artifact-analysis

Type: types/tag-readme.md

Artifact analysis classifies retained artifacts by storage substrate, representational form, lineage, and behavioral authority. Assign this tag to work that defines, extends, tests, or draws design consequences from the scheme or an individual field. An application of one field qualifies when the distinction changes a design or maintenance conclusion; it need not address all four. Merely mentioning storage or artifacts, or filling in the fields without drawing a consequence, is insufficient. Document-system covers writing and checking documents; this tag covers retained artifacts across forms. A child of learning-theory.

The scheme

• Axes of artifact analysis — the four fields and the operative part being classified
• Map a design space before selecting — derive form options before inherited packages narrow the search
• What the four-field record exposes — efficiency, security, and sovereignty questions
• Memory design adds operational axes — write and read policies supplement artifact classification
• Opacity is a scale threshold — inspectability changes as artifacts grow

Definitions

• Retained artifact — persisted state consumed with behavioral consequences
• Operative part — the behavior-affecting portion or mechanism
• Storage substrate — where retained state persists
• Representational form — encoding and consumption determine the default review method
• Lineage — source dependencies determine refresh and review obligations
• Behavioral authority — consumer, channel, and force
• Knowledge artifact — consumed as evidence, reference, explanation, or advice
• Answerability — nameable referent, asserted property, and correction-triggering discrepancy
• System-definition artifact — consumed with binding operational force

Applications

• Action models and consumption paths — direct execution and model-mediated use have different authority
• Crystallized reasoning under context scarcity — retained instructions avoid repeating reasoning in context
• Content kind, lineage, and authority — separate region-level classification from whole-artifact contracts
• Superseded choices and beliefs — content kind determines retention and rewrite obligations
• Local materialization — conjectures benefits of generated local views over distant declarations
• Adaptation signals and retained surfaces — update pressure does not select form or authority
• Consumption channels deliver force — channel position can confer authority without earned provenance
• Six Commonplace paths — broad authority-path coverage leaves completeness open
• Stale self-description — the detecting process consults the artifact that drifted
• Attempted recovery identifies informational gaps — recoverability alone establishes neither provenance nor authority
• Seven documentation cases — dependency and drift checks distinguish copies from useful synthesis
• Verification needs a typed target — classification supplies the domain for reusable checks
• Strategies and run state — different consumption roles justify different retention policies
• Ephemeral computation — discarding generated artifacts trades accumulation for simplicity
• When ephemerality is safe — disposal depends on embedded knowledge and explanatory-reach
• RLM, λ-RLM, Tendril, and llm-do — restriction and persistence distinguish generated capabilities
• Adaptation survey and memory governance — the four fields expose governance gaps in the survey taxonomy
• Compiled memory views — lineage and authority govern regeneration and drift checks
• Code as prompt or symbolic operation — consumption path changes what the same artifact does
• Commitment creates new ground truth — added resolutions require supersession rather than recomputation
• Schema deferral and database authority — centralization and canonicality are separate commitments
• Edge ownership and storage choice — moving a record changes substrate, not its authority
• Explicit retention and selective revision — compare forms through available operations and collateral effects
• Reproduction does not transfer authority — replacement needs governed identity and revision guarantees
• Production methods and representational forms — learning an artifact does not determine its form
• Representational-form coevolution — forms differ in update pace, review, and credit assignment