FPF Reference

A.6.C:4.1 — The Contract Bundle (four-part unpacking)

Preface node heading:a-6-c-4-1-the-contract-bundle-four-part-unpacking:7684

Content

Whenever a text uses “contract / guarantee / promise / SLA / interface agreement” language, unpack it into four parts:

  1. Promise Content (Promise content)

    • The promised value/effect (the promise content) in the intended scope.
  • In FPF terms (A.2.3), U.PromiseContent is promise content—a promise content, not an execution event (U.Work) and not (by itself) an accountable deontic binding (U.Commitment).
  • Prose head rule (normative). When referring to U.PromiseContent in normative prose, authors SHALL use the head phrase promise content (or service offering clause / service promise clause) and SHALL NOT rely on the bare head noun service. If the surrounding text also talks about endpoints/systems/operations, apply A.6.8 to select facet‑typed phrases (service access point / service delivery system / service delivery work / …) rather than collapsing them into “service”.
    • Recommendation: give the promise-content a stable local ID (e.g., SVC-*) so it can be cited from commitments, gates, evidence, and MVPK faces without paraphrase drift.
  • Routing discipline: keep the semantics/definitions of the promised behavior in L; express who is accountable for satisfying the promise as a D claim (U.Commitment) that references the U.PromiseContent (plus any A-*/E-* claims as needed).

  1. Utterance Package (speech act + published descriptions)

    • The work occurrence of stating/publishing/approving (a U.SpeechAct <: U.Work, A.2.9) and the utterance descriptions it produces or updates (versioned epistemes on carriers) that host the routed claim set.
    • A speech act may institute/update commitments, but only under an explicit context policy that recognizes that actType as having such institutional force.
    • The published utterance descriptions (signature/mechanism spec + MVPK faces) host routed claims (L/A/D/E). The act is not “the contract”; it is the work occurrence that created/updated the descriptions and (when recognized) the associated commitments.
    • Default interpretation rule (normative). A conformant boundary model MUST NOT infer or assume any U.Commitment objects solely from the presence of a Publish/Approve U.SpeechAct. Publication creates/updates utterance descriptions and MAY institute publication/status claims (e.g., “Published”, “Approved as Standard”, “Deprecated”), but commitments exist only when represented explicitly as U.Commitment records (A.2.8).
    • If a bounded context defines a policy that maps certain publish/approve act types to commitment-instituting effects (e.g., a named SpecPublicationPolicy@Context), the model MUST cite that policy, and any resulting commitments MUST still be represented explicitly as one or more U.Commitment objects with accountable subjects (not inferred from publication alone).

  2. Commitment (Deontic accountability relation)

    • The accountable agent/role bound to obligations/permissions/prohibitions (including being accountable for satisfying a promise content).
    • This bundle part is the D‑side commitment object: by default, one or more U.Commitment records (A.2.8).
    • Default checklist (A.2.8 minimal structure):
      • id (stable; often the D-* claim ID),
      • subject (accountable role/party; never an episteme),
      • modality (normalized deontic token / BCP‑14 family),
      • scope (U.ClaimScope) and validityWindow (U.QualificationWindow),
      • referents (by reference/ID: promise content IDs like SVC-*, plus L-*/A-*/MethodDescriptionRef(...)/ServiceRef(...) as needed),
    • referents (by reference/ID: promise content IDs like SVC-*, plus L-*/A-*/MethodDescriptionRef(...)/PromiseContentRef(...) as needed),
      • optional owedTo (beneficiary/counterparty),
      • optional adjudication.evidenceRefs when the commitment is meant to be auditable (point to E-*),
      • optional source when authority/provenance matters (issuer + instituting speechActRef + description reference),
      • optional notes for explicitly informative commentary (not part of the binding).
    • A commitment is not “the spec text”: utterance descriptions carry the statement, but the binding is the U.Commitment object (A.7 / A.2.8).

  3. Work + Evidence (Adjudication substrate)

    • The executed work and the observable carriers/traces that can adjudicate whether a commitment was met.
    • This is E quadrant: “what evidence is produced/exposed/retained, under what conditions, and how it is interpreted”.
    • Work is not “the contract”; it is what makes any operational claim testable.
    • In FPF terms, evidence is normally expressed as carrier‑anchored E-* claims (often backed by U.EvidenceRole assignments on epistemes with provenance from Work).