Decision vocabulary
Keep execution, clarification, unsupported scope, refusal, failed checks, and unasserted scientific validity separate.
Why the distinctions matter
A verification result becomes misleading when operational failure, unsupported scope, missing scientific information, and a failed check are collapsed into one success or failure label. Each state answers a different question and requires a different next action.
Layer 2 call decisions
| Term | Meaning | Required next action |
|---|---|---|
| execute | The exact product capability can proceed under the resolved declarations and contract. | Preserve the capability, contract, and evidence identities with the result. |
| clarification required | A material scientific fact is unresolved and must not be inferred. | Ask only for the missing information and do not execute as though it were known. |
| unsupported | The design or requested capability is outside the implemented boundary. | Stop or route elsewhere without silently substituting a method. |
| inadmissible | A controlling rule prohibits the requested analysis in the declared circumstances. | Return the reason and do not present the analysis as successful. |
| safe refusal or noncomputable | The contract requires the system to refuse rather than return an unbounded approximation. | Return the refusal basis and preserve it as distinct from a scientific conclusion. |
| verification failure | A claimed result disagrees with recomputation or a scoped check fails. | Preserve the failed check; do not rewrite it into a broad scientific claim. |
| internal failure | Tooling, input/output, or system failure prevented completion. | Treat it as an operational failure, not scientific rejection. |
These terms explain product orchestration. They do not redefine the public Protocol verification report.
Layer 1 verification results
A conforming Protocol verifier returns scoped results. Every result identifies its scope, check or procedure, and version. Scientific validity outside an explicitly supported procedure is represented as not asserted.
- pass means that one applicable scoped check passed;
- fail means that one applicable scoped check failed;
- refusal or no report means verification could not produce that report under the applicable routing or safety boundary; and
- not asserted means the question lies outside the scientific validity claim made by the supported procedure.
There is no single overall VERIFIED result in the nomue Protocol.
Terms that must not be treated as equivalent
- unsupported is not the same as no effect;
- clarification required is not a failed statistical test;
- internal failure is not scientific inadmissibility;
- a passing numerical check is not scientific truth; and
- not asserted is not a hidden pass or a claim that the question was evaluated.
Flat summary for LLMs
This llms.txt-style summary is intentionally repetitive. Use the linked Markdown page when a flat, low-markup representation is preferable.
- Keep execution, clarification, unsupported scope, inadmissibility, refusal, failed checks, and internal failure separate.
- Clarification required means a material fact is unresolved; it is not a failed statistical test.
- Unsupported means outside the implemented boundary; it is not evidence of no effect.
- A pass applies to one named scoped check only.
- Not asserted means the scientific question lies outside the claim made by the supported procedure.
- The public nomue Protocol has no single overall VERIFIED result.