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 0.2.0 (proposed; revision 5 of the tree, imported 2026-09-26, not yet declared; TPS 0.1.0 was declared final on 2026-09-22), whose sections 2.2 to 2.5 now carry the zone schemas at schema 0.4.0 with the optional declared form (records D92.1, D98.1, D99.1, D100.1, D103.1-D105.1, D106.1-D108.1 and D132.1); TPC-PY as built at increment 9 (tpc_zone 0.4.0, tpc_units 0.1.0, tpc_tests 0.2.0, tpc_form 0.1.0; no TPC-PY version is declared yet) with check_draft 0.4.0. 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 and PROMOTION_FLOOR, so their defaults apply: an untied degree of freedom (DOF) is a named gap, and a result needs falsifier class F2 to be promoted. 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, and IC2_POLICY - and prints 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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