The Crumb Doctrine

Abstract

The Crumb Doctrine is the epistemic constitution of the AIEN architecture. Its rule is simple: no receipt, no crumb. A crumb is a fragment of verified knowledge admitted only with a receipt recording the verifier, the specification, the dependency closure, the environment, and the exact result.

Claims are admitted through verification, not prose. Semantics defines behavior; specifications identify claims; receipts record evidence for those claims under explicit assumptions; policy determines admissibility; authorization remains separate. The doctrine defines the check, build, verify, and seal lifecycle and requires fail-closed admission: anything unverified is reported as not run, never as passed.

Doctrine paper; not peer reviewed.

Research artifacts

Cite

@misc{stapleton2026crumbdoctrine,
  author = {M. Drake Stapleton},
  title = {The Crumb Doctrine},
  year = {2026},
  month = {October},
  version = {1.4},
  note = {Doctrine paper, not peer reviewed},
  url = {https://aienos.com/research/crumb-doctrine}
}