# 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`. - **Live test environment.** `deploy/railiance/`: the MX for `mas.coulomb.social`, with replies through Scaleway TEM capped at 300. It is temporary; MAS-WP-0007 retires it. ## 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 0006 and 0008 to 0014. 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, and the second implementation (`impl/js/`, both specs, both contract sides). - Open: MAS-WP-0007 (retire the live MX; backlog, kept by decision). - 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 live MX runs image `mas-live:v0.2-480e69a` (redeployed 2026-10-19) and is kept up by founder decision (MAS-WP-0007 stays in backlog). The deployment with MAS-WP-0012 (one outbound path) is recorded in MAS-WP-0007. - Tests: `.venv/bin/pytest` runs 274 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.