metadata-actively-governs-truth-propagation
IN derived (depth 2)
Lifecycle state carried in node metadata (retraction flags, stale reasons) is not passive storage but actively governs truth propagation behavior — retracted nodes are skipped during BFS traversal and trigger nodes are never recomputed — ensuring that the universal extension mechanism directly controls truth maintenance rather than merely recording state
Summary
The metadata stored on each node isn't just a record of what happened — it actively shapes how truth flows through the system. When a node is marked as retracted, the propagation engine skips it entirely during traversal and never tries to recompute it, meaning the metadata extensions directly control which beliefs stay alive and which go dark, rather than just passively logging their status.
Justifications
SL — Metadata extensibility means any lifecycle concern can be expressed as a metadata key, and propagation's lifecycle awareness means that metadata directly influences truth computation — the combination closes the loop between state representation and state enforcement
Antecedents (all must be IN):
- metadata-is-universal-extension-mechanism — Node metadata is the universal extension mechanism carrying all structured lifecycle state (retraction flags, stale reasons, challenges, access tags, supersession markers), and retraction flags pinned in metadata survive recomputation to enforce sticky retraction.
- propagation-respects-node-lifecycle — Truth propagation respects node lifecycle states: retracted nodes are skipped during BFS traversal, and the trigger node itself is never recomputed — callers must set its truth value before invoking propagation.
Dependents
These beliefs depend on this one:
- metadata-governance-flows-through-safe-topology — Metadata-carried lifecycle state (retraction flags, stale reasons, access tags) actively governs truth propagation that is itself topology-complete and inconsistency-safe — lifecycle decisions propagate through all transitive dependencies including outlist-connected paths, even in the presence of dangling references, without runtime errors.
- metadata-governs-lifecycle-across-read-and-write-paths — Node lifecycle state carried in metadata actively governs both mutation behavior (retracted nodes skipped during truth propagation, sticky retraction surviving recompute) and inspection behavior (staleness checking skips OUT nodes, compact surfaces stale reasons) — a single metadata mechanism controls the system's complete operational surface.