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P97 — AIEP — Sub-Swarm Formation, Offshoot Mechanics, and Parent Reintegration Protocol

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, and GB2519803.7, filed 20 November 2025, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present disclosure extends swarm governance mechanisms defined in the AIEP environment while remaining independently implementable as described herein.

Field of the Disclosure

[0003] This disclosure relates to hierarchical distributed reasoning systems.

[0004] More particularly, the disclosure concerns a deterministic mechanism within an AIEP swarm substrate for the governed formation of sub-swarms from nodes that consistently produce a minority reasoning branch, the maintenance of sub-swarm offshoot lineage with genome integrity preserved from the parent swarm, and the deterministic reintegration of a sub-swarm branch into the parent swarm when the branch’s cumulative evidence weight crosses a schema-defined reintegration threshold.

Background

[0005] In a distributed AIEP swarm, nodes evaluate evidence and contribute reasoning branches to a shared substrate. At any evaluation cycle, some nodes may consistently produce a reasoning branch that does not meet the swarm’s dominance threshold — a persistent minority position.

[0006] The AIEP constitutional framework requires that minority branches be preserved with genome intact — not discarded. The mechanism by which a group of consistently minority nodes forms a governed sub-swarm, continues accumulating evidence for their branch independently, and returns to the parent swarm when evidence eventually supports reintegration is not specified in prior filings. This disclosure specifies that mechanism.

[0007] Existing systems do not provide: deterministic detection of a sub-swarm formation trigger condition; governed sub-swarm formation preserving full branch lineage genome intact from the parent swarm divergence point; an OffshotGenomeHash cryptographically binding the sub-swarm’s branch to its parent swarm origin; deterministic reintegration upon crossing a schema-defined reintegration threshold; or parent swarm reintegration preserving the sub-swarm’s independent evidence accumulation history as a complete branch lineage.

Summary of the Disclosure

[0008] A sub-swarm formation trigger is detected when a MinorityNodeSet has produced the same consistent minority branch — one that has not met the parent swarm dominance threshold — across a schema-defined SubswarmFormationWindow of consecutive evaluation cycles.

[0009] Upon trigger, governed sub-swarm formation executes: the minority branch’s full lineage is extracted from the parent swarm Evidence Ledger and Reasoning Ledger back to the divergence point. An OffshotGenomeHash is computed as:

OffshotGenomeHash = H(
  ParentSwarmId ||
  DivergencePointCycleId ||
  CanonicalSerialise(MinorityBranchLineage) ||
  SchemaVersionId
)

The MinorityNodeSet is designated as the sub-swarm substrate. The extracted branch lineage is copied to the sub-swarm’s ledgers as founding state. OffshotGenomeHash is stored as the sub-swarm’s constitutional binding. A SubswarmFormationRecord is appended to the parent swarm’s append-only ledger.

[0010] The sub-swarm operates as an independent governed AIEP substrate under the full constitutional governance framework. OffshotGenomeHash is included in all outbound sub-swarm artefacts identifying their lineage origin. The sub-swarm may itself form nested sub-swarms subject to the same detection mechanism.

[0011] The parent swarm continuously monitors each active sub-swarm’s CumulativeEvidenceWeight. Upon crossing the schema-defined ReintegrationThreshold, the sub-swarm submits its complete Evidence Ledger and Reasoning Ledger entries since divergence. The parent swarm evaluates submitted entries through the constitutional admissibility mechanism. Admissible entries are merged into the parent ledgers as a complete branch lineage with OffshotGenomeHash reference preserved. A ReintegrationRecord is appended to the parent swarm’s append-only ledger.

[0012] Sub-swarm formation, operation, and reintegration are fully deterministically replayable from stored parent and sub-swarm ledger entries. OffshotGenomeHash verification confirms that a reintegrated lineage was derived from the claimed parent swarm divergence point.

Licence

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.