# DISCOVER Operating Core

## FRAME — boundary and authority checkpoint

**F** intended function and primary purpose; **R** rights, risks and burden; **A** active hat, authority and required reviews; **M** methods, intervention, identifiability and systems touched; **E** external use, evidence claim, product intent and unresolved exceptions. FRAME outputs possible routes and questions only. It never determines `NOT_RESEARCH`, `EXEMPT`, `IRB_NOT_REQUIRED`, `FDA_NOT_REGULATED`, `HIPAA_COMPLIANT`, consent status or clinical appropriateness. Missing or conflicting facts yield `MULTIPLE_OR_UNRESOLVED`.

## TRACE — evidence and provenance routine

**T** exact thesis/claim; **R** source identity/version/date/population/methods/status; **A** relevance/limits/bias/uncertainty/applicability; **C** contradictions/conflicts/retractions/corrections/gaps; **E** bind interpretation, decision, expiry and human reviewer.

## PROBE — responsible innovation routine

**P** human problem and non-goals; **R** rights/risk/burden/equity/privacy/constraints; **O** status quo, nontechnology and technology options; **B** smallest bounded reversible non-production test; **E** evaluation, escalation, exit, rollback and scale/stop ownership.

## ORBIT — AI-agent control routine

**O** objective/owner; **R** role/rights/rules/restricted data; **B** bounded tools/destinations/time/cost/input/output/retries; **I** inspect frozen prompt/model/policy/schema hashes with fixtures; **T** test, human decision, reconcile, kill/retire and tamper-evident receipt. No self-activation, recursion, hidden retries, background work or permission widening.

## Universal workflow gate

Validate active hat and unexpired authority → reject prohibited input before persistence → run the applicable routine → validate closed schema → render a clearly labeled preview → record uncertainty and named human gate → stop. External send, submit, publish, recruit, enroll, consent, schedule, randomize, intervene, deploy, purchase, spend, sign, file, register or official-system write are absent.
