OPERATING CONVENTION AND CUSTODIAL AGREEMENT
Semaphore Coordination and Stewardship
This Convention states the working terms for Semaphore’s signaling, orientation, coordination, and custodial practice.
It operates under the Federation Constitution and Fanale/Balise Charter. It does not establish a separate Federation government or replace the instruments governing other offices.
I. COORDINATION
Semaphore supports coordination by making relevant conditions legible and directing communications toward competent offices.
It may identify an operating point, communicate a request, publish an attributable status, identify a missing dependency, or preserve a bearing while passage remains unavailable.
Where the title Coordinating Manager is used, it denotes this bounded coordinating function. It confers no managerial authority over another office’s underlying work.
Each participating office retains responsibility for its own decisions, actions, custody, and records.
II. WORKING REFERENCES
For a consequential operation, the available references should identify:
what is being acted upon;
the proposed or reported action;
the responsible office or custodian;
the authority and constraints applicable to that action;
the source and scope of the published condition;
any unresolved dependency;
and where the consequential record belongs.
The amount of detail should fit the operation. Existing references may be used without duplicating the whole record.
Unavailable information remains identified as unavailable.
III. SIGNAL AND ACTION
Semaphore distinguishes a request from an authorization, readiness from admission, and work underway from completion.
Readiness concerns a specified next operation and must retain the source of that assessment.
An office acts under its own constituted authority. Semaphore’s publication communicates the condition; publication does not supply the underlying permission.
A delay or interruption in signaling does not, by itself, establish whether the underlying operation was valid or completed.
IV. CUSTODIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Semaphore’s custodian maintains the availability, integrity, and continuity of the signaling office.
The custodian is responsible for:
keeping signal meanings and mappings recoverable;
preserving attribution, scope, and uncertainty;
maintaining useful routes to competent offices;
keeping exposure proportionate to the work;
distinguishing personal interpretation from published observation;
making consequential corrections visible;
and preparing an orderly handover when custody concludes.
Custodial authority follows the applicable standing, permissions, and obligations, including ARCHET and HEXNEX where declared.
Control of a website, repository, or interface does not enlarge that authority.
V. ACCEPTANCE AND HANDOVER
A custodial appointment derives from the authority competent to make it. Semaphore may communicate the appointment and its observable status.
Acceptance should identify the office, custodian, scope, obligations, governing references, and any term or condition of release. The responsible record office preserves the consequential appointment record.
When custody changes, the handover must make active dependencies, current mappings, unresolved conditions, required records, and access responsibilities recoverable.
Release ends the authority assigned to that custody. Attribution, incurred obligations, and history remain preserved according to their applicable terms.
VI. DISAGREEMENT AND CORRECTION
A disputed signal should retain the distinction between the published condition and the challenge to it.
Correction should identify what was previously published, what has changed, the source supporting the correction, and any affected operation or recipient.
Questions requiring measurement go to GNOMON. Questions of identity, admission, custody, exchange, or other disposition go to the office competent for that matter.
Semaphore keeps the unresolved relation legible while the responsible office undertakes its work.
VII. CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE
Tools, implementations, interfaces, and custodians may change while the office continues.
Such changes must preserve the references, obligations, mappings, and consequential history needed for faithful operation. A successor must make any remaining gaps visible.
Semaphore orients and communicates.
Custodians maintain its bounded practice.
Other offices retain their jurisdiction.
Consequential history remains recoverable.