Lifecycle pitfalls

Wrong forms, silent outcomes, LDC-E diagnostics, typical formalizer mistakes, and how to detect them. “Confirmed by running” items were reproduced by running the examples.

OverviewBoundariesCorpus formsPitfalls

1. Overdue without completeness is UNDETERMINED, not VIOLATED (confirmed by running)

An achievement breach requires four conditions, the third being a completeness ground (explicit non-performance, a certificate, a decision). The “fee unpaid, deadline passed” case without an explicit not fee_paid gives:

Output

evaluate positions(); expect position(PayFee, UNDETERMINED);

(examples/achievement-ladder/tests/02-overdue.lawtest, passes.) An AI agent writes in a VIOLATED expectation “by common sense” — the test goes red. Detection: read the achievement rule literally; a breach must be earned by completeness, not by calendar.

2. Subject-matter predicates instead of cycle std literals

obligation_terminated(o), minimum_violated(c), weekly_rest_violated(e, er) are world facts: rules read them, the lifecycle never sees them. Cycle acts are only the unary/binary/ternary literals urn:law:std#waived/suspended/terminated over the position id, with a source, scope (full or violation), and time. Without an interval the literal acts as a point on the decision date. Detection: ask positions() — a subject-matter predicate never changes a status.

3. DEFEATED as absence (confirmed by running)

A defeated position is present in positions with status DEFEATED, carries payload and createdBy, proof shows the winning application — but publishes NO status literal and no links. A rule reading fee_paid(p) as an ordinary fact never sees the defeated position’s conclusion: a conclusion with no surviving candidate has no accepted support. Detection: DEFEATED reads only via the positions()/normative_status query, never via a rule body.

4. A breach from an opposite norm

“There is a prohibition — so the act breached the duty” — no: a breach is not a logical conflict and never arises from an opposite norm’s presence. An accepted counterexample is needed (maintenance) or completeness (achievement). Two positions in conflict are a priority question, not a breach.

5. expired on a duty

The duty ladder in 0.2 never produces the expired API value: after the window — SATISFIED / VIOLATED / UNDETERMINED / CONFLICTED plus the waiver/suspension/termination statuses. A test expecting position(X, EXPIRED) on a duty passes vacuously (a reserved value that no implementation produces). Detection: EXPIRED belongs only to powers/liberties/immunities.

6. The decision axis instead of the law axis

Position statuses ask the moment the result is issued (decision_time, otherwise legal_time), not “which law applies”. A case with “law as of June 1, decision on September 1” gets its September status. decision_time is never named by technical default: a backfilled value never grounds an answer. Calendar questions never read the axes at all — the date comes from the question itself. Detection: always name both axes in tests (as the Union Treaty catalogue does).

7. Liberty/immunity with no link — LIFECYCLE_UNLINKED

waived/suspended/terminated act on duty and power directly; on liberty/immunity — only through a linked duty/power, otherwise warning LIFECYCLE_UNLINKED; claim/prohibition/entitlement/discretion — through their lowered form. Detection: the warning in check.

8. Keywords are lowercase

In this directory’s code bearer is written only as a lowercase keyword; keep that spelling in new records.