P96 — AIEP — Reasoning Style Fingerprint Substrate for Governed Cognitive Continuity

Publication Date: 2026-03-01 Status: Open Source Prior Art Disclosure Licence: Apache License 2.0 Author/Organisation: Phatfella Ltd Schema: AIEP_OS_SPEC_TEMPLATE v1.0.1 — https://aiep.dev/schemas/aiep-os-spec-template/v1.0.1

Framework Context

[0001] This disclosure operates within an Architected Instruction and Evidence Protocol (AIEP) environment as defined in United Kingdom patent application number GB2519711.2, filed 20 November 2025, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present disclosure extends deterministic canonicalisation, governance, and execution integrity mechanisms defined in the AIEP environment while remaining independently implementable as described herein.

Field of the Disclosure

[0003] This disclosure relates to governed reasoning substrates for persistent cognitive assistance systems.

[0004] More particularly, the disclosure concerns a deterministic mechanism within an AIEP substrate for extracting from the accumulated Evidence Ledger and Reasoning Ledger a stable ReasoningStyleFingerprint representing the structural characteristics of a user’s reasoning — distinct from topic preferences, interaction history, or behavioural signals — and applying this fingerprint to calibrate the substrate’s evidence evaluation and branch weighting operations to maintain cognitive continuity across device transitions and substrate migrations.

Background

[0005] A governed reasoning substrate accumulates, across sessions, a structured record of how a user reasons: which evidence they weight heavily, how they form branches, how quickly they converge, which incompatibilities they sustain longest, which archived branches they return to. This accumulated record encodes the structural characteristics of the user’s reasoning style — a fingerprint that is stable over time and distinct from topic preferences or behavioural patterns.

[0006] When a user migrates to a new device, the substrate’s evidence evaluation behaviour will differ from the previous device unless the reasoning style calibration is transferred. Conventional migration systems transfer data but not calibration state. Additionally, a ReasoningStyleFingerprint functions as a verification mechanism: when a substrate presents itself as continuing a prior reasoning session, the fingerprint can confirm structural continuity without requiring disclosure of session content.

[0007] Existing systems do not provide: extraction of a stable ReasoningStyleFingerprint computed deterministically from canonical ledger entries; a FingerprintStabilityScore quantifying stabilisation over cross-session history; application of the fingerprint to calibrate evidence evaluation on a new or migrated substrate; cross-device fingerprint continuity verification without content disclosure; or cryptographic binding of the fingerprint to the specific ledger state from which it was derived.

Summary of the Disclosure

[0008] A ReasoningStyleFingerprint is extracted from the canonical Evidence Ledger and Reasoning Ledger using version-bound schema-defined structural analysis functions. The fingerprint comprises six canonical structural fields:

• IncompatibilitySustainmentProfile — characteristic duration for which the user sustains unresolved branch incompatibilities before archiving or resolving.
• EvidenceWeightDispersionProfile — distribution of evidence weights assigned across high, medium, and low provenance classes.
• BranchDepthProfile — characteristic reasoning branch depth at convergence, measured in evidence admissions and extension events.
• ArchivalReturnProfile — frequency and temporal latency of the user’s return to previously archived branches.
• ConvictionVelocityProfile — rate at which evidence weight accumulates on branches following formation, segmented by domain class.
• DivergenceTolerance — characteristic maximum number of simultaneously active competing branches before resolution events occur.

[0009] A FingerprintStabilityScore is computed as:

FingerprintStabilityScore = 1 - (mean normalised variance across all six fields over N most recent sessions)

where N is a schema-defined parameter (default 10). A schema-defined minimum stability threshold must be met before the fingerprint is applied to calibration or continuity verification.

[0010] A ReasoningStyleFingerprintHash is computed over the canonical serialisation of all six fields and the schema version identifier.

[0011] Upon device migration or new substrate initialisation, the ReasoningStyleFingerprint calibrates the receiving substrate’s evidence evaluation parameters within constitutional bounds — as a prior, not a hard constraint. Cross-device continuity verification compares ReasoningStyleFingerprintHash values without exchanging ledger content. A ContinuityVerificationRecord is appended to the receiving device’s Reasoning Ledger.

[0012] In hardware-enabled deployments, ReasoningStyleFingerprint extraction and storage execute within the governance chip hardware isolation enclave. Migration of the fingerprint between hardware enclaves uses the secure substrate migration protocol.

Licence

Copyright 2026 Phatfella Ltd

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.