5. Rule Identity

This section defines deterministic requirements for rule identity derivation and binding of evaluation results to invariant rule definitions.

5.1 Invariant Rule Definition

Rule definitions consumed by conformant implementations MUST be treated as invariant logical structures for purposes of identity derivation.

Human-readable version identifiers MAY be used for administrative purposes, but such identifiers MUST NOT substitute for or override the deterministically derived rule identity defined in this section.

Any modification to rule logic, rule parameters that affect evaluation semantics, or rule composition structure MUST result in a new rule identity.

5.2 Canonical Rule Serialization

Rule definitions MUST be serialized in a deterministic manner consistent with the canonicalization requirements defined in Section 2.

Identical rule definitions MUST produce identical serialized outputs across independent implementations.

5.3 Rule Identity Hash Derivation

Implementations MUST derive a collision-resistant identifier from the canonical serialized rule definition.

The resulting rule identity MUST uniquely represent the semantic content of the rule definition.

The hash function used for rule identity derivation MUST meet the collision-resistance requirements defined in Section 2.2.

5.4 Rule Identity Binding

Conformity artifacts MUST include the rule identity associated with the evaluation that produced the artifact.

Implementations MUST NOT substitute or reinterpret rule identities post-evaluation.

Evaluation results that cannot be bound to a deterministically derived rule identity are non-conformant with this standard.