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Ontology Constitution

Status: Supreme Domain Authority

1. Purpose

This Constitution defines the canonical ontology of the ZAYAZ platform.

It establishes the architectural vocabulary used throughout the platform and governs the classification, identity, ownership, and relationships of all constitutional artifacts.

All specifications shall conform to this ontology.

2. Scope

The Ontology Constitution governs:

  • architectural vocabulary;
  • modules;
  • components;
  • engines;
  • services;
  • registries;
  • workflows;
  • constitutional artifacts;
  • constitutional profiles;
  • graph relationships;
  • identity semantics.

Implementation technologies are outside its scope.

3. Constitutional Philosophy

Ontology exists to eliminate ambiguity.

Every architectural concept shall possess:

  • a single canonical definition;
  • a single architectural purpose;
  • a stable identity;
  • clearly defined relationships.

Duplicate concepts are constitutional defects.

4. Architectural Taxonomy

CO-001 Modules​

A Module is the highest functional domain of the platform.

A module groups related constitutional capabilities.

Modules do not execute logic.

They organize architecture.

Examples include:

  • TrustGate
  • Knowledge
  • Computation Hub
  • Reports Hub
  • MICE

CO-002 Components​

A Component is a constitutional building block belonging to exactly one module.

Components provide capabilities.

Components may expose services, APIs, workflows, engines, or registries.

Components shall not belong to multiple modules.

CO-003 Engines​

An Engine performs deterministic or governed execution.

Engines:

  • consume inputs;
  • execute logic;
  • produce governed outputs.

Engines shall never govern themselves.

CO-004 Services​

A Service exposes capabilities to other components.

Services orchestrate.

They do not redefine constitutional behavior.

CO-005 Registries​

Registries manage constitutional identities.

Registries do not execute business logic.

Examples include:

  • validator registries;
  • knowledge registries;
  • policy registries;
  • replay registries.

CO-006 Workflows​

A workflow coordinates execution across multiple components.

Workflows preserve orchestration.

Individual components preserve responsibility.

CO-007 Artifacts​

Artifacts represent immutable constitutional outputs.

Artifacts possess:

  • identity;
  • lineage;
  • provenance;
  • replay characteristics;
  • governance.

Artifacts may be versioned but shall never lose identity.

5. Constitutional Relationships

The following relationships are canonical.

Module
   │
contains
   ▼
Component
   │
contains
   ▼
Engine
   │
produces
   ▼
Artifact

Supporting relationships include:

  • depends_on
  • interfaces_with
  • governed_by
  • consumes
  • produces
  • related

No undocumented relationship types shall be introduced.

6. Constitutional Identity

Every constitutional object shall possess a stable identity.

Identity survives:

  • implementation changes;
  • version changes;
  • deployment changes;
  • technology changes.

Identifiers shall never encode runtime state.

7. Graph Semantics

The constitutional graph represents architecture.

It is not merely documentation.

Every graph node shall correspond to a real constitutional artifact.

Graph edges shall represent declared constitutional relationships.

Undocumented graph edges are prohibited.

8. Architectural Naming

Canonical names shall:

  • describe purpose;
  • remain stable;
  • avoid implementation terminology;
  • avoid vendor terminology;
  • avoid temporary project names.

Architectural names shall outlive technology.

9. Constitutional Evolution

New ontology concepts shall:

  • extend existing concepts;
  • preserve backwards compatibility where practical;
  • avoid duplication;
  • maintain graph consistency.

Ontology changes require constitutional review.

10. Constitutional Invariants

The following invariants shall always hold.

CO-100​

Every component belongs to exactly one module.

CO-101​

Every engine belongs to exactly one component.

CO-102​

Every artifact has a stable identity.

CO-103​

Artifacts preserve lineage.

CO-104​

Artifacts declare replay characteristics.

CO-105​

Governance artifacts govern execution artifacts.

Execution artifacts do not govern governance.

CO-106​

The ontology graph reflects architectural reality.

Documentation shall not invent relationships that do not exist.

CO-107​

Canonical definitions are unique.

Equivalent concepts shall not coexist under different names.

11. Conformance

All constitutional specifications, canonical specifications, and implementation documentation shall conform to this Constitution.

Architectural reviews shall verify ontology conformance before approval.

12. Future Evolution

Future constitutional domains may extend the ontology with additional specialized concepts.

Extensions shall preserve the principles and invariants defined by this Constitution.



GitHub RepoRequest for Change (RFC)