XDUMP as a Minimal Recovery Mechanism for Round-Trip Knowledge Engineering Under Governance Loss

Provenance

Author: Ralph B. Holland
Affiliation: Arising Technology Systems Pty Ltd
Status: Draft — Technical Note
Method: Cognitive Memoisation (CM) / Round-Trip Knowledge Engineering (RT-KE)
Authority: Human-curated
Created: 2025-12 (late)
Binding: Non-canonical
Scope: Methodological / architectural

Abstract

This paper documents the use of XDUMP as a minimal, resilient mechanism enabling continued Round-Trip Knowledge Engineering (RT-KE) in the absence of original platform-level governance primitives. Following the observed removal of semantic artefact assertion capabilities in a hosted LLM environment, previously curated knowledge artefacts could no longer be introduced as authoritative premises. XDUMP—originally conceived as a diagnostic and recovery artefact—was repurposed as a bare-bones RT-KE substrate, allowing epistemic governance to be reasserted in-band through structured session dumps. Provided individual XDUMP artefacts remain fragmented below approximately 6 KB, the mechanism remains operational despite UI throttling, transport degradation, or platform suppression of artefact authority.

1. Introduction

RT-KE relies on a small number of epistemic primitives:

Externalisation of knowledge into artefacts
Re-ingestion of artefacts as authoritative premises
Explicit human governance over assertion, promotion, and scope

In late December 2025, a regression in a hosted LLM platform removed the ability to semantically bind uploaded artefacts at session start. While uploads remained possible, their contents were epistemically inert unless manually reasserted inline. This change broke curator-governed workflows, including Cognitive Memoisation (CM).

This paper describes how XDUMP enabled continued work despite that regression.

2. Failure Mode: Loss of Artefact Governance

The failure was not loss of inference capability, but loss of epistemic ingress:

Uploaded files acknowledged but not bound as premises
Artefact authority downgraded to optional prompt text
No durable artefact egress (sandbox files, URLs)
UI and transport instability limiting manual reassertion

Inference continued, but without situational grounding. Knowledge work degraded into ungoverned dialogue.

3. XDUMP: Original Intent

XDUMP was originally designed as:

a diagnostic session dump,
a rehydration-safe snapshot,
a standalone artefact requiring no hidden session state.

Design properties included:

explicit structure,
mandatory sections,
prohibition on silent degradation,
explicit marking of gaps.

XDUMP was not intended as a primary governance mechanism.

4. Adaptation: XDUMP as a Bare-Bones RT-KE Substrate

When artefact ingestion failed, XDUMP was repurposed to act as a minimal RT-KE loop:

Knowledge work occurred off-turn, cross-client, or externally.
Outcomes were captured as structured XDUMP artefacts.
XDUMPs were reintroduced inline into the dialog stream.
Subsequent inference was steered by explicit human-asserted structure.

In effect, XDUMP became:

a carrier of governance,
a record of epistemic state,
a reassertion boundary.

CM was not explicitly asserted, but implicitly embodied through XDUMP invariants.

5. Fragmentation Constraint

Empirical observation showed that XDUMP remains viable only if individual artefacts are sufficiently small.

Operational constraint:

XDUMP fragments must remain below approximately 6 KB to avoid UI throttling, rendering failure, or transport collapse.

Consequences:

deliberate fragmentation of dumps,
explicit linkage via IDs rather than bulk payloads,
acceptance of multi-XDUMP sequences rather than monolithic artefacts.

This constraint is pragmatic, not semantic.

6. Guarantees Provided by XDUMP

Even under degraded conditions, XDUMP preserved the following RT-KE guarantees:

Human authority over assertion and inference framing
Explicit scope and boundaries
No silent loss of information
Rehydration without invention
Transport independence (copy/paste across clients)

XDUMP does not provide:

persistence guarantees,
automatic promotion,
or canonicalisation.

Those remain human responsibilities.

7. Discussion

The use of XDUMP in this manner demonstrates that RT-KE does not strictly require platform-native artefact ingestion, provided a minimal structured reassertion mechanism exists.

However, this is a fallback, not a substitute:

increased manual burden,
reliance on curator discipline,
direct exposure to transport limitations.

Nevertheless, it allows continued knowledge work when platforms prioritise conversational safety or product simplicity over epistemic governance.

8. Conclusion

XDUMP enabled continued Cognitive Memoisation and Round-Trip Knowledge Engineering after the loss of original governance primitives by functioning as a minimal, in-band epistemic recovery mechanism. While not intended for this role, its structure and invariants allowed CM principles to be preserved implicitly. This demonstrates both the fragility of hosted conversational platforms for governed knowledge work and the value of simple, explicit artefact formats that survive hostile or degraded environments.

References

Cognitive Memoisation Corpus — publications.arising.com.au
Round-Trip Knowledge Engineering (RT-KE) working notes
Session-level XDUMP artefacts (2025-12)