# Semantic Model

> The record meanings a truth machine must preserve independently of storage layout.

A truth machine is a governed loop, not a particular database or application
shape.

```text
source claim or event
        |
        v
evidence + provenance + bounded source authority
        |
        v
reconciliation against current truth and a coherence boundary
        |
        v
exact proposed change + rationale + uncertainty + expected state
        |
        v
review identity + deterministic validation
        |
        v  atomic transition
current truth + append-only change record
        |
        v
publication, operation, observation, or encounter
        |
        +-------------------------------> new evidence
```

## Required meanings

**TM-MOD-001 — Semantic separation.** An implementation **MUST** preserve
distinct meanings for evidence, current truth, proposed change, accepted
change, and publication when publication is in scope. These meanings may share
storage but **MUST NOT** become interchangeable states.

**TM-MOD-002 — One advancement boundary.** An implementation **MUST** define
one mechanical boundary through which current truth advances. No source,
interface, model result, import, or direct storage edit may bypass it.

**TM-MOD-003 — Explicit coherence boundary.** An implementation **MUST** name
the smallest whole across which a proposed transition must be validated and
applied together to avoid a hidden contradiction.

**TM-MOD-004 — Durable identity.** Evidence, accepted changes, current-state
revisions, and publications **MUST** have stable identities sufficient to
recover their relationships after the process or session that created them.

**TM-MOD-005 — Domain ownership.** A coordinating truth system **MUST** state
which facts it owns and which remain owned by another system. Citation,
observation, or indexing **MUST NOT** silently transfer authority.

## Record questions

| Meaning | Question answered |
| --- | --- |
| Evidence | What did this source say, show, or produce? |
| Current truth | What reviewed account may be acted on now? |
| Proposed change | What exact movement is being requested, against which state, and why? |
| Accepted change | What moved, under whose authority, using which evidence and validation? |
| Publication | What exact representation crossed a boundary, and what happened to it? |
| Observation | What was read from an external or runtime system, when, and with what result? |

The storage schema is deliberately unspecified. The semantic contract is not.

## Operational truth

Truth Machine uses *truth* to mean the current best reviewed account on which
the system's people may responsibly act. It makes no claim of omniscience.
Current truth may contain unknown values, bounded estimates, unresolved
conflicts, or conclusions later superseded by better evidence.