Statements & evidence

The unit of memory is a statement: one durable claim, in words a future session can act on. Not a transcript, not a summary — a sentence that stands alone, with everything that makes it trustworthy attached where a reader can check it.

born with provenance no statement exists without a source

Every statement carries where it came from: the session that learned it, the document it was distilled from, or the source that filed it — with the verbatim quote that grounds it, kept at ingest time so the distillation stays inspectable. A claim you cannot trace is a claim you cannot trust, so the door refuses to file one.

"After writing a setting, the screen must re-read from the store
 to learn what took effect."

scope     team          filed by   openori-org/memcell
evidence  3             outcomes   0
origin    src/app/api/v1/operator/settings/view/route.ts

when it applies a rule nobody is holding is a rule nobody follows

Most statements are knowledge: the retry ceiling is five, the billing period starts on the first. Knowledge cannot be disobeyed, so it names no moment and carries nothing here.

A standing rule is different. It exists to change what somebody does, and it only works if it reaches them when they are about to do it. A rule read at the start of a session and needed forty steps later is a rule nobody is holding by the time it applies. So a rule can say which moments it bears on:

answer and send are separated by who is on the other end rather than by the wording. Drafting a reply for the person you work for to approve is answer; the same words leaving to a customer, a court or the public are send — they cannot be un-told.

A rule can name several. "Nothing goes out until a second person has read it" bears on send. "Save the note before closing the ticket" bears on record. "Work on a copy, never the original" bears on change.

evidence accumulates a repeat is corroboration, never a copy

When the same learning arrives again — another session, another source, another agent — it folds into the existing statement as evidence instead of piling up near-duplicates. The statement's page lists every piece: each source that agreed, each recall that served it, each outcome reported against it, in order, with times.

the chain history is append-only — wording changes, the record does not

Rewording a statement keeps the old wording readable in history and attributes the edit. Superseding — when a kept decision settles an older open question — takes the old statement out of active service with its successor linked on the chain. Nothing is silently rewritten; the chain page shows every move, and every confidence event rides it.