/reduced-space-test

name: reduced-space-test
description: "Scoped empirical validation. Decomposes a target↔surrogate equivalence claim into facets, bounds a test space, captures evidence inside it, and carries the untested complement forward."

Reduced-Space Test: Scoped Empirical Validation

Validate an inference-uncertain proposition inside a constraint-bounded stand-in space synchronized with the user, obtain a scoped resolution ("within these conditions, whether it holds, fails, or remains inconclusive"), and carry the uncovered complement forward to a follow-up protocol. This skill does not run the experiment substrate, open branches, or create PRs. It orchestrates existing protocols around one disciplined empirical move.

**This is an orchestration utility, not a runtime executor and not a new epistemic protocol.** Reduced-Space Test introduces no new interaction deficit. It realizes a known composite — decompose the target↔surrogate equivalence claim into verifiable facets, then project `/bound`'s source-grounded result into a synchronized test space and coverage complement ∘ `/inquire` for evidence inside it → scoped resolution + carried complement. It is a thin composition over existing protocols, kept outside the core protocol set because it owns no deficit of its own.

The core recognition act is **decomposing the equivalence claim into verifiable facets** — not "creating a reduced space." A stand-in space is only as good as the facets on which it is claimed equivalent to the target; the value lives in making those facets explicit and observable.

Core Contract

`/reduced-space-test` owns scoped empirical validation:

InferenceUncertainClaim
  -> ScopedClaimFrame       (core: decompose target↔surrogate equivalence into verifiable facets)
  -> /bound outcome        (an applicable DefinedBoundary proceeds; otherwise follow Phase 2 from the accumulated context)
  -> recognition of the undrawn cut   (the user draws every part of the cut no act of theirs drew)
  -> BoundedTestSpace       (applicable result projected into settled test scope, coverage complement, and pending boundary obligations)
  -> EmpiricalEvidence      (/inquire: observe inside the bounded space, evidence over inference)
  -> ScopedResolution | CoverageShortfall   (carry the scope record, including pending boundary obligations; scoped outcome — holds, fails, or inconclusive — within the claim's defined conditions; or, on under-coverage, a CoverageShortfall: slice-scoped resolution or no resolution, with the remainder re-bounded or carried)
  -> Residual               (uncovered complement -> follow-up protocol)

An empirical terminal pairs a **scoped result** (`ScopedResolution` or `CoverageShortfall`) with a **carried residual**: the supported outcome or explicit shortfall, paired with the coverage complement. The scoped result retains its scope record, including still-pending boundary obligations with their sources and next treatment; these obligations remain distinct from coverage. Without an applicable `DefinedBoundary`, a `/bound` run follows Phase 2 from the accumulated context and supplies no successful validation result.

Types

| Type | Meaning | |---|---| | `InferenceUncertainClaim` | A proposition about behavior, performance, transfer, or value that inference alone cannot settle and that the user wants grounded in evidence. | | `EquivalenceClaim` | The asserted target-environment ↔ surrogate-space equivalence the test rests on. The test is only valid on the facets where this equivalence is itself examined. | | `VerifiableFacet` | One decomposed, observable dimension of the equivalence claim — a place where target and surrogate can be compared and a gap measured. | | `ScopedClaimFrame` | The Phase 1 output: the decomposed set of `VerifiableFacet`s the test will and will not speak to — critical facets, the surrogate↔target difference inventory, influence-path hypotheses, and the chosen gap-measurement approach. Surfaced for user recognition before it constrains the boundary; it is what keeps the later evidence sentence honest. | | `BoundedTestSpace` | The validation scope projected from `/bound`'s source-grounded entries and the `ScopedClaimFrame`, paired with its coverage complement. Its scope record binds the settled conditions to their sources and retains pending boundary obligations with their required next treatment; the settled scope constitutes the verifiable claim. | | `Residual` | The complement the bounded space does not cover. A first-class output, carried forward, never dropped. | | `EmpiricalEvidence` | Observation captured inside the bounded test space through `/inquire` — evidence with cited basis, scoped to the conditions actually exercised. | | `ScopedResolution` | The scoped outcome within the bounded space on the tested facets: the proposition holds, fails, or remains inconclusive — stated as an updated failure probability within the defined conditions (lower on confirmation, higher on disconfirmation), never a bare "it works". Its scope record carries still-pending boundary obligations and their sources/next treatment. A disconfirming or inconclusive result is a first-class resolution, not a loop failure. | | `CoverageShortfall` | The typed outcome when the bounded space turns out narrower than the claim it must license (under-coverage): no `ScopedResolution` is issued for the full claim; the honest exit re-scopes the resolution to the slice actually covered (resolution over the slice + the uncovered remainder carried as `Residual`) or re-bounds the space (→ Phase 2). Preserve the scope record with pending obligations even when the result states no resolution. A bounded exit, never an implicit retry. |

Composition

Reduced-Space Test orchestrates existing protocols; most per-step work is delegated to them, while this skill owns the Phase 1 facet decomposition outright, plus the sequencing and the scoping discipline across the protocols it composes.

(conditional front) /