ifc-0164

12.4 An executable OPTIC episode

At time \(t\), let

\[ z_t=(\mathbb S_t,m_t,x_t,H_t,b_t) \]

contain the current workflow sketch, skill document, semantic state, provenance-bearing trace, and remaining budget. The admissible actions include executing a registered section, requesting a paired-order probe, proposing a bounded program edit, constructing a typed sketch extension, requesting new evidence, and abstaining.

OPTIC skill-construction episode

  1. Initialize the candidate-program set \(\mathcal P\leftarrow \varnothing \).

  2. Type-check \(m_t\), compile it relative to environment \(E\), and load the current workflow sketch \(\mathbb S_t\).

  3. Execute registered skills and record outputs, resources, invariants, and failures in \(H_t\).

  4. If the failure is ambiguous under marginal skill diagnostics:

  5. select paired-order or active execution probes that separate the registered explanations.

  6. If the additional evidence leaves the failure unresolved:

  7. persist the alternatives and return an evidence request or auditable abstention.

  8. Estimate the involution/interchange witness with uncertainty and localize its support to skills, interfaces, resources, or control flow.

  9. Execute the applicable controls in \(\mathsf{Ctl}_{\mathrm{OPTIC}}\) and retain their results in \(H_t\).

  10. If a controlled repair exists inside \(\mathbb S_t\):

  11. optimize or recompose the available skill sections and add each eligible program dossier to \(\mathcal P\).

  12. Else if the defect is persistent, the control suite has ruled out its specified alternatives, and registered representability tests find no repair in the current skill language:

  13. construct \(\Upsilon _{\mathrm{OPTIC}}\), including \(J_{\mathrm{skill}}:\mathbb S_t\to \mathbb S_t^+\) when the presentation changes, a versioned program \(m_t^+\), transported evidence, and new predictions.

  14. add each well-typed extension dossier to \(\mathcal P\).

  15. Else:

  16. persist the unresolved record and return an evidence request or auditable abstention.

  17. Test every candidate in \(\mathcal P\) with \(\gamma _{\mathrm{skill}}\) across multi-step execution, relevant route orderings, rollback, and transport; defer any candidate without a coherent finite realization.

  18. Freeze the candidate before testing it on the independent admission suite; persist admitted and rejected versions separately.

Scalar scores may rank eligible programs, but eligibility is defined by the typed contract. A candidate with higher task reward but a failed invariant, malformed schema, or unregistered tool request is not an OPTIC improvement. Likewise, an extension that succeeds only on the traces that proposed it has not yet been admitted.