TDP-001 Term Decomposition Protocol

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Term Decomposition Protocol

Canonical Question: What is the formal, versioned procedure for decomposing a contested abstract term into a testable mechanism, subjecting it to adversarial counterexamples, and locating either survival or a genuine floor?

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Typical Failure Modes

Often confused with: A philosophical essay, a finished definition system, or an authority that “settles” the meaning of words.
Should NOT be used for: Producing permanent or authoritative definitions; moral or political prescription; claims of universal applicability without independent confirmation.
Common misuse: Treating a single Self-Assessed run (especially AI-only) as Confirmed standing; skipping the Counterexample Quality Gate; declaring a floor without separating adjacent questions; inflating instrument_grade beyond documented evidence.

Revision Trigger

This page should be reconsidered when:

An independent re-run of the protocol or of CR-FAIR-001 produces a material divergence.
A second term is fully decomposed and reveals a structural gap in TDP-001 itself.
The Counterexample Quality Gate, Survival minimum, or floor-standing rule is shown to be insufficient under load.
A machine-readable schema annex is issued.

See the Game. Refuse the Game. Build Better. This page is under continuous calibration in line with the Permanent Beta principle.

Structural Connections

Page Transparency & Calibration

Calibration Log & Decision Records (via Talk Page) — This page uses Talk-only calibration tracking. Full history of reviews, version changes, calibration decisions, and any governance reasoning behind structural decisions all live on the same Talk page, per Calibration Log: When to Create One and Decision Records: Governance Memory. Not every Calibration Log entry is a Decision Record — scan the Talk page's headings for entries specifically marked as decisions; the link itself being active only confirms this page has calibration history, not that a formal decision was ever recorded.
View Current Page History — Complete edit history.

This page is under continuous calibration in line with the Permanent Beta principle.

Public Discussion Welcome

Questions, suggestions, feedback, disagreement, and proposed improvements are welcome on the Talk page.

Light rules:

Prefer evidence and concrete examples over slogans.
Apply Diagnostic Inversion Test when criticizing — the same standard to this page that you would apply elsewhere.
Distinguish observation from conclusion.
Calibration entries and Decision Records are maintenance records; public discussion belongs in ordinary Talk threads.
This framework remains in Permanent Beta. Better calibration is always in scope.

Calibration Dependent

Pages that list this page as a load-bearing dependency:

Page	Priority	Instrument Grade	Last Updated	Cycle Status	Drift Status
Abstract Definition Mechanics	Core	Experimental	2026-07-29	Current	None open
Vision and Phased Roadmap	Supporting	Experimental	2026-07-25	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
CR-FAIR-001 Fairness Calibration Record	Supporting	Experimental	2026-07-25	Current	Breadcrumb-Open

If this page is edited substantively, review the list above per the Ripple Review rule — see Calibration Dependencies: Standards and Process#Rule: Core-Priority Changes Trigger Mandatory Ripple Review.

Calibration Dependencies

Pages this page relies on as load-bearing dependencies: Permanent Beta • Metrology of the Abstract • CR-FAIR-001 Fairness Calibration Record If incorrect, edit the `depends_on` field in Admin Page Status — do not edit this section directly, it is auto-generated.

Calibration References

This page is calibrated against the following core standards and reference materials:

The Sovereign Games Framework — Overall framework philosophy and operating principles
Permanent Beta — Core maintenance and continuous improvement standard
Reference Standards — Principles for traceable, confirmed standards
Calibrating Conceptual Instruments — Methodology for evaluating and refining pages
Civilizational Traceability Hierarchy — How standards should connect to reality across levels
Diagnostic Inversion Test — Mandatory self-application standard
Reality Game — Foundational reality-alignment tool
Reality Override Game — Standing discipline against protecting an existing model rather than updating it
Observable Behavior Rule — Standing principle that diagnostics evaluate observable actions, mechanisms, and consequences, not internal motive, belief, or intent
One-Way Nature of the Sovereign Games — Anti-capture design principles
The Royal Cubit Civilization (Strategy) — Long-term civilizational vision and metrology metaphor
Conceptual Instruments — Overall direction and metrology metaphor
Breadcrumb Philosophy — Standing discipline for making unresolved questions and provisional decisions explicit
Calibration Dependencies: Standards and Process — Rule that visible and hidden dependency lists must match, and that dependencies describe genuine reliance

Page Construction & Maintenance References

How we construct, maintain, and utilize each page as a self-admin control panel.

Distributed Instrumentation — the architectural principle behind why this page (and every page) carries its own live instrumentation, rather than relying on a separate central dashboard.
Page Structure Calibration Checklist — the Step 0 structural pass every page should pass before content calibration begins; this page's own structure should be checkable against it.
Template:New Page Seed — the seed template this page's basic structure was built from.
Calibration Log: When to Create One — the decision procedure this page's own Talk-only vs. dedicated-log status was decided against.
Framework Features Reference — maintains consistency and traceability across the framework's structural features while avoiding unnecessary maintenance overhead; consult before introducing a new structural pattern this page might otherwise duplicate.

Calibration Procedure

In development. See Calibration Procedure for current status. No formal step-by-step procedure exists yet beyond the practices demonstrated across individual pages developed during the initial creation of this project.

Tracking & Log Pages

Admin:Maintenance Dashboard - This dashboard shows pages that require calibration or review.
Nonconformance Reporting Procedure — What counts as a nonconformance and where it routes.
Known Site Issues & Fixes — Technical/mechanism bugs.
Calibration Failure Log — Calibration-design failures.
Breadcrumb Tracking — Live index of open Development Breadcrumbs.
Decision Records: Governance Memory — Why governance/structural decisions exist, plus its Index.
Insights and Future Layers — Unexpected benefits and project-wide future ideas.
Feature Request Log — Genuinely desired features that were attempted and confirmed not currently possible with available tools. Index-only; full write-ups and discussion live on Talk.
Calibration Report Standard Format - Standardrized reporting formatting.

Page Reference

Title	TDP-001 Term Decomposition Protocol
URL	https://www.thesovereigngames.com/wiki/TDP-001_Term_Decomposition_Protocol
Description	Current Working Standard document (Provisional, Self-Assessed). Defines the mandatory six-step sequence, Quality Gate, floor rules, schema fields, and standing ladder.
Category	Working Standards

Type	Meta & Framework
Functional Layer	Calibration
Application Layer	Framework Infrastructure
Category	Metrology of the Abstract
Version	0.1.1
Maturity	Experimental
Last Calibration	2026-07-25
Status	Permanent Beta
Description	Working Standard that defines the Term Decomposition Protocol (TDP) — a repeatable, adversarially-driven procedure for converting contested abstract terms into versioned, testable mechanisms with explicitly located floors. Current version is Provisional and Self-Assessed.