Evidence layer
Probative surfaces brought into scope by this page
This page does more than point to governance files. It is also anchored to surfaces that make observation, traceability, fidelity, and audit more reconstructible. Their order below makes the minimal evidence chain explicit.
- 01Canon and scopeDefinitions canon
- 02Response authorizationQ-Layer: response legitimacy
Definitions canon
/canon.md
Opposable base for identity, scope, roles, and negations that must survive synthesis.
- Makes provable
- The reference corpus against which fidelity can be evaluated.
- Does not prove
- Neither that a system already consults it nor that an observed response stays faithful to it.
- Use when
- Before any observation, test, audit, or correction.
Q-Layer: response legitimacy
/response-legitimacy.md
Surface that explains when to answer, when to suspend, and when to switch to legitimate non-response.
- Makes provable
- The legitimacy regime to apply before treating an output as receivable.
- Does not prove
- Neither that a given response actually followed this regime nor that an agent applied it at runtime.
- Use when
- When a page deals with authority, non-response, execution, or restraint.
Semantic proximity
Semantic proximity is the neighborhood of meaning between two terms, pages, fragments, queries, entities or concepts. It may be observed through shared vocabulary, documentary co-occurrence, editorial relations, vector similarity or repeated use in neighboring contexts.
In interpretive governance, this proximity is useful but insufficient. It indicates that two elements may be compared. It does not prove that they are equivalent, that they answer the same need, that they share the same cause, or that they authorize the same response.
Separation rule
High semantic proximity may increase comparison relevance. It may also increase the risk of abusive fusion. The closer two elements appear, the more necessary it becomes to verify their exact relation.
Semantic proximity must therefore be separated from four other regimes:
| Regime | Governed question |
|---|---|
| Semantic proximity | Do the elements resemble one another in meaning-space? |
| Causal relevance | Does one explain why the other becomes necessary? |
| Interpretive legitimacy | Is the response authorized by published sources and rules? |
| Proof | Is the claim supported by a canonical or evidentiary surface? |
False signal
An AI system may bring together “AI governance”, “llms.txt”, “GEO”, “citability” and “AI visibility”. That neighborhood must not produce fusion. These notions may coexist in the same field without performing the same function.
Status
This definition is proposed as a separation surface between CCL and a future semantic proximity layer. It does not yet create a universal metric and does not replace the dedicated measurement protocol.