Behavioral authority

Type: kb/types/definition.md · Status: current · Tags: learning-theory

Behavioral authority records how a retained artifact becomes behavior-shaping: the consumer, the channel, and the force. The same stored object can have different authority in different consumption paths, so authority belongs to the use of an operative part, not to bytes alone.

Scope

The consumer may be a model, router, retriever, runtime, validator, reviewer, maintainer, assembler, or learning loop.

The channel may be retrieval, prompt assembly, execution, configuration, validation, routing, ranking, review, or training.

The force may be advice, instruction, enforcement, selection or ranking influence, audit trigger, or learning input. Audit records do not have force by themselves; they matter when a consumer acts on them.

Use behavioral authority to make the older knowledge/system-definition distinction precise. A knowledge artifact is consumed as evidence, reference, context, explanation, or advice. A system-definition artifact is consumed with instruction, enforcement, routing, validation, configuration, evaluation, or learning force. These are authority-path families, not intrinsic artifact classes; the field is more precise because it names the actual consumer, channel, and force.

Exclusions

Declared intent is not enough. An advisory note may acquire high effective authority if it is always included in a late prompt position; a formal policy may have no effective authority if no component loads it.

Misuse Cases

  • Saying a memory "is active" without naming whether it advises a model, enters an instruction channel, enforces validation, influences ranking, or feeds training.
  • Treating a Markdown file as low-authority because it is prose, even when the harness loads it as standing instruction.

Relevant Notes:

  • operative part - unit: authority attaches to the behavior-shaping part and consumption path
  • lineage - interaction: derived artifacts with high authority need stronger invalidation discipline
  • retained artifact - parent concept: the persisted state whose later use may shape behavior
  • knowledge artifact - authority family: evidence, reference, context, explanation, or advice
  • system-definition artifact - authority family: instruction, enforcement, routing, validation, configuration, evaluation, or learning input