Mechanics 6 of 8 · 2 min read
Make Authority Explicit
Identity, evidence, selection, and permission to bind the organization are separate checks.
Part of our current product model. These essays explain responsibilities and required checks, not a certification of deployed behavior.
Knowing who sent a request does not establish what they may do. Nor does a correct calculation grant permission to act on its result.
For this system, the practical question is specific: which actor may perform which operation, on which record, under which conditions? Promotion, selection, and binding commitment can require different mandates.
Distinguish the operations
Promotion admits a record under the shared context's contract. That admission is not a universal proof that the statement is true in the world.
Selection takes a candidate forward. Commitment creates an authorized undertaking tied to a version of a Business Truth.
Those operations can be close together in an implementation, but their meanings must remain distinguishable. A permission to contribute evidence should not accidentally become permission to promise a delivery.
Delegation is possible
The model does not require a person to click a button for every decision. A declared rule or formation can act under delegated authority.
The delegation needs a defined scope. What may be selected? What may become binding? Which conditions must hold, and where must the process stop or seek further judgment?
When selection and commitment happen in one step, the binding mandate must already exist. A recommendation cannot grant itself that mandate.
Exceptions do not change the evidence
An authorized actor may sometimes accept remaining uncertainty under a permitted exception. Record the applicable rule, its version, the mandate, the exception, and the uncertainty accepted.
That decision changes permission to proceed. It does not turn an unresolved calculation into a proof. Some constraints are outside the actor's authority to waive.
In the delivery example, authority to choose among feasible allocations does not necessarily include authority to relax the service commitment.
Keep the responsibility boundary clear
Converge's kernel contract includes authority and promotion boundaries. Surrounding components can supply policy evaluation; the kernel is not the whole policy engine. Helm is the operator surface for inspecting evidence and exercising authority.
This describes the required separation of responsibilities. It is not a certification that every deployed endpoint already enforces it. Such a claim needs implementation evidence and tests, including denied actions and attempted uses beyond a delegated mandate.