# Empirica Taxonomy

**The canonical reference for all Empirica concepts.**

Version: 1.1.0
Last updated: 2026-02-23

This document is the single source of truth for Empirica's concept space. AI agents consume it natively. Human developers use it as a vocabulary reference — the Rosetta Stone section maps every term to familiar equivalents.

---

## How to Read This

Each concept has:
- **Definition**: What it is, precisely
- **Category**: Where it belongs in the taxonomy
- **Properties**: Phase, mutability, temperature, scope (where applicable)
- **Relationships**: How it connects to other concepts

Concepts are grouped by category. The [Rosetta Stone](#rosetta-stone) at the end maps every term to developer-familiar equivalents.

---

## 1. Artifacts

Things that are created, persisted, and referenced. Split by the thinking phase that produces them.

### 1.1 Noetic Artifacts

Produced during investigation/thinking. Represent what was learned, what's unknown, and what failed.

| Artifact | Definition | Mutability | Storage |
|----------|-----------|------------|---------|
| **Finding** | A discovered fact with measured impact (0.0–1.0). The atomic unit of learned knowledge. | Dynamic | WARM (SQLite) → SEARCH (Qdrant) → COLD (git notes) |
| **Unknown** | An identified gap in knowledge. Can be resolved when the answer is found. | Dynamic | WARM → SEARCH |
| **Dead-end** | A failed approach with documented reason. Prevents re-exploration of the same path. | Static once logged | WARM → SEARCH → COLD |
| **Mistake** | An error with root cause analysis, cost estimate, and prevention strategy. Training data for calibration. | Static once logged | WARM → SEARCH |
| **Assumption** | An unverified belief taken as given. Has confidence (0.0–1.0) and status (unverified/verified/falsified). Urgency signal increases with age for unverified assumptions. | Dynamic | SEARCH (Qdrant) |
| **Decision** | A recorded choice point with alternatives considered, rationale, and reversibility (exploratory/committal/forced). Permanent audit trail. | Static once logged | SEARCH (Qdrant) |
| **Blindspot** | A predicted knowledge gap inferred from negative space analysis. Generated by the Blindspot Detector, not manually logged. | Ephemeral (per-CHECK) | Computed, not stored |
| **Lesson** | Decayable procedural knowledge. Antibodies in the cognitive immune system — decays when contradicted by new findings. | Decaying | COLD (YAML) → SEARCH |

**Relationships:**
- Finding → decays related Lessons (immune system)
- Finding → can decay related eidetic facts (contradiction decay)
- Finding, Unknown, Dead-end, Mistake → link to both a Session (when) and optionally a Goal (what)
- Unknown → can be resolved (status: open → resolved)
- Assumption → can be verified/falsified by Findings. Unverified assumptions surface as risk signals at CHECK gate.
- Decision → links to Assumptions (what was assumed) and Findings (what informed the choice). Permanent — never decays.
- Blindspot → generated from topology of existing artifacts
- Dead-end → prevents agents from re-attempting the same approach

### 1.2 Praxic Artifacts

Produced during action/implementation. Represent what is being built and what was shipped.

| Artifact | Definition | Mutability | Storage |
|----------|-----------|------------|---------|
| **Goal** | A structural work unit with an objective and completion criteria. Persists across sessions. Contains tasks. | Dynamic | WARM (SQLite) |
| **Task** | A decomposed work unit within a goal. Has importance level and optional dependencies. Completed with evidence. | Dynamic | WARM (SQLite) |
| **Commit** | A code change checkpoint in version control. The atomic unit of shipped work. | Static once created | COLD (git) |

**Relationships:**
- Goal → contains Tasks (1:N)
- Goal → links to Findings, Unknowns, Dead-ends, Mistakes (semantic association)
- Task → completed with evidence (commit hash, file path, test result)
- Commit → captures praxic output, closes the implementation loop

---

## 2. Epistemic State

The measurement of what an agent knows, how confident it is, and how that changes over time.

### 2.1 Vectors

A vector is a single dimension of epistemic state, rated 0.0 to 1.0. There are 13 vectors across 4 tiers.

#### Tier 0 — Gate (15% weight)

| Vector | Measures | Threshold |
|--------|----------|-----------|
| **engagement** | Quality of collaborative intelligence. Is meaningful work possible? | ≥ 0.6 to proceed |

#### Tier 1 — Foundation (35% weight)

| Vector | Measures |
|--------|----------|
| **know** | Domain understanding. What do I actually know about this? |
| **do** | Execution capability. Can I perform the required actions? |
| **context** | Surrounding information. Do I have enough situational awareness? |

#### Tier 2 — Comprehension (25% weight)

| Vector | Measures |
|--------|----------|
| **clarity** | Requirement understanding. Do I know what's being asked? |
| **coherence** | Internal consistency. Does my understanding fit together? |
| **signal** | Pattern detection. Am I detecting relevant information? |
| **density** | Information richness. How much useful data do I have? |

#### Tier 3 — Execution (25% weight)

| Vector | Measures |
|--------|----------|
| **state** | System awareness. Do I understand the current state of things? |
| **change** | Delta detection. How much has changed since my last assessment? |
| **completion** | Phase-aware progress. How complete is the current phase? (See: Phase-Aware Completion) |
| **impact** | Significance. How important is this work? |

#### Meta

| Vector | Measures | Note |
|--------|----------|------|
| **uncertainty** | Doubt magnitude. How unsure am I? | Inverted: higher = more uncertain. Historically overestimated. |

#### Phase-Aware Completion

Completion means different things depending on the current thinking phase:

| Phase | Completion question | 1.0 means |
|-------|-------------------|-----------|
| Noetic | "Have I learned enough to proceed?" | Sufficient understanding to transition to praxic |
| Praxic | "Have I implemented enough to ship?" | Meets stated objective, ready to commit |

### 2.2 Assessments

An assessment is a snapshot of all 13 vectors at a point in time. There are three types, corresponding to transaction phases:

| Assessment | When | Purpose |
|------------|------|---------|
| **PREFLIGHT** | Before starting work | Establish baseline. BEGIN the epistemic transaction. |
| **CHECK** | At noetic→praxic transition | Sentinel gate. Validates readiness to act. |
| **POSTFLIGHT** | After completing work | Measure learning. COMMIT the epistemic transaction. |

### 2.3 Derived Measurements

| Concept | Definition |
|---------|-----------|
| **Delta** | The vector-wise difference between two assessments (typically PREFLIGHT → POSTFLIGHT). The quantified learning signal. |
| **Calibration** | Systematic bias in self-assessment, measured over many PREFLIGHT→POSTFLIGHT cycles. Expressed as bias corrections per vector. |
| **Grounded calibration** | Parallel calibration track that compares POSTFLIGHT self-assessment against objective post-test evidence (tests, git metrics, artifact ratios). More trustworthy than self-referential calibration. |
| **Noetic calibration** | Phase-specific calibration for investigation work (PREFLIGHT→CHECK). Evidence: unknowns surfaced, dead-ends avoided, investigation findings, coverage breadth. Calibration question: "Did investigation reduce uncertainty proportional to claim?" |
| **Praxic calibration** | Phase-specific calibration for action work (CHECK→POSTFLIGHT). Evidence: tests, git metrics, goal completions, artifact counts. Calibration question: "Did actions produce the outcomes predicted?" |
| **Dynamic thresholds** | CHECK gate thresholds that adapt based on demonstrated belief calibration. Earned autonomy: well-calibrated AI gets looser gates. Regression auto-tightens. Safety floors prevent thresholds from going too low (know >= 0.55, uncertainty <= 0.50). |
| **Drift** | Divergence between an agent's confidence and actual performance over time. Detected by comparing sequential assessments. |
| **Bias correction** | A per-vector adjustment (positive or negative) derived from calibration data. Applied to raw self-assessments to improve accuracy. Stored in `.breadcrumbs.yaml`. |

**Relationships:**
- Assessment → contains 13 Vectors + reasoning
- PREFLIGHT + POSTFLIGHT → produces Delta
- Many Deltas → produces Calibration (Bayesian belief update)
- Grounded calibration → independent Bayesian track from post-test evidence
- Phase-aware calibration → noetic and praxic tracks are independent (good investigator ≠ good implementer)
- Dynamic thresholds → computed from calibration trajectory per phase. Noetic accuracy adjusts CHECK gate. Praxic accuracy adjusts action gates.
- Sequential Assessments → enables Drift detection
- Bias corrections → applied at CHECK to compute readiness gate

---

## 3. Phases

### 3.1 Thinking Phases (AI-chosen)

The agent chooses which phase it's in based on the nature of its current work.

| Phase | Mode | Activity | Produces |
|-------|------|----------|----------|
| **Noetic** | Investigation | Explore, hypothesize, search, read, question | Noetic artifacts (findings, unknowns, dead-ends) |
| **Praxic** | Action | Execute, write, commit, deploy | Praxic artifacts (goals completed, code committed) |

The CHECK gate controls the noetic→praxic transition. Sentinel enforces it.

### 3.2 Workflow Phases (Epistemic Transactions)

The mandatory measurement framework. Every significant task follows this sequence:

```
PREFLIGHT → [work] → CHECK → [work] → POSTFLIGHT → POST-TEST
  BEGIN       noetic    GATE    praxic    COMMIT      VERIFY
```

| Phase | Role | Analogy |
|-------|------|---------|
| **PREFLIGHT** | Baseline measurement. Opens the epistemic transaction. | `BEGIN TRANSACTION` |
| **CHECK** | Sentinel gate. Evaluates readiness to transition from noetic to praxic. | Quality gate / code review |
| **POSTFLIGHT** | Learning measurement. Closes the epistemic transaction. Captures delta. | `COMMIT` |
| **POST-TEST** | Grounded verification. Automatic, evidence-based calibration against actual outcomes. | `VERIFY` / integration test |

---

## 4. Structural Concepts

### 4.1 Transaction

An epistemic transaction is the **full noetic-praxic loop** — a measured chunk of work where investigation and implementation happen together within a single measurement boundary.

```
PREFLIGHT ──► [Noetic Phase] ──► CHECK ──► [Praxic Phase] ──► POSTFLIGHT ──► POST-TEST
  BEGIN         investigate        GATE       implement         COMMIT        VERIFY
               findings                      goals completed
               unknowns                      code committed
               dead-ends                     tasks done
```

PREFLIGHT opens the transaction (BEGIN). The agent investigates, producing **noetic artifacts** (findings, unknowns, dead-ends, assumptions, decisions). CHECK gates the transition from investigation to action. The agent implements, producing **praxic artifacts** (goal completions, commits, task evidence). POSTFLIGHT closes the transaction (COMMIT) and captures the learning delta. POST-TEST verifies against objective evidence.

**The noetic-praxic split is the transaction's internal structure.** CHECK does not end the transaction — it gates the transition within it. Splitting noetic and praxic into separate transactions breaks the measurement cycle and produces meaningless deltas.

**Properties:**
- Bounded by coherence of changes, not by goals or time
- Contains both noetic and praxic phases — investigation and action in one measured unit
- Multiple goals can exist within one transaction
- One goal can span multiple transactions
- Transactions survive compaction — file-based `transaction_id` tracking persists across sessions
- A single transaction can span 1..N sessions (PREFLIGHT in session A, POSTFLIGHT in session B)
- Tracked via `transaction_id` (UUID) stored in all artifact tables and reflexes

### 4.2 Trajectory

An epistemic trajectory is the **sequence of transactions over time** — the arc of learning across a session or project. Each transaction's PREFLIGHT→POSTFLIGHT delta is one data point; the trajectory is the full curve.

**Properties:**
- Emerges from accumulated transaction deltas
- Reveals calibration trends: is the agent getting more accurate over time?
- Enables earned autonomy: consistent trajectory quality → looser Sentinel gates
- Visible via `empirica calibration-report --trajectory`
- Scope: per-project (typical) or ecosystem-wide (cross-project patterns)

**Relationship to calibration:** Calibration measures bias per vector. Trajectory measures how calibration itself changes over time — closing (improving), widening (degrading), or stable.

### 4.3 Session

A temporal interval corresponding to one context window. Created on conversation start or after compaction. Multiple Empirica sessions can exist within one Claude Code conversation.

**Properties:**
- Bounded by context windows (compactions create new sessions)
- Purpose: audit trail, calibration checkpoints, epistemic snapshots
- Artifacts link to sessions for temporal provenance ("when was this discovered?")

### 4.4 Goal (structural)

A persistent work unit that outlives sessions. Owns tasks and links to epistemic artifacts.

**Properties:**
- Persists across sessions indefinitely
- Purpose: structural organization, progress tracking
- Artifacts link to goals for semantic organization ("what work does this belong to?")

### 4.5 The Four Axes

Sessions, goals, transactions, and trajectories are orthogonal, not hierarchical:

| Concept | Axis | Bounded by | Persists across sessions? |
|---------|------|-----------|--------------------------|
| **Session** | Temporal | Context windows | No — each is an interval |
| **Goal** | Structural | Completion criteria | Yes — indefinitely |
| **Transaction** | Measurement | Coherence of changes (one noetic-praxic loop) | Yes — file-based tracking survives compaction |
| **Trajectory** | Progression | Project or ecosystem lifetime | Yes — computed from transaction history |

**Cardinality:** 1 trajectory : 1..N transactions. 1 transaction : 1..N sessions (spans compaction). 1 session : 0..N transactions.

**Triple linkage:** Every artifact carries `session_id` (when), `goal_id` (what), and `transaction_id` (which measurement window). Trajectory is derived, not linked — it emerges from the sequence of transaction deltas.

---

## 5. Systems

### 5.1 Epistemic Transactions

The workflow framework. Enforces measurement discipline: PREFLIGHT → CHECK → POSTFLIGHT → POST-TEST. Named for the epistemic transaction cycle from investigation to action to grounded verification.

### 5.2 Sentinel

The enforcement system. Gates praxic actions (Edit, Write, NotebookEdit) based on epistemic readiness.

**Readiness gate:** Dynamic thresholds from calibration history, with static fallback:
- Static default: `know >= 0.70 AND uncertainty <= 0.35`
- Dynamic: thresholds adjust based on demonstrated belief calibration per phase
- Safety floors: `know >= 0.55 AND uncertainty <= 0.50` (never goes below these)
- Requires minimum 5 calibrated transactions before dynamic thresholds activate

**Earned autonomy progression:**
```
New AI:     Static defaults (tight gates, know >= 0.70)
~5 txns:    Noetic belief calibration → loosen CHECK gate
~10 txns:   Both tracks stable → full earned autonomy
Regression: Calibration accuracy drops → gates auto-tighten
```

**Modes:**
| Mode | Behavior |
|------|----------|
| `controller` | Actively blocks insufficient confidence (default) |
| `observer` | Logs warnings but doesn't block |

**Anti-gaming:** Detects rushed assessments (CHECK < 30s after PREFLIGHT with no noetic artifacts).

### 5.3 Cognitive Immune System

Pattern: Lessons are antibodies (procedural knowledge). Findings are antigens (new evidence).

When a finding is logged:
1. Keywords extracted from finding text
2. `decay_related_lessons()` scans lesson YAML files
3. Matching lessons have `source_confidence` reduced
4. Minimum confidence floor: 0.3 (lessons never fully die)

**Central tolerance:** `domain` parameter scopes decay to prevent autoimmune attacks — a finding about "auth" only decays auth-related lessons.

### 5.4 Tool Router

Maps epistemic vectors + task intent → behavioral mode + specific tools/agents/skills.

**Architecture:**
```
VectorRouter (removed in 1.8.14):  vectors → mode (investigate, implement, clarify, ...)
ToolRouter:    vectors + task → mode + tools (agents, skills, MCP tools)
```

**Modes:** `load_context`, `investigate`, `clarify`, `confident_implementation`, `cautious_implementation`

### 5.5 Blindspot Detector

Infers predicted knowledge gaps from the topology of existing artifacts.

**Pipeline:** Existing artifacts → topology analysis → negative space → predicted blindspots (with severity and confidence)

**Integrated into:** CHECK phase (auto-runs after assessment, critical blindspots override decision to "investigate").

---

## 6. Context

Sources of information that feed into an agent's epistemic state.

| Concept | Definition | Mutability |
|---------|-----------|------------|
| **Bootstrap** | Project context loading. Retrieves active goals, recent findings, open unknowns, dead-ends. Depth scales with uncertainty. | Dynamic (reflects current project state) |
| **Ref-doc** | A reference document in the project knowledge base. Added manually or via ingestion. | Static once added |
| **Protocol** | Workflow configuration defining user preferences, behavioral rules, and operational boundaries. The EWM (Empirica Workflow Model). | Static per user |
| **Source** | Any external information source (documentation, API, codebase) consulted during investigation. | External |

---

## 7. Agents

| Agent | Role | Capability |
|-------|------|-----------|
| **AI Lead** | Primary orchestrating AI (e.g., Claude Code). Manages epistemic transactions, creates goals, logs artifacts. | Full read/write/execute |
| **Domain Agent** | Specialized investigator spawned for focused analysis. Types: security, architecture, performance, UX. | Scoped read/write within domain |
| **Sentinel** | Enforcement system (not a conversational agent). Gates praxic actions based on epistemic readiness. | Gate/block/override |
| **Human** | The user. Makes final decisions, provides requirements, approves plans. | Override/approve/direct |

---

## 8. Operations

Actions performed on or with Empirica concepts.

### 8.1 Retrieval (Noetic)

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|------------|
| **Search** | Semantic search across memory layers (Qdrant). Query by task context. |
| **Explore** | Open-ended investigation of codebase or domain. |
| **Recall** | Load specific prior knowledge (bootstrap, ref-docs, lessons). |

### 8.2 Measurement (Epistemic)

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|------------|
| **Assess** | Self-rate epistemic vectors (PREFLIGHT/CHECK/POSTFLIGHT). |
| **AI-check** | Automated readiness validation (Sentinel gate). |
| **Human-check** | User validates approach before irreversible action. |
| **Calibrate** | Update bias corrections from accumulated deltas. |

### 8.3 Creation (Logging)

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|------------|
| **Log** | Create a noetic artifact (finding, unknown, dead-end, mistake). |
| **Create** | Create a praxic artifact (goal, task). |
| **Complete** | Mark a task or goal as done, with evidence/reason. |
| **Resolve** | Close an unknown when the answer is found. |

### 8.4 Execution (Praxic)

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|------------|
| **Act** | Perform praxic work (edit files, run commands, write code). |
| **Commit** | Checkpoint code changes in version control. |
| **Deploy** | Ship changes to production/staging. |

### 8.5 System Operations

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|------------|
| **Gate** | Sentinel blocks an action pending epistemic readiness. |
| **Override** | Human or critical blindspot overrides a gate decision. |
| **Decay** | Immune system reduces lesson confidence when contradicted. |
| **Compact** | Context management — summarize and create new session on context limit. |
| **Handoff** | Transfer work context between agents or sessions with epistemic state. |

---

## 9. Properties

Cross-cutting attributes that apply to multiple concepts.

### 9.1 Phase

Which thinking phase produced or uses this concept.

| Value | Description |
|-------|------------|
| **Noetic** | Investigation/thinking. Produces findings, unknowns, dead-ends. |
| **Praxic** | Action/implementation. Produces goals completed, code committed. |
| **Meta** | About the epistemic system itself. Calibration, drift, bias corrections. |

### 9.2 Mutability

How a concept changes over time.

| Value | Description | Examples |
|-------|------------|---------|
| **Static** | Created once, never changes | Dead-ends, mistakes, commits, ref-docs, skills |
| **Dynamic** | Changes during its lifetime | Goals (progress), unknowns (can be resolved), findings (linked to goals) |
| **Decaying** | Confidence decreases over time or when contradicted | Lessons (immune decay), episodic memory |

### 9.3 Temperature (Storage Layer)

Where a concept lives in the four-layer storage architecture.

| Layer | Medium | Access speed | Contents |
|-------|--------|-------------|----------|
| **HOT** | In-memory / context window | Instant | Active session state, current vectors |
| **WARM** | SQLite | Fast | Sessions, goals, tasks, findings, unknowns, assessments |
| **SEARCH** | Qdrant (vector DB) | Semantic | Embedded findings, lessons, episodic memory |
| **COLD** | Git notes, YAML files | Slow / archival | Lessons, calibration snapshots, breadcrumbs, epistemic checkpoints |

### 9.4 Scope

The boundary within which a concept applies.

| Scope | Boundary | Examples |
|-------|----------|---------|
| **Ecosystem** | All projects, all agents | Cross-project lessons, global calibration |
| **Project** | One repository / codebase | Goals, findings, unknowns, project config |
| **Transaction** | One PREFLIGHT→POSTFLIGHT cycle (can span sessions) | Vectors, deltas, assessments, transaction_id |
| **Session** | One context window | Session ID, temporal artifact linkage |

---

## Rosetta Stone

Every Empirica term mapped to its closest developer-familiar equivalent. Where the Empirica concept differs from the analogue, the difference is noted.

| Empirica Term | Developer Analogue | Key Difference |
|---------------|-------------------|----------------|
| **Finding** | Investigation note / spike result | Has measured impact (0.0–1.0), triggers immune decay |
| **Unknown** | Open question / TODO | Formally tracked, resolvable, linked to goals |
| **Dead-end** | Failed spike / abandoned approach | Persisted to prevent re-exploration by any agent |
| **Mistake** | Post-mortem / incident item | Has root cause vector, cost estimate, prevention strategy |
| **Assumption** | Hypothesis / precondition | Tracked with confidence, urgency increases with age if unverified |
| **Decision** | ADR / decision record | Has alternatives, rationale, reversibility. Never decays (audit trail). |
| **Blindspot** | Coverage gap / unknown unknown | Computed from negative space, not manually identified |
| **Lesson** | Best practice / runbook entry | Decays when contradicted by evidence (immune system) |
| **Goal** | Epic / user story | Persists across sessions, owns epistemic artifacts |
| **Task** | Task / ticket | Completed with evidence (not just status change) |
| **Vector** | Metric dimension | Self-assessed, bias-corrected, 13 dimensions |
| **Assessment** | Health check / status report | Formal snapshot of all 13 vectors with reasoning |
| **Delta** | Diff / change measurement | Vector-wise difference = quantified learning |
| **Calibration** | Accuracy analysis / bias audit | Bayesian update from accumulated prediction errors |
| **Grounded calibration** | Belief divergence measurement | Belief vectors vs deterministic service observations |
| **Noetic calibration** | Research quality review | Measures investigation quality, not action output |
| **Praxic calibration** | Sprint velocity / delivery review | Measures action quality against predictions |
| **Dynamic thresholds** | Adaptive access control | Earned autonomy from demonstrated belief calibration |
| **Drift** | Regression / model degradation | Confidence diverging from actual performance |
| **Bias correction** | Error compensation / offset | Per-vector adjustment from historical calibration |
| **PREFLIGHT** | Sprint planning / baseline | Opens epistemic transaction (BEGIN) |
| **CHECK** | Quality gate / PR review | Auto-computed readiness with bias correction |
| **POSTFLIGHT** | Retrospective / post-mortem | Closes transaction, captures learning delta (COMMIT) |
| **Transaction** | Sprint / iteration | Full noetic-praxic loop. Bounded by coherence, not time. Contains both investigation and implementation. |
| **Trajectory** | Velocity trend / burndown | Sequence of transactions showing learning progression. Enables earned autonomy. |
| **Session** | Context window / connection | Temporal interval, new one on compaction. Transactions span sessions. |
| **Noetic phase** | Research / spike / investigation | Produces noetic artifacts, no code changes |
| **Praxic phase** | Implementation / execution | Produces code, gated by Sentinel |
| **Epistemic transaction** | CI/CD pipeline (for knowledge) | Enforces measurement, not deployment |
| **Sentinel** | Linter / pre-commit hook | Gates actions on epistemic readiness, not code quality |
| **Immune system** | Deprecation / knowledge refresh | Lessons decay when new evidence contradicts them |
| **Tool Router** | Load balancer / request router | Routes by epistemic vectors, not traffic |
| **Blindspot Detector** | Coverage analyzer / gap analysis | Infers from what's missing, not what's present |
| **Bootstrap** | Project onboarding / context loading | Depth scales with uncertainty level |
| **Compact** | Garbage collection / summarization | Creates new session. Transactions survive (file-based tracking). |
| **Handoff** | Runbook / shift handover | Structured epistemic transfer between agents |

---

## Concept Map

How the major concepts relate to each other:

```
                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │   HUMAN     │
                    │  (directs)  │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │ requirements, decisions
                           ▼
                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │  AI LEAD    │
                    │ (orchestrates)
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │
              ┌────────────┴────────────┐
              ▼                         ▼
   ┌─────────────────────────────┐  ┌──────────┐
   │      TRANSACTION            │  │TRAJECTORY│
   │  (one noetic-praxic loop)   │  │(sequence │
   │                             │  │ of txns) │
   │  PREFLIGHT                  │  └──────────┘
   │    ▼                        │
   │  ┌────────┐    ┌────────┐  │
   │  │NOETIC  │───►│PRAXIC  │  │
   │  │findings│ C  │goals   │  │
   │  │unknowns│ H  │tasks│  │
   │  │dead-   │ E  │commits │  │
   │  │ ends   │ C  │        │  │
   │  │assump- │ K  │        │  │
   │  │ tions  │    │        │  │
   │  └────────┘    └────────┘  │
   │    ▼                       │
   │  POSTFLIGHT → POST-TEST    │
   └────────────┬───────────────┘
                │
                ▼
          ┌──────────┐
          │EPISTEMIC │
          │  STATE   │
          │ (vectors,│
          │  deltas, │
          │  calibr.)│
          └────┬─────┘
               │
    ┌──────────┼──────────┐
    ▼          ▼          ▼
┌──────────┐┌────────┐┌──────────┐
│ SENTINEL ││IMMUNE  ││BLINDSPOT │
│ (gates)  ││SYSTEM  ││DETECTOR  │
│          ││(decays)││(infers)  │
└──────────┘└────────┘└──────────┘
```

---

## Index (Alphabetical)

Quick lookup for any term:

| Term | Section | Category |
|------|---------|----------|
| Act | 8.4 | Operation |
| AI Lead | 7 | Agent |
| Assessment | 2.2 | Epistemic State |
| Assumption | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Bias correction | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Blindspot | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Blindspot Detector | 5.5 | System |
| Bootstrap | 6 | Context |
| Calibration | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Epistemic Transactions | 5.1 | System |
| CHECK | 3.2 | Workflow Phase |
| Cognitive Immune System | 5.3 | System |
| Commit | 1.2 | Praxic Artifact |
| Compact | 8.5 | Operation |
| Completion (phase-aware) | 2.1 | Vector |
| Dead-end | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Decay | 8.5 | Operation |
| Decision | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Delta | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Dynamic thresholds | 2.3 / 5.2 | Epistemic State / System |
| Domain Agent | 7 | Agent |
| Drift | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Finding | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Gate | 8.5 | Operation |
| Goal | 1.2 / 4.3 | Praxic Artifact / Structure |
| Grounded calibration | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Handoff | 8.5 | Operation |
| Human | 7 | Agent |
| Lesson | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Mistake | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Noetic calibration | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Noetic phase | 3.1 | Thinking Phase |
| POSTFLIGHT | 3.2 | Workflow Phase |
| Praxic calibration | 2.3 | Epistemic State |
| Praxic phase | 3.1 | Thinking Phase |
| PREFLIGHT | 3.2 | Workflow Phase |
| Protocol | 6 | Context |
| Ref-doc | 6 | Context |
| Sentinel | 5.2 / 7 | System / Agent |
| Session | 4.2 | Structure |
| Task | 1.2 | Praxic Artifact |
| Tool Router | 5.4 | System |
| Trajectory | 4.2 | Structure |
| Transaction | 4.1 | Structure |
| Unknown | 1.1 | Noetic Artifact |
| Vector | 2.1 | Epistemic State |
