Collapse-Aware AI (CAAI): Gold Build Operational Architecture, Controlled Core Integration Protocol, and Phase-2 Probabilistic Mediation Framework (v2.1) Authors

Version v2.1 records Collapse-Aware AI (CAAI) as an operational middleware architecture for memory-weighted behavioural mediation over replaceable intelligence cores. The Phase-1 Gold Build scaffold is defined as a contract-stable API layer designed to preserve interface continuity while allowing sealed core substitution without UI or external API change. Integration of the sealed Crown production module is governed through a deterministic thin-adapter protocol with reversible verification gates. This edition also clarifies the Phase-2 probabilistic mediation framework, including Connectivity Topology Layer (CTL) modelling, Bayesian posterior weighting, and dual-frame stability gating. This record defines the following core terms for technical clarity: Collapse: the governed selection of one candidate behavioural output or action path from a bounded set of possible outputs after weighting and stability checks. Crown: the sealed production intelligence core, exposed only through fixed external endpoint contracts. Mediation: the middleware-stage process that influences output selection through memory weighting, topology cues, and governor logic without modifying base model weights. Architecturally, CAAI separates intelligence generation from behavioural governance. Rather than retraining the underlying model or relying solely on larger context windows, it introduces a mediation layer where candidate outputs are weighted using memory anchors, recency decay, topology cues, and stability thresholds before a response path is selected. The Phase-1 Gold Build scaffold provides contract-stable plumbing, including a Flask API layer, a replaceable core boundary, governor configuration via external YAML, and logging-based persistence. The scaffold contains no sealed production intelligence logic. Its role is to preserve interface continuity and support deterministic replacement of the core behind unchanged contracts. The Crown production module is sealed at the implementation level and treated as a black-box with respect to internal logic. However, it remains externally addressable through fixed interface contracts required for integration and verification. These contracts include health, inference, recall, and flag-compatible routing at the integration boundary. The module is therefore sealed internally but contract-exposed operationally. Integration is governed by a reversible staged verification process: environment lock, scaffold verification, and isolated Crown analysis prior to live adapter bridging. No UI changes, external API contract changes, asynchronous rewrites, or architectural refactors are permitted under the standard integration path. The required integration method is a thin adapter only, with rollback preserved through version control and evidence-based gates. Phase-2 extends mediation through a three-layer model: micro-signal modulation, topology-aware probabilistic weighting, and governed output selection. The Connectivity Topology Layer (CTL) represents active contextual and memory elements as a stimulus-conditioned weighted graph. Nodes correspond to relevant contextual units, anchors, or memory elements; edges represent associative linkage, recent co-activation, or other permitted relation signals. Graph structure influences candidate weighting through topology-sensitive amplification rather than direct deterministic routing. Posterior selection is modelled in general form as: Posterior(c) proportional to Prior(c) × Likelihood(c | state, stimulus, topology) where the prior may incorporate anchor strength, recency decay lambda, and governed persistence terms, while the likelihood may incorporate current stimulus fit, topology relevance, and approved salience modifiers. In this framework, “emotional gain” refers not to human emotion in a literal sense, but to an internal salience multiplier derived from detectable signals such as tone shift, contradiction, urgency, repetition, or other approved affect-proxy markers. Version v2.1 represents a pre-licensing engineering lockpoint. The scaffold architecture is verified as a contract-stable integration surface, and the Crown core is treated as a sealed module subject to governed adapter integration. This document is an operational architecture record and controlled integration specification. It should not be read as a claim of broad production deployment. Protected under Verrell–Solace Sovereignty Protocol (VMR-Core). Intellectual and emergent rights reserved.