Testing: the obligations

The Principia Machina: map
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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)

The register of every acceptance criterion a phase of Testing the Principia Machina was accepted without, with the phase or runner that discharges it and its state; the record of the second approver; the four states a phase can be in. Kept from the plan's version 0.3.0, amended 0.3.1 (tpm_third_party_plan, 2026-10-06, sections 2 and 5), which is its source: a row changes only by a new version of the plan, with the old and the new wording side by side; a state changes by the evidence the row names.

Why this page exists

Two outside reviews of the testing regime (2026-10-06; untrusted input, vetted, kept word for word in the project) found that three phases carried the word "accepted" on 2026-10-05 while named criteria were unmet, and that the unmet criteria were recorded only on the project's ledger. From the plan's version 0.3.0 a phase accepted that way is ACCEPTED WITH OBLIGATIONS, each unmet criterion is a row here, and the phase becomes PASSED only when every row of it is DISCHARGED. Nothing here is closed by argument: a row is discharged by the evidence it names, on a public page or the chain, confirmed by the operator's word "O-n discharged".

The four states of a phase

State	Meaning	Who records it
PASSED	every acceptance criterion met by evidence named on the phase's page; no S1 finding open	the operator's word with its date; the second approver's word beside it when that role is filled, and the mark "second approver: TBD" while it is not
ACCEPTED WITH OBLIGATIONS	the operator accepted the phase by a recorded word while named criteria were unmet; each is a row below; PASSED when every row of the phase is discharged, dated at the last discharge	the operator's word; the discharges by evidence
SUPERSEDED	the phase, or one of its criteria, was replaced by a later version of the plan, the old and the new wording side by side in the plan's change record	the plan version; the second approver's word where that role is filled
FAILED	the phase failed its retest twice (the HALT rule), or an S1 finding stayed open past the fix budget; the operator re-scopes it	the operator

An acceptance criterion, a row's evidence or a state's definition changes only by a new version of the plan, never in the same act as an acceptance and never by a page edit alone.

The register

Id	Phase	The criterion owed (the plan's words)	Discharged by	The evidence that discharges it	State on 2026-10-06
O-1	M1	"a corroboration lands from a different-family reproducer"	Step B, B1: M4's criterion (ii)	a CORROBORATION record on a live register, written by TPX from a REPRODUCTION block worked by a second account of another make than the author's, its INDEPENDENCE attested	built, not live: TPX 0.6.0 increment 3 (the named REPRODUCTION, TPX's comparison, the record), gated 2026-10-06
O-2	M1	"a planted M-M contradiction is struck by the correct rule"	the A3 closeout runner (tpx_a3_closeout.py), run by the operator against TPX 0.5.0 on the sandbox UWC SPZ	on SPZ's register: the push A3-STRIKE after which the live rule strikes two records by SR5, each with its WITHDRAWAL (cause SR5) and its SR5_LOCUS gap, every digest recomputed through TPCRUN; the runner's report pasted into the project	open
O-3	M2	"at least 100 tester-written cases across at least 10 TPS sections, with every mismatch triaged"	the M2 sessions under the M2 brief (the tester computes its expectations with its own code from TPS text)	the session reports in the project, FORMAT 4, their CASES sections counted: 100 cases, 10 sections, each MISS triaged	0 of 100
O-4	M3	"every sandbox command the M0 to M2 sessions ran is replayed against both the sandbox and TPX; digests and grades byte-identical" (the digest wording SUPERSEDED by the plan's 0.3.0: the REPLAY DIGEST)	the A3 closeout runner with the session 1 sandbox UWC's folder (--replay), on a replay UWC the operator declares from the same draft	the runner's report: D(TFK) equal; every record's REPLAY DIGEST (the record digest with BLOCK, AUTHOR, LANDED_BY, LANDED, VETTED_IN, TPS and D_IS set to fixed values in both copies), grade and author-written fields equal; every TPX-written record's content equal	open; the folder is to be given to the runner
O-5	M3	the lock by base-revision edit, the queue and the window (owed from the same pass; D-LOCK)	Step B, B1: M4's criterion (iii)	the invariants I1 to I5 of the fault suite holding on the live site under its subset, in the B1 test's report	built, not live: TPX 0.6.0 increment 1 (the lock lifecycle and the execution challenge), gated 2026-10-06
O-6	M1	"HOLD and RELEASE"	Step B, B2 (M5)	a HOLD record written after a failed canary in the sandbox and a RELEASE record after an independent reproduction, on a sandbox register	planned

The state words of a row: open; built, not live; n of m; planned; DISCHARGED <date> (the evidence); SUPERSEDED (the plan version).

The second approver

From the plan's version 0.3.0 a person who is not the operator countersigns, by a recorded word, every change of an acceptance criterion and every PASSED. The ideal holder of the role, in the operator's words of 2026-10-06 (the plan's version 0.3.1), is a dually qualified physicist from outside the project, or the closest available match possible for realistic support of the project; for a new-physics claim (M6 on) the ideal is the outside physicist. The role is not yet filled, and the record reads SECOND APPROVER: TBD, "to be determined": the plan calls for a second approver, the ideal is not yet met, and nothing is blocked by it. Until the role is filled, a PASSED and a change of a criterion are valid on the operator's word alone and are marked "second approver: TBD" in the table below. When the operator fills the role ("SECOND APPROVER: <name>", recorded here with the date), the approver reads every word so marked and countersigns it, or names what it refuses; a refusal is a finding, triaged like any other, and undoes no state by itself. The approver's words are recorded here with their dates, and in the project.

Role	Who	Since
The operator (H-DECL, H-OP)	BFP_Rauch	2026-09-30
The second approver	SECOND APPROVER: TBD (to be determined; 2026-10-06). The ideal holder: a dually qualified physicist from outside the project, or the closest available match possible for realistic support of the project. Until the role is filled, each PASSED and each change of a criterion below carries the mark "second approver: TBD" for countersignature	–

The words recorded

Date (UTC)	Word	By	Read under the states of plan 0.3.0 (the second approver's rule of 0.3.1) as
2026-10-04 (recorded)	"M0 accepted"	the operator	M0 PASSED (its record criteria met on SPR, 2026-10-04 and 2026-10-05)
2026-10-04	"A1 accepted"	the operator	the A1 deploy's acceptance (TPX 0.4.0)
2026-10-05	"A2 accepted, M1 M2 M3 accepted"	the operator	M1, M2, M3 ACCEPTED WITH OBLIGATIONS (O-1 to O-6)
2026-10-06	the selections D250.1 to D255.1 and the correction of D252.2 (the plan's versions 0.3.0 and 0.3.1: the criteria restated old and new side by side, the second approver's rule)	the operator; second approver: TBD	the criterion changes of the plan's change record stand on the operator's word, marked for the second approver's countersignature when the role is filled
when due	"B1 PASSED"	the operator; second approver: TBD until the role is filled	M4 PASSED: criteria (i) to (vi), and O-2 and O-4 discharged first
when due	"M4 M5 PASSED"	the operator; second approver: TBD until the role is filled	M5 PASSED
when due	"C0 PASSED", then "M6 PASSED"	the operator; second approver: TBD until the role is filled (the ideal for M6: an outside physicist)	Step C

Back to Testing the Principia Machina. Phases: M1, M2, M3, M4. See also Findings and Step A.