Normative Sources

When behavior is evaluated, authority is ordered as follows:

  1. Language specification (/spec/)
  2. Conformance test corpus (normative executable examples)

Implementation behavior is not authoritative by itself.

Reference parser authority and divergence handling are governed by ./reference-parser-status-policy.md.

Divergence Rule

If spec prose and conformance tests diverge:

  • Treat as a release blocker.
  • Do not ship until both are aligned.
  • Resolution requires explicit owner decision recorded in changelog/decision note.

Conformance corpus evolution is governed by ./conformance-corpus-governance.md.

Conformance Corpus Requirements

The conformance corpus must include:

  • Valid parsing examples with expected AST snapshots.
  • Invalid/malformed cases with expected fallback behavior.
  • Expected diagnostics (code + level) for malformed/recovery cases.
  • Canonical serialized output snapshots for selected cases.
  • Compatibility fallback cases for unsupported profile/version constructs.
  • External-config precedence over in-source profile hints.
  • Precedence and escape interaction cases.
  • Cross-feature interaction cases for neighboring precedence tiers.

For every new inline token or precedence change, these cases must be represented in the conformance corpus (tests/). The corpus is the sole record — there is no separate prose matrix.

Release Gate

A release is conformant only if:

  1. Conformance tests pass on the reference parser.
  2. No unresolved spec-vs-test divergence exists.
  3. Any intentional behavior change includes updated spec text and updated tests in the same change.

Cross-implementation validation requirements are governed by ./cross-implementation-validation-policy.md.

Implementation compliance claims are governed by ./compliance-levels-policy.md.

Authoring Rule for New Features

Every language proposal must provide, before merge:

  • at least one canonical success case,
  • at least one malformed/unclosed case,
  • at least one escape case,
  • at least one precedence-neighbor interaction case.