Inputs: declarations
| 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) |
Public Recorder inputs: a help set for the people who put things into The Principia Machina - authors of a new UWC, operators, and the declaring authority. It explains; the specification governs. Start at the index; for a guided walk from a blank file to a declared UWC, follow the tutorial. Its counterpart for agents is the agent-facing page.
RESTORE and FORK are declarations: the machine halts, the human decides. (diagram page.)
Purpose
What the declaring authority enters, and why no one else can. This page is for the declaring authority and the operator.
Explains: TPS 0.4.0 (declared final on 2026-09-30 at revision 7, and in force; it follows TPS 0.3.0, declared final on 2026-09-28 at revision 6; revision 8, proposed as TPS 0.5.0, is on the TPS pages from batch B3, and a passage marked "revision 8, proposed" states it), which carries the declarations in 5.6 and the sections each row names, the module declarations of D178.1 among them; 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.
What a declaration is
Some acts in TPM are reserved to one named human, the declaring authority (H-DECL). The machine computes, assembles and stages; the human declares by landing a line on the DECLARATIONS page. Neither side can do the other's part, and this separation is kept whatever it costs (TPS 5.6 and 5.13). The DECLARATIONS page is append-only, protected to the declaring authority's one account, and carries content digests, never revision numbers. No agent writes on any page that carries a declaration.
What exists today
The DECLARATIONS page does not exist yet. It is created at TPX's first landing by the first declaration, which declares TPS itself: TPX computes the specification's digest D(TPS) over the text of its pages' preformatted blocks, and the version with that digest is the genesis line (TPS 5.14 CR9). Until then there is no chain, which is correct, not a gap. A declaration made before then that a version of TPS is final - TPS 0.1.0 at revision 4 on 2026-09-22, TPS 0.1.1 on 2026-09-26, TPS 0.3.0 at revision 6 on 2026-09-28, and TPS 0.4.0 at revision 7 on 2026-09-30 - is recorded in the foundations record and creates no chain page. So is every declaration outside D(IS) made by the pointer form before then, such as a module declaration (TPS 5.6). The line syntax of each declaration is owed with the candidate certificate's specification (C-09, C-19).
The declarations
| Declaration | What the machine prepares | What the declaration does | Governing |
|---|---|---|---|
| The TPS version (genesis), and each later TPS version | TPX computes D(TPS) and D(IS) on the declaration form and fixes them on the line. At H-DECL's declaration of a TPS version TPX also computes the ordered list [title, h] of the pages kept for D(TPS), the very list D(TPS) digests (revision 8, proposed; 5.14 CR9). TPX publishes the list beside D(TPS) and D(IS) where it publishes D(IS) (5.11.16); the genesis line and every TPS declaration line keep the version and D(TPS) only (5.6.2). | the first opens the chain; each lapses the certificates made under the last D(IS) | TPS 5.6 |
| A UWC's certification: state CERTIFIED, the access policy, the H-OWN binding | TPX's candidate certificate in staging, with the four digests, the UUID and the prefix | brings the UWC into existence; TPX then writes the TFK pages and initializes the register | TPS 5.5 |
| A change of UWC state: RETIRED | none | the UWC stays in the index, read-only | TPS 5.6 |
| Recovery after a digest-gate halt: RESTORE or FORK | TPX has halted writes and named the zone | RESTORE returns the TFK pages to the revision the chain names; FORK starts a successor by copy-forward | TPS 2.5 |
| A change of access policy, OPEN or CLOSED | none | governs future writes only | TPS 5.16 |
| An agent's admission | TPX's candidate agent certificate, after the probe suite and the supervised trial | membership of the agent group | TPS 5.14 |
| An agent's removal, and clearing SUSPENDED | TPX suspended the landing API after a failed canary | removal from the agent group, or reinstatement | TPS 5.14 and 5.18 |
| An abbreviated re-certification | none | probes without the trial, for a PATCH-level change of TPS | TPS 5.14 |
| A TPC-PY version | TPX indexes the source pages with version and digest | makes that version the published advisory calculator | TPS 5.11 |
| MODULE ADD, outside D(IS) | TPX previews the new environment module on its test bindings and checks it with every offered module it does not exclude | offers a new module ID at its first version | TPS 5.6.16 |
| MODULE VERSION, outside D(IS) | the same checks on the new version | offers the new version; the ID's previous offered version becomes SUPERSEDED, kept published | TPS 5.6.16 |
| MODULE RETIRE, outside D(IS) | none | takes the ID's offered version out of the offer; drafts that chose it keep it | TPS 5.6.16 |
| MODULE WITHDRAW, outside D(IS) | none; the reason is required | marks a defective version WITHDRAWN, final; a draft carrying it reaches the gate with one question for you | TPS 5.6.16 |
| MODULE REINSTATE, outside D(IS) | none | offers a SUPERSEDED or RETIRED version again; never a WITHDRAWN one | TPS 5.6.16 |
| A DOMAIN restriction or successor under SR7 | the finding against the TFK's domain | restricts the domain, or starts a successor | TPS 4.4 |
| Closeout | none | recorded on the DECLARATIONS page as the closing act | TPS 5.6 |
Audit outcomes that no declared rule settles become decision items, decided by the human; they are not declarations of their own (TPS 4.1 and 6.3).
Before you declare a UWC
The checker, and TPX when it is built, run the parts of the kernel tests and isomorphism checks a machine can read: T1, T2's joins, T3 over the constraints, T5, IC1 to IC3, IC4's dimensions and what the entries bear, and CODOMAIN. You perform the rest by inspection, and each inspection is recorded as debt: whether each assumption states one claim, T3 over the laws and assumptions, T4, T6's closure, IC4's signature and expressibility, IC5, equivalence under the transformations, and whether each statement names only what its REFS list. A passing run of the checker lists them. With STRUCTURE_CHECK ON, the structure check also lists its findings, each with a question you answer before declaring; the label it gives goes on the certificate's STRUCTURE line (TPS 2.2.20). For a module version you declare, you inspect once whether each assumption it writes states one claim (guide 10). Tutorial step 7 works them on the example.
Non-goals
A declaration never computes anything. A digest you type is not a digest; if a declaration needs a digest, TPX supplies it.
Worked example
The spring UWC's candidate certificate is in staging with its four digests. The declaring authority compares them with the digests the author's own check printed, inspects the owed checks, and lands the certificate with state CERTIFIED, access policy CLOSED, and the author as H-OWN. TPX writes the TFK pages, verifies their digests against the certificate, initializes register volume 1 with the certificate as its master record, and appends the first BUILD CHAIN line.
Governing sections: TPS 5.6, 5.5, 5.13, 5.14 and 5.16.
Previous: The calculator. Next: The access list.