LDC-E1319 — Expectation outside the vocabulary

What it means

Expectations compare result fields against a closed dictionary: each status field accepts only its own enumerated values. A value from outside that list matches nothing the engine can produce — not a stricter check, but a check against a word the result language never utters. The compiler stops at the unknown value and lists the words the field actually accepts.

The repair is to expect one of the listed values. When none of them says what the test means, the test is asking about the wrong field, not missing a word.

Example

run

{"argv": ["lower-test", "$ROOT/test.lawtest"], "files": {"test.lawtest": "language \"law.core\" version \"0.2\";\npackage demo.diagnostics version \"0.1.0\";\nnamespace \"urn:law:demo:diagnostics\";\n\nrelation sunny() kind institutional;\n\ntest \"vacuous\" {\n    given {\n        context {\n            legal_time @2026-08-26;\n        }\n    }\n\n    evaluate truth(sunny());\n\n    expect evaluation_status == BOGUS;\n}\n"}, "expect": "LDC-E1319"}

Fix

run

{"argv": ["lower-test", "$ROOT/test.lawtest"], "files": {"test.lawtest": "language \"law.core\" version \"0.2\";\npackage demo.diagnostics version \"0.1.0\";\nnamespace \"urn:law:demo:diagnostics\";\n\nrelation sunny() kind institutional;\n\ntest \"vacuous\" {\n    given {\n        context {\n            legal_time @2026-08-26;\n        }\n    }\n\n    evaluate truth(sunny());\n\n    expect evaluation_status == COMPUTED;\n}\n"}, "expect": null}

Engine message

The engine reports this in its own wording:

Output

$ROOT/test.lawtest:16:33: error LDC-E1319: "BOGUS" is not a value of field evaluation_status §174.1; dictionary is closed: COMPUTED, MISSING_INPUT, MISSING_POLICY, REQUIRES_JUDGMENT, NON_EXECUTABLE, EXTERNAL_UNAVAILABLE, INTERPRETATION_REQUIRED, SOURCE_RESOLUTION_FAILED, PRIORITY_CONFLICT, UNRESOLVED_NORMATIVE_CONFLICT, CONFLICTED_INPUTS, TYPE_ERROR, RUNTIME_ERROR, RESOURCE_LIMIT

Related

• LDC-E1316 — a test that asserts nothing at all.