Write Policy Class

The write policy class is the one-word tag that every fact in Arkeus memory must carry. It answers the question an agent needs to ask before acting: how certain is this, really.

There are eight classes. Asserted means Ryan explicitly stated it and confirmed it — the strongest category, and the only one that can be used for outbound human-facing drafts without additional corroboration. Observed means a pattern has been seen three or more times in behavior, which is nearly as strong but does not require explicit confirmation. Inferred means the model guessed from context — low weight, cannot override governance, cannot be used to commit Ryan to anything.

Temporary is session-scoped: a fact that was true when it was written but carries a TTL and expires if not reaffirmed. False is the explicit retraction marker — kept for audit trail, but downstream consumers must treat it as zero-weight. Expired is what temporary becomes when its TTL elapses; same downstream treatment as false. Contested means two sources disagree and the conflict has not been resolved yet; surface to Ryan, hold both until he rules. Unknown tracks the deliberate absence of a fact — the system knows it does not know, and that knowledge is itself valuable.

The rule the classes enforce: inferred content cannot be promoted to asserted by inheritance. If a Cowork session routes an inferred detail to a family agent, the family agent cannot use that detail in a draft without first getting Ryan's asserted confirmation. Only the original author can assert.

This is the rule that would have prevented the Apr 8 family regression. Cowork routed scheduling specifics without a class. Downstream agents treated them as ground truth. The fix is not more agents; it is making the write policy mandatory at the boundary.