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0001 kernel v0 1

ADR 0001: Kernel v0.1 Scope and Invariants

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2025-11-09

Context

Mobius Kernel v0.1 powers the command-ledger, MIC economy, and attestation settlement pipeline. The Perplexity review surfaced a gap: the kernel responsibilities were implicit and scattered across lab notes. Without explicit scope and invariants we risk drift, divergent implementations, and inability to measure consensus guarantees.

Decision

Define Kernel v0.1 as the minimal deterministic state machine that:

  • ingests signed attestations and Deliberation Proofs,
  • maintains the command ledger, MIC balances, and Mobius Financial Statements,
  • produces hourly Merkle anchors for external verification.

The kernel must uphold the following invariants:

  1. Integrity: All ledger mutations require valid attestation signatures and MII ≥ 0.95.
  2. Determinism: Identical ordered inputs yield identical state transitions and Merkle roots.
  3. Replay Safety: Nonces, windows, and previous hash links prevent double application.
  4. Auditability: Every state change is reproducible from retained input events.

Non-kernel concerns (UI, orchestration, agent policy) remain out of scope until ADR supersedes this one.

Consequences

  • Provides an enforceable contract for kernel-facing services and tests.
  • Enables spec-ci to gate kernel-affecting change sets against schema drift.
  • Future revisions (v0.2+) must explicitly evolve these invariants rather than silently mutating behavior.