# SCOPE

## One-liner

Reference implementation and spec workbench for Mail Address Semantics
(MAS): parser, statute discovery, pure policy, generator, CLI, mail
gateway, reference ticket service, and a tested Postfix integration
profile. It implements v0.1.1 and the v0.2 draft.

## 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/` (draft: stand-ins, destination transforms,
  `resource_id_case`). Spec changes go through
  `docs/spec-change-proposals.md`.
- **`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.
- Implementations in other languages (TypeScript, Go), until a second
  consumer exists. That is also the gate for declaring v0.2 final
  (MAS-WP-0009).
- 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, 0008 and 0010. Postfix profile, v0.1.1 errata,
  v0.2 draft, address composer, and v0.2 conformance cases.
- Open: MAS-WP-0007 (retire the live MX; backlog, unblocked) and
  MAS-WP-0009 (declare v0.2 final; waits for a second implementation or
  deployment).
- v0.2 stays a draft (founder, 2026-10-19).
- P2 is decided: `!MODE` requests a handoff (founder, 2026-10-19; SCP-8,
  v0.2 §7.1). The mode contract v0.1 draft and the reference
  implementation are done (MAS-WP-0010); `mas test` runs the contract
  corpus.
- The live `mas-mx` pod runs an image built before the profile refactor.
- Tests: `.venv/bin/pytest` runs 199 tests, offline apart from loopback
  fixtures and the Docker probe.

## Getting Oriented

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