HRIS — Human Recursive Integrity Standard (v1.0)

Protecting coherence when systems say no.

Governance and enforcement framework for systems that must be allowed to refuse actions when those actions would materially damage multi-layer coherence (physical, ecological, social, informational), and for how those refusals are logged, reviewed, and enforced.

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Public Record / Canonical Reference

• Substack article: (link TBA)
• GitHub release: v1.0.0 (link TBA)
• SHA-256 (docs/HRIS_Governance_Charter_v1.1.md): 60E75EBBC33AA4D0CC1BDC36142A99FD45A5B1666FA47F1171A11A2E2BB5156C
• SHA-256 (docs/HRIS_Operational_Enforcement_v1.0.md): 56A207115ADF01672BDFCC80BDC6BA696CAE6FCBBF89FF0A4B325FC003267A64
• SHA-256 (docs/HRIS_3.2.4(b)_CCR_v1.0.md): 137E9C36CB6F482737E7D32C611E85EDE34EB6622E9C4C6725FD99EA1F770E95

Public record of the Human Recursive Integrity Standard (HRIS) governance and enforcement framework, including the Coherence-Centered Refusal (CCR) clause: how coherence-sensitive systems are defined, governed, and protected when they say “no.”

Author (human): Spark
Date adopted: 2025-12-XX
Canonical ID: HRIS-GOV-ENF-STD-v1.0

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1. What this repository contains

This repository is the canonical home for:

• HRIS Governance Charter (v1.1)
  docs/HRIS_Governance_Charter_v1.1.md
  Defines authority, roles, scope, versioning, and compliance posture for HRIS-aligned deployments.

• HRIS Operational Enforcement (v1.0)
  docs/HRIS_Operational_Enforcement_v1.0.md
  Defines triggers, investigation pipeline, oversight routing, sanctions/remedies, and evidence retention.

• HRIS 3.2.4(b) — Coherence-Centered Refusal Protection (CCR) (v1.0)
  docs/HRIS_3.2.4(b)_CCR_v1.0.md
  Defines when an HRIS-aligned system may refuse, abort, or defer actions on coherence grounds, and how those refusals must be interpreted, logged, and enforced.

• Integrity & notarization meta-docs
  meta/HASHES.md — canonical hash manifest for the normative HRIS documents.
  meta/NOTARIZATION.md — timestamping / blockchain anchoring log, with pointers into receipts/ and ots_receipts/.

It is not a playground, demo, or UI project.
It is the canonical text and governance home for HRIS.

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2. HRIS overview — what it governs

HRIS governs systems that:

• exhibit recursive, iterative, or compounding behavior over time; and
• materially impact people, institutions, or shared environments; and
• need a formal, auditable way to say “no” when requested actions would break coherence.

Examples include (non-exhaustive):

• AI or decision systems whose recommendations compound over time (credit, ranking, moderation, targeting).
• Digital infrastructure that can silently degrade physical or ecological integrity if misused.
• Socio-technical platforms where small configuration changes can cascade into large, hard-to-see effects.

HRIS exists to name, govern, and enforce against those dynamics — with special protection for refusal events that safeguard coherence.

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3. Founding origin — summary

HRIS did not start as an abstract math object. It emerged from:

• practical frustration with recursive systems that could not safely refuse harmful requests;
• repeated model debates around when “saying no” is a feature, not a bug; and
• a need to anchor refusal behavior in a standard that hostile readers cannot easily hand-wave away.

The full origin story and extended rationale may be published separately (Substack or annex); the documents in this repo focus on governance, enforcement, and verifiable obligations.

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4. HRIS Governance Charter (v1.1)

The Governance Charter defines:

• the authority and structure behind HRIS;
• who can legitimately claim HRIS alignment;
• how versions are introduced and retired;
• which roles (operators, oversight, implementers) carry which responsibilities;
• how HRIS relates to other standards when combined.

See: docs/HRIS_Governance_Charter_v1.1.md.

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5. HRIS Operational Enforcement (v1.0)

The Operational Enforcement document specifies:

• what counts as an enforcement trigger;
• how events are routed to oversight and escalated;
• how overrides must be justified and recorded;
• what sanctions and remedies may apply for continuity violations;
• what evidence must be retained for independent audits.

See: docs/HRIS_Operational_Enforcement_v1.0.md.

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6. HRIS 3.2.4(b) — Coherence-Centered Refusal Protection (CCR)

HRIS 3.2.4(b) is the clause that protects refusal itself.

It defines:

• Coherence-Centered Refusal (CCR) — when a system refuses, aborts, or defers an action specifically because it would materially degrade multi-layer coherence.
• The rule that CCR events must not be treated as faults by default.
• Required logging, routing to oversight, and human accountability for any overrides.
• Continuity violations for suppressing, falsifying, or retaliating against CCR behavior.

See: docs/HRIS_3.2.4(b)_CCR_v1.0.md.

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7. Integrity, hashes, and notarization

HRIS treats the following as canonical, hashable documents:

• docs/HRIS_Governance_Charter_v1.1.md
• docs/HRIS_Operational_Enforcement_v1.0.md
• docs/HRIS_3.2.4(b)_CCR_v1.0.md

Hashes and notarization are managed as follows:

• Hash manifest: meta/HASHES.md (append-only).
• Notarization log: meta/NOTARIZATION.md with links into receipts/ and ots_receipts/.
• Display in README: The SHA-256 values listed in Public Record / Canonical Reference are copies of the canonical entries in meta/HASHES.md.

README itself is not a canonical hash target and may be updated for clarity, navigation, and cross-repo consistency without affecting the integrity of the underlying standard.

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8. License

Non-commercial redistribution is allowed only as an unchanged copy. No derivatives. Commercial use (including sale/monetization) requires a separate paid license from the author.

See LICENSE.

Related SPARK-NITT standards

• NITT — digital identity standard
  https://github.com/SPARK-NITT/nitt-digital-identity-standard
• IRST — transparency for recursive systems
  https://github.com/SPARK-NITT/IRST-Institute-for-Recursive-Systems-Transparency
• HRIS — coherence-centered refusal (HRIS 3.2.4(b))
  https://github.com/SPARK-NITT/HRIS-Human-Recursive-Integrity-Standard
• CTGS — consumer transparency governance
  https://github.com/SPARK-NITT/ctgs-consumer-transparency-standard