# For agents: Back pressure from checking contracts

OpenProse today · board 10 of 17 · 2026-10-09.
This deck records dated experimental evidence, not general reliability.

A proposed assembly applies supplied checking contracts to retained executions and supports deliberate change.

## On the slide

Trace + selected agreement + source evidence

**Resolution · Conformance · Fulfillment**

Findings → deliberate improvements

*Proposed reusable assembly*

## Explanation

One proposed arrangement composes checks around a retained execution without changing its subject contract. A containing contract supplies checker contracts, each receiving the relevant trace, exact definitions, results, and source access. They investigate what was resolved, whether execution conformed, and whether the requirements were fulfilled. Resolution is also an aspect of conformance; keeping the findings separate helps explain which question the evidence answers.

The available trace includes recorded messages, tool actions, artifacts, and source references. Its coverage must be examined. A checker can do additional permitted work, but later evidence does not prove the subject had it during execution. A missing observation can leave a judgment unresolved; it establishes failure only when the relevant requirement and evidence support that finding. Checking requirements must not become new requirements retroactively imposed on the subject.

Existing Testing, Evaluation, and Conformance definitions provide ingredients, and bounded execution evidence already includes separate assessments. The proposed contribution is a convenient reusable arrangement for applying that back pressure. We choose what to change—kernel, library, checker, or execution setup—and compare new candidates, including their cost and speed, without erasing old results or relaxing hard requirements. “Boot lib” is a possible home alongside the standard library, not a released package. No automatic optimization loop is claimed or proposed by this slide.

## Whiteboard sequence

Open only the frames useful to the question. Later frames add to the same board;
the final frame contains the complete drawing.

- [Frame 1 — black core](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-10-layer-01.png)
- [Frame 2 — cumulative reveal](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-10-layer-02.png)
- [Frame 3 — cumulative reveal](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-10-layer-03.png)
- [Frame 4 — final](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-10-layer-04.png)

These explanations add no normative requirements. Read the
[selected kernel 0.3.0-rc.3](https://pkg.prose.md/releases/0.3.0-rc.3/core/README.md) for language rules.

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