Spec Core (v0.1)

1. Introduction

A RIGOR Process is a deterministic, event-driven state machine where all mutations are restricted to declared transitions and executed atomically per event.

2. Process Definition

A Process MUST define:

• A unique identity
• A finite set of states
• An initial state (which MUST exist in the states set)
• A finite set of transitions
• A context schema

3. Transition Model & Mutation Declaration (CRITICAL)

The formal mapping is: (current_state, event) -> (next_state, mutations)

• A transition MUST define from, on, and to.
• A transition MAY define a mutate list.
• Rule: Transitions MUST NOT mutate context fields not explicitly declared in the mutate list. If mutate is omitted, the context is immutable for that transition.

4. Transactional Semantics

Each event MUST be processed atomically.

• Successful execution results in an atomic state transition and context update.
• Failure results in no state change and no mutation (rollback).

5. Determinism Guarantee

For any given (state, event) pair, there MUST be at most one valid transition. Ambiguous mappings are prohibited and MUST be rejected at validation time.

6. Terminal States

A terminal state is a state with no outgoing transitions. Once reached, the process MUST NOT accept further events.

7. Invariants

7.1 Structural Invariants

• A Process MUST have a single initial state.
• All transition targets MUST exist in the states set.
• No duplicate transitions (state, event) pairs MUST exist.

7.2 Runtime Invariants

• The current state MUST always be a member of the declared states set.
• The context MUST always conform to the declared schema.

8. Normative Example

{
  "process": {
    "id": "OrderProcess",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "initial_state": "created",
    "context_schema": {
      "order_id": { "type": "uuid" },
      "status": { "type": "string", "enum": ["created", "approved", "rejected", "shipped"] },
      "approved_at": { "type": "datetime", "required": false },
      "rejected_at": { "type": "datetime", "required": false }
    },
    "states": [
      { "id": "created", "type": "default" },
      { "id": "approved", "type": "default" },
      { "id": "rejected", "type": "terminal" },
      { "id": "shipped", "type": "terminal" }
    ],
    "transitions": [
      {
        "id": "approve",
        "from": "created",
        "on": "approve",
        "to": "approved",
        "mutate": ["status", "approved_at"]
      },
      {
        "id": "reject",
        "from": "created",
        "on": "reject",
        "to": "rejected",
        "mutate": ["status", "rejected_at"]
      },
      {
        "id": "ship",
        "from": "approved",
        "on": "ship",
        "to": "shipped",
        "mutate": ["status"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Example Breakdown:

• Context Schema: Defines order_id, status, approved_at, rejected_at.
• Transition with Mutation: The approve transition explicitly declares mutate: ["status", "approved_at"]. Only these fields may change.
• Terminal States: rejected and shipped have no outgoing transitions.
• Determinism: Each (state, event) pair maps to exactly one transition.