audit: contractiles estate state 2026-06-02 — schema drift + trident-claim/on-disk mismatch

[hyperpolymath]

Contractiles estate audit (2026-06-02)

Estate-wide audit of .machine_readable/contractiles/ directories. Surface for owner decision; no automated changes recommended (these files carry SPDX headers — owner-only per estate licence-policy directive).

Repos with INDEX.a2ml

8 repos: the-nash-equilibrium, echidna, standards, natsci-studio, vcl-ut, proof-burrower, 007, ephapax.

Schema-version drift

Repo	Schema	last_updated	Verb-file shape declared	Verb-file shape on disk
the-nash-equilibrium	v1.0.0	2026-04-24	file_pair = [.a2ml, .ncl]	.a2ml + .ncl ✓
echidna	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	.a2ml only ✗
standards	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)
natsci-studio	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)
vcl-ut	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)
proof-burrower	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)
007	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)
ephapax	v2.0.0	2026-04-18	trident = [.a2ml, .ncl, .k9.ncl]	(unverified)

Findings

1. the-nash-equilibrium is a deliberate v1.0.0 holdout: its on-disk files genuinely match the v1 file_pair shape (must.ncl + Mustfile.a2ml, no must.k9.ncl or manifest.a2ml). Upgrading the schema to v2.0.0 would require adding two new files per verb (k9.ncl + manifest.a2ml) per verb — that is new work, not a metadata bump.

2. echidna (and probably others) declares trident but doesn't have all three files on disk: must/ contains only Mustfile.a2ml — no must.ncl or must.k9.ncl. INDEX promises content that isn't there. Either INDEX is aspirational and the files are owed, or the trident declaration is incorrect.

3. burble has the directory shape (adjust/ bust/ dust/ intend/ must/ trust/ + README.adoc) but no INDEX.a2ml and no _base.ncl. May be a deliberate "lighter weight" template variant or a copy that lost the top-level metadata.

4. SPDX headers diverge appropriately per estate licence policy: the-nash-equilibrium AGPL-3.0-or-later (correctly: son-shared per repo description "co-developed by Jonathan & Joshua"); standards/ephapax PMPL-1.0-or-later (correct: spec home + estate-blessed PMPL carve-out); the rest MPL-2.0 (correct: owner's sole repos). No licence changes proposed.

Recommendations for owner action (NOT automated)

• A. the-nash-equilibrium v1 → v2 upgrade decision: keep on v1 (with explicit "intentional v1" note in INDEX) OR commission the 12 new files (6 verbs × k9.ncl + manifest.a2ml).
• B. trident-claim audit on echidna et al.: per repo, either (i) add the missing *.ncl + *.k9.ncl files, or (ii) downgrade INDEX's trident= to file_pair= to match on-disk reality.
• C. burble decision: bootstrap INDEX.a2ml + _base.ncl from canonical OR mark as "structure-only / no governance" if light template is intentional.

Out of scope for this audit

• Mustfile/Trustfile/Dustfile/Intentfile content validity per the v1 contractiles-a2ml spec (this audit checked structure, not field-by-field conformance).
• Repos that hold contractiles outside .machine_readable/contractiles/ (e.g., reposystem/contractiles/, bofig/contractiles/trust/Trustfile, universal-chat-extractor/contractiles/lust/Intentfile). These appear to be older locations; should be migrated or documented.

Posted as part of the 2026-06-02 estate doc sweep.

[hyperpolymath]

Re-verified 2026-08-26 — scope is 5× larger, and two of the three findings are now false

Repos carrying .machine_readable/contractiles/INDEX.a2ml: 42 (25 hyperpolymath + 17 metadatastician), not 8. Measured by enumerate-then-filter across all 420 repos.

Findings, re-checked

#	finding as filed	status today
1	the-nash-equilibrium is a deliberate v1 holdout	✅ HOLDS — still version = "1.0.0", on-disk file_pair shape genuinely matches
2	echidna declares trident but has only Mustfile.a2ml	❌ FALSE — now carries .a2ml + .ncl + .k9.ncl + .manifest.a2ml on all 6 verbs
3	burble has no INDEX.a2ml, no _base.ncl	❌ FALSE — has both, and now declares v2 trident

Four schema versions, not two

• v2.0.0 — dominant
• v1.0.0 ×3 — the-nash-equilibrium (known), plus metadatastician/688-attack-hub and metadatastician/insolvency-tycoon, both unrecorded holdouts
• 0.1.0 ×1 — panic-attack, a version this issue does not know exists

New trident-claim mismatches (declare v2, on-disk disagrees)

repo	actual shape
007-lang	.a2ml only, zero .ncl ← worst case
natsci-studio, proof-burrower	flat — no verb directories at all; missing Bustfile/Dustfile entirely
vcl-ut	.a2ml + .ncl only
ephapax	partial — adjust/intend have k9+manifest; bust/dust/must/trust do not
burble	declares v2, shape incomplete

Fully conformant: echidna, standards.

Not checked: the 17 metadatastician repos' on-disk verb shapes (only their INDEX versions were read), and field-by-field content conformance — explicitly out of scope in the original audit too.

[hyperpolymath]

Closed under D110 (#787 — close stale-premise issues unilaterally). A2ML is retired as a name and a forward format (owner ruling, 2026-09-14); .deed and .k9 are the live formats, and the migration is the DEED campaign (#837). This was a 2026-06-02 snapshot audit of .a2ml contractile schema drift; those files are being converted under #837, so the drift table no longer describes a target anyone will reconcile toward.