Turn accepted engineering into a verifiable economic lineage
This scenario uses the real Vector and Memnox pattern: an external problem becomes a bounded BTG contribution, the exact change-set enters ENTITY lineage, unrelated upstream infrastructure reviews or tests it, acceptance becomes external evidence, and any later commercial relationship is recorded separately rather than invented retroactively.
1 · Start with an external problem
Capture the upstream repository, issue, problem statement, licence context and contribution class. Do not begin by assuming payment or ownership.
opportunity: external issue / defect / requirement contribution_class: PRO_BONO | PROMISED/CONTINGENT | FUNDED/SETTLED upstream_license: recorded payment_settled: false until independently verified upstream_source_ownership_claimed: false
2 · Engineer and freeze the exact change-set
Record the contributor identity, branch/commit, exact paths/blobs, local validation and the relationship to the external issue. The purpose is to make the contribution reconstructable and attributable before upstream consequence is known.
3 · Push into an independent venue
Opening an upstream PR moves the contribution from internal assertion into an environment controlled by another project. Capture the PR number, head SHA, changed-file set, review state and CI state.
4 · Preserve intermediate states
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
UPSTREAM_PR | Contribution is externally visible at a fixed head; acceptance is not claimed. |
REVIEW_CI | Review/CI state captured; maintainer action, required changes or workflow approval may still be pending. |
UPSTREAM_ACCEPTED_RECORDED | Upstream acceptance/merge has been independently observed and anchored to ENTITY evidence. |
SETTLED | Only use when the economic settlement has its own verified evidence. |
5 · Record upstream consequence
When maintainers approve, request a change, reject, close or merge, capture that as an external event. Do not rewrite earlier states. A requested changeset, for example, becomes part of the causal contribution history.
6 · Convert acceptance into contribution-value evidence—not automatic money
An accepted contribution has externally evidenced technical adoption. That can support future services, support contracts, sponsorship, procurement, integration work or a contribution instrument. It does not automatically create a dollar valuation, invoice, royalty, ownership transfer or obligation to pay.
7 · If commercial terms exist, make them explicit
For future paid work, bind the agreed economic instrument to the contribution or service: sponsor agreement, procurement order, bounty contract, accepted-contribution compensation, support/integration service or other legitimate agreement. Preserve amount, currency, payer/payee, trigger, verifier and settlement evidence separately from the technical acceptance receipt.
8 · Publish only a portable public projection
The authoritative local/sealed receipt may include operational paths or internal state. Publish a portable projection anchored to the sealed receipt SHA-256 and ENTITY atomic root rather than exposing workstation-local paths or pretending the public projection is the sealed record.
Real baseline
- Vector #26501 / PR #26504: upstream accepted, pro bono, USD 0 realized cash.
- Memnox #46 / PR #86: upstream accepted after maintainer review/change, pro bono, USD 0 realized cash.
- AWS #934 / PR #935: active below acceptance while maintainer workflow approval remains external.
Negative tests
- PR opened but not merged → never mark upstream accepted.
- Merge observed but no payment evidence → payment remains unsettled.
- Upstream Apache/MIT/MPL licence applies → ENTITY does not override it.
- Portable projection changes sealed receipt hash/root → reject the publication mapping.
- Maintainer review requests a change → preserve it as lineage; do not hide it.
Why this matters
The contribution economy is where ENTITY stops being only internal provenance. Independent organizations become actors in the causal history, allowing technical acceptance, rights context, later economic agreements and settlement to become separately verifiable states.