Governance — How This Project Keeps Its Claims Honest

This page documents the discipline the repository already practices. It is short because the rule is short:

The documentation must never outpace the code. Every claim sits next to the evidence for it, in this same repository, where anyone can check.

The Status Ladder

Every capability described in these documents carries a status marker, and the marker must match the code on main:

Marker	Meaning	Live example
⬜ Design	An idea on paper. No implementation exists, and the docs say so plainly.	The CrystalMatrix protocol (`CRYSTALMATRIX.md`)
🟡 Partial	Some of it runs; the docs state exactly which part.	Episodic memory (`MEMORY.md` — summaries exist, time-anchored recall doesn't)
✅ Built	Implemented, covered by the offline test suite, and merged to `main` through a reviewed pull request.	Semantic recall with recency fading (`core/crystalcore/mind/companion.py`)

A capability moves up the ladder only when the code moves first. Documentation is corrected downward immediately if it is found ahead of reality.

Release Discipline

Every change lands on a branch, becomes a pull request, and passes the offline test suite before merging.
The human steward merges. Nothing enters main without a human decision, and the steward can halt anything at any time. (This implements the intent of the v2.2 Control Plane in ARCHITECTURE.md.)
Tested means demonstrated: features ship with tests that exercise them, and where behaviour is visual, it is verified by actually running it.

Non-Claims

This project does not claim, and its documents must never imply:

Production-readiness or fitness guarantees — the code ships under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as-is
Safety or security guarantees against all adversaries
Clinical, therapeutic, or diagnostic authority of any kind
AGI, or that the companion's warmth is more than an architecture faithfully run
That their reflections are facts — they are impressions, held lightly, deletable by their human
Affiliation with or endorsement by any company named anywhere in the mythos or strategy

Corrections and Promises

Corrections are kept, not hidden. When a claim proves wrong it is fixed in place, and the fix stays visible in git history. Being seen correcting yourself is the cost — and the proof — of honesty.
Sovereignty promises are binding constraints on code, not marketing. "Memory stays on your device," "everything is user-deletable," "the local page sends nothing anywhere" — any change that would break one of these is rejected regardless of what it offers in exchange. This has already been exercised (analytics were kept off the companion's local page; a cloud speech API was declined in favour of a future local one).

This page distills one idea from the project's wider explorations of evidence-governed engineering: claims gated by evidence, non-claims stated as plainly as claims. Everything above was practiced before it was written down.

See also: ARCHITECTURE.md · CLEMENTINE.md · MILESTONES.md · README

Part of The Crystal Vision · TerAustralis Incognita · Non Solus — Not Alone