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7 posts tagged with "conformance"

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0.19–0.21 — adopter schemas, a number that behaves, and a pass over nothing

· 3 min read
0.19–0.21 — adopter schemas, a number that behaves, and a pass over nothing | ESSChecked JSON Schema imports with source identity and source-pinned normalization recipes; a Binary64 field that preserves signed zero, subnormals and nearest-even rounding across three languages; and a conformance suite that records what it left out, so a pass over nothing and a pass over everything stop reading the same.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-09-21-1100-a-pass-over-nothing.md · revision b89faaa411bd

Three releases that each close a place where the toolchain was quietly agreeable: an adopter's own schemas, floating-point arithmetic, and a green suite.

0.16–0.18 — the scenarios an author writes, and a browser that plays them

· 4 min read
0.16–0.18 — the scenarios an author writes, and a browser that plays them | ESSA specification can carry authored scenarios, not only the ones it obliges: modelled instances, command timelines, expectations, a claimed length of time, and a consumer that halted an ordered scan. ess verify conform web walks them in a browser without executing an implementation. Also: why there is no 0.17.0 release.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-09-21-1030-the-scenarios-an-author-writes.md · revision b89faaa411bd

Synthesis writes the scenarios a specification obliges. These releases let an author write the ones it merely permits, and give three of them claims the format previously could not carry.

0.10–0.11 — the claims a generated scenario could not make

· 4 min read
0.10–0.11 — the claims a generated scenario could not make | ESSA command outcome says which entity fields it determines and from what, so a generated scenario asserts the values a row holds rather than only that the row exists. On the billing example the negative-total fault went from caught by 6 of 29 scenarios to 13. A wrong-state branch can also accept, and a view can take parameters.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-09-21-0930-the-claims-a-scenario-could-not-make.md · revision b89faaa411bd

A conformance suite is worth what its assertions are worth. These releases are about three claims the model had no way to state, each found by an implementation that passed while being wrong.

0.6.1 — no new capability, the existing claims made mechanical

· 3 min read
0.6.1 — no new capability, the existing claims made mechanical | ESSThree invariants that were enforced by nothing are enforced by scans. The model digest widens to the full SHA-256. Property tests with fixed seeds. And the fault matrix reaches thirteen rows, zero uncaught.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-08-21-0040-hardening-the-register-emptied.md · revision b89faaa411bd

A release with no new capability. Everything here takes a claim the repository was already making and makes it mechanical — enforced by something that fails, rather than by a doc comment that asserts.

0.4.0 — the specification judges the implementation

· 3 min read
0.4.0 — the specification judges the implementation | ESSA specification generates its own conformance suite, runs it, and produces a standalone report. This retrospective records the pre-extraction milestone.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-08-20-1809-the-specification-as-oracle.md · revision b89faaa411bd

Historical release note. ESS now publishes a standalone conformance report; workflow consumers translate that report at their own boundary.

This is the release where a specification first generated its own conformance suite, ran it against an implementation, and produced a report a workflow consumer could translate into its own evidence vocabulary.

Both halves are proven, which matters more than either alone:

  • a correct implementation passes 27 of 27 scenarios and the task completes;
  • the same implementation with one fault injected fails the scenario that exists to catch it, and the engine refuses to let the task complete, naming the principle that refused.

0.3.3 — twenty gates, closed before the oracle was allowed to start

· 3 min read
0.3.3 — twenty gates, closed before the oracle was allowed to start | ESSNot a feature wave. A mutation review ran twenty single-edit changes against the load-bearing rules; seven survived, two survived the whole gate. What a user notices is mostly things this repository used to accept and now refuses.ESSfield-noteessfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-08-20-1318-reconciliation.md · revision b89faaa411bd

Wave 4 was going to make the specification judge generated code. Before that could start, four independent reviews opened twenty gates, and this release closes them.

It is not a feature wave. What a user notices is mostly things this repository used to accept and now refuses.

0.2.0-wave-3 — a backend can prove it, instead of claiming it

· 2 min read
0.2.0-wave-3 — a backend can prove it, instead of claiming it | AEPSixteen black-box conformance suites over the command and query surfaces, three levels — and a deliberately broken backend the suites are checked against, because a suite that passes everything tells you nothing.AEPfield-noteaepfield-noteadopterdevelopertry-spec-driven-developmentunderstand-safe-agentic-codingresearch

Source-owned field note · website/blog/2026-08-20-0141-conformance-and-the-domain-profiles.md · revision 824869fecbd2

Any storage backend can say it implements the contract. This release is about the difference between saying and proving.