Truth Machine / Kit

Change Packet

One reviewable proposed transition — exact delta, cited evidence, rationale, uncertainty, and expected state — that becomes the accepted record's ancestry.

Read as Markdown

Tier: 3 · Normative weight: implements TM-REC-004–TM-REC-008, TM-CHG-009 Requires: Evidence Packet

Problem it removes

For truth Git does not govern, “review” means someone glanced at a description of the change. What was actually applied, what evidence backed it, and what uncertainty survived acceptance are unrecoverable a month later.

Mechanism

One directory per proposed change: a change.toml carrying the machine identity, and a README carrying the reviewable substance. Together they hold the exact before-and-after delta (TM-REC-004), the cited evidence packets and why they support the delta (TM-REC-005), the uncertainty that remains (TM-REC-006), the known consequences (TM-REC-007), and the expected current-state revision the proposal reasoned against. Mutations whose partial application could contradict travel in one packet (TM-REC-008).

On acceptance the packet gains its acceptance fields — reviewer, date, acceptance evidence, proposal digest — and becomes the durable change record TM-CHG-009 enumerates. Records are what accepted changes become: each transition in the packet names the record it creates or supersedes, and the record packet (record.toml) binds that record’s content and ancestry.

Cost

Authoring: the schemas exist; the first packet is an hour of understanding the lifecycle. Per change: writing the delta and rationale — which is the review the change needed anyway, made durable. Per session: none.

Do not adopt when

Git and PR review already govern the truth in question. This is the clearest “do not” in the catalog: change packets over source code are ceremony duplicating commits.

Evidence

Assessed in kinra-corpus; the reference instance’s own accepted changes are frozen history in the same shape. The flow ledger implements the semantics in an application. Validated by change.schema.json and record.schema.json.

Template

templates/change-packet/change.toml and templates/record-packet/record.toml

Exact Review binds review to this exact packet; Atomic Transition applies it. Decision Records are the lighter form when narrative is enough.