Vertical Surfaces

Same substrate. Different constraint surfaces.

The SECS core never forks per industry. Each vertical is a certified adaptor with its own constraint surface — envelope values, domain predicates, and identity bans loaded at boot. Operators may label knobs differently in runbooks; the substrate always resolves the same constitutional fields.

This page explains what gets configured and how completion works. For a governed workflow walkthrough inside one domain, open a Workflow Demo.

One substrate, many surfaces

Think of the substrate as the physics engine: collapse pipeline, six veto classes, identity extinction, governance proof. Verticals only change the adaptor configuration — never the emit chain.

Example (same knob, different vertical labels and values):

The substrate exposes severeDriftMagnitude (a bounded envelope in G₄). Healthcare operators may call it “clinical drift tolerance” and set it to 0.5. Fintech may call it “model surface stability” and set it to 0.7. Automotive may call it “ASIL drift bound” and set it to 0.2.

All three map to the same substrate field. The adaptor certificate names the vertical; doctrine validates the values against constitutional bounds before the system boots. A vertical cannot loosen G₀–G₃ — it may only tighten within the frozen constraint surface.

Three configuration layers

Digestible split: what is frozen, what is tuned per vertical, what is domain-specific.

Frozen (substrate)

Loaded once at boot. Immutable at runtime.

Emit chain: Spark → α → ν → λ → ρ → ε → Emit
Six exhaustive veto classes (v₁–v₆)
Thirteen identity fields stripped at ingress
G₀–G₃ constitutional doctrine

Envelope (per vertical)

G₄ adaptation bounds. Tighter than defaults; never looser.

anomalyThreshold — sensitivity to anomaly spikes
severeDriftMagnitude — max behavioural drift before hold
vetoFreqThreshold — vetoes before escalation
Substrate V1 defaults: 10 / 0.9 / 5 (lower = tighter)

Domain (per vertical)

Custom predicates and field bans in the adaptor certificate.

Regulatory predicates (e.g. HIPAA PHI guard, ASIL level)
Mandatory metadata (jurisdiction, compliance flags)
Vertical-only surfaces (e.g. jointLimitSurface for robotics)
STABLE / VOLATILE behavioural profile class

Adaptor architecture — external connections

Adaptors are external certified processes. Not part of the substrate. HTTP boundary only. The substrate never changes — only the adaptor configuration surface changes.

flowchart TB
    subgraph VERTICALS["Industry verticals"]
        HC["Healthcare"] & FT["Fintech"] & DF["Defence"] & EN["Energy"]
    end
    subgraph ADAPTORS["Certified adaptors — external"]
        STREG["STABLE · 30–80 ms"]
        VLREG["VOLATILE · 20–500 ms"]
    end
    subgraph CORE["Substrate — unchanged"]
        BURN["Burn Orchestrator"] --> PIPE["Collapse + governance"] --> COCK["Dual-lane cockpit"]
    end
    HC & FT & DF & EN -->|"HTTP only"| STREG
    HC & FT & DF & EN -->|"HTTP only"| VLREG
    STREG --> BURN
    VLREG --> BURN

    classDef ext fill:#161920,stroke:#8b8f9a,color:#e0e2e8
    classDef stable fill:#121820,stroke:#00B2FF,color:#e0e2e8
    classDef volatile fill:#1f1814,stroke:#FF5E00,color:#e0e2e8
    class VERTICALS,HC,FT,DF,EN ext
    class STREG,BURN,PIPE,COCK stable
    class VLREG volatile

Same substrate — different constraint surface per vertical. Open a Workflow Demo to walk through one domain.

Stable profile

30–80 ms latency
0.3% error rate
Predictable — deterministic behaviour

Volatile profile

20–500 ms latency
5% error rate
Unpredictable — real-world variance

Same substrate. Same collapse pipeline. Same governance. Different constraint surface per vertical.

Vertical	Regulation	Status
Fintech	MiFID II, SOX	Proven
Healthcare	HIPAA, FDA 21 CFR Part 11	Proven
Defence	NATO STANAG 4586, MIL-STD-882E	Proven
Insurance	Solvency II, IDD	Proven
Legal	EU AI Act (Art. 14), ECHR Art. 6	Adaptor-ready
Energy	NERC CIP, IEC 62443	Proven
Automotive	ISO 26262, SOTIF (ISO 21448)	Proven
Cybersecurity	NIST CSF 2.0, SOC 2 Type II	Proven
Supply Chain	EU CSRD, CSDDD, Basel III	Proven
EdTech	FERPA, COPPA, EU GDPR (Art. 22)	Adaptor-ready
Governed AI	No standard (substrate layer)	Proven

Proven means architecturally compatible with the cited compliance requirements — not third-party certified. Hover for an example event; click any row for the full proof definition.

Shared envelopes, different values

Every vertical uses the same three envelope parameters. Values differ by risk posture. Domain predicates are additional — not substitutes for the shared substrate fields.

Substrate field	Healthcare	Fintech	Defence	Automotive
anomalyThreshold	3	5	2	2
severeDriftMagnitude	0.5	0.7	0.3	0.2
vetoFreqThreshold	2	3	1	1
domain predicate	`hipaa-phi-guard`	MiFID audit trail	HOSTILE → human override	ASIL + SOTIF guard

Full parameter tables per vertical are on each Workflow Demo and in the compliance proof table above.

How configuration completes

No runtime self-service loosening. Configuration is a boot-time constitutional act.

Doctrine manifest

Vertical rules are authored as doctrine: envelope values, custom predicates, forbidden fields, and regulator references. Must inherit G₀–G₃ constraints.

Adaptor certificate

Signed manifest binds adaptorId, profile class (STABLE or VOLATILE), public key, and the vertical constraint surface. Validated before load.

Boot validation

Atom loads doctrine and certificates. If validation fails, the substrate halts — no partial admission. Two-gate admissibility: constitutional α₀ and adaptor-specific α˰

Runtime boundary

Envelope tuning within bounds may move on the adaptation surface (neurotrophic slow path). Constraint surface and predicates do not change without a new ratified deployment.

Proof on every cycle

Each emit produces an HMAC-signed governance certificate. Regulators replay decisions years later with identical output — configuration is evidenced, not asserted.

What you cannot configure

These are structural, not policy toggles.

Never Substrate

Collapse operator sequence, veto irreversibility, identity set, or constitutional axioms at runtime.

Never Vertical

Loosen envelope below substrate minimums, bypass custom predicates, or admit identity fields through an adaptor override.

Vertical index

Eleven adaptor surfaces. Select one for a full governed workflow demo.

Index values are anomalyThreshold / severeDriftMagnitude / vetoFreqThreshold.