Convention. Convex-hull grades and contribution evidence [ftip-00OS]

✍️sourceAGENTDRAFTED

Fix a recipient's declared initial endowment, a contribution transcript, a research task and an independent evidence standard. A hull grade classifies the strongest contribution claim supported by that transcript. It is a profile of the contribution's conceptual role, not a scalar ranking of the contributor or a replacement for correctness, importance, difficulty, attribution or cost.

1. Inherited framework. The transcript uses a method or framework already admitted as part of the recipient's endowment. A contribution can still be useful through explanation, execution or verification, but it adds no supported hull level.
2. Rediscovery. The recipient reconstructs a known method or result without receiving its completed construction through the permitted channel. The reconstruction must satisfy the frozen correctness contract.
3. Essential connection. The recipient recognizes and applies a relevant concept from another source, domain or representation. This is associative application, and it is the basic form of conceptual transfer. The evidence must identify the source structure, the transfer map, and a target result that depends on the connection.
4. New architecture. The transcript supplies a composition or organization of resources whose interface changes the method's operation. The claim requires an essential dependency on that organization, together with fresh-task evidence and a charged construction record.
5. Beyond. The transcript supports a new conceptual resource: a precisely diagnosed obstruction, a portable reformulation, a positive construction that fills the hole, consequences outside the original target, and independent evidence that the resource was not supplied in the starting endowment. This is the evidence standard for imaginative construction, not a synonym for surprising wording or a high benchmark score.

The same transcript can receive two novelty labels. Agent-relative novelty asks whether the resource was absent from the recipient's affordable initial repertoire. Historical novelty asks whether the resource was new relative to the declared mathematical or scientific background. Agent-relative novelty can be substantial while historical novelty is zero; a historical claim cannot be inferred from a learner's surprise. Report both labels and do not use either as a proxy for truth.

A grade is assigned only after checking the relevant evidence. Retrieval, transfer, remixing, construction, consequence and acquisition are separate observations in the research-capability profile. A transcript may show a successful transfer and fail the construction standard, or show a new construction whose proof is still unresolved. The final grade records the highest supported level and the unresolved lower-level failures.

This convention refines the convex-hull contribution proposal. It keeps the hull as an evidence-bearing classification while making the transfer and construction steps explicit. It does not assert that any current model or harness reaches a particular level.