---
title: "Separate what was known then from what happened later."
description: "Why a Decision Episode preserves the original context and records later outcomes in a separate layer."
updated: "30 August 2026"
availability: "CONTRACT REVIEW · TEST_ONLY"
candidate_route: "/docs/polya/foundations/decision-episode"
---

# Separate what was known then from what happened later.

Why a Decision Episode preserves the original context and records later outcomes in a separate layer.

**CONTRACT REVIEW · TEST_ONLY:** Review-candidate contract and local fixture evidence only · no distributed SDK, operational API, publisher parity, or decision authority

## An Episode freezes the context available at decision time

To prevent hindsight from rewriting the past, bind the case snapshot, selected Option, open assumptions, and evidence references to one temporal boundary.

- DecisionCase and version
- Recorded Decision and human actor
- Opaque references current at the time
- Open dissent and evidence requests
- TEST_ONLY assurance and authority NONE

## Record later outcomes separately

A later good or bad outcome does not retroactively change the authority or evidence available at decision time. Add an evaluation record that references the original episode digest.

1. **Seal the original snapshot** — Fix DecisionCase and Decision Episode digests first.
2. **Receive the outcome separately** — Do not overwrite the prior record with a new HARBINGER or outcome reference.
3. **State the evaluation rule** — Record success or failure criteria and the evaluation time.
4. **Keep learning separate from authority** — Learning may inform a later case but cannot mutate policy or create execution authority.

## The current implementation validates structure only

Decision Episode packages are local TEST_ONLY structural contracts and fixture evidence. They do not claim publisher parity, independent verification, an operational store, or production readiness.

> **ASSURANCE:** TEST_ONLY · AUTHORITY NONE · external effects 0

---

Published route: /docs/polya/foundations/decision-episode