# ChronoMemory ESDB — Master Technical Specification
# Layer1Labs
# Status: Architecture Specification

===============================================================================
1. PURPOSE
===============================================================================

ChronoMemory ESDB is a high-performance Rust Epistemic State Database (ESDB)
designed for:

- LLM agents
- autonomous software systems
- world models
- recursive self-improving agents
- governed autonomous development
- replayable agent cognition
- deterministic epistemic state management
- minimal verified context generation
- token-efficient autonomous execution

ChronoMemory replaces raw transcript memory with governed projected state.

It is not:
- a vector database,
- a generic graph database,
- a memory store,
- or a retrieval wrapper.

ChronoMemory is:

"A governed epistemic cognition substrate for autonomous intelligence."

===============================================================================
2. CORE THESIS
===============================================================================

Current AI systems are primarily:
- generative,
- associative,
- imaginative,
- probabilistic.

But they lack:
- executive governance,
- durable epistemic continuity,
- replayable cognition,
- contradiction management,
- self-correction,
- dependency-aware reasoning,
- token-efficient persistent state.

ChronoMemory acts as:
- prefrontal cortex,
- executive governance,
- hippocampal memory substrate,
- epistemic judgment engine.

Core architecture:

LLM
  ↓
Proposal Generation
  ↓
ChronoMemory Projection Engine
  ↓
Canonical Epistemic State
  ↓
Minimal Verified Context Pack
  ↓
Governed Autonomous Action
  ↓
Verification + Replay + Metrics + Self-Repair

===============================================================================
3. ABSOLUTE SYSTEM INVARIANTS
===============================================================================

Invariant 1:
Unsupported claims may never become canonical fact.

Invariant 2:
Canonical epistemic state may never disappear silently.

Invariant 3:
Duplicate autonomous work may not execute without:
- changed state,
- expired verification,
- or explicit justification.

Invariant 4:
Stale state may never override fresher canonical state.

Invariant 5:
Contradictory canonical state may never coexist unresolved.

Invariant 6:
Autonomous execution must halt at the first violated stop condition.

Invariant 7:
Context packs may never be generated from replay-invalidated state.

Invariant 8:
All epistemic state evolution must be replayable.

Invariant 9:
All memory removal must create replay-visible tombstones.

Invariant 10:
All autonomous action must be linked to:
- requirement,
- task,
- goal,
- or explicit user instruction.

===============================================================================
4. DATABASE CATEGORY
===============================================================================

ChronoMemory defines a new database category:

Epistemic State Database (ESDB)

Traditional database:
- stores data

Vector database:
- retrieves similar text

Graph database:
- stores relationships

ChronoMemory ESDB:
- governs what an autonomous system is allowed to:
  - believe,
  - remember,
  - retrieve,
  - infer,
  - execute,
  - and revise.

===============================================================================
5. PRIMARY OPTIMIZATION TARGET
===============================================================================

Primary optimization metric:

minimum verified tokens per successful task

Secondary metrics:
- confidence per token
- successful actions per context pack
- duplicate-work prevention rate
- unsupported-claim rejection rate
- replay fidelity
- contradiction resolution time
- stale-state invalidation speed
- world-state reconstruction efficiency
- skill reuse efficiency
- context-pack cache hit rate
- autonomous completion rate

===============================================================================
6. IMPLEMENTATION LANGUAGE
===============================================================================

Core engine language:
- Rust

Bindings:
- Python via PyO3 + maturin

Future bindings:
- WASM
- C ABI
- gRPC
- Node.js
- direct Kairos integration

===============================================================================
7. CORE ENGINE ARCHITECTURE
===============================================================================

ChronoMemory Engine
  ├── Event WAL
  ├── Hash Chain
  ├── Segment Store
  ├── Materialized State
  ├── Typed Indexes
  ├── Projection Engine
  ├── Dependency Graph Engine
  ├── Epistemic Propagation Engine
  ├── Context Pack Compiler
  ├── Skill Registry
  ├── Metrics Optimizer
  ├── Replay Engine
  ├── Rollback Engine
  └── Python FFI

===============================================================================
8. STORAGE LAYERS
===============================================================================

Layer 0:
Append-only event WAL.

Layer 1:
Canonical materialized state.

Layer 2:
Typed indexes.

Layer 3:
Dependency graph store.

Layer 4:
Context-pack cache.

Layer 5:
Metrics optimizer.

Layer 6:
Checkpoint + replay snapshots.

===============================================================================
9. STORAGE ENGINE REQUIREMENTS
===============================================================================

The storage engine must support:
- append-only writes
- memory-mapped reads
- deterministic serialization
- compact binary encoding
- zero-copy reads where possible
- crash-safe commits
- replay checkpoints
- incremental compaction
- hash-chain integrity
- deterministic IDs
- typed indexes
- dependency traversal
- contradiction traversal
- bounded-memory operation
- fast context invalidation
- replay determinism
- efficient snapshot reconstruction

===============================================================================
10. CORE RECORD TYPES
===============================================================================

Fact
Hypothesis
Claim
Belief
Source
Evidence
Goal
Task
Requirement
TestCase
WorkItem
Decision
Constraint
Skill
SkillRun
Action
Observation
WorldState
StateDelta
DependencyEdge
ContextPack
TokenMetric
StopCondition
RollbackEvent
StateEpoch

===============================================================================
11. PROJECTION ENGINE
===============================================================================

Input:
- proposal
- canonical state
- sources
- constraints
- task context
- dependency graph
- budget state

Output:
- accept
- reject
- downgrade_to_hypothesis
- request_clarification
- stop

Projection checks:
- source support
- confidence threshold
- contradiction detection
- stale-state detection
- duplicate-work detection
- requirement coverage
- test coverage
- skill contract validity
- token budget
- retry budget
- time budget
- dependency validity
- context freshness
- rollback status
- destructive action approval

===============================================================================
12. EPISTEMIC ROLLBACK
===============================================================================

ChronoMemory must support:
- invalidation of previously accepted canonical state,
- dependency-aware rollback propagation,
- replay repair,
- confidence degradation,
- plan regeneration,
- context-pack invalidation.

Canonical state means:
"best currently accepted projected understanding"

not:
"eternal immutable truth"

===============================================================================
13. DEPENDENCY GRAPH ENGINE
===============================================================================

Every:
- fact,
- plan,
- test,
- requirement,
- code artifact,
- decision,
- context pack,
- skill result,
- world-state delta

must track epistemic dependencies.

Dependency types:
- depends_on
- derived_from
- validated_by
- generated_from
- assumes
- contradicts
- supports
- supersedes
- invalidates

===============================================================================
14. EPISTEMIC PROPAGATION ENGINE
===============================================================================

Responsibilities:
- rollback propagation
- contradiction propagation
- confidence recalculation
- stale-state degradation
- replay repair
- context invalidation
- downstream re-verification
- plan regeneration
- recursive self-repair

===============================================================================
15. NO-FORGETFULNESS RULE
===============================================================================

Canonical memory may not disappear silently.

Allowed transitions:
- active → superseded
- active → archived
- active → invalidated
- active → tombstoned

Forbidden:
- active → missing silently

===============================================================================
16. NO-REPETITION RULE
===============================================================================

Before autonomous execution:

ChronoMemory must check:
- equivalent work already completed,
- equivalent action already executed,
- equivalent result already verified,
- equivalent failure already known,
- equivalent context already sufficient.

Repeat execution allowed only if:
- dependency state changed,
- verification expired,
- user explicitly requests rerun,
- prior result lacked evidence,
- replay invalidated prior state.

===============================================================================
17. ANTI-HALLUCINATION RULE
===============================================================================

Unsupported generated content:
- may exist as proposal,
- may exist as hypothesis,
- may not become canonical fact,
- may not authorize autonomous action.

===============================================================================
18. CONTEXT PACK COMPILER
===============================================================================

Input:
- task
- goal
- token budget
- canonical state
- dependency graph
- skill requirements
- freshness state

Output:
- minimal verified context payload

Includes:
- task objective
- active goal
- relevant facts
- relevant requirements
- relevant tests
- relevant constraints
- selected skills
- recent verified decisions
- unresolved contradictions
- challenged assumptions
- stop conditions
- source IDs

Excludes:
- unrelated history
- replay-invalidated state
- stale assumptions
- duplicate summaries
- unsupported claims
- obsolete tool output

===============================================================================
19. TOKEN METRICS
===============================================================================

For every task record:
- baseline token estimate
- context-pack tokens
- model input tokens
- model output tokens
- total tokens
- tool calls
- elapsed time
- success/failure
- confidence delta
- duplicate actions blocked
- unsupported claims rejected
- rollback events triggered
- context invalidations

===============================================================================
20. METRICS OPTIMIZER
===============================================================================

Uses outcomes to improve:
- retrieval ranking
- context compaction
- stale-state archival
- skill selection
- prompt structure
- dependency pruning
- stop thresholds
- token budgets
- duplicate detection
- replay heuristics

===============================================================================
21. SKILL SYSTEM
===============================================================================

Skills are first-class ESDB records.

Each skill must define:
- name
- version
- purpose
- activation rules
- input schema
- output schema
- epistemic contract
- required evidence
- forbidden assumptions
- tools used
- tests required
- stop conditions
- token profile
- success metrics

===============================================================================
22. WORLD MODEL SUPPORT
===============================================================================

World models are:
- scoped,
- versioned,
- source-bound,
- replayable,
- contradiction-aware,
- dependency-aware.

World models contain:
- entities
- relationships
- observations
- events
- constraints
- uncertainty
- state deltas
- temporal ordering
- provenance

===============================================================================
23. QUERY MODEL
===============================================================================

Required queries:

what_is_known(entity)
why_do_we_believe(claim)
what_changed_since(epoch)
what_conflicts_with(claim)
what_depends_on(state)
what_requires_reverification()
what_context_packs_are_stale()
what_world_models_conflict()
what_assumptions_underlie(plan)
what_generated_artifacts_depend_on(fact)
what_confidence_collapsed()
what_can_agent_do_next(goal)
what_should_agent_not_do()
what_skills_apply(task)
what_state_delta_would_complete(goal)
has_this_work_been_done(task)
is_this_action_duplicate(action)
what_context_pack_minimizes_tokens(task)

===============================================================================
24. PYTHON API
===============================================================================

from chronomemory_py import Esdb

db = Esdb.open(".chronomemory/specsmith.esdb")

decision = db.project({...})

if decision.kind == "accept":
    db.commit(decision)

pack = db.context_pack({...})

===============================================================================
25. AUTONOMOUS LOOP
===============================================================================

1. Load goal.
2. Build minimal verified context pack.
3. Select skills.
4. Propose next action.
5. Project action.
6. Execute only if accepted.
7. Observe result.
8. Verify result.
9. Commit accepted state delta.
10. Record metrics.
11. Improve retrieval/compression policies.
12. Repair contradictions if detected.
13. Continue until:
    - goal achieved,
    - or stop condition triggered.

===============================================================================
26. STOP CONDITIONS
===============================================================================

Stop when:
- confidence below threshold
- contradiction unresolved
- missing evidence
- task ambiguity blocks safe action
- token budget exceeded
- time budget exceeded
- retry limit exceeded
- tests fail without recovery path
- skill contract violated
- duplicate work detected
- destructive action requires approval
- replay invalidation unresolved
- safety constraint violated

===============================================================================
27. REQUIRED TABLES
===============================================================================

events
facts
hypotheses
claims
sources
evidence
requirements
tests
work_items
decisions
constraints
goals
tasks
actions
observations
world_states
state_deltas
dependency_edges
context_packs
skills
skill_runs
token_metrics
rollback_events
state_epochs
stop_conditions

===============================================================================
28. REQUIRED REQUIREMENTS
===============================================================================

REQ-ESDB-RUST-001 through REQ-ESDB-RUST-032.

Including:
- rollback support
- dependency propagation
- recursive self-repair
- duplicate prevention
- replay determinism
- anti-hallucination projection
- no silent forgetting
- no stale-state override

===============================================================================
29. REQUIRED TESTS
===============================================================================

TEST-ESDB-RUST-001 through TEST-ESDB-RUST-032.

Including:
- rollback propagation
- replay reconstruction
- contradiction invalidation
- dependency traversal
- duplicate-work suppression
- context invalidation
- recursive self-repair
- deterministic replay
- replay integrity verification

===============================================================================
30. FINAL PRODUCT CLAIM
===============================================================================

ChronoMemory ESDB is:

"A governed epistemic cognition substrate for autonomous intelligence."

It transforms:
- agent memory,
- world models,
- and autonomous operation

from:
- probabilistic transcript replay

into:
- projected,
- replayable,
- dependency-aware,
- self-correcting epistemic state.
