mail-address-semantics/SCOPE.md

# SCOPE

## One-liner

Reference implementation and spec workbench for Mail Address Semantics
(MAS), and the email building block for a future multimodal communication
framework. Contents: parser, statute discovery, pure policy, generator,
CLI, mail gateway, reference ticket service, a tested Postfix integration
profile, and the mode contract with an email side that works as master or
slave. It implements address spec v0.1.1 and v0.2, and mode contract
v0.1; all are final. A second, independent implementation in JavaScript
(`impl/js/`) validates v0.2 and both sides of the mode contract.

## Core Idea

Test whether ordinary email addresses can carry limited, parseable
semantics (opaque targets, `type=id` resources, `+` facets, `!`
interaction preferences) through real mail infrastructure, without
changing SMTP and without making addresses credentials or commands
(INTENT.md). The architectural boundary is fixed: the parser does no I/O,
policy is pure, only `mas_core/discovery.py` touches the network, and
delivery stays external.

## In Scope

- **Normative bundles.** `mas-v0.1-spec/` (v0.1.1 errata) and
  `mas-v0.2-spec/` (final 2026-10-19: stand-ins, destination transforms,
  `resource_id_case`). Spec changes go through
  `docs/spec-change-proposals.md`.
- **`impl/js/`.** The second implementation: parser, statute-aware rules,
  signing, outside master. Zero dependencies; `tests/test_js_impl.py` and
  the differential test `tests/test_differential.py` run it when Node is
  available.
- **`mas_core`.** Parser, model, statute validation and lint, exact-host
  discovery with explicit `inherits`, policy, and the generator with v0.2
  destination transforms.
- **`mas_conformance`.** Address, property, statute and v0.2
  statute-aware corpora, vendored unchanged from the bundles and checked
  for drift.
- **`mas` CLI.** `parse`, `explain`, `discover`, `compose`,
  `lint-statute`, `test`.
- **`mas_gateway`.** MTA `pipe` and provider-style `webhook` to a
  normalized HTTP event. It reads sender authentication only from trusted
  `Authentication-Results`.
- **Examples.** A static statute and the reference ticket service: create,
  correlate by address, closed lifecycle, quarantine, a DMARC-gated reply,
  and a lifetime send cap.
- **MTA integration.** `integrations/postfix/` (profile plus README),
  tested against a real Postfix by `experiments/postfix-probe/` and
  `tests/test_postfix_profile.py` (needs Docker). Exim: notes only
  (`integrations/exim/NOTES.md`).
- **Mode reference implementation** (INTENT.md, *Mode reference
  implementation*). `mas-modes-v0.1-spec/` is a language-neutral contract
  (handoffs, statuses, timeouts, master/slave roles, outside-master
  commands) with JSON schemas, including the gateway event, and
  conformance flows. `mas_modes/` holds the email side in both roles
  (master per resource type over the ticket service, or slave to an
  outside master that issues case ids), a scripted callback stub, a stub
  outside master and the flow runner. Email is the only real channel. See
  `docs/reuse-surface.md`.
- **MAS facility.** `deploy/railiance/`: the MX and statute for
  `mas.coulomb.social`, with replies through Scaleway TEM capped at 300.
  `power.sh` turns the two Deployments on and off. Off keeps the
  namespace, evidence volume, credentials, DNS, and LoadBalancer.
  MAS-WP-0007.

## Out of Scope

- Real non-email modes (telephony, chat, SMS, video), connectors to real
  CMS or ticketing products, and the multimodal framework itself. Other
  modes exist here only as contract-speaking test stubs.
- Further language implementations beyond `impl/js/`, and `impl/js/` as
  a published package.
- Postfix policy daemon, Exim profile (until there is demand), mail-client
  plugins and inspectors, browser extensions, a web composer.
- Central MAS registry, signed statutes, implicit parent-domain
  inheritance, production identity federation.
- P3 economic semantics: `$` and `^` stay reserved. Also payments,
  signatures and marketplaces.
- Application business logic in the gateway. Production ticketing. Sender
  policy beyond what the reference service needs to avoid backscatter.
- Irreversible operational actions (cluster teardown, key revocation,
  redeploys) without founder approval.

## Current State

- Status: active. The reference experiment (MAS-WP-0002) passed its
  decision gate on 2026-10-18; the findings are in
  `docs/experiment-review.md`.
- Finished: MAS-WP-0001 to 0015. That covers the Postfix profile, the
  v0.1.1 errata, v0.2 (final), the address composer, the mode contract
  v0.1 (final) with authentication, one outbound path and bundle-only
  flows, the second implementation (`impl/js/`, both specs, both contract
  sides), and the switchable MAS facility.
- v0.2 is final (founder, 2026-10-19, after MAS-WP-0009). Mode contract
  v0.1 is final too (founder, 2026-10-19, after MAS-WP-0014: independent
  JS email side; MCP-1 to MCP-6).
- P2 is decided: `!MODE` requests a handoff (founder, 2026-10-19; SCP-8,
  v0.2 §7.1). The mode contract and its reference implementation are
  done (MAS-WP-0010); `mas test` runs the contract corpus.
- The MAS facility runs image `mas-live:v0.2-480e69a` (redeployed
  2026-10-19). Founder decision 2026-11-01: keep it and power it on or
  off (MAS-WP-0007). It was left on. The 300-reply cap, the side-loaded
  image, and snakeoil SMTP TLS stay until a later decision.
- Tests: `.venv/bin/pytest` runs 280 tests, offline apart from loopback
  fixtures, the Docker probe and Node for `impl/js/`. `mas test` runs
  four corpora: parser 64, statute 16, v0.2 statute-aware 33, mode
  contract 195. `cd impl/js && node --test` runs 85 more.
- Assessments: `history/` (latest: `2026-10-19T090725Z-scope-vs-intent.md`).

## Getting Oriented

- Start with: INTENT.md, then `docs/experiment-review.md` and
  `docs/reuse-surface.md`
- Agent instructions: AGENTS.md
- Workplans: workplans/

## Generated work-record index

This repository opts into staged-source WORK-RECORDS.md generation through
`.generated-work-records.json` and the isolated `.generated-work-records.mk`
recipe. `make generated-work-records` reuses the State Hub renderer through
the Custodian adapter; `make generated-work-records-check` verifies byte-exact
agreement with staged Markdown. The pre-commit hook uses the isolated recipe,
preserves unstaged index edits by refusing them, and retains the generated-only
commit guard. It does not contact the hub, alter workplan statuses, or grant
deployment authority. This consumes shared tooling; it does not make this
repository the provider of the generator capability.

## Local orientation brief policy — 2026-10-21

`.custodian-brief.md` is a local, ignored State Hub orientation snapshot. Refreshing
it does not require a Git commit. Authored workplans and the generated
WORK-RECORDS index keep their existing source and staged-generation contracts.