SOURCE BOUND
The candidate has an identity. That is not enough.
An exact source can be known while required evidence is still missing. Identity prevents ambiguity; it does not manufacture eligibility.
EVIDENCE & SCOPE
Don’t take our word for it. Follow the evidence.
Causance treats evidence as decision-bearing state: attributable to an exact source, bounded to a scope, checked for applicability and freshness, connected to verification, and preserved when a later attempt changes the outcome.
Public mechanism view. The behavior below describes implemented product semantics at a disclosure-safe level. Example values are illustrative; this page does not expose private control records or turn the website into a customer runtime.
ONE GOVERNED CONDITION
Watch the decision change as the evidence changes.
The important property is not that a workflow eventually turns green. The question is whether the exact authority and evidence required for the exact condition are present at the decision point.
Illustrative recordAWAITING EVIDENCE
- Source
- revision bound
- Authority
- explicit scope
- Evidence
- missing
- Verification
- not eligible
EVIDENCE ARRIVES
Evidence is present—but stale.
The evidence remains part of the record, but stale or superseded material cannot silently satisfy a current requirement where freshness is part of the contract.
APPLICABILITY
Good evidence can still be the wrong evidence.
Evidence for another actor, operation, scope, revision or condition does not become applicable because it is high quality or nearby.
REVALIDATED
The required evidence is current and applicable.
Only now can the bounded decision resolve from the explicit inputs and requirements in scope. A reasoned eligible state is still separate from customer execution authority.
AFTER THE EFFECT
Observed state returns as evidence.
What happened can be compared with what was governed or intended. The observation becomes attributable history; it does not rewrite the authority that existed earlier.
FAILURE EVIDENCE
A later pass does not erase the failed attempt.
Failure is not noise to clean out of the story. It is part of the evidence needed to understand what happened, what changed, and why a later bounded result is supportable.
Required evidence exceeded its freshness boundary.
Evidence was current but did not apply to the requested scope.
A later bounded candidate satisfied the required evidence and verification contract.
The sequence above is illustrative. The implemented product architecture preserves failed, rejected and superseded state rather than treating later success as permission to relabel history.
THE PROOF CONTRACT
Evidence should be inspectable, not merely asserted.
A serious reviewer should be able to ask what exact proposition is supported, by which evidence, under which conditions, and what would invalidate the conclusion.
Source identity
What exact object or authoritative source is being relied on?
Revision
Which exact version did the evidence describe?
Applicability
Does this evidence apply to this actor, operation, scope and condition?
Freshness
Is it still valid for the decision being made now?
Verification
Which required checks were actually satisfied for this exact candidate?
Decision reason
Why is the condition eligible, held, rejected or indeterminate?
History
Which failed, rejected or superseded states must remain visible?
Revalidation trigger
What change would force the conclusion to be checked again?
EVIDENCE CLASSES
Different evidence supports different conclusions.
The classification system is deliberately conservative. Research, roadmap, customer evidence, implementation observations and proven bounded facts are not interchangeable.
Proven
Directly demonstrated by authoritative evidence inside an exact scope.
Observed
Directly observed state without converting the observation into a broader outcome claim.
Customer / Pilot Evidence
Evidence from a real engagement, bounded to that engagement.
Research Finding
A governed research result. Research does not automatically become product proof.
Hypothesis
Plausible or testable, but not established.
Roadmap
Intended future capability or direction, not current capability.
PUBLIC SCOPE
The boundary is part of the evidence.
A useful public explanation says where the evidence stops. These limits are not disclaimers attached after the story; they are part of the claim contract itself.
SUPPORTED IN CURRENT SOURCE-BOUNDED SCOPE
- Authority and evidence are separate decision inputs.
- Evidence can carry source identity, applicability, freshness, verification and retained decision context.
- Required evidence can fail closed when missing, stale, superseded, conflicting, malformed or inapplicable.
- Retained history and bounded recovery/replay mechanics exist within exact implemented scope.
OUTSIDE WHAT THIS WEBSITE ESTABLISHES
- General availability or a public hosted Causance runtime.
- Customer outcomes, independent validation, certification or conformance.
- Universal safety, correctness, risk reduction or recovery performance.
- Recognition of Software Authority as an established market category or standard.
- Research validation or certification of Causance.
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