# For agents: Back pressure from checking contracts

The ideal OpenProse · board 11 of 17 · 2026-10-09.
This deck describes a proposed experience.

Supplied checking contracts examine recorded work and inform deliberate improvements.

## On the slide

**Execution trace + selected agreement + source evidence**

Resolution · Conformance · Fulfillment

Checking contracts supply back pressure for deliberate improvement.

## Explanation

The subject contract can stay unchanged. Supply its execution trace, exact selected agreement, result, and accessible source evidence to a checking contract. That contract can investigate: read the definitions, inspect observations, perform calculations, and gather additional permitted evidence. A containing agreement supplies different checker contracts for resolution, conformance, and fulfillment. Did the invocation resolve the right agreement? Did its behavior conform to that agreement? Were the applicable requirements satisfied? Resolution is also an aspect of conformance; the findings can overlap while answering distinct questions.

The trace means available recorded messages, tool actions, artifacts, and source references. Missing visibility can leave a finding unresolved; it does not by itself establish failure unless the agreement required that evidence. Later investigation must not imply that the subject possessed the evidence during execution. Checking requirements do not retroactively change the subject's agreement.

The same checking contracts can evaluate controlled tests or ordinary executions. Test the checkers against consequential defects and valid alternatives; a matching verdict alone is insufficient. We then use those findings to choose improvements to the kernel, libraries, checkers, or execution setup and compare cost and speed while preserving the selected requirements. These are deliberate decisions, not automatic hill climbing. “Boot lib,” possibly beside the standard library, is a working name for reusable assemblies that help establish this feedback loop; its location and design remain proposals.

## 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/ideal/slide-11-layer-01.png)
- [Frame 2 — cumulative reveal](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/ideal/slide-11-layer-02.png)
- [Frame 3 — final](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/ideal/slide-11-layer-03.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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