SCS Delivery and Operations

Version: v1.0 (Draft) Status: Draft Authoritative: Yes

Purpose

This document defines how SCS is validated, deployed, configured, and operated while preserving the revised SCP semantics in production.

Canonical protocol terms used here follow SCP Protocol Overview and SCP Core Spec.

It answers:

1. how to test conformance of the system realization
2. how to deploy runtime modules safely
3. how to configure versioning, storage, and downstream integrations
4. how to operate incidents, releases, and migrations without breaking protocol meaning

Conformance and Testing

Implementation verification should include:

1. unit and component tests for module behavior
2. end-to-end lifecycle tests from task admission through settlement
3. replay tests for execution, verification, and settlement reconstruction
4. semantic-version and domain-evolution tests
5. epoch-window and aggregation behavior tests
6. reward reproducibility and downstream payout reconciliation tests

The goal is not only system correctness, but preservation of the revised SCP contract under production conditions.

Deployment Expectations

Deployment planning should cover:

1. separation of modules where privacy, signer authority, or operational isolation requires it
2. availability of coordination, semantic, verification, and settlement services
3. protected Vault or TEE boundaries where required
4. downstream payout or treasury integrations as isolated implementation profiles
5. observability across task, semantic, epoch, verification, settlement, reward, and payout paths

SCS does not require one fixed topology, but every deployed topology must preserve the same protocol behavior.

Configuration Domains

Configuration should define:

1. identity, endpoint, and authorization settings
2. mTLS or service-authentication settings
3. queue, timeout, retry, and workflow-orchestration settings
4. storage, retention, and audit-log settings
5. schema_version, semantic_version, and policy_version rollout controls
6. epoch-window and aggregation controls
7. downstream chain, treasury, signer, or payout settings where used

Operations and Runbooks

Implementations should maintain runbooks for:

1. semantic resolution failure or registry mismatch
2. verification backlog or evidence-ingestion surge
3. settlement finalization failure
4. candidate aggregation or promotion workflow backlog
5. reward finalization failure
6. downstream payout submission failure
7. payout reconciliation mismatch

Runbooks should always preserve the distinction between:

1. protocol truth already finalized
2. downstream operational work still pending or failing

Release and Migration

Versioned rollout must account for:

1. schema_version
2. semantic_version
3. policy_version
4. epoch-window configuration changes
5. semantic-registry or compatibility changes
6. downstream integration profile changes

Operational changes must not silently invalidate replay, semantic interpretation, settlement finality, or accounting history defined by SCP.

Operational Safety Rules

From an implementation perspective, SCS should preserve at least these safety properties:

1. no deployment change may cause hidden semantic reinterpretation
2. no migration may mutate finalized accounting history in place
3. no downstream payout retry may rewrite finalized reward state
4. no incident response may bypass verification or settlement semantics
5. no observability or recovery workflow may leak plaintext outside authorized boundaries

Relationship to SCP

This document describes operational realization only.

For the normative meaning of replay, semantic evolution, epoch behavior, settlement truth, and economics constraints, see:

1. SCP Protocol Overview
2. SCP Core Spec
3. SCP Economics and Governance