explorations

OpenVDL Exploration Diary

This directory is the exploration diary for world facts that may later become part of maintained OpenVDL validator semantics.

Purpose

Modern LLM and agentic tooling makes it possible to run structured explorations over real-world domains:

• numbering plans
• registry behavior
• provider policy changes
• allocation rules
• document formats
• identifier lifecycles

Those explorations may surface facts that matter for validation.

OpenVDL should represent the final semantic facts inside validator documents themselves. This directory serves a different purpose:

• record the exploration process
• keep hypotheses and intermediate findings visible
• preserve research rounds
• track how a discovered fact moved from exploration into validator semantics

In short:

• validator documents carry the canonical semantic facts
• the exploration diary carries the discovery history

Both are useful, but they are not the same thing.

Why This Matters

Without an exploration diary, teams tend to lose:

• failed hypotheses
• discarded assumptions
• partial observations
• the reason a fact was trusted
• the sequence of discovery steps

For a maintained validator library, this matters because some rules are not obvious from standards alone. They emerge from ongoing observation of the world.

What Belongs Here

This directory should contain:

• exploration session notes
• research round logs
• hypothesis lists
• candidate facts under review
• links from exploration rounds to validator revisions

This directory should not be the sole place where a validation-relevant fact exists. Once a fact materially affects validation behavior, its essential semantic form should be embedded in the relevant OpenVDL document.

Suggested Workflow

1. start an exploration round
2. capture the domain, goal, and hypothesis
3. record evidence, contradictions, and confidence
4. decide whether a fact is strong enough to affect validation
5. embed the resulting fact into the validator semantics
6. link the validator change back to the exploration round

File Layout

• index.md: top-level map of exploration areas and rounds
• rounds/: individual exploration rounds
• domains/: optional domain summaries over time

Relationship With OpenVDL Semantics

The intended model is:

• exploration diary = research and discovery layer
• OpenVDL document facts = semantic and implementation-facing layer

If these diverge, the OpenVDL document is the source of truth for validation behavior, and the diary explains how that truth was reached.