test-driver/research/concepts/fitness-map.md

Concept ↔ Implementation Fitness Map

Updated: 2026-09-28 (TD-WP-0003-T02/T03/T04)

Traces each important concept to the implementation, experiment and evidence that support it. Unsupported entries are the point of this map — a concept with no implementation and no evidence is not a gap to be embarrassed about, it is the current honest state, and hiding it defeats the map's purpose.

Support levels follow TestDriverImprovementLoop.md §13: C0 Idea · C1 Hypothesis · C2 Experimentally Supported · C3 Practically Validated · C4 Architectural Invariant

Current state

C-semantic-action is the first concept to reach C2: it has an experiment behind it (the T07 two-arm comparison), and that experiment narrowed the claim rather than confirming it. Everything else still rests on unit tests.

The deterministic kernel exists (T04) and its guarantees are covered by unit tests. Levels do not move for those. A passing unit test is not an experiment: it shows the code does what its author intended, not that the concept holds under the mutations it claims to survive. Levels rise when E-001/E-002/E-003 produce evidence, not before. The implementation column below moves; the level column does not. The initial classifications in §13 of the Improvement Loop (Actor Isolation C2, Independent Oracles C2) are corrected downward here: they were aspirational, not evidenced.

Concept	Level	Implementation	Experiment	Evidence	Open question
C-use-case	C1	intent.py, three reference scenarios	T02	tests/test_generalisation.py	Three synthetic use cases fit; external authoring still unmeasured.
C-actor-isolation	C2	world.py, runner.py	E-001	td://self/actor-isolation, examined every run	F-0003 resolved — automatic canaries; observable on every scenario.
C-semantic-action	C2	actions.py, agentic.py	E-001	2026-09-28 two-arm receipt	F-0005 — supported only where stable identifiers are absent. Narrower than the concept model claims.
C-oracle-independence	C2	runner.py, oracles.py	E-001, E-003	—	Independence of components ≠ independence of belief. (H-004)
C-evidence-pack	C1	evidence.py	—	td://self/evidence-reproducibility	Verdicts are reproducible from S3 alone, on passing and failing runs.
C-observation-channel	C1	lab/app.py	—	—	D-07 — required of every system under test. Adoption cost unknown.
C-adaptation	C2	classification.py, agentic.py	E-001	T08 matrix	26/27 mechanical absorbed; ten dropped-id cases now included.
C-classification	C2	classification.py	E-001, E-003	T08 matrix, FAR 0/7	F-0006 — cannot infer SEMANTIC vs DEFECT; collapses to one escalating outcome.
C-crystallization	C2	crystallization.py	E-002	T09 agreement matrix	Fidelity supported; F-0007 — the economic case is unmeasurable with a token-free runtime.
C-intent-provenance	C1	provenance.py	E-003	td://self/intent-independence	Constrains provenance, not quality. Accepted residual.
C-lineage	C1	scenario.py, generated headers	E-002	generated module docstring	Parent pointer plus provenance in the artefact; no graph.
C-energy	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-temperature	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-confidence	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-campaign	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-metabolism	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-retirement	Removed	—	T04	Generalisation review	No demonstrated decision; not an implementation promise.
C-security-mutation	C1	lab/mutations.py	E-003	lab/GROUND-TRUTH.md	Catalogue is hand-written; no derivation mechanism from use cases yet.

Generalisation and compression review — 2026-09-28

No new kernel concept was required for delegation/sequencing or tenant lifecycle. Ordered Steps supply the Schedule; scenario variant identifies seeded defects. No independent scheduler or Variant class was needed. Integration/security lenses remain descriptive groupings; no Lens runtime object was consulted or validated. The generic observer interface works, but each new domain needs a custom snapshot collector: observation-channel adoption cost remains a real concern.

Temperature, Energy, Confidence, Campaign, Metabolism and Retirement are removed, not deferred to another gate. energy.py, its exports and evidence field are removed; H-005 is dormant-indefinite and F-0008 is resolved. Ordinary evidence, judgments, realization metrics and lineage remain. See review for compatibility and limits.

Previous compression (T10): Verdict.SUSPICIOUS, Step.expect_refusal, ActorIsolationError, World.seed, EvidencePack.latest(), Trajectory.method.