# HALO — Honest Accessible Living Ours (Classification)

Every file in the vault has a classification. HALO governs what gets shared and what stays.

## Principles

- **H — Honest:** State what you know AND what you don't. Flag confidence. Document failures.
- **A — Accessible:** Any agent reads the project in 30 seconds. Any human runs it in 3 commands.
- **L — Living:** Append, don't rewrite history. Dead ends are data.
- **O — Ours:** No vendor lock-in. Works on any machine.

## Classification Levels

| Level | Who sees it | vault_clearance |
|-------|------------|-----------------|
| **PUBLIC** | Anyone | SAFE (0) |
| **INTERNAL** | Lab + AI council | EUCLID (1) |
| **RESTRICTED** | Key personnel only | KETER (2) |
| **CLASSIFIED** | Daemon nodes only | APOLLYON (3) |

## Frontmatter (every classified .md file)

```yaml
---
vault_clearance: SAFE | EUCLID | KETER | APOLLYON
halo:
  classification: PUBLIC | INTERNAL | RESTRICTED | CLASSIFIED
  confidence: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW | SPECULATIVE
  front: "##_Project_Name"
  custodian: "Throne name"
  created: YYYY-MM-DD
  updated: YYYY-MM-DD
  wing: READY | CONDITIONAL | NOT_READY | UNASSESSED
  containment: "What's sensitive, or 'None'"
---
```

Non-markdown files inherit classification from nearest parent `_CLASSIFICATION.md` sentinel.

## Priority Doctrine

> **Software is Dead. People are Alive. Information is Immortal.**

A theorem does not depend on which language it was written in. A protocol does not depend on which software implements it. An observation does not depend on which instrument recorded it. Software is already dead — it just doesn't know it yet. Every script will be rewritten. Every tool will be replaced. Every platform will sunset. The information the software processes is what matters. The software is a temporary vehicle for immortal cargo.

> A theorem written on papyrus, parchment, or pixels is the same theorem.
> The medium is mortal. The message is not.

Classify the information content, not the file format. When the vault is exported, the information layer must survive even if every `.py` file is stripped away.

## Deliverable Types

| Type | Name | What | Registry |
|------|------|------|----------|
| STAFF | Sovereign Tool Armed For The Future | Runnable code/tool | `STAFF_catalogue.json` |
| BOOK | Bibliography Of Online Knowledge | Data, datasets, citations | Per-project `BOOK.md` |
| WING | Working Important Novel Good | Deployable output | `WING_REGISTRY.json` |
| HALO | Honest Accessible Living Ours | Document, framework | `HALO_REGISTRY.json` |
| EYE | Engineered Young Express | Compute engine | `EYE_REGISTRY.json` |
| FORM | Functional Orthodox Reality Model | Orthodox comparison | `FORM_REGISTRY.json` |

## Enforcement

`python scripts/halo_gate.py scan` compiles `_HALO_MANIFEST.yaml`. `validate` checks leaks. `export` copies by level.

**Registry:** [`HALO_REGISTRY.json`](HALO_REGISTRY.json)
**Integrity:** Bioship (traveling assets) and Shadow Seal (files at rest) — see `15_Project_ShadowsOfSight/`.
**USB export:** See `11_Project_WordsOfTomorrow/` for physical media screening.
**Archived long form:** `_archive/protocol_strip_2026-04-06/HALO_PROTOCOL.md`