24. Machine contracts, standards profiles, security, conformance, and governance

Universality depends on a small kernel and strict extension rules. Standards are pinned profiles and adapters, not the root ontology. The compact JSON wire form is checked structurally, expanded through immutable semantic contexts, validated across graph relationships, and then admitted to an append-only ledger. Unknown namespaced data must survive even when the current client cannot interpret it.

#24.1 Standards adoption profile

Pin, do not follow latest
Every schema, context, shape, ontology, vocabulary and standard mapping is stored by exact version and digest. Production validation never fetches remote contexts or schema references. A moving URL cannot silently change the meaning of historical records.

#24.2 Canonical v1 contract families

• core.entity-root/v1; core.record-envelope/v1; core.temporal-extent/v1
• identity.identifier-assertion/v1; identity.continuity-decision/v1; identity.conflict-set/v1
• claims.claim/v1; claims.appraisal/v1; evidence.artifact/v1; evidence.custody-event/v1
• configuration.snapshot/v1; configuration.operational-state/v1; systems.graph/v1; systems.connection/v1
• capability.realization/v1; control.authority-assignment/v1; control.handover/v1
• operation.mission/v1; operation.session/v1; operation.segment/v1
• lifecycle.task-definition/v1; lifecycle.task-execution/v1; lifecycle.modification/v1; lifecycle.finding/v1
• measurement.quantity/v1; measurement.test-run/v1; telemetry.segment-manifest/v1
• rights.grant/v1; action.proposal/v1; action.receipt/v1; social.vehicle-agent/v1
• commerce.appraisal/v1; commerce.listing/v1; commerce.offer/v1; commerce.bid/v1; commerce.auction/v1; commerce.transaction/v1
• registry.provider-assertion/v1; vocabulary.term/v1; schema.definition/v1; extension.domain-pack/v1

#24.3 Three validation representations

JSON numeric values are unsuitable where exact decimals matter. Preserve exact lexical decimal strings and validate their grammar. Canonicalization rejects ambiguous representations before hashing. Extensions use {namespace, schemaRef, payload, originalDigest}; arbitrary extra fields are not the extension mechanism.

#24.4 DomainPack manifest

Signed domain-pack manifest
{
  "packId": "rtracer.domain.aerostat",
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "coreCompatibility": ">=1.0 <2.0",
  "dependencies": [{"packId": "rtracer.domain.air", "version": "2.1.0"}],
  "vocabularies": ["sha256:..."],
  "schemas": ["sha256:..."],
  "contexts": ["sha256:..."],
  "shapes": ["sha256:..."],
  "mappings": ["sha256:..."],
  "migrations": ["sha256:..."],
  "fixtures": ["sha256:..."],
  "privacyProfile": "rtracer.privacy.vehicle/v1",
  "license": "SPDX-expression-or-private-policy-ref",
  "publisherRef": "party:rtracer-pack-council",
  "manifestDigest": "sha256:...",
  "signatureRef": "proof:..."
}

• Packs can add namespaced terms, schemas, constraints, forms, projections and adapters; they cannot redefine identity, time, evidence, rights or append-only semantics.
• Dependencies are deterministic, acyclic and locked per configuration/export. Conflicts fail explicitly.
• Manufacturer, club, regulator and tenant packs may remain private while mapping to shared concepts.
• Bridge packs compose road+marine, air+space, RC+competition or mobile-base+tool semantics without copying either parent.
• Unknown pack payloads and terms must round-trip byte-for-byte with their schema/digest metadata.

#24.5 API surface and write discipline

#24.6 Security threat model

#24.7 Cumulative conformance levels

Conformance is cumulative; domain-pack badges are orthogonal, such as L3 + marine, L4 + RC/model or L5 + EU-road. Physical-control safety certification is never implied by an RTracer level.

#24.8 Migration and release protocol

1. Publish the immutable target schema, context, shapes, vocabulary and pack manifest with digests/signatures.
2. Classify compatibility and publish deterministic upcaster, optional downcaster and explicit information-loss manifest.
3. Run positive, negative, adversarial, round-trip and corpus fixtures; lock migration implementation digest.
4. Deploy read-time adapters and build a shadow projection from original records.
5. Compare old/new projections, conflicts, privacy and performance; resolve divergence before new writes.
6. Activate the new write version while retaining old readers for the declared support window.
7. Issue migration receipts; never rewrite original record bytes or silently relabel historical terms.
8. Deprecate identifiers with replacement mappings; keep retired definitions resolvable forever.

#24.9 Operational observability

#24.10 Explicit non-goals

• one final taxonomy or inheritance tree for every vehicle
• replacement of government registries, licensed history providers, certification bodies or legal title systems
• automatic truth from signatures, confidence, popularity, AI output or a single provider
• identity inference from VIN, serial, MAC, token, plate or image similarity alone
• real-time safety-critical control bus or cross-domain autonomy certification
• raw telemetry in the semantic graph or precise public location by default
• automatic transfer of persona, voice, followers, private data, franchise, media or sale authority with ownership
• ontology inference as authorization or arbitrary tool execution from persona-generated text
• blockchain, token or decentralized-ID dependency in the kernel
• guaranteed lossless mapping of every proprietary, local or future scheme
• treating people or animals as components, property or unconsented telemetry payloads