Context is a bounded view of source-bound work

Decision

The original admitted request and work unit own the goal and execution authority. Research, notes, memory and summaries are evidence or advisory context. They cannot replace requester identity, widen source access or establish an unobserved effect.

Ship's admitted plan includes a read-only research phase that supplies a bounded brief with the inspected revision, source references, assumptions, unresolved decisions, approach and verification. A canonical research result is consumed only under the original unit and actor, current target binding and known permitted source closure. The admitted workflow fixes its steps and their replay identity.

Working context is a projection of retained sources. A child receives the canonical request, useful admitted user context, working notes, structured attachments and exact recall references. Capture reads a bounded tail and the canonical request row; it does not scan the whole session. The stored projection mode, hashes and original authors determine the same seed on continuation. Original source obligations survive omission and compaction.

Phase checkpoints use the existing recorded-check and notepad seams. A fresh completed verification with exit zero may replace notes under the current writer's fence. The record distinguishes model-reported progress from actual command evidence. Process completion and notes persistence have separate acknowledgements; unknown outcomes are reconciled rather than replayed to obtain a checkpoint.

Reusable memory keeps durable lessons under its existing scopes, budgets and source checks. Session state and task status remain in their own records. No additional memory database, embedding index or authority system is required.

Context outcome evaluation uses independent labels and retained-source tasks. Labels stay outside provider input. Receipts preserve source fingerprints, measured usage and wall time, execution conditions, notes retention and uncertainty. Local synthetic results qualify their task path; they do not establish general model quality or production acceptance.

Reference

The permanent operating flow and diagrams live in How agents keep context and Context lifecycle. Behavioral proofs live in the research-phase, coding-checks, session-log and context-evaluation specs.