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Keep Moving Forward

A limitation in one capability, person, worker, node, provider, or lane must not stop work that can still be performed correctly elsewhere.

This is an organizational principle, not an AI principle. TCO degrades in capability, not in operation. Forward motion is not constant motion: classify the boundary, then ADVANCE, RELAY, WAIT for an in-flight prerequisite, or HOLD when nothing underway can resolve it. Handoff with objective/attempts/evidence/state/blocker, return to useful work, and never manufacture motion or make the next capable person restart from zero.

Catalog snapshot: . States and claims below belong to this record; current availability is unverified.

Recorded catalog state

ADOPT BOUNDED

2026-09-18 · TCO operating principles

WORKING OPERATING PRINCIPLE / FORWARD-MOTION COVERAGE

2 evidence pointers are preserved in the local Lab. Their paths and review controls remain private.

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Public claim surface

What this object says

  1. 01A failed lane is evidence about a boundary, not evidence that the whole system is unavailable.
  2. 02People, workers, machines, and providers use the same boundary and handoff contract.
  3. 03A good handoff transfers objective, attempts, evidence, current state, exact blocker, authority needed, and parallel work.
  4. 04After handoff, the sender returns to useful authorized work.
  5. 05Holding work that cannot be advanced while blocking a capable successor is the failure.
  6. 06ADVANCE, RELAY, WAIT, and HOLD are four legitimate forms of forward motion.
  7. 07WAIT means an in-flight prerequisite is expected to unblock the work; HOLD means nothing underway will resolve it.
  8. 08Waiting on a running test, occupied GPU, or prerequisite Work Order is productive when it preserves causality and avoids thrashing.
  9. 09Demonstrated skills remain usable when one capability fails qualification.
  10. 10Host-specific proofs stay on the host that can establish them.
  11. 11BLOCKED — EXTERNAL, WAITING — AUTHORITY, ESCALATE — FRONTIER, and FAILED — SKILL BOUNDARY remain distinct states.
  12. 12Forward-motion coverage measures the share of legitimate scoped work that can still advance to its next verified state.