#A.6.C:4.1 — The Contract Bundle (four-question lens; every atomic claim keeps its own quadrant)

Preface node heading:a-6-c-4-1-the-contract-bundle-four-question-lens-every-atomic-claim-keeps-its-own-quadrant:10535

#What this page is

This is generated FPF reference text from the specification preface or supporting sections. It helps interpret FPF; it is not FPF Reference product documentation.

#Methodology

Use it to understand how the specification wants to be read, then return to a route, pattern, or work packet for active work. Cite generated IDs only when the wording changes the task decision.

#Content

Whenever a text uses “contract”, “guarantee”, “promise”, “SLA”, or “interface agreement”, ask the four questions below. A question may yield zero, one, or several atomic Claim Register rows; the question itself is not a bundle part or direct-object kind.

1. What was promised?

   • The promised value or effect (the promise content) in the intended scope.

• In FPF terms (A.2.3), U.PromiseContent is promise content—a promise content, not an execution event (U.Work) and not (by itself) an accountable deontic binding (U.Commitment).
• Prose head rule (normative). When referring to U.PromiseContent in normative prose, authors SHALL use the head phrase promise content (or service offering clause or service promise clause) and SHALL NOT rely on the bare head noun service. If the surrounding text also talks about endpoints, systems, and operations, apply A.6.8 to select facet‑typed phrases (service access point, service delivery system, service delivery work, and so on) rather than collapsing them into “service”.
  • Recommendation: give the promise-content a stable local ID (e.g., SVC-*) so it can be cited from commitments, gates, evidence, and MVPK faces without paraphrase drift.
• Claim-classification discipline: keep the semantics and definitions of the promised behavior in L; express who is accountable for satisfying the promise as a D claim (U.Commitment) that references the U.PromiseContent (plus any A-* and E-* claims as needed).

2. What was said, published, or instituted?

   • Speech-act row: if the boundary decision depends on who stated, published, or approved something, record that exact A.2.9 U.SpeechAct <: U.Work occurrence.
   • Description/publication rows: record the versioned utterance epistemes separately from their publication occurrences, forms, renderings, and carriers. None is the speech act.
   • A speech act may institute or update a commitment or strong grant only when the exact context policy recognizes that act type and the direct owner's obtaining conditions are met.
   • The published utterance descriptions (signature or mechanism descriptions plus MVPK faces) carry L/A/D/E-classified claims. The act is not “the contract”; it is the Work occurrence that created or updated those descriptions and may have a separately governed institutional effect.
   • World-side obtaining rule (normative). A.2.8 and the cited context policy decide whether a commitment obtains; A.2.8.PER and that policy decide whether a strong grant obtains. They use the actual instituting speech act, participants, scope/window, current policy, and any revocation or supersession conditions. A Claim Register row, utterance description, publication, carrier, or identifier creates or proves neither relation. Publication or approval may establish a publication/status relation only through that relation's own direct owner.
   • Representation and reliance rule (normative). The model MAY assert or rely on a commitment or grant only through a separate atomic claim that identifies the exact U.Commitment or GrantedPermissionRelation@Context occurrence and cites its direct owner, instituting act and policy, participants, scope/window, and the currentness or evidence required by that use. Never infer the relation from Publish/Approve wording, a document, carrier, or completed-looking record alone.

3. What governance or permission-looking claim exists?

   • When the model asserts or relies on an accountable obligation, recommendation-as-duty, or prohibition, write a separate atomic D claim whose direct object is the exact U.Commitment governed by A.2.8. The claim records the relation for use; it neither institutes it nor proves that it obtains.
   • For permission-looking wording, select one A.6 A6-AW-* row. Only A6-AW-NORM-GRANT enters D; A6-AW-GATE enters A; exercise, weak evaluation, conflict, and observed-source claims enter E when their closing facts are present. A.2.8.PER ownership alone selects no quadrant.
   • Commitment-branch checklist (A.2.8 minimal structure):
     • id (stable; often the D-* claim ID),
     • subject (accountable role or party; never an episteme),
     • modality (the exact A.2.8 DeonticModalityToken: MUST | MUST_NOT | SHOULD | SHOULD_NOT),
     • scope (U.ClaimScope) and validityWindow (U.QualificationWindow),
     • referents (by reference or ID: promise content IDs like SVC-*, plus L-*, A-*, MethodDescriptionRef(...), or PromiseContentRef(...) as needed),
     • optional owedTo (beneficiary or counterparty),
     • optional adjudication.evidenceRefs when the commitment is meant to be auditable (point to E-*),
     • optional source when authority or provenance matters (issuer + instituting speechActRef + description reference),
     • optional notes for explicitly informative commentary (not part of the binding).
   • Permission-branch pointer: cite the selected A6-AW-* row, its exact A.2.8.PER object when applicable, and that atomic claim's quadrant. Preserve the object's own schema, participants, and references; do not reuse the commitment checklist.
   • A commitment is not “the spec text”: utterance descriptions carry the statement, but the binding is the U.Commitment object (A.7 and A.2.8).

4. What happened, what followed, and what supports reliance?

   • Work: A.15.1 owns one exact dated W : U.Work with performer system, covering assignment, enacted method, extent, and containing system. The Work can exist without a result, production, delivery, evidence-use, or acceptance claim.
   • Result or consequence: only when the sentence asks for one, select the matching A.15.1:4.6 row—an A.6.1 application/result binding or already governed WorkResultRelation, A.15.PROD production branch, A.3.4 change, evaluation result, subject-owned delivery/transfer relation, or acceptance relation. An absent row stays absent.
   • Evidence: only when a receiving use relies on Work or one of those consequences, state an A.10 claim-bound evidence path and carrier. Evidence supports the named claim; it creates neither the Work nor its result.

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Last Updated: 2026-07-28 — upstream FPF commit 17edd955 (github.com/ailev/FPF)