label and the digests; the output is on the next page.

Non-goals

The values here are illustrative. Choose yours under the strike rule (TPS 4.4). The project-wide parameters in TPS 7.2 are not part of any Measure Set.

Worked example

The step is its own example.

Governing sections: TPS 2.4, 4.4 and 4.5.

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