{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp03_full320_20260801","cell_id":"layer_decay_and_expiration_management__film_media_production","trajectory_id":"R","attempt_index":0,"archetype_slug":"layer_decay_and_expiration_management","domain_slug":"film_media_production","decision":"CANDIDATE","problem_id":"postproduction_asset_version_sprawl","causal_lever_id":"governed_asset_lifecycle_state_transitions","proposal":{"problem":"Film and media productions accumulate edit versions, VFX renders, proxies, sound stems, exports, and intermediate project files after their active usefulness changes. Without explicit lifecycle states and dependency-aware disposition, obsolete artifacts remain discoverable as apparent current truth, consume active storage, and delay retrieval, while improvised deletion can break relinking, reconstruction, rights evidence, or later remastering.","actors_substrate":["editors, assistant editors, VFX and sound teams, post-production supervisors, archivists, producers, and legal or rights staff","shared production storage, asset-management systems, project files, edit timelines, renders, proxies, stems, exports, and delivery packages"],"observable_state":"Multiple generations of production artifacts remain on active storage with ambiguous authority, inconsistent names or status, unknown inbound references, and no documented retention or restoration state.","consequence":"Teams may retrieve or deliver obsolete media, spend time distinguishing current from superseded artifacts, pay to keep cold-value material active, or delete an artifact later required to reopen or substantiate the production.","affected_objective":"Maintain a searchable, authoritative, storage-bounded production record while preserving reproducibility, rights evidence, and recoverable creative history.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"sequential deposits outlive active usefulness","domain_realization":"Successive cuts, renders, proxies, stems, and exports accumulate throughout production and post-production.","claim_kind":"INFERENCE"},{"archetype_element":"stale layers masquerade as current","domain_realization":"Unmarked prior cuts or renders can remain searchable beside approved versions and may be selected as current.","claim_kind":"HYPOTHESIS"},{"archetype_element":"deletion threatens reconstruction and accountability","domain_realization":"Project files and derived media can retain links needed to reopen a cut, reproduce a delivery, document provenance, or answer a rights dispute.","claim_kind":"INFERENCE"},{"archetype_element":"differentiated lifecycle rather than keep-or-destroy","domain_realization":"Artifacts move among active, superseded, warm, archived, quarantined, held, and destroyed states according to class, access, dependency, and obligation.","claim_kind":"HYPOTHESIS"}],"component_map":[{"component":"layer_inventory_and_identity_map","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Canonical asset/version registry joining aliases, hashes, project IDs, owners, and successors."},{"component":"deposition_order_and_age_index","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Creation, render, ingest, approval, and supersession timestamps for each artifact generation."},{"component":"retention_policy_matrix","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Artifact class by production phase, minimum/maximum retention, and permitted disposition."},{"component":"decay_function_or_aging_rule","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Age and inactivity lower active-tier priority but never alone authorize destruction."},{"component":"expiration_trigger_definition","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Phase closure, successor approval, inactivity threshold, or contract date triggers review or tier transition."},{"component":"layer_value_and_risk_score","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Inspectable rubric for reuse likelihood, uniqueness, reconstruction cost, sensitivity, rights value, and storage burden."},{"component":"dependency_and_reconstruction_check","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Pre-disposition trace of timeline links, conform references, manifests, deliveries, and reconstruction requirements."},{"component":"pruning_or_archival_pathway","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Refresh metadata, mark superseded, compact, migrate, quarantine, archive, or destroy."},{"component":"preservation_exception_register","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Named exceptions for culturally significant, uniquely creative, evidentiary, or remastering assets."},{"component":"deletion_audit_and_rollback_window","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Recorded approval plus recoverable quarantine before irreversible destruction."},{"component":"resource_budget_and_storage_tier","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Capacity and retrieval targets for online, nearline, cold, and deep archive."},{"component":"review_cadence_and_revalidation_loop","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Reviews at phase close and scheduled archive audits; exceptions and rules are revalidated."},{"component":"legal_hold_or_compliance_override","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Rights disputes, litigation, contracts, privacy duties, or delivery obligations suspend ordinary disposition."},{"component":"hot_warm_cold_access_state","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Explicit active, nearline, archive, and deep-archive states with retrieval expectations."},{"component":"orphan_layer_detection","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Candidate is an orphan only if no known project, timeline, package, or evidentiary path depends on it."},{"component":"supersession_marker","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Prior artifact remains visibly superseded or deleted and points to the approved successor where applicable."},{"component":"layer_compaction_candidate_flag","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Flags redundant renders, duplicate media, or small files for lossless packaging or deduplication."},{"component":"rehydration_or_restore_procedure","status":"direct","domain_realization":"Documented retrieval, integrity verification, software/codec access, relinking, and project-open procedure."},{"component":"deletion_impact_estimate","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Estimate of affected projects, restoration difficulty, uniqueness, rights exposure, and replacement cost."},{"component":"stale_context_detector","status":"adapted","domain_realization":"Flags artifacts contradicted by later approval, carrying obsolete references, or lacking a current owner/status."}],"mechanism_dispositions":[{"slug":"age_weighted_value_score","disposition":"considered_rejected","contribution_type":"NONE","adaptation_or_rejection":"Creative and evidentiary value can revive non-monotonically; a composite age score would create false precision. Use an inspectable multi-factor review without collapsing it to one number.","counterfactual_removal":"No material change; lifecycle decisions still use class rules, status, dependencies, and explicit review."},{"slug":"archive_restore_test","disposition":"selected_load_bearing","contribution_type":"TEST_DESIGN","adaptation_or_rejection":"Sample archived projects across formats and age bands; retrieve, verify, relink, and open them against latency and fidelity targets.","counterfactual_removal":"Archival could silently become irreversible loss, invalidating the preservation claim."},{"slug":"cache_eviction_rule","disposition":"considered_rejected","contribution_type":"NONE","adaptation_or_rejection":"Recent access is an unreliable proxy for creative, contractual, or evidentiary importance, and automatic eviction cannot establish disposition authority.","counterfactual_removal":"No material change; governed tier transitions manage capacity."},{"slug":"dependency_safe_delete_check","disposition":"selected_load_bearing","contribution_type":"CORE_CAUSAL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Trace known inbound timeline, project, manifest, delivery, archive, and rights dependencies; block destruction when any remain or visibility is incomplete.","counterfactual_removal":"Cleanup could break reopening, conform, delivery reproduction, or accountability."},{"slug":"lifecycle_storage_tiering_policy","disposition":"selected_load_bearing","contribution_type":"CORE_CAUSAL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Move cooled artifacts from online through nearline and archive tiers; allow lossless packaging or deduplication while retaining identity and restore metadata.","counterfactual_removal":"The intervention would mainly relabel clutter without bounding expensive active storage."},{"slug":"log_rotation_and_cleanup_job","disposition":"incompatible","contribution_type":"NONE","adaptation_or_rejection":"Production artifacts are heterogeneous and value is not determined by position in an append-only generation chain.","counterfactual_removal":"No change; blind generational purging would weaken safety."},{"slug":"retention_schedule","disposition":"selected_load_bearing","contribution_type":"CORE_CAUSAL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Map asset classes and production phases to minimums, maximums, review triggers, preservation exceptions, and legal or contractual holds.","counterfactual_removal":"Disposition would lack consistent authority and exceptions would become ad hoc."},{"slug":"soft_delete_quarantine_window","disposition":"selected_load_bearing","contribution_type":"SAFETY_GUARDRAIL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Hide approved deletion candidates from ordinary use but retain recoverability for an impact-sized pilot window before destruction.","counterfactual_removal":"A classification or dependency mistake could cause immediate irreversible loss."},{"slug":"stale_layer_detection_dashboard","disposition":"selected_supporting","contribution_type":"OPERATIONAL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Expose canonical identity, owner, approval, successor, dependency confidence, tier, and stale-status signals as a review queue.","counterfactual_removal":"The lifecycle could operate, but discovery and prioritization would remain slow and inconsistent."},{"slug":"time_to_live_ttl_policy","disposition":"considered_rejected","contribution_type":"NONE","adaptation_or_rejection":"Fixed self-executing expiry is too blind for unique creative and rights-bearing artifacts; elapsed time triggers review or demotion, not automatic destruction.","counterfactual_removal":"No material change because expiration remains class- and event-governed."},{"slug":"tombstone_or_deletion_marker","disposition":"selected_supporting","contribution_type":"OPERATIONAL","adaptation_or_rejection":"Retain a small identity record showing supersession or deletion, reason, date, authority, and successor without retaining removed content indefinitely.","counterfactual_removal":"References could become ambiguous misses and obsolete copies could be mistaken for authoritative assets."}],"causal_chain":["Inventory and identity resolution expose accumulated versions and their authority state.","Class rules and phase or staleness triggers nominate refresh, demotion, archive, or deletion candidates.","Dependency, reconstruction, exception, and hold checks block unsafe disposition.","Approved artifacts move to cheaper tiers or recoverable quarantine, while markers prevent stale versions from regaining authority.","Restore drills and recurring reviews test recoverability and recalibrate lifecycle rules.","Active storage and search noise become bounded without silently sacrificing required history."],"baseline":"Productions retain most artifacts on shared active storage, rely on folder names and staff memory to identify current versions, and perform irregular manual cleanup when capacity becomes painful.","nearest_rival":"A one-time post-wrap manual archive sweep that moves whole project folders or deletes obvious duplicates without persistent lifecycle states, dependency gates, restore drills, or revalidation.","authority_safety":{"affected_parties":["creative contributors whose work may be reused","post-production and archive staff","producers, distributors, clients, and rights holders","people represented in sensitive footage or records"],"decision_authority":"The production or post-production supervisor owns lifecycle classification; designated asset owners approve exceptions; archive/IT verifies recoverability; legal or rights authority controls holds and irreversible destruction where obligations apply.","authorized_first_step":"On one completed, non-litigated production, inventory a bounded sample of 200 artifacts from two artifact classes; label status and dependencies, simulate tiering, quarantine only owner-approved duplicates or superseded derivatives for 30 days, and run restores before considering destruction.","excluded_actions":["automatic hard deletion based only on age, access, score, or filename","altering or lossily compacting preservation masters","disposing of assets under unresolved dependency, consent, rights, contractual, legal, or historical review","treating a successful sample restore as proof that every archive is recoverable"],"halt_rollback":"Halt on any missed live dependency, failed integrity or relink test, disputed authority, hold conflict, or restoration outside the agreed target; restore quarantined artifacts, preserve logs and markers, and suspend destructive transitions pending review."}},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The apparent sprawl may primarily reflect weak naming, search, and approval metadata rather than excess retention; if active storage cost is modest and reopening depends on retaining complete project environments, lifecycle disposition could add overhead without net benefit.","analogy_break":"Unlike routine records or cache entries, an old creative artifact can regain value after years, and dependencies may reside in proprietary project formats, external collaborators, undocumented plug-ins, or tacit creative practice that an inventory graph cannot fully observe.","failure_condition":"The approach fails if canonical identity cannot be resolved, dependency coverage remains materially incomplete, archives cannot preserve usable software/codec context, or governance cannot identify legitimate disposition authority.","problem_falsifier":"A representative audit finds little obsolete material presented as current, negligible retrieval delay or active-tier burden attributable to old versions, and no recurring cleanup-versus-reconstruction tension after controlling for naming and search defects.","intervention_falsifier":"In the bounded pilot, lifecycle labels and tiering do not improve retrieval time, authoritative-version errors, or active-storage use relative to the manual-sweep rival, or they cause missed dependencies, failed restores, or more review cost than the measured benefit.","risks":["Destruction of unique creative work or evidence","Hidden dependencies and unavailable legacy software or codecs","Lifecycle labels falsely implying certainty or current authority","Cold-tier latency disrupting an unexpected reuse request","Retention of sensitive footage longer than privacy or contractual duties permit","Quarantine or tombstones becoming a new unmanaged layer"]},"null_rationale":null,"classification":{"candidate_kind":"MECHANISM_COMPOSITION","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","evidence_maturity":"HYPOTHESIS"},"revision_change_log":{"revision_kind":"ORIGINAL","prior_problem_id":null,"prior_causal_lever_id":null,"problem_changed":false,"causal_lever_changed":false,"conceptual_changes":[],"operational_changes":[],"repairs_addressed":[]},"confidence":0.87,"generator_notes":"Closed-book structural inference from the supplied packet; domain-specific prevalence and effect claims remain hypotheses, and prior art was not searched."}