8.9 The exploratory audit record

A result is reproducible only if the conceptual space and search process are versioned. The audit record should contain the initial theory, legal move language, equivalence relation, proposal model, probe-selection policy, resource budget, random seeds where relevant, observer traces, failed paths, and final admission status. Without this record, retrieval, exploration, and post-hoc explanation are difficult to distinguish.

. Call a result exploratory only when its derivation stays inside the declared representation. If the system adds a primitive, observer, probe shape, or preservation rule, split the trace at that point and treat the later search as exploration inside a proposed package transformation whose admission is still pending. Reserve theory extension for a change to the presentation or generative language that has passed the package-level admission contract; before that verdict, call it a candidate theory extension.

That split marks the boundary of exploration. Once the system must change the package in which paths and outcomes are expressed, the creative claim becomes a transformational proposal. Chapter 9 makes this transition explicit and states the additional transport and admission obligations created by package change, including the stronger case of theory extension.