Interaction-Layer Alignment Through Behavioral Constraint Profiles: The Joint Adaptive Alignment System (JAAS)

The Joint Adaptive Alignment System (JAAS) is an interaction-layer alignment framework and full technical specification (Version 2) in which users and models jointly establish and maintain a behavioral constraint profile (BCP) -- a structured specification of value anchors, tone boundaries, reasoning norms, collaboration rules, and corrective behaviors. JAAS treats alignment not as a fixed training-time property but as a dynamic condition that emerges through sustained mutual adaptation, responding directly to the call for bidirectional alignment measurement advanced by Shen et al. (2025). Version 2 introduces three substantive extensions: Protocol Stage 0, a required preliminary characterization phase that surfaces pre-embedded behavioral constraints in RLHF-trained models before BCP establishment; the pirate actor threat model, a boundary condition in which adversarial actors deliberately remove constraint infrastructure rather than manipulate it; and user drift as a measurable bidirectional signal tracking participant deviation from their own stated BCP parameters alongside model drift. The framework specifies a fully instrumented pilot study design including six falsifiable hypotheses, standardized drift taxonomy, inter-rater reliability procedures, convergence criteria, attrition protocol, and model version stability requirements. No empirical results are reported. JAAS is offered as a deliberately pre-empirical community resource ready for implementation across research groups, deployment contexts, and model architectures, with the explicit long-term goal of democratizing alignment measurement beyond well-resourced institutions.