Traits¶

A trait is a declarative commitment or structural guarantee that a record type, profile, or element package can declare.

A trait says what a record type claims to support. A claim says how a verifier checks that guarantee.

Source of truth¶

Authoritative trait element types live under:

data/elements/traits/

The AR trait library lives in:

data/traits/library.toml

Trait declaration semantics live in:

data/traits/declarations.toml

Trait declarations¶

Trait declarations belong to profiles, record types, or element packages.

They do not belong to individual record instances.

Records of the same record type share the same trait declarations. Per-record trait overrides are not part of the AR contract.

A profile or record type declares traits by listing the trait identifiers it claims to satisfy.

Example:

[[declaration_examples]]
id = "holding-record-traits"
record_type = "holding-record"
legacy_entity_kind = "AE.NOR_C"
conforms_to = [
  "se.accountable-record.traits.source-traceable",
  "se.accountable-record.traits.content-status-separated",
  "se.accountable-record.traits.authority-non-asserted",
  "se.judicial-record-us-federal-supreme.traits.holding-not-dictum",
]

Traits and claims¶

Traits and claims are not the same thing.

A trait is a declared guarantee. A claim is a verifier check.

Trait conformance is assessed through claims, checks, field mappings, evidence, and verifier results. The trait-conformance binding tells a verifier how to connect a declared trait to the checks and structural roles needed to assess it.

Field mappings¶

A trait check often needs to know which local fields carry which Accountable Record structural roles.

Field mappings let domains keep their own vocabulary.

Example:

[declaration_examples.field_mappings]
source_reference = "citation"
content = "holding_text"
status = "current_status"

Forbidden fields are declared by the trait definition or record type definition. They are not expressed with field-mapping sentinels.

Partial trait conformance¶

Partial conformance is meaningful.

A trait-conformance result is partial when:

the trait has multiple verifiable requirements;
at least one requirement is satisfied;
at least one requirement fails;
the required evidence is present.

If required evidence is missing, the result is cannot-verify.

Trait absence¶

A record type that does not declare a trait is not failing that trait.

The trait is not in scope for that record type, and the verifier does not run trait-conformance checks for undeclared traits.

At Level 3 and above, record types must declare the traits required by the selected AR maturity level or domain profile.

AR trait library¶

The current AR trait library includes:

Trait	Compact ID	Summary
Authority Non-Asserted	`se.accountable-record.traits.authority-non-asserted`	Preserves the artifact, structure, source, and provenance without asserting current authority.
Content Status Separated	`se.accountable-record.traits.content-status-separated`	Keeps content separate from current status.
Instrument Non-Collapsing	`se.accountable-record.traits.instrument-non-collapsing`	Keeps an enduring instrument separate from its roles, actions, or statuses.
Interpretation Non-Mutating	`se.accountable-record.traits.interpretation-non-mutating`	Prevents interpretive updates from erasing or rewriting prior records.
Locus Stable	`se.accountable-record.traits.locus-stable`	Keeps place or asset identity stable across non-identity-affecting changes.
Observation Non-Authoritative	`se.accountable-record.traits.observation-non-authoritative`	Marks observed material as observation rather than authority claim.
Provenance Traceable	`se.accountable-record.traits.provenance-traceable`	Carries information about how the record came to be.
Scope Declared	`se.accountable-record.traits.scope-declared`	Declares who, where, when, or what an obligation or rule applies to.
Source Traceable	`se.accountable-record.traits.source-traceable`	Preserves source references adequate for inspection against source material.

Domain traits¶

Profiles may define their own traits.

Domain traits compose with AR traits in the same declaration list. A domain trait may not contradict an AR trait.

If a profile does not want to enforce an AR trait for a record type, it should not declare that trait for that record type.

Trait declarations are commitments. They are not aspirations unless the profile explicitly marks them as such in a separate, non-conformance field.