Documentation

Foundations · Guide 03

The answer ladder

Four declared reasoning tiers, a caller-controlled ceiling and one rule: climb only when the tier below cannot answer.

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Pre-release documentation. This guide describes the current product design and evaluation build. Packaging, availability and commercial terms may change before release.

01

T0: Decided

T0 performs symbolic resolution over the sealed graph with no model call. The same version, facts, as-of time and operating point produce the same decision path.

  • Best for regulated and high-consequence checks
  • Bit-reproducible
  • Works with no model configured
02

T1: Decided with judgment

T1 adds bounded scalar oracles. An oracle may evaluate a prose condition, normalize an ask or narrow candidates. It returns a boolean, scalar or identifier list, never prose presented as authority.

  • Each judgment records the seam, model, input and prompt hashes, output and latency
  • Replay reads the recorded judgment instead of invoking the model again
  • An oracle may narrow a candidate set, never widen it
03

T2: Reasoned

At T2, a model emits a closed typed plan. Rulebook validates the entire plan against the pinned graph, then a constrained interpreter executes it without model, network, filesystem or clock access.

  • Allowed steps are apply rule, derive fact, calculate, lookup, combine and cite
  • Every premise must rest on confirmed authority
  • Invalid plans are rejected as a whole
  • Execution is replayable from the stored plan
04

T3: Explained

T3 composes a labelled narrative over a T0 to T2 result and checks that the narrative is entailed by that result. The explanation is not reproducible and never changes the outcome.

05

Operating points and human review

The caller chooses a ceiling: strict stops at T0, fast permits T0 to T1, balanced permits T0 to T2, and best permits T0 to T3. A caller can also reject an answer above its own threshold by inspecting the returned tier and receipt.

  • Needs review is a first-class decision outcome
  • The response names missing facts, ambiguous rules or blocked conditions
  • Human approval can be an enforcement obligation at any reasoning tier

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