Framing - Assay

Assay can describe the same sitting many ways. Each way answers one question. Mixing two questions is how a ledger lies. This page is the map.

Grain — name the unit first

Labels hang on a grain. They do not invent one.

Grain	What it is
Span	One unit of metered work
Turn	One sealed transcript row
Task	One unit of intent
Session / sitting	One harness conversation — the spine
Episode	A range of turns inside one sitting, with one primary on the tree

principal is a dimension. Never the join.

The matrix

Takes money? is the load-bearing column.

Axis	Question	Takes money?
Principal	Who directed this?	Dimension of spend. Never the join.
Project (seating)	Where was the session seated?	No product answer. Workspace pointer.
Product (tree)	What thing was this for?	Yes — subtree of episode primaries.
Objective	Which slice of that product?	Yes — that node and descendants, via episode primary.
Goal (tree)	Named slice under an objective	Yes — same rule as an objective node.
Episode	Which stretch of turns was for that node?	Yes — spend follows the first episode at the winning source.
Touch	What else did this sitting affect?	No. Counts and chips only.
Type	What kind of work?	Yes, as a grouping of whole-session spend — not a second tree.
Product-attribution	Which product did path mentions point at?	Yes, two named readings (inclusive / weighted). Not the tree.
Scope	Where did writes land?	No objective dollars. Where, not what-for.
Span work-type	Mechanical / tooling / routing / reasoning / generation?	Classifier input. Waste detectors read it.
Lane	Frontier / offload / local?	Pricing.
Outcome	What happened as a result?	ROI denominator. Not a tree label.
Declared value	What dollar did a human say it was worth?	ROI numerator. Absent → ROI undefined.
Initiated	Who opened the sitting?	Filter only. Not spend.
Source rank	Who asserted the label?	Precedence, not a frame.

Config products.groups maps product names to workspace folders. That map names path-product reports. It is not the objective tree.

How they decompose

principal                         who
    └── session_id                the spine (one sitting)
            ├── Type              kind of work (one annotation)
            ├── Episode(s)        1–8 turn ranges
            │     └── primary:
            │           Product (root)
            │             └── Objective
            │                   └── Goal (deeper)
            ├── Touch(es)         other tree nodes — no $
            ├── Product-attribution   path mentions → inclusive / weighted $
            └── Scope             writes landed in repo:slug — no tree $

Product → Objective → Goal is one tree. Display names the depths. Type is not on that tree. A sitting can be Type build:feature and still jump Product A → Product B → Product C as three episodes.

Two “product” stories

Story	Evidence	Honesty
Tree product	Placement on a root	What the work was for. Spend via first episode.
Path product	Mentions in harness session documents	What the sitting talked about / opened. Inclusive does not partition. Weighted does.

project on the span is a third word. Seating. Not a product.

Mixed vs theme

Case	What it is	What to write
Mixed	The sitting changed job	Split episodes (turn order, not clock). Each episode has one primary. Cap 8. No overlap at one version.
Theme	One job that also hits other products	Do not split. Keep the theme as primary. List the others as touches.

Talk does not mint a touch. A write (or a declared scope) must match an accepted node that is not already a primary.

What takes dollars

Axis	How money is read
Episode primary (tree)	First episode at winning source. Forest figures stay additive.
Touch	Never.
Type	Whole-session spend grouped by type.
Path product, inclusive	Whole spend of every session that mentioned the product. Upper bound. Does not partition.
Path product, weighted	Session spend × share of that session’s workspace refs. Does partition. Residuals must reconcile.
Scope	Not an objective rollup.
Principal	Filter / group. Never the join.

Unknown ≠ $0. Unpriced spans are counted, never folded into a ratio as free.

Absences (name the hole)

Word	Means	Must not become
Unknown (tree)	No episode window	A fake root named `other`
Unplaced	Labelling has not put the sitting on the tree	Silently skipped
Unannotated	No Type	Dropped from Type charts (it is a bucket)
No evidence (path product)	Session was read; referenced no workspace	Merged with unscanned
Unscanned	No source document to read	Reported as a measured zero
No scope row	Writes were never measured	Empty scopes as a fact
Proposed	Judge minted a node; you have not accepted	A hanging subtree

Precedence

For a given overlay, a reader picks one label: declared > judge > heuristic A type you set in the console is in the declared family. Precedence is a property of the source, not of the clock. A store with no declarations behaves as before. Assay admits or refuses a producer’s type vocabulary. It does not coerce. The tree taxonomy is this installation’s objective nodes.

Glossary

Component. A workspace slug in path-product attribution. Grouped into a product name by products.groups. Declared. Producer- or user-asserted label. Beats judge and heuristic. Episode. Inclusive turn range, one primary. Default: the whole sitting. Goal (tree). Display name for a node at depth ≥ 2. Same storage as Objective. Goal (old). Former name of Type. Do not use “Goal” for kind of work on the console. Heuristic. Cheap label from derived features, no full content. Inclusive. Path-product reading: whole session spend if it mentioned the product. Does not partition. Judge. Local (or opted-in) model label. Mints proposals on the tree, not accepted nodes. Lane. frontier / offload / local. Pricing axis. Mixed. Episodes with different primaries in one sitting. Objective. Tree node: a slice of a product. Primary. The tree node on an episode. Spend sits here. Principal. Who directed. Dimension. Never a join key. Product (tree). Forest root. Result of one or more objectives. Product (path). Derived from mentions in session documents. Two readings, both named. Project. Where the session was seated. Not what it built. Proposed. Judge-minted node awaiting accept. Scope. Where writes landed (repo:<slug>). Writes only. Working directory and reads do not count. Session / sitting. One harness conversation. Source rank. declared > judge > heuristic. User ⊆ declared. Span. Immutable metered event. Task. Unit of intent. Outcome grain. Theme. One primary, plus touches. Do not split. Touch. Extra edge to a tree node this sitting affected. No dollars. Turn. Sealed transcript row. Episode bounds use turn ids. Type. Kind of work. Closed vocabulary. Session grain. Unannotated. No Type row. Unknown (tree). No episode window. Unplaced. Sitting the labeler has not put on the tree. Unpriced. Cost absent, not $0. Weighted. Path-product reading that partitions by reference share. Work-type (span). Classifier tag on a span. Not Type.

​Grain — name the unit first

​The matrix

​How they decompose

​Two “product” stories

​Mixed vs theme

​What takes dollars

​Absences (name the hole)

​Precedence

​Glossary