RFC-038: Domain of Concern Registry — AIGP Dialects as First-Class Artifacts — 9. Dialect Composition and Inheritance

AIGP Specification › RFC-038: Domain of Concern Registry — AIGP Dialects as First-Class Artifacts › 9. Dialect Composition and Inheritance

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9. Dialect Composition and Inheritance

9.1 The Inheritance Problem

Some Domains of Concern share a common substrate. Autonomous systems in military contexts and autonomous systems in healthcare contexts share the base autonomous-systems observation apparatus but diverge in specific variables, thresholds, and observer requirements.

Rather than duplicate entire dialects, RFC-038 supports dialect inheritance:

{
  "dialect_id": "autonomous_systems_military",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "extends": "autonomous_systems@2.1.0",

  "additions": {
    "variables": ["rules_of_engagement_compliance", "command_authority_chain"],
    "hard_stops": ["lethal_action_without_human_approval"],
    "observer_requirements": ["military_accreditation_required"]
  },

  "overrides": {
    "thresholds": {
      "human_control_adequacy": { "anticipation_gap_threshold": 0.0 }
    }
  }
}

9.2 Inheritance Rules

1. A derived dialect MUST declare its parent (extends field)
2. A derived dialect inherits all parent variables, thresholds, hard stops, and observer requirements
3. A derived dialect MAY add variables, tighten thresholds, add hard stops, or restrict observer modes
4. A derived dialect MUST NOT remove parent variables, relax parent thresholds, remove parent hard stops, or expand parent observer modes
5. The monotonic safety property applies to inheritance as it applies to Local Profile Overrides
6. A derived dialect is a first-class dialect — it has its own version, its own subscribers, and its own registry entry

9.3 Diamond Inheritance

A dialect MUST NOT extend multiple parents (single inheritance only). Cross-domain concerns are handled by multi-dialect subscription (§7.4), not by multiple inheritance. This prevents the ambiguity of conflicting thresholds from different parent dialects.

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