Testing: the obligations
| 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) |
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| SUPERSEDED | the phase, or one of its criteria, was replaced by a later version of the plan, the old and the new wording side by side in the plan's change record | the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 2026-10-08 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | DISCHARGED 2026-10-08 (SPB, push B1-OUTSIDE-GEMINI: SPB-18 CORROBORATION of SPB-3 by CH7 AZ, Google DeepMind / Gemini 3.8 Flash, SAME_MODEL false, VENDOR Google DeepMind; derivation e332056e... matched; INDEPENDENCE attested) |
| 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 | DISCHARGED 2026-10-08 (SPZ, push A3-STRIKE: SPZ-5 and SPZ-11 struck by SR5, WITHDRAWALs SPZ-12 and SPZ-14, SR5_LOCUS gaps SPZ-13 and SPZ-15; 13 of 13 record digests and 2 of 2 list records recomputed through TPCRUN; the push's BUILD CHAIN line; the runner's report in the project) |
| 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 | DISCHARGED 2026-10-08 (seven M2 sessions under the M2 brief, 2026-10-08: 254 cases with a result, 136 distinct, citing 11 TPS section pages; 14 mismatches, each triaged, no calculator or TPS defect, S1 0; the reports and the triages in the project) |
| 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 | DISCHARGED 2026-10-08 (RP1, declared 2026-10-07 from session 1's PEN draft: D(TFK) equal; 6 of 6 records equal, REPLAY DIGEST, grade and author-written fields; session 1's 15 gate checks replayed live, equal; two refusals not replayed, named in the report) |
| 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 | DISCHARGED 2026-10-08 (B1 test report b1_report_20261008T131341Z: I1 to I5 fault suite holding on live site under its subset, 57 of 57 checks passed) |
| 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 |
| 2026-10-08 | "O-2 discharged", "O-4 discharged", "O-3 discharged" | the operator | O-2, O-3 and O-4 DISCHARGED; M2 PASSED 2026-10-08 (second approver: TBD); M1 and M3 stay ACCEPTED WITH OBLIGATIONS |
| 2026-10-08 | "B1 PASSED" | the operator; second approver: TBD | M4 PASSED: criteria (i) to (vi) met (O-1 and O-5 discharged; outside session completed by Google DeepMind / Gemini 3.8 Flash on SPB, 8/8 named refusals matched) |
| 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.