test-driver/docs/TestDriverInitialMilestones.md

# TestDriver Research Prototype — Initial Milestones

**Status:** v0.1 — **canonical milestone sequence**  
**Purpose:** Establish the minimum evidence-producing development loop needed to validate the core test-driver concepts.

> This document is the single canonical source for milestone identifiers `M0`–`M10`.
> The competing sequences formerly in `INTENT.md` and `TestDriverConceptModel.md` § 15
> are superseded — see framework finding
> `research/findings/F-0001-milestone-sequence-drift.md`.
>
> **Canonical order is not execution order.** The milestones define *what must be
> true*; `workplans/TD-WP-0002-vertical-spike-crystallization.md` defines *the order
> in which we get there*, driving one thin thread through M1–M7 rather than
> completing each milestone in turn.

---

## Milestone 0 — Research Control Plane

### Goal

Make the conceptual development of test-driver explicit, traceable and falsifiable before substantial framework code accumulates.

### Implement

- repository structure for concepts, hypotheses, experiments, findings and evidence;
- hypothesis register;
- concept maturity register;
- Concept ↔ Implementation Fitness Map;
- framework finding taxonomy;
- stable identifiers for concepts, hypotheses, experiments and findings;
- lightweight CLI or file conventions for recording decisions.

Suggested structure:

```text
research/
├── hypotheses/
├── experiments/
├── findings/
├── concepts/
└── decisions/
```

### Initial hypotheses

At minimum register:

- H-001 Semantic Action Stability
- H-002 Mechanical Adaptation
- H-003 Crystallization
- H-004 Independent Judgment
- H-005 Verification Energy

### Exit Criteria

- every major v0.1 concept has a stable identifier;
- every implemented subsystem can be linked to at least one concept or hypothesis;
- at least one hypothesis is expressed with a falsification condition and planned experiment;
- framework findings can be recorded independently from product findings.

### Evidence Produced

The first Concept ↔ Implementation Fitness Map and hypothesis register.

---

## Milestone 1 — Deterministic Semantic Kernel

### Goal

Prove the core model without agentic complexity.

### Implement

Minimal executable representations of:

- UseCase;
- Actor;
- World;
- Scenario;
- SemanticAction;
- Observation;
- Oracle;
- Verdict;
- VerificationAsset;
- Run.

Implement one deterministic driver, preferably HTTP or direct application adapter.

### Reference Use Case

```text
Alice owns resource R.
Alice grants Bob READ access.
Bob can read R.
Carol cannot read R.
Alice revokes Bob.
Bob can no longer read R.
```

### Exit Criteria

- the complete use case runs deterministically;
- Alice, Bob and Carol have isolated identities and sessions;
- all important outcomes are judged by independent deterministic oracles;
- a run produces structured evidence;
- the same scenario can be replayed from known initial state.

### Evidence Produced

The first reproducible Evidence Pack.

---

## Milestone 2 — Test-Driver Lab

### Goal

Create a controlled evolutionary environment in which test-driver claims can be deliberately challenged.

### Implement

A deliberately small application supporting:

- users;
- tenants/workspaces;
- authentication;
- resources;
- sharing;
- read/write permissions;
- revoke;
- audit history;
- HTTP API;
- minimal browser UI.

Add explicit mutation switches or tagged lab versions.

### Initial Mutations

- M01 move/rename sharing control;
- M02 restructure the DOM;
- M03 change compatible API representation;
- M04 introduce an additional legitimate workflow step;
- M05 introduce authorization defect;
- M06 introduce propagation delay.

### Exit Criteria

- the reference use case works against the baseline lab;
- each mutation can be enabled reproducibly;
- mutations can be classified as mechanical, semantic or defective;
- baseline and mutated versions retain explicit version identifiers.

### Evidence Produced

A repeatable benchmark environment for framework development.

---

## Milestone 3 — Self-Verification v0

### Goal

Make test-driver test its own foundational guarantees.

### Implement

Initial `td://self/...` verification assets:

```text
td://self/actor-isolation
td://self/oracle-independence
td://self/evidence-reproducibility
```

The self-tests should operate against observable behavior rather than internal implementation details where practical.

### Exit Criteria

- intentionally breaking actor isolation makes the corresponding self-test fail;
- allowing an actor to determine its own verdict makes oracle-independence fail;
- corrupting or omitting required run evidence makes evidence-reproducibility fail;
- each failure creates a Framework Finding.

### Evidence Produced

Proof that conceptual regressions can be detected as framework regressions.

---

## Milestone 4 — Agentic Realization

### Goal

Introduce agentic flexibility only at the realization layer while retaining deterministic truth.

### Implement

- browser driver;
- one agentic Actor Runtime;
- strict per-actor context isolation;
- semantic goal → UI realization loop;
- full action/evidence recording;
- bounded navigation and tool permissions.

Use the semantic action:

```text
grant_access(Bob, R, READ)
```

The agent may discover how to accomplish it through the UI.

The oracle must remain deterministic.

### Exit Criteria

- an agent can realize the reference semantic action from intent;
- the actor cannot access another actor's private context;
- deterministic oracles independently establish success/failure;
- agent/model/configuration identity is recorded in evidence;
- failures can be replayed sufficiently to diagnose them.

### Evidence Produced

First trustworthy agentic run.

---

## Milestone 5 — Mechanical Adaptation

### Goal

Demonstrate the core fluid-development thesis.

### Experiment

Run the same Verification Asset against:

1. lab baseline;
2. M01 moved/renamed control;
3. M02 changed DOM structure.

The use-case semantics remain unchanged.

### Implement

- adaptation detection;
- adaptation classification;
- preservation of semantic action identity;
- adaptation evidence;
- adaptation history on the Verification Asset.

### Exit Criteria

- agentic execution recovers from at least two mechanical mutations;
- original deterministic oracles remain unchanged;
- semantic intent is not modified;
- adaptation is classified as mechanical;
- the framework reports an adaptation rather than a product defect.

### Success Metric

**Mechanical Recovery Rate**

### Critical Safety Metric

**False Semantic Adaptation Rate = 0** for the experiment set.

### Evidence Produced

Support or rejection for H-001 and H-002.

---

## Milestone 6 — Defect vs. Adaptation Discrimination

### Goal

Prove that adaptive testing does not simply learn to accept broken software.

### Experiment

Use:

- M01/M02 as legitimate mechanical changes;
- M05 as an authorization defect;
- M04 or M10-style mutation as a deliberate semantic requirement change.

### Implement

Classification path:

```text
IMPLEMENTATION CHANGE
INTENT CHANGE
PRODUCT DEFECT
AMBIGUOUS
```

Add escalation for semantic changes and ambiguity.

### Exit Criteria

- mechanical changes adapt without altering claims/invariants;
- authorization defect creates a Product Finding;
- deliberate requirement change creates a Semantic Change finding;
- ambiguous evidence produces `INCONCLUSIVE` rather than silent adaptation;
- no seeded defect is normalized as adaptation.

### Success Metric

Classification precision/recall over controlled mutations.

### Evidence Produced

The first meaningful measurement of adaptation safety.

---

## Milestone 7 — Crystallization v0

### Goal

Show that agentic flexibility can harden into deterministic regression.

### Implement

- semantic action trajectory capture;
- stable-realization detection;
- deterministic candidate generation;
- candidate comparison against existing oracle set;
- provenance/lineage from agentic ancestor to deterministic descendant;
- manual acceptance step initially.

### Experiment

Run the same agentic realization repeatedly against a stable lab version, crystallize it, then execute without any model involvement.

### Exit Criteria

- one agentic Verification Asset produces a deterministic test candidate;
- deterministic execution preserves the relevant claims and oracles;
- the generated/hardened test runs with zero agentic involvement;
- lineage remains visible;
- execution cost is measurably lower than agentic execution.

### Success Metrics

- crystallization success rate;
- semantic coverage retained;
- execution cost reduction.

### Evidence Produced

Support or rejection for H-003.

---

## Milestone 8 — Framework Finding → Improvement Loop

### Goal

Close the first actual self-improvement cycle.

### Implement

Workflow:

```text
Framework Finding
      ↓
Classification
      ↓
Improvement Hypothesis
      ↓
Controlled Experiment
      ↓
Evidence
      ↓
Accept / Reject
      ↓
Self-Verification / Regression
```

Use a real framework weakness discovered during Milestones 1–7 rather than inventing one if possible.

### Exit Criteria

- a framework finding produces an explicit improvement hypothesis;
- the hypothesis is experimentally evaluated;
- the accepted change links back to concept and evidence;
- the discovered framework failure leaves behind a permanent self-verification or deterministic regression;
- the Concept ↔ Implementation Fitness Map is updated.

### Evidence Produced

The first completed **Concept–Implementation Fitness Loop**.

This is the milestone at which the self-improvement system genuinely exists.

---

## Milestone 9 — Verification Energy v0

### Goal

Begin measuring test value without prematurely optimizing the scoring model.

### Implement

Record immutable Energy Events such as:

```text
DEFECT_DETECTED
REGRESSION_CAUGHT
MECHANICAL_ADAPTATION
SEMANTIC_ADAPTATION
TEST_DEFECT
FALSE_POSITIVE
DUPLICATE
CRYSTALLIZED
USECASE_DEPRECATED
```

Initially calculate only a simple transparent score.

### Exit Criteria

- Energy is derived from event history rather than stored as unexplained state;
- every score change is explainable;
- Energy can influence campaign priority;
- criticality can override retirement;
- no automatic deletion is implemented yet.

### Evidence Produced

A dataset suitable for later testing whether Energy actually predicts verification value.

---

## Milestone 10 — First Compression Review

### Goal

Prevent the research prototype from turning into premature platform architecture.

### Review

Ask:

- Which concepts have no supporting evidence?
- Which implementation abstractions have no conceptual justification?
- Which metadata has not informed a decision?
- Which agentic behavior can now be deterministic?
- Which capabilities can be merged or removed?
- What have the experiments falsified?

### Exit Criteria

- at least one simplification is seriously evaluated;
- rejected concepts are marked as such rather than silently retained;
- architecture reflects experimental learning;
- updated Concept Model and Improvement Loop remain smaller or more precise where evidence permits.

### Evidence Produced

The first proof that self-improvement includes subtraction, not only accumulation.

---

# Recommended Execution Order

```text
M0  Research Control Plane
 |
M1  Deterministic Semantic Kernel
 |
M2  Test-Driver Lab
 |
M3  Self-Verification v0
 |
M4  Agentic Realization
 |
M5  Mechanical Adaptation
 |
M6  Defect vs Adaptation
 |
M7  Crystallization
 |
M8  Closed Improvement Loop
 |
M9  Verification Energy
 |
M10 Compression Review
```

The first major research gate is **M8**.

Before M8, test-driver has promising mechanisms.

At M8, it has demonstrated a complete evidence-driven self-improvement cycle.

---

# Prototype Success Gate

The initial research prototype should be considered successful enough to justify broader framework investment when it can demonstrate all of the following in one coherent system:

1. a multi-user use case expressed independently of implementation details;
2. deterministic independent oracles;
3. agentic realization of at least one semantic action;
4. recovery from legitimate mechanical implementation change;
5. rejection of a seeded semantic/security defect as a mere adaptation;
6. reproducible evidence;
7. crystallization into deterministic execution;
8. a framework failure converted into a permanent self-verification;
9. explicit concept-to-implementation traceability;
10. measured human effort and execution cost.

That demonstration is more valuable than broad feature coverage.