TA-14 — Commit-Time Enforcement (ACE)

TA-14 establishes that admissibility is not a static condition.

It is not enough for a state to have been admissible at some point in the past.
It is not enough for a system to have validated a condition earlier in a workflow.
It is not enough for a recommendation, approval, or authorization to exist prior to execution.

Admissibility must be confirmed at the moment action occurs.

This is the role of Commit-Time Enforcement.

Commit-Time Enforcement (ACE) is the non-bypassable mechanism that determines whether a system is permitted to execute an action based on the admissible state that exists at the exact moment of execution.

It is the final authority before action.

It is where systems either maintain integrity or break it.

The Purpose of Commit-Time Enforcement

Most systems validate conditions early and assume those conditions remain valid.

They:

• generate recommendations

• approve workflows

• queue actions

• schedule execution

• rely on cached state

Then they act later.

This creates a gap between validation and execution.

In that gap:

• conditions change

• records drift

• authority shifts

• continuity breaks

• scope expands

• assumptions become invalid

But the system still acts.

TA-14 eliminates that gap.

Commit-Time Enforcement ensures that execution is only permitted if the conditions that justified the action still exist at the moment of execution.

The Core Rule

A system must not execute an action unless admissibility is confirmed at commit time.

A previously valid state cannot be reused without revalidation.

A previously approved action cannot bypass commit-time verification.

Execution must be bound to present truth, not past validation.

Required Commit-Time Checks

At the moment of execution, the system must perform the following:

1. State Re-evaluation

The system must recompute or revalidate the current state from the preserved record.

It must not rely solely on previously derived conclusions.

If the state cannot be confirmed, execution must not proceed as admissible.

2. Continuity Verification

The system must confirm that the record supporting the state remains continuous.

Any gap, corruption, or unverified segment must be treated as a degradation of admissibility.

If continuity is broken beyond acceptable limits, execution must be blocked or escalated.

3. Drift Detection

The system must detect whether any relevant condition has changed since the state was originally established.

Drift may include:

• environmental changes

• system configuration changes

• timing changes

• identity changes

• authority changes

• scope changes

If drift invalidates the original conditions, execution must not proceed.

4. Authority Confirmation

The system must confirm that the authority under which the action was bound is still valid.

Authority must:

• still exist

• still apply to the current context

• still be within scope

• not have been transferred, degraded, or altered

If authority is unclear or invalid, execution must be blocked or escalated.

5. Binding Validation

The system must confirm that the action remains properly bound to the admissible state.

This includes:

• matching record references

• matching scope

• valid time window

• unchanged action definition

• preserved constraints

If binding has degraded, expired, or been altered, execution must not proceed.

Non-Reuse Principle

TA-14 prohibits silent reuse of prior validation.

A system must not:

• reuse a previous approval without revalidation

• reuse a previous admissible state without confirmation

• reuse a binding object beyond its defined scope

• reuse authority outside its original boundary

Each execution must stand on its own admissible condition at commit time.

No Cached Truth

Cached truth is not admissible truth.

A system may store prior states for efficiency, but it must not rely on those states without verifying that they remain valid.

Caching may improve performance.

It must not replace governance.

Execution Outcomes

Commit-Time Enforcement must produce one of three outcomes:

ALLOW

Execution is permitted because all required conditions are satisfied at commit time.

The system may proceed, and the action must be recorded.

BLOCK

Execution is not permitted because one or more required conditions are not satisfied.

The system must not act.

Blocking is not failure.
Blocking is governance functioning correctly.

ESCALATE

Execution cannot be resolved within the current authority or system boundary.

The system must defer to a higher authority, human intervention, or expanded evaluation.

Escalation preserves integrity when automated certainty is insufficient.

No Silent Execution

A system must not execute action without passing through Commit-Time Enforcement.

If execution can occur without:

• state revalidation

• continuity verification

• drift detection

• authority confirmation

• binding validation

then the system does not implement TA-14.

It may simulate governance.

It does not enforce it.

Non-Bypassable Requirement

Commit-Time Enforcement must be structurally non-bypassable.

It must not be:

• optional

• configurable to off

• overridden silently

• skipped for convenience

• replaced by manual shortcuts

If the enforcement layer can be bypassed, the system does not meet the standard.

Separation from Interpretation

Commit-Time Enforcement does not interpret.

It does not decide what action is best.

It does not optimize outcomes.

It does not generate recommendations.

It enforces whether an action is permitted based on admissible conditions.

Interpretation may suggest.

ACE governs whether suggestion becomes action.

Relationship to AEA

ACE is the enforcement mechanism within the Admissible Execution Architecture.

Where AEA defines the execution boundary, ACE enforces it.

Without ACE:

• AEA becomes advisory

• admissibility becomes rhetorical

• execution becomes unbound

ACE is what makes the architecture real.

Failure Modes Without ACE

Without Commit-Time Enforcement, systems commonly exhibit:

• action based on stale data

• action based on partial records

• action based on outdated authority

• action outside intended scope

• action justified after the fact

• action that cannot be traced to valid state

These failures may still produce acceptable outcomes.

They are still invalid under TA-14.

Governing Principle

Commit-Time Enforcement exists to ensure that:

Execution is not permitted because it was previously justified.

Execution is permitted only because it is currently justified.

Closing Statement

ACE is where systems earn the right to act.

It is the point where preserved truth, continuity, authority, and binding are tested against reality in real time.

A system that enforces at commit time preserves integrity.

A system that acts without enforcement converts assumption into action.

TA-14 requires that no action cross the execution boundary without passing through this condition.