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docs: codify rejected runtime and MEL semantics #469

Description

@eggplantiny

Context

Derived from the 2026-04-25 and 2026-04-28 Claude Code usage review.

Some requested conveniences would make short-term agent driver work easier but would violate Manifesto's runtime, replay, or MEL analysis boundaries.

Current assessment

SPEC status: these directions should remain unsupported or explicitly rejected.

Desired outcome

Create an ADR or normative docs guardrail that codifies rejected semantics so future agent/tooling work does not re-open them accidentally.

Rejected directions to document:

  • Reconstructing canonical snapshots from projected user-facing snapshots.
  • Using subscribe() as a live in-flight phase monitor.
  • Merging state event and telemetry event channels.
  • Runtime-default self-dispatch suppression.
  • Calling live external effects during deterministic replay and calling that replay deterministic.
  • Promoting Host projection/shadow state to source of truth.
  • Allowing non-trivial arbitrary unions beyond literal-only and nullable-compatible cases.
  • Expanding MEL into a broad TypeScript-like language with optional chaining, computed keys, rest, or array spread.

Acceptance criteria

  • Guardrail references current runtime/MEL source-of-truth docs.
  • Each rejected direction has a brief rationale tied to determinism, explainability, replayability, or analysis boundaries.
  • Allowed alternatives are named where they exist, such as getCanonicalSnapshot(), getWorldSnapshot(worldId), telemetry on(...), recorded effect receipts, or helper-layer filtering.
  • The document does not redefine core semantics beyond codifying these boundaries.

Activity

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    P2Priority: important, but not nextdocsdocumentspkg:repoOwning scope: repository-wide docs, release, tooling, or new-package workstatus:triageStatus: needs active triage or decisiontype:specIssue type: contract, specification, semantics, or normative docs

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