Plan: Vocabulary scoped and temporal binding conformance

Unit ID: vocabulary-temporal-binding Status: Closed (2026-09-25). Executed, verified, and ratified (ADR-A85 Accepted). Follow-on hardening items identified during closure review are tracked under a new unit, temporal-binding-consumer-hardening (see its plan and status). Trigger: 65ac4a85e11cc1f8616e3e0c24efd59bf4ca410d Sketch: vocabulary-temporal-binding.md Status record: vocabulary-temporal-binding.md Validation pack: vocabulary-temporal-binding.md

Problem and corrected scope

Commit 65ac4a85e11cc1f8616e3e0c24efd59bf4ca410d adds voc:SchemeBinding, voc:BindingScope, four binding properties, temporal validity, historical voc:resolvedUnder provenance, and a prose resolution law. The source ontology change is present, but the repository does not yet contain the conformance package required by its standards.

This unit therefore covers architecture synchronisation, a proposed ADR, examples, SHACL and SHACL-SPARQL validation, a deterministic reference resolver, executable test cases, consumer boundary checks, traceability, and the validation pack. It is not a documentation-only sync.

Governing decision

Author ADR-A85 as Proposed for human review. It records the n-ary binding model, conjunctive scope semantics, strict-superset precedence, conflict refusal, boundScheme fallback, and non-retroactive resolvedUnder provenance. No OWL axiom may silently choose between competing bindings.

Deliverables

1. Architecture and normative documentation

• Update docs/architecture/ontology-architecture.md to mirror the Vocabulary README. Include the implementation table line count, purpose, design decisions, DL encoding, disjointness, property axioms, worked pattern, and open validation items.
• Keep root README.md, the solution design, data architecture, UX design, deferred-scope document, .github/copilot-instructions.md, and GENAI_CONTRIBUTION.md unchanged unless a concrete vocabulary-specific contradiction is found and recorded first.
• Do not advance the ontology version IRI without an explicit release decision.

2. Examples and validation fixtures

Create ontology/vocabulary/examples/ with positive and negative fixtures for:

• complete unscoped and time-bounded bindings
• conjunctive multi-scope binding
• alternative regional bindings
• temporal scheme-edition handover
• historical voc:resolvedUnder provenance
• missing forContract and missing bindsScheme
• invalid temporal interval
• equal-specificity overlap conflict
• disagreement between a scopeless binding and boundScheme
• historical provenance outside the record’s time

Fixtures must remain domain-neutral and declare only the minimum Foundation and SKOS terms needed for the check.

3. SHACL and structural validation

Populate the existing empty files under ontology/vocabulary/shapes/:

• structural.ttl for reusable node shapes and cardinality/type constraints
• constraints.ttl for temporal sanity, fallback agreement, conflict, and historical provenance constraints
• rules.ttl only where a non-selecting validation rule is necessary

Context and resolution time must be represented explicitly in the validation profile. SHACL must report an ambiguity or contradiction, never select a winner. Add both conforming and non-conforming assertions to the test suite.

4. Reference resolution and executable tests

Add a small reference resolver in the repository’s established Python tooling boundary, subject to confirmation of the exact package location. Test:

• all named scopes are required, while no scope means all contexts
• closed and open-ended temporal intervals
• strict-superset precedence
• equal-specificity conflict refusal
• fallback only when no applicable binding exists
• scopeless binding agreement with boundScheme
• deterministic output under triple-order permutation
• historical resolvedUnder preservation without re-resolution

The resolver is a conformance implementation of the Vocabulary law. It is not a fuzzy matcher, scope-membership engine, live-store adapter, or general runtime.

5. Consumer and provenance boundary checks

Add the narrowest useful cross-layer fixtures or contract tests, with the consumer selected during human review. The check must demonstrate that a consumer resolves the applicable binding before interpreting a concept-valued property, preserves existing unscoped boundScheme behaviour, and retains a historical resolvedUnder assertion. Do not expand this unit into a Surface or Eligibility semantic redesign.

6. Governance records

• Keep the sketch, plan, status record, ADR index, developer index, and validation pack cross-linked.
• Add traceability rows for ADR-A85 and all validation cases.
• Update the status record after every material implementation or validation action.

Slice plan

Each slice should touch no more than two implementation modules. Split a slice if the resolver, SHACL package, or consumer check exceeds that boundary. No implementation slice starts until this plan, ADR-A85, and the validation context are approved.

Acceptance and validation

The single command is to be finalised with the resolver package location. The planned entry point is:

mise run check:vocabulary

The validation pack requires SHACL reports, resolver decision traces, a triple-order determinism result, a historical provenance fixture, traceability rows, and a human mutation probe that disables strict-superset precedence or the equal-specificity constraint and observes the expected test failure.

Deliberate non-coverage

• fuzzy label or natural-language concept resolution
• concept-level version alignment or deprecated-concept policy
• scope-membership derivation
• live stores, runtime scheduling, and backend-specific behaviour
• silent conflict resolution or OWL encoding of whole-graph precedence
• ontology version release mechanics

Checked documents with no planned change

The root README, solution design specification, data architecture, UX design, deferred-scope document, .github/copilot-instructions.md, and GENAI_CONTRIBUTION.md were checked. They contain no Vocabulary-specific mechanism inventory that this unit must synchronise. This remains an explicit assumption for human review, not a claim that the files are permanently out of scope.

Closure (2026-09-25)

All four slices executed and verified: mise run check:vocabulary (14/14), python -m unittest surface.test_surface -q (62/62), mise run check:python-root (77/77 plus Phase 8 conformance). ADR-A85 is Accepted. A subsequent cross-reference of this work against docs/architecture/rdf-sparql-patterns-guide.md found the implementation internally consistent, with four follow-on hardening items and one accepted non-issue, none of which block this unit’s closure. Those items are scoped under the new temporal-binding-consumer-hardening unit: plan, status.