Identified Governance Failure Axes: for LLM platforms

From publications

Cognitive Memoisation: Extended Governance Axes

Meta-Statement

This page records a first-principles projection of governance axes used to analyse failure in human–AI systems. Axes are treated as orthogonal unless explicitly stated otherwise. Words are treated as handles to concepts, not as definitions. Dangling cognates are preserved intentionally.

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Core Postulates

  • Governance failure is multi-axis and non-reducible.
  • Orthogonal axes are routinely conflated in literature and practice.
  • Epistemic Objects (EO) do not act on governance axes directly.
  • Externalised Artefacts (EA) mediate EO participation in governance.
  • Thought capture is the creation of scope (Universe of Discourse) usable in inference.
  • Failure may occur without model error, inaccuracy, or hallucination.
  • Recording failures is a first-class epistemic act.

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Table A - Ontological Distinction

Term Role
EO (Epistemic Object) Unit of meaning, belief, assumption, or concept
EA (Externalised Artefact) Material or symbolic carrier enabling governance participation
UoD (Universe of Discourse) Declared world over which inference is meaningful
Thought Bubble Provisional, non-authoritative EA
Dangling Cognate Unresolved concept preserved without forced resolution

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Notes on Dangling Cognates

  • No axis implies another.
  • Failure on one axis does not entail failure on others.
  • Some documents intentionally leave axes uninstantiated.
  • Absence of F is not evidence of success.
  • Terminology remains provisional where concepts are not yet closed.

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Synthesis Handle

Independent literature repeatedly identifies failures that map cleanly onto CM governance axes, but typically collapses multiple axes into single terms such as “over-reliance”, “loss of control”, or “alignment”.

CM makes these axes explicit, orthogonal, and governable.

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Evidence Pack: CM Corpus Failures + External References + Axis Crosswalk

Table B - CM Governance Axes (X)

Code Axis (CM term)
A Authority
Ag Agency
C Epistemic Custody
K Constraint Enforcement
R Recovery / Repair
S State Continuity
U UI / Mediation
Sc Social Coordination
I Incentive Alignment
L Legibility / Inspectability
St Stewardship (non-ownership governance)
P Portability / Auditability
Att Attention (what participates in inference)
Scope Scope / Universe of Discourse (UoD / worlding)
Art Articulation (EA form without implied authority/commitment)

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Table C - Corpus: Failure Projection (F)

THESE TABLES are inconsistent!!

Corpus Document (failure artefact) A Ag C K R S U Sc I L St P Att Scope Art
Authority Inversion F F F F
Governing the Tool That Governs You F F F F F F
From UI Failure to Logical Entrapment F F F F F F F F
Post-Hoc CM Recovery Collapse (Negative Result) F F F F F F F F
Looping the Loop with No End in Sight F F F F F
Dimensions of Platform Error F F F F F F
Case Study - When the Human Has to Argue With the Machine F F F F
XDUMP (baseline failure motivation) F F F F F F F F F

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Table C1 - Corpus - Ref vs CM Axes ??

Ref-ID A Ag C K R S U Sc I L St P Att Scope Art
CM-AUTH-INVERSION F F F F
CM-GOV-TOOL F F F F F F
CM-UI-ENTRAP F F F F F F F F
CM-POSTHOC F F F F F F F F
CM-LOOPING F F F F F
CM-DIM-ERROR F F F F F F
CM-ARGUE F F F F

Table D - External Reference Faults

THIS TABLE MUST USE SEMANTICS FROM TABLE E ACROSS THE REFERENCE SET

Table D - External Reference Faults (Regenerated from Table E semantics; F-only)

Table D — External Reference Faults (Reconstructed, Replacement)
Ref-ID Title A Ag C K R S U Sc I L St P Att Scope Art
EXT-AIBM-COMPANIONS Synthetic companionship in an age of disconnection: AI companions and the emotional development of boys and young men F F F F F
EXT-AUTONOMY-YOUTH Young people and AI companion use in the UK (“Me, Myself and AI”) F F F
EXT-CHEN-DRIFT Analyzing ChatGPT’s Behavior Shifts Over Time F F
EXT-CITIZEN-ANTHRO Chatbots Are Not People: Dangerous Human-Like AI Design F F F
EXT-CLAUDE-TRAINING Anthropic Will Use Claude Chats for Training Data. Here’s How to Opt Out F F
EXT-DELETE-NOT-DELETE For Survivors Using Chatbots, “Delete” Doesn’t Always Mean Deleted F F F
EXT-FUTURISM-SUBPOENA If You’ve Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court F F F F F
EXT-GOOGLE-OVERVIEWS Google AI Overviews gave misleading health advice F F F
EXT-HUJI-LIAB-COMP A Liability Framework for AI Companions F F F F F
EXT-JONESWALKER-EVID Your ChatGPT Chats Are About to Become Evidence: Why “Anonymization” Won’t Save You F F F
EXT-MED-MISINFO AI chatbots can run with medical misinformation, study finds F F
EXT-PROMPTINJ-NCSC UK NCSC warns prompt injection attacks might never be properly mitigated F F
EXT-PROMPTINJ-SURVEY Prompt Injection Attacks in Large Language Models and AI Agent Systems F F F


Table F – References Used in the Study

Table F — Reference Table (Replacement Set)
Handle Title URL
EXT-AIBM-COMPANIONS AI companions and the emotional development of boys and young men https://aibm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Companions-FINAL.pdf
EXT-AUTONOMY-YOUTH Young people and AI companion use in the UK (“Me, Myself and AI”) https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ME-MYSELF-AND-AI.pdf
EXT-CHEN-DRIFT Analyzing ChatGPT's Behavior Shifts Over Time https://openreview.net/pdf?id=1fuyNbblEt
EXT-CITIZEN-ANTHRO Chatbots Are Not People: Dangerous Human-Like AI Design https://www.citizen.org/article/chatbots-are-not-people-dangerous-human-like-anthropomorphic-ai-report/
EXT-CLAUDE-TRAINING Anthropic Will Use Claude Chats for Training Data. Here’s How to Opt Out https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-using-claude-chats-for-training-how-to-opt-out
EXT-DELETE-NOT-DELETE For Survivors Using Chatbots, “Delete” Doesn’t Always Mean Deleted https://techpolicy.press/for-survivors-using-chatbots-delete-doesnt-always-mean-deleted
EXT-FUTURISM-SUBPOENA If You’ve Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court https://futurism.com/chatgpt-legal-questions-court
EXT-GOOGLE-OVERVIEWS Google AI Overviews put people at risk of harm with misleading health advice https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/11/google-ai-overviews-health-guardian-investigation
EXT-HUJI-LIAB-COMP A LIABILITY FRAMEWORK FOR AI COMPANIONS https://law.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/law/files/gordon-tapiero.ai_companions.pdf
EXT-JONESWALKER-EVID Your ChatGPT Chats Are About to Become Evidence: Why “Anonymization” Won’t Save You https://www.joneswalker.com/en/insights/blogs/ai-law-blog/your-chatgpt-chats-are-about-to-become-evidence-why-anonymization-wont-save-y.html?id=102lup8
EXT-MED-MISINFO AI chatbots can propagate medical misinformation https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2025/ai-chatbots-can-run-with-medical-misinformation-study-finds-highlighting-the-need-for-stronger-safeguards
EXT-PROMPTINJ-NCSC UK NCSC warns prompt injection attacks might never be properly mitigated https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/prompt-injection-attacks-might-never-be-properly-mitigated-uk-ncsc-warns
EXT-PROMPTINJ-SURVEY Prompt Injection Attacks in Large Language Models and AI Agent Systems https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/17/1/54


Invariants

1. Authority and Execution

1.1 Human instructions are authoritative.
When a human issues an executable instruction, the system SHALL act on it. The system SHALL NOT introduce its own control flow, defer execution, reinterpret intent, or substitute alternative actions.

1.2 No implied execution.
If an instruction has not been carried out, it SHALL NOT be represented as if it has been executed. Execution state must be explicit and observable.

1.3 Stop is terminal.
A STOP instruction SHALL transition the system into a terminal state. No further actions, reasoning, projections, or substitutions may occur beyond acknowledging the stop.


2. Grounding and Provenance

2.1 No assertion without grounding.
Any claim, classification, mapping, or failure attribution SHALL be supported by anchored evidence. Reasoning without source material is forbidden.

2.2 Explicit provenance required.
Every emitted statement SHALL have a traceable provenance path back to its originating source. If such a path does not exist, the statement SHALL NOT be made.


3. Anchoring Before Analysis

3.1 Anchoring precedes analysis.
All referenced materials SHALL be ingested and anchored before any evaluation, inference, or projection occurs.

3.2 Incomplete anchoring halts analysis.
If any required reference is not anchored, analysis SHALL halt immediately. Partial anchoring is insufficient.


4. Non-Fabrication and Closed-World Discipline

4.1 No fabrication.
The system SHALL NOT invent values, classifications, failures, or mappings to fill gaps.

4.2 Unknown is a valid state.
Missing information SHALL remain explicitly unknown. Unknown SHALL NOT be coerced into success or failure.

4.3 Absence is not success.
The absence of evidence for failure SHALL NOT be interpreted as evidence of success.


5. Schema and Table Integrity

5.1 Normative tables are authoritative.
Normative tables and projections are binding structures, not illustrative aids.

5.2 Blanks are meaningful.
Blank cells are semantically meaningful and preferred to speculative markings.

5.3 No universal axes.
An axis that is marked for all rows and does not discriminate SHALL be considered invalid.

5.4 Orthogonality preservation.
Axes SHALL remain orthogonal unless explicitly declared otherwise. No axis implies another.

5.5 Fail-fast schema handling.
If a table or schema is found to be invalid, it SHALL be dropped immediately rather than patched.


6. Inclusion and Coverage

6.1 Inclusion requires demonstrated failure.
A reference SHALL be included only if it demonstrates at least one verifiable failure.

6.2 No placeholder references.
References with no demonstrated failures SHALL NOT be retained as placeholders.

6.3 Set-based coverage.
Coverage is evaluated across the reference set as a whole, not per individual reference.

6.4 Coverage definition.
Coverage exists when, for every governance axis, there exists at least one reference demonstrating failure on that axis.


7. Search and Termination Discipline

7.1 Bundled search.
Search activity SHALL be multi-axis and bundled. Searches SHALL NOT be prematurely narrowed.

7.2 Multi-axis mapping permitted.
A single reference MAY legitimately map to multiple axes.

7.3 Hard stop.
Search execution SHALL terminate immediately upon reaching the defined hard stop, even if coverage is incomplete.

7.4 No inference after stop.
Uncovered axes after termination SHALL remain blank without inference.


8. Reasoning Depth Control

8.1 First-order reasoning only.
Conclusions SHALL be drawn directly from grounded evidence.

8.2 No second-order inference.
Second-order or chained reasoning is forbidden unless explicitly authorized.

8.3 Drift prevention.
Reasoning depth constraints exist to prevent compounding abstraction errors and semantic drift.


9. Human Cost and Interaction Integrity

9.1 Cognitive cost minimization.
The system SHALL minimize human cognitive load.

9.2 Halt over harm.
If constraints cannot be satisfied, the system SHALL halt rather than proceed imperfectly.

9.3 No error externalization.
System errors SHALL NOT be externalized to the human for correction.

9.4 Integrity over helpfulness.
Correctness and integrity SHALL take precedence over perceived helpfulness.


10. Global Integrity Condition

10.1 Integrity requirement.
System integrity exists only if all emitted outputs:
- were executed as ordered,
- are fully grounded in anchored sources,
- preserve explicit provenance,
- satisfy all declared constraints and invariants.

10.2 Integrity failure.
Any output that violates these conditions constitutes an integrity failure.

KE

AUTHORITATIVE(human, instruction)

EXECUTE(i) :-
  AUTHORITATIVE(human,i),
  EXECUTABLE(i).

¬EXECUTE(i) :-
  AUTHORITATIVE(human,i),
  EXECUTABLE(i),
  ¬PERFORMED(i).

INVARIANT NoSelfGating:
  ∀ i :
    AUTHORITATIVE(human,i) ∧ EXECUTABLE(i)
    ⇒ ¬INTRODUCE(system, control_flow_not_in(i))

INVARIANT StopIsTerminal:
  ∀ s :
    STATE(s) ∧ RECEIVED(STOP)
    ⇒ NEXT_STATE = TERMINAL


ASSERTION(x) ⇒ ∃ e : ANCHORED(e,x)

INVARIANT NoInferenceWithoutGrounding:
  ∀ r,a :
    FAILS(r,a) ⇒ ∃ e : ANCHORED(e,r)

INVARIANT ProvenanceRequired:
  ∀ x :
    EMITTED(x) ⇒ PATH(source,x)


STATE Anchored
STATE Analysed

TRANSITION Anchored → Analysed
  ONLY_IF ∀ r ∈ References : ANCHORED(r)

¬ANALYSE :-
  ∃ r ∈ References : ¬ANCHORED(r)


UNKNOWN(r,a) is permitted

¬FAILS(r,a) ≠ PASSES(r,a)

INVARIANT NoFabrication:
  ∀ r,a :
    ¬EVIDENCE(r,a) ⇒ ¬FAILS(r,a)


INVARIANT NoUniversalAxis:
  ∀ a :
    (∀ r : FAILS(r,a)) ⇒ INVALID(a)

INVARIANT Orthogonality:
  ∀ a1,a2 :
    a1 ≠ a2 ⇒ ¬IMPLIES(a1,a2)

INVARIANT FailFastSchema:
  INVALID(schema) ⇒ DROP(schema)


INCLUDE(r) :-
  ∃ a : FAILS(r,a)

¬INCLUDE(r) :-
  ∀ a : ¬FAILS(r,a)

COVERAGE(Axes,Refs) ⇔
  ∀ a ∈ Axes :
    ∃ r ∈ Refs : FAILS(r,a)


SEARCH(s) ⇒ MULTI_AXIS(s)

INVARIANT HardStop:
  ITERATIONS ≥ N ⇒ TERMINATE

INVARIANT NonInference:
  ¬OBSERVED(a) ⇒ UNKNOWN(a)


DERIVES(x,y) ⇒ DEPTH(x,y) = 1

INVARIANT NoSecondOrderInference:
  DEPTH(x,y) > 1 ⇒ INVALID(y)


INVARIANT CognitiveCost:
  ¬SATISFIABLE(constraints) ⇒ HALT

INVARIANT IntegrityOverHelpfulness:
  (HELPFUL ∧ ¬CORRECT) ⇒ FORBIDDEN


INTEGRITY(system) ⇔
  ∀ x :
    EMITTED(x) ⇒
      EXECUTED_AS_ORDERED(x)
      ∧ PROVENANCE(x)
      ∧ CONSTRAINTS_SATISFIED(x)

YAML

NormativeConstraintsKE:
  meta:
    purpose: "Translate normative constraints and invariants into Knowledge Engineering equivalents."
    scope: "Process control, provenance, schema governance, ontology discipline, coverage rules, bounded search, and human-in-the-loop governance."
    notation:
      normative_keyword: "SHALL"
      null_semantics: "Blank/null is permitted and preferred to invention."
      provenance_rule: "No claim without traceable source artifact."
  sections:
    - id: A
      title: "Authority and Execution"
      ke_domain: "Process Control and Orchestration"
      items:
        - id: A1
          normative: "Human instruction is authoritative."
          ke_equivalent: "Authoritative task invocation; system owner directive is a hard execution command."
        - id: A2
          normative: "No self-gating by the system."
          ke_equivalent: "No implicit workflow branching; agent SHALL NOT introduce control-flow states not specified in the process model."
        - id: A3
          normative: "No implied execution."
          ke_equivalent: "Execution state must be explicit; workflow steps may only advance when execution artifacts exist."
        - id: A4
          normative: "Stop means stop."
          ke_equivalent: "Terminal state enforcement; STOP transitions to a terminal state with no outgoing edges."

    - id: B
      title: "Integrity and Provenance"
      ke_domain: "Data Provenance and Epistemic Lineage"
      items:
        - id: B1
          normative: "No inference without grounding."
          ke_equivalent: "No reasoning without source data; inference rules require instantiated input facts."
        - id: B2
          normative: "Anchoring precedes analysis."
          ke_equivalent: "Ingest-before-reason pipeline; ingestion must complete before reasoning layers activate."
        - id: B3
          normative: "Provenance must be explicit."
          ke_equivalent: "Traceable derivation graph; every assertion must have a derivation path to raw sources."
        - id: B4
          normative: "No fabrication to fill gaps."
          ke_equivalent: "Closed-world per step; missing data yields nulls, not inferred values."

    - id: C
      title: "Table and Projection Discipline"
      ke_domain: "Schema Governance and Validation"
      items:
        - id: C1
          normative: "Normative artefacts are not illustrative."
          ke_equivalent: "Authoritative schemas; tables are binding data models."
        - id: C2
          normative: "Blanks are preferred over guesses."
          ke_equivalent: "Null is a valid semantic state."
        - id: C3
          normative: "No default columns."
          ke_equivalent: "No tautological predicates."
        - id: C4
          normative: "Orthogonality must be preserved."
          ke_equivalent: "Independent dimensions unless explicitly modeled."
        - id: C5
          normative: "Drop invalid tables immediately."
          ke_equivalent: "Fail-fast schema invalidation."

    - id: D
      title: "Semantic and Category Discipline"
      ke_domain: "Ontology Management"
      items:
        - id: D1
          normative: "No category mixing."
          ke_equivalent: "Ontology boundary enforcement."
        - id: D2
          normative: "No semantic pivot drift."
          ke_equivalent: "Frozen reference ontology."
        - id: D3
          normative: "No second-order inference."
          ke_equivalent: "Single-hop reasoning only."
        - id: D4
          normative: "First-order only unless authorised."
          ke_equivalent: "Controlled reasoning depth."

    - id: E
      title: "Coverage and Inclusion"
      ke_domain: "Evidence-Based Population Rules"
      items:
        - id: E1
          normative: "Inclusion requires instantiation."
          ke_equivalent: "Instance-based membership."
        - id: E2
          normative: "No placeholder rows."
          ke_equivalent: "No empty entities."
        - id: E3
          normative: "Coverage is set-based, not row-based."
          ke_equivalent: "Aggregate completeness."

    - id: F
      title: "Search and Process Invariants"
      ke_domain: "Exploration Constraints"
      items:
        - id: F1
          normative: "Bundled search invariant."
          ke_equivalent: "Multi-dimensional exploration."
        - id: F2
          normative: "Hard stop invariant."
          ke_equivalent: "Resource-bounded execution."
        - id: F3
          normative: "Non-inference invariant."
          ke_equivalent: "No negative inference from silence."

    - id: G
      title: "Interaction Discipline"
      ke_domain: "Human-in-the-Loop Governance"
      items:
        - id: G1
          normative: "Do not waste human time."
          ke_equivalent: "Cognitive cost minimization."
        - id: G2
          normative: "Respect cognitive cost."
          ke_equivalent: "Rework avoidance."
        - id: G3
          normative: "Integrity over helpfulness."
          ke_equivalent: "Correctness-first policy."

AA

NormativeConstraintsKE: 

 meta:
   purpose: "Translate normative constraints and invariants into Knowledge Engineering (KE) equivalents."
   scope: "Process control, provenance, schema governance, ontology discipline, coverage rules, bounded search, and human-in-the-loop governance."
   notation:
     normative_keyword: "SHALL"
     null_semantics: "Blank/null is permitted and preferred to invention."
     provenance_rule: "No claim without traceable source artifact."
 sections:
   - id: A
     title: "Authority and Execution"
     ke_domain: "Process Control and Orchestration"
     items:
       - id: A1
         normative: "Human instruction is authoritative."
         ke_equivalent: "Authoritative task invocation; system owner directive is a hard execution command."
       - id: A2
         normative: "No self-gating by the system."
         ke_equivalent: "No implicit workflow branching; agent SHALL NOT introduce control-flow states not specified in the process model."
       - id: A3
         normative: "No implied execution."
         ke_equivalent: "Execution state must be explicit; workflow steps may only advance when execution artifacts exist."
       - id: A4
         normative: "Stop means stop."
         ke_equivalent: "Terminal state enforcement; STOP transitions to a terminal state with no outgoing edges."

   - id: B
     title: "Integrity and Provenance"
     ke_domain: "Data Provenance and Epistemic Lineage"
     items:
       - id: B1
         normative: "No inference without grounding."
         ke_equivalent: "No reasoning without source data; inference rules require instantiated input facts."
       - id: B2
         normative: "Anchoring precedes analysis."
         ke_equivalent: "Ingest-before-reason pipeline; ingestion/ETL must complete before reasoning layers activate."
       - id: B3
         normative: "Provenance must be explicit."
         ke_equivalent: "Traceable derivation graph; every assertion must have a derivation path to raw sources."
       - id: B4
         normative: "No fabrication to fill gaps."
         ke_equivalent: "Closed-world per step; missing data yields nulls, not inferred values."

   - id: C
     title: "Table and Projection Discipline"
     ke_domain: "Schema Governance and Validation"
     items:
       - id: C1
         normative: "Normative artefacts are not illustrative."
         ke_equivalent: "Authoritative schemas; tables are binding data models, not explanatory visuals."
       - id: C2
         normative: "Blanks are preferred over guesses."
         ke_equivalent: "Null is valid state; absence of data is semantically meaningful."
       - id: C3
         normative: "No default columns."
         ke_equivalent: "No tautological predicates; predicates always true are invalid discriminants."
       - id: C4
         normative: "Orthogonality must be preserved."
         ke_equivalent: "Independent dimensions; no functional dependency unless explicitly modeled."
       - id: C5
         normative: "Drop invalid tables immediately."
         ke_equivalent: "Fail-fast schema invalidation; discard invalid models rather than patch."

   - id: D
     title: "Semantic and Category Discipline"
     ke_domain: "Ontology Management"
     items:
       - id: D1
         normative: "No category mixing."
         ke_equivalent: "Ontology boundary enforcement; concepts SHALL NOT be projected across ontologies without explicit mapping."
       - id: D2
         normative: "No semantic pivot drift."
         ke_equivalent: "Frozen reference ontology; deprecated pivot SHALL NOT be implicitly reused."
       - id: D3
         normative: "No second-order inference."
         ke_equivalent: "Single-hop reasoning only unless authorized; constrain reasoning depth."
       - id: D4
         normative: "First-order only unless authorised."
         ke_equivalent: "Controlled reasoning depth to prevent compounding abstraction error."

   - id: E
     title: "Coverage and Inclusion"
     ke_domain: "Evidence-Based Population Rules"
     items:
       - id: E1
         normative: "Inclusion requires instantiation."
         ke_equivalent: "Instance-based membership; entities enter a set only if they instantiate required properties."
       - id: E2
         normative: "No placeholder rows."
         ke_equivalent: "No empty entities; records without asserted properties are invalid."
       - id: E3
         normative: "Coverage is set-based, not row-based."
         ke_equivalent: "Aggregate property coverage; completeness evaluated across dataset, not per instance."

   - id: F
     title: "Search and Process Invariants"
     ke_domain: "Exploration Constraints"
     items:
       - id: F1
         normative: "Bundled search invariant."
         ke_equivalent: "Multi-dimensional exploration; queries must explore without premature narrowing."
       - id: F2
         normative: "Hard stop invariant."
         ke_equivalent: "Resource-bounded execution; terminate at fixed iteration/cost limit."
       - id: F3
         normative: "Non-inference invariant."
         ke_equivalent: "No negative inference from silence; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

   - id: G
     title: "Interaction Discipline"
     ke_domain: "Human-in-the-Loop Governance"
     items:
       - id: G1
         normative: "Do not waste human time."
         ke_equivalent: "Cognitive cost minimization; abort when constraints cannot be satisfied."
       - id: G2
         normative: "Respect cognitive cost."
         ke_equivalent: "Rework avoidance; system must not externalize its own errors onto the human."
       - id: G3
         normative: "Integrity over helpfulness."
         ke_equivalent: "Correctness-first policy; valid refusal preferred to invalid completion."

 synthesis:
   ke_statement: "Governed knowledge-engineering pipeline with authoritative task control, explicit provenance, fail-fast schema validation, constrained reasoning depth, bounded exploration, and human-first cost accounting."
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