# Joint deposit title + description — draft alternatives

**Status**: DRAFT. Ali + Robin to mark preferred OR propose
verbatim revision. Vadym confirmation per Phase 2 sequencing
(catalog §3).

---

## Title — 3 alternatives

### Option A (most literal — joint-piece headline as title)

```
Substitution is free. Synthesis costs in proportion to what it has
to invent. — three contexts, two architectures, two mechanisms with
task-weight gradient
```

**Pro**: Verbatim 3-author-locked headline + Robin's 3-axis lock
verbatim. Maximum recognition for anyone who saw the LinkedIn
threads.
**Con**: Long. Doesn't surface the substitution-determinism /
cap-floor mechanism directly in the title.

### Option B (mechanism-first)

```
Cap-floor in LLM cognitive scaffolds — substitution determinism vs
synthesis gradient across three sovereign stacks (joint discovery
record)
```

**Pro**: Mechanism named first. "Joint discovery record" makes the
vehicle explicit (matches Ali's 2026-05-28 "discovery anchor"
vocabulary).
**Con**: Less catchy than Option A. "Cap-floor" requires reader to
already know the term.

### Option C (collaboration-first)

```
Two operating modes, one model — a three-stack joint discovery
(Triava Labs sovereign + JAMES local + Provia Arabic)
```

**Pro**: Robin's canonical title verbatim. Explicit 3-stack
identification. Acknowledges Provia early.
**Con**: Doesn't lead with the mechanism finding. The "(parameters
sub-clause)" stays in description.

### Recommended default if no preference

**Option A** — longest but verbatim-locked phrases, lowest
disagreement risk. Reviewers immediately recognize the joint piece
identity.

---

## Description — 3 alternatives

### Option D (mechanism-narrative)

```
This record archives the joint discovery of a cap-floor mechanism
in LLM cognitive scaffolds. Three independent sovereign stacks
(Triava Labs gemma4:26b sovereign-Ollama / JAMES gemma4:e4b
local-stack with wiki corpus / Provia Arabic e-commerce refund
fixture on gemma4:e4b) converged on a single architectural
property: substitution mode operates as a verbatim-retrieval
floor-immune path with byte-identical determinism across model
scales, while synthesis mode incurs a task-weight-proportional
token cost that scales gradient-wise with what the model has to
invent.

The 3-axis structure: (1) mode split (substitution vs synthesis),
confirmed by Robin Converse on 26b sovereign infrastructure; (2)
workload gradient (heavy / light / no synthesis), measured by JAMES
on e4b via V3'.e refined Pattern S (PR #440); (3) model-scale
efficiency (synthesis token cost ∝ 1/parameter-count), discovered
by Robin during the cross-stack invariance test itself. Each axis
is reproducible against the same V3' protocol on different stacks.

10-word headline (3-author locked): "Substitution is free. Synthesis
costs in proportion to what it has to invent."

Prior-art anchor: Yang et al. 2026 "Token Economics for LLM Agents"
(arXiv:2605.09104) provides the framework-level CES factor
substitution M_int / M_ext model; this joint deposit fills the
empirical layer that framework left as future work.

Related JAMES-side measurement records (per-stack engineering
records): v0.3.1 / v0.3.2 / v0.3.3 / v0.4.0 / v0.4.1 / v0.4.2 solo
Zenodo DOIs. Related Triava Labs reproduction track: DOI
10.5281/zenodo.20570701 (Robin Converse, 26B byte-identical
substitution determinism + cap-invariance, 2026-06-08). Related
Provia track: Ali Afana walk-back article + ar_ecommerce.yaml
fixture set (Track 2c).

Contributors (alphabetical by surname): Ali Afana (Provia) —
architectural framer + walk-back hero; Vadym Arnaut (independent)
— substitution-vs-decision boundary phrasing ("each variant has
its own tax"); Robin Converse (Triava Labs) — mode split observer
+ 26b sovereign executor + 3rd axis (model-scale) discoverer;
Seo Jiwon (Hashevolution) — V3' protocol owner + methodology +
~500-token floor measurement + 10-word headline.
```

**Pro**: Mechanism explained. All 4 contributors recognized.
Prior art anchored. Related records cross-linked.
**Con**: Long. Requires Ali + Robin to confirm Vadym attribution
language is exact (Phase 2 gate).

### Option E (terse — 3 paragraphs)

```
Three independent sovereign stacks (Triava Labs gemma4:26b /
JAMES gemma4:e4b / Provia Arabic e-commerce) converged on a single
architectural property in LLM cognitive scaffolds: substitution
mode is a verbatim-retrieval floor-immune path with byte-identical
determinism; synthesis mode incurs a task-weight-proportional
token cost.

3-axis joint discovery: mode split (Converse, 26b sovereign);
workload gradient (Seo, JAMES V3'.e refined Pattern S, PR #440);
model-scale efficiency (Converse, cross-stack invariance test).
Headline: "Substitution is free. Synthesis costs in proportion
to what it has to invent."

Contributors (alphabetical): Afana (architectural framing,
walk-back) / Arnaut (substitution-vs-decision phrasing) / Converse
(26b sovereign + 3rd axis) / Seo (V3' protocol + ~500-token floor).
Prior-art anchor: arXiv:2605.09104. Related records: JAMES solo
Zenodo lineage v0.3.1 → v0.4.2; Triava Labs DOI
10.5281/zenodo.20570701.
```

**Pro**: Faster read. Same information.
**Con**: Less narrative scaffolding for first-time readers.

### Option F (joint-narrative — Ali's "audit-trail" framing centered)

```
A three-stack joint discovery record extending the audit-trail
framing to LLM cognitive-scaffold cap-floor measurement.

Three independent sovereign stacks (Triava Labs gemma4:26b sovereign
Ollama / JAMES gemma4:e4b local-stack / Provia Arabic e-commerce
fixture) measured the same architectural property under the V3'
protocol: substitution mode = verbatim-retrieval floor-immune path
(byte-identical determinism across model scales); synthesis mode =
task-weight-proportional token cost that scales gradient-wise with
what the model has to invent.

Each stack saw the work (Converse: "when you own the inference path,
you see the work"); each stack reproduced the protocol; each
contributor's vocabulary is cited in the joint record.

Headline (3-author locked): "Substitution is free. Synthesis costs
in proportion to what it has to invent."
3-axis structure: mode split (Converse 26b) / workload gradient
(Seo JAMES V3'.e, PR #440) / model-scale efficiency (Converse cross-
stack invariance). Architectural primitive framing: Afana
("architectural primitive everyone building agentic systems needs
to internalize"). Substitution-vs-decision phrasing: Arnaut ("each
variant has its own tax").

Contributors (alphabetical): Ali Afana (Provia) / Vadym Arnaut /
Robin Converse (Triava Labs) / Seo Jiwon (Hashevolution).
Prior-art anchor: Yang et al. 2026 (arXiv:2605.09104) provides
framework-level CES factor substitution; this deposit ships the
empirical layer.
Related records: JAMES per-stack engineering DOIs v0.3.1 → v0.4.2;
Triava Labs DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20570701.
```

**Pro**: Honours Ali's audit-trail framing lineage (her "Carrying
that forward" deposit). Honours sovereign-infra principle (Robin's
verbatim quote). Honours Vadym attribution Phase 2 sequencing by
naming verbatim.
**Con**: Longest. More vocabulary citations = more catalog-locked
phrases to confirm.

### Recommended default if no preference

**Option D** — mechanism-narrative balances Ali's framework lineage
+ Robin's 3-axis lock + JAMES methodology owner. Honest contributor
acknowledgement without privileging any single voice. Vadym row is
short but explicit (Phase 2 gate honoured).

---

## Joint piece subheadlines (do NOT put in title — for outline use)

These are joint-piece-locked phrases from the contribution catalog.
Outline (Track 3.3) will use these section headers, but the title /
description should NOT pre-empt them:

- "Two operating modes, one model" (Converse) — section 1 / mode-split chapter
- "Parameter count buys reasoning routing precision, not just capacity" (Converse, 3rd axis) — section 3
- "Ceiling vs path" / "Shortening the path to the same answer" (Afana) — discussion / mechanism interpretation
- "Each variant has its own tax" (Arnaut, via Afana) — workload-gradient subsection
- "When you own the inference path, you see the work" (Converse, sovereign principle) — methodology / why-sovereign-infra discussion
- "Substitution is free. Synthesis costs..." (Seo) — abstract / closing line

---

## Decision matrix for the operator (post Ali confirm)

| If Ali says | Then |
|---|---|
| "Option A title / Option D description" (or similar verbatim mark) | Paste verbatim into Zenodo, no edits |
| "Title B but description D" | Mix-and-match per Ali specification |
| "Make it shorter" | Default to Option E |
| "Add my walk-back article DOI" | Append Provia walk-back article DOI to related_identifiers (current draft has placeholder) |
| "Vadym not yet" | Drop Vadym row, keep 3-author; deposit STILL has the "each variant has its own tax" phrase but credited differently per Ali's preference |
| Silence past 6/13 | Hold. Do not publish unilaterally. The Phase R6 commitment was "before the outline"; if Track 3.3 outline drafting starts without deposit, deposit becomes the outline's reference, which is fine. |
