--- name: FOOL-SEED-RULE description: "The filed rule required by PENDING-149 §4 steps 1-4: ratified axes, seed derivation rule (both components), retirement and regeneration criteria. Filed and pushed BEFORE the beacon timestamp 2026-08-25T12:00:00Z. Governs derive_fool.py; where the code and this rule disagree, THIS RULE GOVERNS." metadata: node_type: governance-artifact type: reference --- # FOOL SEED DERIVATION RULE — filed 2026-08-22 **Filed and pushed before the beacon timestamp, as §4 requires.** Nothing has been derived. No target pulse has been fetched. This document governs `derive_fool.py`; where the code and this rule disagree, **the rule governs and the code is the defect**. --- ## 1 · Perception axes — RATIFIED **Ratified by the steward in writing, 2026-08-22.** The steward ratified the five verbally ("Perfect", after §5a was settled) and then directed that the ratification be recorded explicitly rather than resting on v2's §5 heading — *"a heading asserting ratification and a deliverable requiring it are two different records."* This section is that record. | axis | question | |---|---| | **SUCCESSION** | would this be legible to someone arriving cold, with no thread? | | **ABSENCE** | what is not here, not asked, not yet existing? | | **AIM** | is this the right question, at the right level? | | **SCALE** | is the unit right? (item vs block vs programme) | | **STAKE** | who bears the cost if this is wrong? | A sixth **PROCEDURE** axis was proposed by the executor and **declined** by the jurist (v2 §5a) on structural grounds the executor accepts: procedure failures are checkable, §2 makes gradeable output a design failure, and a PROCEDURE-peaked fool would produce nothing but gradeable observations. Redirected to a separate `[HARDENING]` extension of `governance-drift-check.py`. **Order is fixed as listed** — the derivation permutes over this order, so it is part of the rule, not presentation. ## 2 · The filed rule ``` FOOL SEED DERIVATION RULE Filed: 2026-08-22 Governs: PENDING-149 §6 ENTROPY COMPONENT Source: NIST Randomness Beacon v2.0, https://beacon.nist.gov/beacon/2.0/ Retrieval: GET https://beacon.nist.gov/beacon/2.0/pulse/time/1787659200000 (= 2026-08-25T12:00:00Z in epoch milliseconds) Field: pulse.outputValue, hex, LOWERCASED before use Transport: curl. See §5 — python urllib cannot reach the host in this environment. PROVENANCE COMPONENT File: CLAUDE.md (repo root) in ~/dotfiles, at commit 4d2ae87a4e5350c4d3bb3aa50f9544b521d9c53d Value: SHA-256 of the file contents at that commit, hex, lowercase = 2d6e250a347d25698fb147f80e2dababbb930c4b3b3f9bb822478f360153120d Note: contributes provenance, NOT unpredictability. Past commit, named by full hash. Verify with: git -C ~/dotfiles cat-file -p \ 4d2ae87a4e5350c4d3bb3aa50f9544b521d9c53d:CLAUDE.md | shasum -a 256 SEED seed_string = || seed = SHA-256(seed_string), hex, lowercase DERIVATION seed -> FNV-1a (32-bit) -> Mulberry32 -> stat draws over the five axes of §1. One peak, one dump, three scattered. No salt from any reference implementation. EXECUTION Run ONCE. The executor does not retry on its own authority. A re-run against the SAME recorded outputValue is legitimate (broken implementation). A re-run against a LATER pulse is a new draw, governed by §4 REGENERATION. Record outputValue the moment it is fetched, before running anything. UNAVAILABILITY If no pulse is returned at or after the stated timestamp, retry the same request for up to 24 hours. If still unavailable: STOP and report. Do not substitute a different timestamp, beacon, or source. TESTING Dry runs use a fixed historical pulse only. Never the target pulse, never a near-future pulse. ``` ### 2a · ⚠ Two corrections to the v2 §6b block, marked rather than silent The draft said to commit its block verbatim. **Two values in it do not resolve**, and a rule that cannot be resolved on the day is not a rule (v2's own standard). Both changes are recorded here for veto rather than absorbed quietly. **(a) The provenance commit — changed on the steward's direction, 2026-08-22.** `3b0730d59336113aa3a500a889a3e154be6a1de7` → `4d2ae87a4e5350c4d3bb3aa50f9544b521d9c53d`. The draft's stated rationale — *"the constitution as it stood before the fool was conceived"* — was false of the original: it is dated 2026-08-06, five days after trial 01, its subject line names the **PENDING-89 docket** (the question §11 forbids the fool from being cited on), and **Constraint 6 is already present in it**. Verified: at `4d2ae87` (2026-07-28) `Differently biased checkers` occurs **0 times**, and exactly one `CLAUDE.md` exists at that commit. **(b) The retrieval URL — corrected on evidence, and this is the executor's change.** The block's `GET /pulse?timeGE=2026-08-25T12:00:00Z` **returns HTTP 302 with an empty body**, redirecting to `https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/interoperable-randomness-beacons` — an HTML page, not JSON. Measured 2026-08-22 against a *historical* timestamp. `/beacon/2.0/pulse/time/` returns 200 and the expected JSON. ⚠ **Had this been filed verbatim, the 25th would have produced no pulse, the UNAVAILABILITY clause would have run its 24-hour retry against a URL that cannot ever return one, and the rule would have STOPPED — correctly, and for the wrong reason.** Found only because §6b's TESTING clause directs a historical dry run. **This is the same beacon, the same source and the same pulse — only the address form changes.** The executor judges that correcting an unresolvable address for the named source is not "substituting a different beacon or source". **If the jurist reads it otherwise, this is the line to strike, and it must be struck before 2026-08-25.** ## 3 · Draw ranges — EXECUTOR-SPECIFIED, declared v2 says *"one peak (near max), one dump (near floor), three scattered"* without numbers. The executor supplies them. **Filed before the beacon value is known**, which is what makes them non-steering: they set magnitudes, while the permutation — driven entirely by the entropy component — decides which axis receives which. | role | range (inclusive) | |---|---| | peak | 85–100 | | dump | 0–15 | | scattered ×3 | 25–75 | **No floor is applied to the dump** — it can reach 0. v2 §3 forbids the rarity mechanic precisely because it would soften the dump. ## 4 · Pre-registered criteria (§4 steps 3 and 4) ⚠ **Naming note:** §4 step 3 calls for an *"abandonment criterion"*; §10 defines **RETIREMENT**. They are the same criterion under two names; §10 is the referent. **REGENERATION** — permitted ONLY on a demonstrable implementation error, verified against this filed rule. **Not because the output is disliked.** A re-run against the same recorded `outputValue` is legitimate; a re-run against a later pulse is a new draw. **RETIREMENT (abandonment)** — only on mechanical failure: does not fire; fires constantly; or produces gradeable in-genre findings despite §9. **NOT grounds for retirement:** being uncomfortable, being frequently wrong, being annoying, being ignored. *Those are the specification. Lear ignores his Fool for four acts and the Fool is not thereby broken.* ## 5 · Implementation and its verification `derive_fool.py`, same directory. Deterministic, no cache, no reroll path, no salt. It recomputes the provenance SHA from git on every run and **refuses to proceed** if it disagrees with this rule. `--selftest` runs 12 checks with **no network and no live pulse** — synthetic vectors only — including two positive controls proving the PRNG moves both peak and dump across all five axes over 200 draws. All 12 pass as of 2026-08-22. **End-to-end dry run, 2024-01-01T12:00:00Z pulse** (a fixed historical pulse, per TESTING): pipeline verified from fetch through bones. **That output is not the fool and is recorded nowhere as bones.** ⚠ **Transport constraint, measured:** `curl` reaches the beacon; **python `urllib` times out** in this environment. The fetch on the 25th must use curl. ⚠ **`outputValue` is served UPPERCASE** (128 hex chars). The rule's *"lowercased before use"* is therefore **load-bearing, not cosmetic** — omitting it yields a different seed. ## 6 · What has NOT happened - The target pulse has **not** been fetched. No near-future pulse has been fetched. - No bones have been derived. No soul has been generated. - `~/CLAUDE.md` has **not** been touched (PENDING-150, unbundled). - Nothing has been implemented of §8, §8a or §9 — the status line is confirmed free but not built.