Governance Before Intelligence A Pre-Execution Substrate for Deterministic Refusal, Authority Validation, and Continuity Preservation Version 0.9.7.1

Abstract: Elyon-Sol is a governance-first, pre-execution substrate that determines whether an interaction should exist prior to any policy evaluation, intelligence, or execution. It enforces deterministic refusal under a fail-closed model, allowing only interactions that satisfy defined legitimacy conditions. Eligibility is evaluated through three invariants: authority (AC³), coverage (T²⁶), and continuity (CCS). Authority ensures required actors are valid and properly scoped. Coverage ensures all required elements of an interaction are present. Continuity enforces that state transitions remain justified and structurally consistent over time. Version 0.9.7.1 introduces formal closure of the continuity constraint using an explicit state-transition model, making continuity directly evaluable. The release also includes worked evaluation examples and transcript-derived empirical baselines demonstrating deterministic application of the invariants across real interaction patterns. Elyon-Sol shifts governance from post-execution enforcement to pre-execution legitimacy determination. The system is formally specified, internally coherent, and empirically grounded, and is designed for use in high-assurance environments where interaction validity must be verifiable before execution.