16-gates.md

The 16 Validation Gates

Before a capsule is trusted, the validator checks it against sixteen gates.

Structural gates

• G01: exactly five root keys
• G02: required subfields present
• G03: types, enums, and versions match the canonical contract
• G04: provenance coverage is high enough and source metadata is present when required
• G05: content type is recognized or at least structurally acceptable
• G06: payload integrity rules are satisfied

Neuro and semantic gates

• G07: summary length is within the allowed range
• G08: keywords count is within the allowed range
• G09: semantic hash format is valid
• G10: semantic hash parity holds between metadata and neuro layer
• G11: relation types are canonical

Topology and confidence gates

• G12: linked target IDs resolve when known-ID validation is active
• G13: non-draft capsules include at least one outbound link
• G14: long capsules cannot claim unrealistically perfect coherence
• G15: the confidence vector has the right shape and value bounds

Cryptographic gate

• G16: integrity_sha3_512 matches the recomputed SHA3-512 hash over the canonicalized first four roots

Auto-fix boundaries

The live validator can safely repair only a narrow subset of issues:

• semantic hash parity
• deprecated refutes alias normalization
• confidence vector shape normalization
• optional recomputation of the integrity seal after safe fixes

See also:

• validator.md
• integrity-recipes.md
• ../openapi/validate.openapi.json