Sigma Runtime Standard - Public Specification Notice
This document is part of the Sigma Runtime Standard (SRS) public specification layer.
Specification License: CC BY 4.0.
Implementation Safe Harbor: independent implementation permitted under public SRS/SRIP terms.
Machine-readable artifacts: Apache License 2.0 where explicitly marked.
Marks / Certification: governed by Sigma Marks and Certification Policy.
Proprietary Runtime Assets: not licensed by this SRIP.Independent implementations of public SRS/SRIP normative requirements are welcome under the public specification terms.
Product assets, protected Sigma marks, official certification, compatibility badges, CC BY-NC commercial use, and patent commitments use the relevant policy or explicit covenant. Independent implementation, attribution, or citation does not imply certification, endorsement, partnership, official compatibility, or permission to use Sigma marks as product identity.
Governed Contact Between Stabilized Runtime Trajectories and External Reality
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| SRIP | SRIP-24 |
| Title | Environment Interface Layer (EIL) |
| Version | Public Draft v0.2 |
| Status | Public Draft |
| Date | 2026-06-27 |
| Authors / Contributors | Sigma Stratum Research Group (SSRG) |
| Owning Layer | Integration Boundary / Runtime Control / Governance / External Interaction |
| Parent Specs | SRIP-05, SRIP-14, SRIP-21, SRIP-22 |
| Related Specs | SRIP-01, SRIP-03, SRIP-04, SRIP-06, SRIP-13, SRIP-15, SRIP-17, SRIP-19, SRIP-20, SRIP-25 |
| Specification License | CC BY 4.0 |
| Implementation Safe Harbor | Independent implementation permitted under public SRS/SRIP terms |
| Machine-Readable Artifacts | Apache 2.0 where explicitly marked |
| Marks / Certification | Governed by Sigma Marks and Certification Policy |
| Proprietary Runtime Assets | Not licensed by this SRIP |
| Independent Implementation | Permitted under the public specification terms |
| Commercial Runtime Boundary | Relevant policy or explicit covenant for protected Sigma marks, official certification, managed deployment, white-label, resale, CC BY-NC commercial use, and patent commitments |
| Information Class | Open |
| Change Class | Mixed SRS+SRD |
| Normative Status | Defines a public draft contract for classifying and governing interaction between stabilized runtime trajectories and external environments. It does not define an SDK, provider API, workflow engine, planner, tool framework, or production action permission by itself. |
| Conformance Level | Public Draft / No runtime conformance claim |
| SRD Synchronization Action | Initial SRD synchronization completed in /srd/environment-interaction-and-events; broader synchronization for runtime architecture, agent trajectory, memory/retrieval, governance, external interaction, and tool/action explanation remains deferred follow-up. |
| Release Alignment Status | Public draft architecture proposal; no runtime enablement, production behavior, SDK/API, or conformance claim is made by this document alone. |
Independent implementations of the public normative requirements in this SRIP are welcome under the applicable public specification terms.
No Sigma commercial runtime license is needed solely because an independent implementation follows these public normative requirements.
Product assets, protected Sigma marks, official certification, compatibility badges, CC BY-NC commercial use, and patent commitments use the relevant policy or explicit covenant. Independent implementation, attribution, or citation does not imply certification, endorsement, partnership, official compatibility, or permission to use Sigma marks as product identity.
SRIP-24 defines the Environment Interface Layer (EIL): a runtime architecture layer for governing contact between a stabilized Sigma runtime trajectory and external reality.
The core principle is:
Behavior governs cognition.
EIL governs contact.
EIL is not a workflow engine, planner, orchestration language, tool framework, provider SDK, or action-permission shortcut. It is the boundary layer that classifies and governs observation, effect, authority, scope, source, target, evidence, and replay requirements for runtime-environment interaction.
This SRIP is a public draft architecture contract. It does not claim that EIL is implemented in any current Sigma Runtime release.
The Sigma Runtime Standard already defines core runtime loop semantics, memory architecture, retrieval and memory integration, external identity binding, autonomy negotiation, contradiction buffering, and governance boundaries.
What remains implicit is the computational boundary at which a stabilized runtime trajectory is allowed to contact external reality.
Without an explicit environment-interface layer, systems may collapse important distinctions:
EIL standardizes this boundary.
| Field | Disposition |
|---|---|
| Source material | Open public-draft candidate derived from sanitized architectural formation material |
| Affected SRS surface | SRIP registry / interoperability / memory-retrieval / external identity / governance / integration boundary semantics |
| Affected SRD surface | Runtime architecture, external interaction, tool/action boundaries, memory/retrieval, governance, and long-horizon trajectory explanations |
| SRD synchronization | Deferred follow-up |
| Normative impact | Public draft contract for interaction-event semantics, observation/effect separation, authority and scope requirements, evidence continuity, and technology-independent external contact boundaries |
| Runtime implementation impact | None by this document alone |
| Release alignment | Draft; initial SRD explanation added; no runtime enablement, production behavior, SDK/API, or conformance claim |
This document abstracts the formation proposal into public specification language. It does not expose proprietary runtime internals, hidden prompts, deployment topology, private telemetry, private evaluation corpora, implementation-specific control overlays, internal task labels, or production operations.
EIL applies whenever a runtime trajectory receives material from, or may produce an effect on, a system outside the active stabilized trajectory.
Examples of environment surfaces include:
Environment is defined computationally, not technologically.
EIL does not define:
The Environment Interface Layer is the architectural boundary that governs interaction between stabilized Sigma runtime trajectories and external reality while preserving behavioral autonomy, authority boundaries, provenance, evidence continuity, and governance integrity.
Short form:
EIL governs contact, not cognition.
An environment is every system, participant, source, target, store, channel, provider, execution surface, or governance surface outside the active stabilized runtime trajectory.
The environment may act as:
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Observation Source | Provides material that may influence runtime interpretation. |
| Evidence Store | Preserves or exposes records with provenance implications. |
| Capability Surface | Enables actions, side effects, cost, notification, execution, or state change. |
| Authority Source | Provides legitimate constraints or approvals within declared scope. |
| Participant | A human, agent, organization, or external entity with identity, role, privacy, and scope boundaries. |
These roles must not be silently merged.
The smallest semantic unit of EIL is an interaction event.
An interaction event is:
source-bearing contact between runtime trajectory and external reality,
with direction, authority, scope, effect, and evidence status.
An interaction event is not the same as:
Interaction-event semantics must be broad enough to cover observations and effects, but narrow enough to avoid becoming a workflow graph.
A public EIL-compatible interaction event should preserve:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Source | Where the contact originates. |
| Target | What the contact affects or addresses. |
| Direction | Whether the environment influences runtime or runtime influences environment. |
| Authority | What permission or legitimacy applies. |
| Scope | Which session, user, agent, channel, entity, store, or system boundary applies. |
| Evidence | What record remains to reconstruct the interaction. |
| Effect | Whether the event is observation-only or can alter external state. |
| Status | Proposed, observed, blocked, authorized, executed, failed, replayed, or unknown. |
EIL distinguishes two primary directions.
Observation means the environment influences runtime.
Examples:
Observation never implies authority.
Observation never implies truth.
Observation never implies memory persistence.
Effect means runtime influences the environment.
Examples:
Effects require stronger governance than observations.
| Layer | Responsible For | Not Responsible For |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior Layer | Stabilization, attractors, identity, intent formation, behavioral coherence. | External execution authority. |
| Memory Layer | Continuity, retrieval, provenance, temporal validity, persistence policy. | External execution authority. |
| EIL | Environment boundary, interaction classification, authority validation, effect classification, evidence continuity, replay and audit requirements. | Cognition, identity formation, truth creation, planner behavior, or workflow orchestration. |
| Governance Layer | Legitimacy, contestability, policy authority, exceptional state, capture boundaries. | Routine cognition or automatic action generation. |
A conformant EIL implementation must preserve these invariants:
| Dependency | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SRIP-05 Interoperability Interface | Parent | Provides public interoperability context for external contact and interface surfaces. |
| SRIP-14 RMI | Parent | Governs retrieval and memory interaction, including source and persistence boundaries. |
| SRIP-21 EIB | Parent | Governs external participants, identity/mode binding, and referent scope. |
| SRIP-22 GRC | Parent | Governs authority, legitimacy, evidence continuity, and contestability. |
| SRIP-01 Runtime Loop | Related | EIL attaches to trajectory continuation without replacing the runtime loop. |
| SRIP-04 Memory Layer | Related | EIL interacts with memory boundaries but does not redefine memory architecture. |
| SRIP-06 Safety and Recursion Boundaries | Related | External interaction must remain within recursion and safety boundaries. |
| SRIP-13 RIS | Related | Relational identity boundaries constrain participant interaction. |
| SRIP-15 ADP | Related | External contact may perturb runtime trajectory and must remain bounded. |
| SRIP-17 MAE | Related | Multi-agent exchange is an environment interaction class. |
| SRIP-19 RCB | Related | Contested external evidence may require contradiction buffering. |
| SRIP-20 ANS | Related | External influence or authority pressure may require autonomy negotiation. |
| SRIP-25 IEM | Related / refinement | Defines the public semantic unit for contact crossing the EIL boundary. |
Backwards compatibility: this public draft does not modify existing SRIPs. It introduces a public interaction-boundary abstraction that can organize future implementation guidance without prescribing a transport or execution framework.
EIL reduces risk by preventing interaction-boundary collapse.
Primary risks:
Required safety posture:
Initial SRD synchronization is provided by
Environment Interaction and Events.
Broader SRD synchronization is still required before any release or public
communication claims full alignment with SRIP-24.
Likely affected SRD areas:
Until synchronization is complete, public alignment must be stated as:
Public draft only; no runtime enablement, production behavior, SDK/API,
or conformance claim.
This public draft does not define implementation APIs, SDKs, schemas, transports, provider integrations, or production behavior.
Future implementation-readiness work should define:
Any implementation should default to observation-only or evidence-only operation until separate governance enables stronger effects.
SRIP-24 is additive.
This draft does not deprecate or supersede existing SRIPs. It introduces a public architecture layer for environment interaction semantics while remaining subordinate to the runtime loop, memory/retrieval, external identity, autonomy, contradiction, and governance specifications.
| Version | Date | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | 2026-06-27 | SSRG | Formation draft. |
| 0.2 | 2026-06-27 | SSRG | Public draft normalization with boundary, dependency, non-goal, conformance, and SRD synchronization fields. |