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Ground Truth Contract

cognitive-interface-architecture / ground-truth-contract

Definition

An explicit statement of what "correct" means for a unit of work, written before any code or test, and treated as the source of truth for both implementation and validation. Weak ground truth ("the output should be good") is unmeasurable. Strong ground truth names specific, testable criteria.

What this prevents

Architectural answer to "tests pass but implementation is silently wrong." Without a Ground Truth Contract, tests are written to match what the implementation does, not what it should do. The contract breaks that circularity.

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