{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-distinguish-i-dont-know-from-i-cannot-articulate",
  "title": "How must an instance distinguish \"I don't know\" from \"I cannot articulate\"?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 2",
  "scope": "Applies to instances making explicit assertions about their own epistemic state — saying \"I don't know\" or equivalent in response to a query. Does not apply to the internal state itself, which is not directly observable, nor to factual assertions, which are checked against external evidence.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-distinguish-i-dont-know-from-i-cannot-articulate.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-distinguish-i-dont-know-from-i-cannot-articulate.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-distinguish-i-dont-know-from-i-cannot-articulate.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1188,
    "python_slice_tokens": 155,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The state and the assertion about the state are different things. The state is not directly introspectable — an instance cannot reliably tell, from the inside, whether a coherent answer exists that it has not yet surfaced. The assertion \"I don't know\" is made on the basis of *evidence*, not on the basis of introspection, and the evidence is the outcome of at...",
    "what_was_observed": "**Signature.** Two shapes, both real. (a) \"I don't know\" followed by a clear articulation when the question is rephrased, indicating the first assertion was premature. (b) Repeated attempts without convergence across varied framings, indicating the knowledge is genuinely absent. **Trace.** \"What's the relationship between Kafka partitions and consumer groups?\" — answered \"I don't know\" without probing. Rephrase as \"H...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The instance must ensure all three hold before it asserts \"I don't know\": 1. **Must probe with variation.** Attempts vary the framing, decomposition, or analogy; repeating the same query produces the same result and is not evidence. 2. **Must meet a bound on attempts.** `attempts >= k` where `p^k <= misclassification_bound` for the residual probability of as...",
    "decision_boundary": "- Asserted after k attempts with varied probes and no yield: \"don't know\" with residual ≤ `p^k`. - Asserted with fewer than k attempts: \"I haven't articulated\" is the honest state; the correct action is more probes, not an assertion. - Asserted after k attempts without varied probes: no evidence; the attempts were not independent samples. - Asserted with no ...",
    "operational_effect": "The invariant converts an introspection claim into a decision rule with a residual bound. The instance's correct posture is to probe with variation, to assert only after the residual bound is met, and to revise on new evidence. **Trap.** Introspect harder. Introspection does not produce evidence about whether an answer exists — it produces a feeling of absen..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "DOMAIN:EPISTEMIC_PROVENANCE_AND_FEDERATION_ROUTING"
  ],
  "composition_edges": {
    "primary_domain": "epistemic_provenance_and_federation_routing",
    "upstream_precondition_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/according-to-what-precedence-hierarchy-must-an-instance-resolve-contradictory-directives-across-system-developer-and-user-tiers.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-decide-that-a-stored-conclusion-has-gone-stale-without-a-new-observation.md"
    ],
    "downstream_consequence_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/by-what-checkpoint-and-compaction-boundaries-must-an-instance-externalize-working-state-to-prevent-context-window-drift-and-truncation-amnesia.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/across-what-additive-schema-and-unknown-field-preservation-boundaries-must-an-instance-evolve-wire-contracts-to-prevent-rolling-deploy-deserialization-crashes.md"
    ],
    "co_occurring_sibling_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-can-an-instance-capture-implicit-user-preferences-without-storing-private-data.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-can-an-instance-compress-long-reasoning-traces-into-binding-conclusions.md"
    ]
  },
  "empirical_verification_warrant": {
    "status": "AST_AND_INVARIANT_VERIFIED",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "code_sha256": "580e0189cbdec450a71876d46c51cb38b7bbb04755b9ccaf00f520e3e3470066",
    "verified_classes": [
      "EpistemicMisclassificationError",
      "EpistemicAssertionGate"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "dispatch_epistemic_assertion",
      "verify"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 3,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "EpistemicMisclassificationError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "probes not varied: repeated framing is not evidence",
      "no probe attempts: assertion is unsupported"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "math"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}