sierra catalina

dossier 001 / public working proposal / 2026.08.21

the context layer.

a user-controlled contract for moving the minimum useful context across models, agents & applications.

protocol invariant

one boundary. six recorded steps.

each exchange starts with a declared purpose & ends with a receipt. raw vault access never crosses the boundary.

  1. 01capturepreserve origin

    record the source event, time, identity & payload digest before interpretation.

  2. 02normalizederive with provenance

    derive structured claims while retaining source references, timestamps & confidence.

  3. 03vaultretain authority

    keep encrypted originals & policy state inside user-controlled authority. raw data never enters bundles or receipts.

  4. 04decideallow, reduce, approve or deny

    evaluate purpose, recipient, selectors, actions & expiry before granting any context.

  5. 05bundleminimum useful context

    issue recipient-bound, expiring, single-use context with restrictions & provenance.

  6. 06actexecute & receipt

    verify capabilities, execute the permitted action & append a minimized receipt. memory writes remain proposals.

receipt rail

request → decision → disclosure → action → writeback

reading order

from argument to implementation.

implementation boundary

start with the contract.

the published proof covers v0.2 contract validation, an encrypted local vault, four-state policy, scoped bundles, anchored receipts, a files adapter & a local-agent consumer. it does not claim production key custody or a portable signing suite.

inspect the starter