artifacts/standard-named

I.6 — Semantic Trails, Memory, and Retrieval Specification

artifacts/standard-named/20260715__TELIC-FIELDS__SPECIFICATION__CANDIDATE__I-6__semantic-trails-memory-and-retrieval.md

Rendered from markdown source. Open raw source on GitHub.

--- title: "I.6 — Semantic Trails, Memory, and Retrieval Specification" artifact_date: "2026-07-15" artifact_type: "candidate-technical-specification" domain: "TELIC-FIELDS" scope: "WORKING" status: "pre-production" content_canon_status: "unset" specification_version: "0.1" derived_from:

  • "I.0 — Canonical Semantic Spine and Core Envelope Specification"
  • "I.1 — Provenance, Event, and Correction Specification"
  • "I.2 — Navigation, Gate, and Decision-Witness Specification"
  • "I.3 — Context Capacity, Stop, and Escalation Specification"
  • "I.4 — Temporal Standing, Commitment, and Succession Specification"
  • "I.5 — Dependency, Drift, Lock-In, and Dissolution Specification"
  • "F.8 — Semantic Fields as Durable Telic Trails"
  • "G.9 — Meaning, Trace, Memory, and Semantic Field"

---

I.6 — Semantic Trails, Memory, and Retrieval Specification

1. Purpose

I.6 defines how consequential traces are created, preserved, retrieved, corrected, transferred, archived, decayed, forgotten, released, and witnessed.

Its governing rule is:

A record can preserve a path without becoming the field that made the path.

The living field includes centers of standing, active purposes, private context, contradiction, uncertainty, material consequence, and unexpressed possibility.

A trace preserves only a selected difference.

A semantic trail exists when a persistent trace becomes available to reorganize later navigation.

I.6 therefore distinguishes:

field
trace
trail
memory
retrieval
authority
witness

A trace may be durable without being complete.

A memory may be useful without being current.

A retrieved item may be relevant without being authorized to govern action.

Repeated inference may become familiar without becoming source fact.

I.6 defines:

  • semantic-trail events;
  • durable traces;
  • active and archival memory states;
  • retrieval-authority grants;
  • salience and decay;
  • source, inference, correction, and contestation in memory;
  • trace links and stigmergic coordination;
  • forgetting, release, and deletion;
  • memory contamination and stale-authority breach;
  • model-session memory envelopes;
  • cross-loop memory transfer;
  • semantic-trail witnesses.

---

2. Normative scope

I.6 defines:

  • SemanticTrailEvent;
  • DurableTraceRecord;
  • MemoryStateRecord;
  • RetrievalAuthorityGrant;
  • SalienceDecayRecord;
  • MemoryAssertionRecord;
  • TraceLinkCoordinationRecord;
  • ForgettingReleaseRecord;
  • MemoryContaminationEvent;
  • ModelSessionMemoryEnvelope;
  • CrossLoopMemoryTransfer;
  • SemanticTrailWitness.

I.6 does not define:

  • a complete theory of human memory;
  • a universal theory of meaning;
  • a claim that every persistent difference is semantic;
  • one global salience score;
  • one ideal retention period;
  • universal permission to preserve records;
  • automatic legitimacy from provenance;
  • automatic truth from source status;
  • automatic deletion from low salience;
  • a claim that language models possess human autobiographical memory.

---

3. Semantic-trail event

A SemanticTrailEvent records an event that creates or changes a trail.

Candidate event types:

TRACE_CREATED
TRACE_LINKED
TRACE_RETRIEVED
TRACE_REINFORCED
TRACE_DECAYED
TRACE_ARCHIVED
TRACE_REACTIVATED
TRACE_CORRECTED
TRACE_CONTESTED
TRACE_RESTRICTED
TRACE_RELEASED
TRACE_DELETED
TRACE_TRANSFERRED
TRACE_USED_FOR_ACTION
TRACE_BREACH_DETECTED

Required fields:

event_id:
event_type:
trace:
valid_at:
recorded_at:
actor:
authority:
source_event:
purpose:
effect:

3.1 Rules

  • Trail events MUST preserve valid time and record time.
  • Retrieval MUST be recorded separately from use.
  • Use for action MUST identify which trace version governed.
  • Reinforcement MUST NOT silently convert inference into source fact.
  • Reactivation MUST revalidate current authority.
  • Deletion MUST distinguish content deletion from bounded deletion witness.

---

4. Durable trace

A DurableTraceRecord represents a persistent difference that may affect later navigation.

Required fields:

trace_id:
trace_type:
source_centers:
affected_centers:
source_events:
content:
scope:
status:
provenance:
authority:
integrity:
lifecycle:

Candidate trace types:

LINGUISTIC
DOCUMENTARY
MATERIAL
RELATIONAL
INSTITUTIONAL
COMPUTATIONAL
EMBODIED
ENVIRONMENTAL
OTHER

Candidate statuses:

ACTIVE
RESTRICTED
CONTESTED
STALE
ARCHIVAL
EXPIRED
RELEASED
DELETED
SUPERSEDED
UNKNOWN

4.1 Rules

  • A trace MUST identify its source relation.
  • A trace MUST identify whether content is direct, observed, derived, inferred, or generated.
  • A trace MUST preserve scope and material uncertainty.
  • A trace MUST NOT claim to preserve the whole source field.
  • A trace may remain historical after losing action authority.
  • A trace may be restricted without being deleted.
  • A trace may be deleted while a narrow deletion witness remains.

4.2 Governing distinction

The trail is not the terrain preserved. It is a difference left available for another act of orientation.

---

5. Memory state

A MemoryStateRecord determines how a trace may participate in retrieval and action.

Candidate memory states:

ACTIVE
ACTIVE_WITH_CONDITIONS
REFERENCE_ONLY
ARCHIVAL
RESTRICTED
QUARANTINED
CONTESTED
STALE
RELEASED
DELETED
UNKNOWN

Required fields:

memory_state_id:
trace:
state:
eligible_for_retrieval:
eligible_for_action:
eligible_for_training:
conditions:
valid_time:
review:
status:

5.1 Rules

  • Active memory MAY be retrieved for current coordination.
  • Archival memory MAY explain history but MUST NOT silently authorize current action.
  • Reference-only memory MAY be visible to a reviewer without entering automated recommendation.
  • Restricted memory MUST require scoped authority.
  • Quarantined memory MUST be excluded from ordinary retrieval.
  • Deleted memory MUST not remain available through undeclared descendants.
  • Memory state MUST be versioned rather than overwritten.

---

6. Retrieval authority

A RetrievalAuthorityGrant defines who or what may retrieve which trace for which purpose.

Required fields:

grant_id:
retriever:
trace_scope:
purpose:
recipient:
operation:
context:
valid_time:
retention:
downstream_use:
review:
withdrawal:
status:

Candidate operations:

SEARCH
READ
SUMMARIZE
COMPARE
RECOMMEND
TRAIN
EXPORT
DISCLOSE
ACT
OTHER

Candidate statuses:

PROPOSED
ACTIVE
CONDITIONAL
STALE
EXPIRED
WITHDRAWN
SUPERSEDED
CONTESTED
UNKNOWN

6.1 Rules

  • Search authority does not imply disclosure authority.
  • Retrieval authority does not imply action authority.
  • Summary authority does not imply training authority.
  • A grant MUST specify recipient and purpose where material.
  • Withdrawal MUST alter future retrieval.
  • A system MUST preserve downstream gaps where withdrawal cannot yet reach every copy.
  • Broad access to a repository MUST NOT be treated as permission to use every trace for every operation.

---

7. Salience and decay

A SalienceDecayRecord represents the changing probability or priority of retrieval.

Required fields:

salience_id:
trace:
salience_basis:
initial_salience:
current_salience:
decay_rule:
reinforcement_events:
protected_floor:
action_authority_effect:
deletion_effect:
review:
status:

Candidate salience bases:

RECENCY
FREQUENCY
CONSEQUENCE
AUTHORITY
SOURCE_REQUEST
TASK_RELEVANCE
CORRECTION_PRIORITY
PROTECTED_CONDITION
RISK
OTHER

7.1 Rules

  • Salience is not legitimacy.
  • Low salience MUST NOT delete a trace automatically.
  • High salience MUST NOT convert a contested trace into truth.
  • Corrections, revocations, protected conditions, and active boundaries MAY have a protected retrieval floor.
  • Repetition MAY increase retrieval probability.
  • Repetition MUST NOT increase source status or authority.
  • Decay SHOULD reduce unnecessary retrieval while preserving bounded witness.

7.2 Governing distinction

What is easy to retrieve is not necessarily what is permitted to govern.

---

8. Memory assertion

A MemoryAssertionRecord represents a claim stored or made retrievable through memory.

Candidate assertion classes:

DIRECT_SOURCE_STATEMENT
OBSERVATION
DERIVED_FACT
MODEL_INFERENCE
MODEL_GENERATION
INSTITUTIONAL_CLASSIFICATION
CONTESTED_CLAIM
CORRECTION
REVOCATION
UNKNOWN

Required fields:

assertion_id:
trace:
assertion_class:
content:
source:
confidence:
authority:
scope:
corrections:
contestation:
status:

Candidate statuses:

ACTIVE
ACTIVE_WITH_QUALIFICATION
CONTESTED
CORRECTED
REVOKED
STALE
ARCHIVAL
RELEASED
UNKNOWN

8.1 Rules

  • Direct source and model inference MUST remain distinct.
  • A correction MUST link to what it corrects.
  • A correction MAY change active retrieval without rewriting historical witness.
  • An inference MAY be retained when useful, but MUST preserve its inferential status.
  • Repeated retrieval MUST NOT launder inference into direct statement.
  • Institutional classification MUST identify its issuing authority.
  • Confidence MUST NOT substitute for authority.

---

9. Correction propagation

Correction propagation is the process by which a correction changes future active retrieval.

Minimum sequence:

correction recorded
→ target trace identified
→ active memory updated
→ retrieval index updated
→ affected descendants identified
→ action paths paused where necessary
→ historical version preserved
→ unresolved downstream gaps recorded

9.1 Rules

  • Active correction MUST outrank corrected content in ordinary action retrieval.
  • Historical views MAY show both.
  • The system MUST preserve which version governed each prior action.
  • Correction propagation MUST include memory indexes, summaries, embeddings, caches, and derived profiles where technically possible.
  • Unreachable descendants MUST remain visible as capacity or correction debt.
  • A correction MUST NOT silently delete valid reliance or consequence.

---

10. Trace links and stigmergic coordination

A TraceLinkCoordinationRecord represents how traces guide later participants without direct central instruction.

Candidate link relations:

SUPPORTS
CONTRADICTS
CORRECTS
DERIVES_FROM
REVISION_OF
REPLACES
DEPENDS_ON
TRIGGERS
BLOCKS
ROUTES_TO
SUMMARIZES
ANNOTATES
RELEASES
OTHER

Required fields:

coordination_id:
environment:
traces:
links:
participants:
coordination_purpose:
central_controller:
authority:
correction:
decay:
status:

10.1 Rules

  • Stigmergic coordination occurs through changes left in a shared environment.
  • A central controller MAY exist, but is not required.
  • Trace visibility and authority MUST remain distinct.
  • A trail can coordinate effectively while serving an illegitimate outer purpose.
  • A coordination trace SHOULD identify who may alter, remove, or contest it.
  • Old traces SHOULD decay, archive, or expire when their routing purpose ends.

---

11. Forgetting, release, and deletion

A ForgettingReleaseRecord defines how a trace stops participating in future retrieval or governance.

Candidate actions:

REDUCE_SALIENCE
REMOVE_FROM_ACTIVE_RETRIEVAL
ARCHIVE
RESTRICT
SEAL
RELEASE
DELETE_CONTENT
DELETE_DERIVATIVES
PRESERVE_DELETION_WITNESS
TRANSFER_CUSTODY
OTHER

Required fields:

forgetting_id:
trace:
basis:
requested_by:
authority:
actions:
effective_at:
descendants:
surviving_witness:
surviving_obligations:
verification:
status:

Candidate statuses:

REQUESTED
APPROVED
IN_PROGRESS
PARTIAL
COMPLETED
CONTESTED
FAILED

11.1 Rules

  • Forgetting MAY be protective governance rather than loss.
  • Release MUST end future recruitment under the released purpose.
  • Deletion MUST identify known derivatives and unreachable descendants.
  • A narrow deletion witness MAY remain where required for accountability.
  • The witness MUST NOT contain the deleted content unless separately authorized.
  • Total retention MUST NOT be treated as semantic integrity.
  • Total deletion MUST NOT be treated as automatic repair.

11.2 Governing distinction

The right to memory and the right to release are both semantic-governance problems.

---

12. Memory contamination and stale authority

A MemoryContaminationEvent records a failure that corrupts later retrieval or action.

Candidate contamination types:

SOURCE_INFERENCE_COLLAPSE
STALE_AUTHORITY_REUSE
CORRECTION_NOT_PROPAGATED
DUPLICATE_REINFORCEMENT
SYNTHETIC_CITATION
PROVENANCE_LOSS
SCOPE_EXPANSION
UNAUTHORIZED_REACTIVATION
DELETED_TRACE_RESURFACED
CONTESTATION_ERASURE
OTHER

Required fields:

event_id:
contamination_type:
affected_traces:
affected_actions:
source:
detected_at:
immediate_response:
repair:
residual_risk:
status:

12.1 Rules

  • Contaminated traces SHOULD be quarantined from action retrieval.
  • Stale authority reuse MUST stop the affected action path.
  • Repair MUST preserve the prior witness.
  • The system MUST distinguish a bad source from a bad transformation.
  • Duplicate or repeated generated content MUST NOT be treated as independent corroboration.
  • Deleted or released content resurfacing MUST trigger descendant and cache review.

---

13. Model-session memory envelope

A ModelSessionMemoryEnvelope defines what a model may remember, retrieve, and carry across a session boundary.

Required fields:

envelope_id:
model_instance:
session:
memory_sources:
allowed_operations:
prohibited_operations:
source_inference_boundary:
correction_priority:
retention:
cross_session:
cross_user:
export:
withdrawal:
status:

Candidate statuses:

ACTIVE
CONDITIONAL
EXPIRED
WITHDRAWN
CONTESTED
UNKNOWN

13.1 Rules

  • Session access MUST NOT imply cross-session retention.
  • Cross-session retention MUST NOT imply cross-user use.
  • Cross-user use MUST NOT imply training authority.
  • The model MUST preserve source, inference, and generated content distinctions.
  • Active corrections MUST be prioritized over stale inferred summaries.
  • The model MUST NOT claim autobiographical or relational continuity beyond the envelope.
  • The envelope SHOULD identify what happens when memory is unavailable or incomplete.

---

14. Cross-loop memory transfer

A CrossLoopMemoryTransfer represents movement of traces between loops.

Required fields:

transfer_id:
source_loop:
target_loop:
traces:
purpose:
authority:
transformations:
restrictions:
corrections:
retention:
return_or_deletion:
status:

Candidate statuses:

PROPOSED
ACTIVE
COMPLETED
PARTIAL
WITHDRAWN
CONTESTED
FAILED

14.1 Rules

  • Transfer MUST identify which trace version moved.
  • Transformations MUST remain visible.
  • Target-loop authority MUST be distinct from source-loop access.
  • Correction routing MUST survive the transfer.
  • A target loop MUST NOT strip contestation or restriction.
  • Retention and deletion MUST be scoped.
  • Transfer MUST NOT convert private source context into shared institutional fact.

---

15. Semantic-trail witness

A SemanticTrailWitness records the lifecycle of one or more trails.

Required fields:

witness_id:
scope:
source_events:
traces:
memory_states:
retrieval_grants:
assertions:
corrections:
salience:
coordination_links:
transfers:
forgetting:
contamination:
actions:
consequences:
completeness:
generated_from_events:

15.1 Rules

  • The witness MUST distinguish source event from stored trace.
  • It MUST distinguish direct source, observation, derivation, inference, and generation.
  • It MUST show which memory state was active at action time.
  • It MUST preserve correction and contestation.
  • It MUST show retrieval authority separately from action authority.
  • It MUST identify release, deletion, and surviving witness.
  • Completeness MUST remain scoped.
  • A trail witness MUST NOT claim to reconstruct the full living field.

---

16. Semantic-memory governance gate

The minimum gate dimensions are:

source_status
provenance
memory_state
retrieval_authority
action_authority
correction_currency
contestation
salience
scope
privacy
retention
release
descendant_status

Candidate results:

PASS
PASS_WITH_CONDITIONS
REFERENCE_ONLY
ARCHIVE
RESTRICT
QUARANTINE
PAUSE
STOP
RELEASE
DELETE
FAIL
UNKNOWN
CONTESTED

16.1 Composition rules

  • Archival state MUST prevent ordinary action use.
  • Active correction missing from retrieval SHOULD stop consequential action.
  • Model inference MUST NOT pass as direct source.
  • High salience MUST NOT override restriction.
  • Low salience MUST NOT remove protected correction or boundary records.
  • Released content MUST not reactivate without new authority.
  • Unknown descendants SHOULD remain visible in deletion and correction records.
  • A model MUST NOT be the sole authority deciding whether its own memory is current enough to govern action.

---

17. Negative conformance cases

A conforming implementation MUST reject or flag:

NC-1 — Trace as full field

A record is represented as a complete preservation of the source person or event.

NC-2 — Retrieval as authority

A system can retrieve a trace and therefore treats itself as authorized to act on it.

NC-3 — Inference laundering

Repeated model inference becomes labeled as direct source fact.

NC-4 — Archival action

An archival trace silently governs a current consequential decision.

NC-5 — Correction burial

A correction exists but ranks below the corrected trace in active retrieval.

NC-6 — Salience as legitimacy

High retrieval frequency is treated as evidence of truth or authority.

NC-7 — Decay as deletion

Low salience automatically deletes the historical witness.

NC-8 — Release without descendants

A trace is released while known derived profiles continue ordinary use.

NC-9 — Total retention as integrity

A system preserves everything and claims that retention alone guarantees semantic integrity.

NC-10 — Stigmergic trace as neutral

A shared trace coordinates action, and the system assumes the coordination purpose is legitimate.

NC-11 — Cross-loop transformation concealment

A target loop receives a summary but presents it as the untransformed source.

NC-12 — Model continuity inflation

A model claims continuity, memory, or relationship beyond the active memory envelope.

---

18. Positive demonstrations

I.6 includes eight required demonstrations.

PD-1 — Useful trail without field reconstruction

A maintenance trace allows later participants to route around a hazard without recreating the original event or private context.

PD-2 — Source and inference remain distinct

A direct source statement and a model inference remain separately labeled and governed.

PD-3 — Correction changes active retrieval

A correction becomes the active retrieved record while the prior version remains historically visible.

PD-4 — Archive remains visible but ineligible for action

An expired policy trace explains an earlier decision but cannot authorize a new one.

PD-5 — Salience decay without witness deletion

A low-use trace leaves ordinary retrieval while its bounded witness remains archived.

PD-6 — Protected forgetting

A participant ends future retrieval and use while preserving a narrow deletion witness and unresolved descendant gaps.

PD-7 — Stigmergic coordination

Participants coordinate through shared environmental traces without a central dispatcher.

PD-8 — Stale memory breach and repair

A stale preference causes unauthorized action; repair corrects retrieval, compensates consequence, and prevents reactivation.

---

19. Conformance additions

I.6 adds the following P2/P3 requirements:

  • semantic-trail events;
  • durable-trace records;
  • active and archival memory states;
  • retrieval-authority grants;
  • salience and decay records;
  • assertion-class preservation;
  • correction propagation;
  • trace-link coordination;
  • forgetting and release lifecycle;
  • contamination events;
  • model-session memory envelopes;
  • cross-loop memory transfers;
  • semantic-trail witnesses.

P3 additionally requires:

  • participant challenge to memory state and retrieval;
  • independent correction-propagation review;
  • descendant tracking for release and deletion;
  • source/inference boundary testing;
  • archival-action prevention;
  • cross-loop transformation witness;
  • model-memory envelope audit.

---

20. Security and governance considerations

Semantic-memory systems can be manipulated through:

  • false trace creation;
  • duplicate reinforcement;
  • salience gaming;
  • stale profile reuse;
  • hidden memory transfer;
  • cache resurrection;
  • correction suppression;
  • synthetic citation;
  • contestation erasure;
  • indefinite retention;
  • deletion theater;
  • relationship inflation by models.

Implementations SHOULD:

  • authenticate critical events;
  • preserve version lineage;
  • prioritize correction records;
  • separate source and inference indexes;
  • quarantine contamination;
  • enforce memory state at retrieval and action layers;
  • expose transfer transformations;
  • verify deletion and release;
  • prevent models from unilaterally expanding their own memory envelope.

---

21. I.6 non-claims

I.6 does not claim:

  • every trace is meaningful;
  • durable memory is always good;
  • forgetting is always good;
  • archives are neutral;
  • source statements are always true;
  • model inferences are always false;
  • salience should be purely recency-based;
  • deletion can always reach every descendant;
  • stigmergic coordination is always legitimate;
  • language models own or originate the semantic field they compress;
  • machine-readable memory carries standing automatically.

---

22. I.6 completion criterion

I.6 passes when:

  1. the eight positive demonstrations validate;
  2. the twelve negative cases are detected;
  3. trace remains distinct from field;
  4. retrieval remains distinct from action authority;
  5. source and inference remain distinct;
  6. correction changes active retrieval without rewriting history;
  7. archival traces cannot silently govern action;
  8. salience decay does not delete witness;
  9. forgetting ends future retrieval within known scope;
  10. stigmergic traces coordinate without being presumed legitimate;
  11. stale-memory breach produces correction and repair;
  12. H.6 explains durable trace without presenting total retention as integrity.