hypothesis-registry FE-EVAL-HYPOTHESES-2026-07-23

Framework Engineering Assumption and Hypothesis Audit

Framework Engineering Assumption and Hypothesis Audit

Field Value
Record ID FE-EVAL-HYPOTHESES-2026-07-23
Version 1.0
Status proposed evaluation registry; does not mutate H001-H018
Authoring agent Codex
Created 2026-07-23T14:05:00-04:00
Parent records FE-EVAL-REP-2026-07-23; existing hypothesis registry
Source records EV-FE-001 through EV-FE-008
Supersedes none
Confidence low overall
Completion state complete for prompt-mandated hypotheses
ID Exact statement; type; source Evidence for / against Confidence; falsifiability and test Status; dependencies and consequence if false Next action
FEH-001 FE is meaningfully distinct from existing disciplines. Hypothesis. Source: principles and theory aspiration. For: integrated framework-as-artifact focus. Against: EV-FE-002's process-engineering explanation; no matched comparison. Low; falsifiable by matched boundary and outcome comparison. Open. Most discipline, adoption, and tooling claims depend on it. If false, reposition as a method-engineering profile. FE-MISSION-001 and 003.
FEH-002 A canonical artifact hierarchy improves continuity between autonomous agents. Design hypothesis. For: coherent package navigation. Against: EV-FE-004 and no cold-start test. Low; blinded continuation accuracy/time test. Open. Agent model and governance depend on it. If false, use search/index or smaller manifests. FE-MISSION-002.
FEH-003 Immutable records improve research quality enough to justify cost. Design hypothesis. For: recoverable git lineage and visible proposals. Against: mutable Markdown, high artifact load, no cost metric. Very Low; compare successor/log versus ordinary version control. Open. Provenance architecture depends on it. If false, retain only commit history and critical decision logs. FE-MISSION-002.
FEH-004 Stable IDs materially improve traceability. Hypothesis. For: registries and cross-run references. Against: system still operates with 1,010 missing IDs; no outcome study. Low; retrieval and impact-analysis A/B test. Plausible, unvalidated. Automation depends on it. If false, prefer content-addressed paths/search. FE-MISSION-002.
FEH-005 Autonomous agents can reliably update theories without corrupting lineage. Hypothesis. For: explicit successor protocol. Against: no independent trial; proposal/canon ambiguity. Very Low; adversarial multi-turn update test. Open/high risk. Automatic theory mutation depends on it. If false, require human acceptance. FE-MISSION-005.
FEH-006 FE can remain flexible while preserving canonical structure. Theory/design hypothesis. For: proposal and supersession concepts. Against: precedence and invalidation are inconsistently encoded. Very Low; run breaking-change scenarios. Open. Governance depends on it. If false, minimize canon or adopt explicit versioned profiles. FE-MISSION-005.
FEH-007 More complete documentation leads to better future decisions. Assumption. For: rich reconstructability. Against: high volume, review burden, missing metadata; likely diminishing returns. Very Low; measure decision quality and retrieval time across documentation doses. Challenged. Full-strength REP depends on it. If false, establish minimum sufficient package. FE-MISSION-002.
FEH-008 FE supports parallel agents without excessive duplication or contradiction. Hypothesis. For: proposed ownership and review mechanisms. Against: no recorded concurrency study. Very Low; controlled parallel mission with conflict seeding. Open. Scaled agent operating model depends on it. If false, serialize theory-changing work. FE-MISSION-005.
FEH-009 Scientific research practices transfer effectively to product/software framework design. Theory hypothesis. For: hypotheses, threats, frozen instruments improve auditability. Against: no product outcome comparison; overhead risk. Low; compare product decisions and outcomes under matched methods. Partly supported as process only. Product bridge depends on it. If false, restrict science model to research questions. FE-MISSION-003.
FEH-010 A REP is sufficient for a new agent to continue without conversation history. Hypothesis. For: this package encodes orientation and missions. Against: never blinded; legacy sources rely on tacit authority. Very Low; cold-start continuation trial with scoring. Open. Autonomous continuation depends on it. If false, add executable manifest or human orientation. FE-MISSION-002.

Predictions

  • A minimal package will outperform both no package and the full repository on time-to-correct-first-action.
  • FE-specific methods will improve provenance measures more reliably than raw task quality.
  • The benefit of stable IDs will be concentrated in impact analysis and supersession, not ordinary retrieval.
  • Human baselines will agree more on backbone structure than detailed primitive labels.