dotfiles/claude/governance/fool/seed/FOOL-SEED-RULE.md

---
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 = <provenance-sha256> || <beacon-outputValue-lowercased>
  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/<epoch-ms>` 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.