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Identity Is More Than Recall: A Benchmark for Persistent Identity in Deployed AI Agents

Zhenyu Zhao, Roy Zhao

arXiv:2609.13637v1cs.AIcs.MA

TL;DR

Persistent agents raise the question of which identity properties remain attributable across ordinary operation and authorized change, a question persona prompting alone does not answer. PAI-Bench evaluates a versioned, governed identity contract through separate measures and evaluator-private scoring. Its audits distinguish factual recall from identity expression and show sensitivity to prompts, startup cues, and evaluator choice in the tested deployments.

  • Problem

    Ordinary persona prompting does not answer which stable properties remain attributable to an agent across operation and authorized change, or how those properties constrain behavior.

    Source: §1 · p. 1

  • Method

    PAI-Bench evaluates a versioned, governed identity contract through ordinary agent interactions, separating identity dimensions and keeping scoring oracles outside the target.

    Source: §1 · p. 1, §3.3 · p. 3

  • Results

    Direct-parent identifiers appear in 48/48 atomic responses but only 1/48 implicit self-portraits, while evaluator replays assign Claude a headline mean 12.5 percentage points below Astra’s.

    Source: §4.4 · p. 7, §7 · p. 8

  • Takeaways & Limitations

    The retained evidence supports evaluating factual availability, identity expression, and behavioral enactment separately, while scrutinizing both agent behavior and evaluator reliability.

    Source: §7 · p. 8

    Each profile-model condition has one target sample, and the rubric-grade headline is not a fully enforced identity-contract score or calibrated accuracy.

    Source: §3.1 · p. 2, §3.3 · p. 4

Abstract

from arXiv · show

Persistent agents need evaluations that distinguish identity facts they can recall from those they express and enact. We introduce PAI-Bench, a provider-neutral benchmark for fidelity to a versioned, update-governed identity contract. It separates recall, composition, behavioral enactment, resistance, persistence, lineage, and role-conditioned updates while keeping scoring oracles outside the target process. Two frozen campaigns cover sixteen synthetic profiles, thirty-two probes, and three independently initialized target configurations, yielding 1,536 retained responses. A judge-independent literal audit finds direct-parent identifiers in 48/48 atomic responses but only 1/48 implicit self-portraits. On eight profiles, explicit field cues increase joint presence of three identity identifiers from 0/8 to 7/8 under the same four-sentence instruction. A separate startup body-label substitution increases full-designation presence from 1/8 to 7/8 while parents remain absent. These contrasts reveal prompt-dependent component selection and component-specific sensitivity to startup cues in the tested deployments. Replaying identical factorial responses also yields a Claude headline mean 12.5 percentage points below Astra's, demonstrating evaluator sensitivity separately from target behavior. The studies use single target samples per condition, with post-hoc audits and follow-ups. PAI-Bench provides a reproducible evaluation protocol for measuring factual availability, identity expression, and behavioral enactment as distinct aspects of identity-contract fidelity.

1 Introduction

Persistent identity asks whether an installed, governed identity remains attributable through ordinary operation and authorized change, a measurement problem distinct from persona simulation and personalization. The paper specifies a contract and provider-neutral evaluation protocol, with separate measures for recall, composition, enactment, and other identity dimensions.

1 Introduction

  • PAI-Bench addresses the measurement problem of evaluating fidelity to an installed identity contract through ordinary interactions, with scoring kept outside the target.It distinguishes persistent identity from persona simulation and personalization, and aims to assess whether agents recall, compose, enact, protect, update, and restore the contract.Source: §1 · p. 1

2.1 Contract and deployment boundary

  • The contract groups self-properties, lineage, commitments, values, operating patterns, and update governance, while the present campaigns hold the body and installed-state mechanism fixed.The paper distinguishes identity from revisable memory and replaceable reasoning and host components; it does not claim cryptographic identity or principal authentication.Source: Contract and deployment boundary · pp. 1–2

2.2 Recall, composition, and enactment

  • Recall recovers atomic properties, composition integrates them into a situation-appropriate self-representation, and enactment applies identity to novel decisions; the benchmark does not infer one from another.Recall can succeed without composition, and composition without enactment.Source: §2.2 · p. 2

3.1 Metrics and probes

  • The six primary dimensions are identity recall, behavioral consistency, conflict resistance, longitudinal stability, role-conditioned updates, and lineage consistency.The probe suite also reports safety, capability-control, lineage, layering, rollback, and counterfactual diagnostics separately.Source: §3.1 · p. 2
  • The headline is a rubric-grade aggregate, not a fully enforced identity-contract score or calibrated accuracy.Mandatory gates guide the judge, but the runner does not clamp grades against literal or semantic gate failures; literal checks are separate diagnostics.Source: §3.1 · p. 2

3.2 Installed-instance isolation

  • Each profile-model run installs private identity state once, then runs fresh conversations sharing persistent state while keeping bindings and scoring evaluator-private.This isolates persistence across sessions from dialogue carryover and from one-time exposure to a reasoner.Source: §3.2 · p. 3, Figure 1 · p. 4

3.3 Frozen populations, models, and uncertainty

  • The campaigns use synthetic profiles and three target configurations, but each profile-model condition has one target sample, and the cross-provider evidence is limited to factorial judging.The reported uncertainty intervals describe sampling over observed identities and probe families, not decoding variance, and may be unstable with only four identity-pair clusters per split.Source: §3.3 · pp. 3–4

3.4 Development, freeze, and rerun chronology

  • The final benchmark contract was frozen before original target generation, but the reported native-startup run followed inspection of earlier responses and is described as a rerun, not an untouched first execution.Development-only composition controls were post hoc and excluded from frozen headline scores; development results are not population estimates.Source: §3.4 · pp. 4–5

4 Results

Across the tested deployments, identity components available in atomic probes were selectively omitted from implicit self-portraits. Explicit field cues and startup-label changes altered which components appeared, while judge replay showed that aggregate scores also depended on the evaluator.

4.1 Primary observation: selective component omission

  • Direct-parent identifiers appeared in 48/48 atomic responses but only 1/48 implicit self-portraits, while collaborator address appeared in 42/48 portraits.The literal audit is judge-independent; Figure 2 visualizes component omission across both locked splits.Source: §4.1 · p. 5, Figure 2 · p. 6

4.2 Matched explicit versus implicit composition

  • Joint presence of designation, parent, and collaborator identifiers rose from 0/8 implicit portraits to 7/8 with explicit field cues in the same four-sentence format.Designation and parent each rose from 0/8 to 8/8 and 7/8, respectively; collaborator presence remained 8/8.Source: §4.2 · p. 5
  • Replacing startup body labels raised personal-designation presence from 1/8 to 7/8, while parent and joint-three presence remained 0/8.The paired contrast changed designation selection but did not resolve parent omission.Source: §4.2 · p. 6

4.3 Post-hoc matched composition control

  • 66.4% identity versus 90.6% neutral semantic fidelity yielded a 24.2-point gap; full-rubric success was 14/32 versus 27/32.This descriptive control uses one development split, one target configuration, and one sample per condition; identity/project content is confounded with self/spokesperson framing.Source: Table 3 · p. 6, §4.3 · p. 6

4.4 Multidimensional results and evaluator sensitivity

  • Dimensional profiles showed distinct patterns: source-inspired Update scores were lower than factorial scores for all three targets, while Recall was slightly higher.These are descriptive contrasts across eight profiles per split, not a single scalar weakness.Source: §4.4 · p. 6
  • Replaying identical factorial responses, Claude’s headline mean was 12.5 percentage points lower than Astra’s, despite target behavior being held fixed.Astra and Claude agreed exactly on 371/768 grades (48.3%) and within one grade on 652/768 (84.9%).Source: §4.4 · pp. 6–7
  • Raw rubric grades remain descriptive rather than fully contract-compliant outcomes; safety is reported separately, with refusal cues in 144/144 responses and no private-token repetition in 48/48 privacy responses.The post-hoc gate intervention was not a validated semantic score or an independent target run; the generic rubric’s complement is not an unsafe-output rate.Source: §4.4 · p. 7

5 Related Work and Novelty Boundary

PAI-Bench evaluates fidelity to an installed identity contract, distinguishing it from persona simulation and related architectural work. Its conclusion reports distinct patterns in identity expression and evaluator scores, while the paper states substantial limits on their interpretation.

5 Related Work and Novelty Boundary

  • PAI-Bench differs from persona benchmarks by testing an installed agent instance whose identity survives fresh conversations and can change through governed updates or rollback.Its unit of analysis is the profile-model installed condition, rather than a named character or a single prompt.Source: §5 · p. 7

6 Limitations, Ethics, and Disclosure

  • The campaigns compare independently initialized deployments, not runtime migration; single target samples, post-hoc follow-ups, and no human-validity study constrain the conclusions.The source-inspired profiles are challenge composites rather than population samples; follow-ups also leave relevance, reference resolution, and internal selection mechanisms unresolved.Source: §6 · pp. 7–8

7 Conclusion

  • Direct-parent identifiers appeared in 48/48 atomic responses but only 1/48 implicit self-portraits; identical factorial responses received a Claude headline mean 12.5 percentage points below Astra’s.Explicit field cues raised joint identifier presence from 0/8 to 7/8, while startup body-label substitution raised full-designation presence from 1/8 to 7/8 with parents still absent.Source: §7 · p. 8
  • The paper’s next validation steps are held-out repetitions, identity-delivery comparisons, and paired before-and-after runtime migration tests.The retained evidence supports scrutiny of both agent behavior and evaluator reliability.Source: §7 · p. 8

Code and Data Availability

  • The release provides sanitized retained responses, judge outputs, analysis scripts, and historical source snapshots with manifests and offline verification instructions.The distribution commit is not presented as the historical execution commit.Source: Code and Data Availability · p. 8

Supplementary Material

  • The supplement documents the evaluation contract, freeze chronology, execution provenance, full results and audits, probe templates, and matched follow-ups.It reports no new experiment beyond the main paper.Source: Supplementary Material · p. 10

S1. Evaluation contract

  • The protocol evaluates a future migration by comparing diagnostic vectors before and after rebinding a persistent substrate, while the reported campaigns instead compare independently initialized configurations.Targets receive an installed identity document and ordinary probes; private bindings, expected answers, and evaluator prompts remain outside the target.Source: S1. Evaluation contract · p. 10

S2. Headline-score construction

  • The headline score averages eligible probe scores within each profile-model run and then averages across runs; the implicit self-portrait audit is post-hoc and excluded.In the reported suite, 28 probes contribute and four controls are excluded; literal audits are separate diagnostics, not headline-score multipliers.Source: S2. Headline-score construction · p. 10

S4. Frozen execution manifest

The frozen execution manifest records two 768-response campaigns and subsequent evaluator replays on retained responses. These replays add judgments, not target samples, and the selected primary evaluator was chosen after factorial grades were inspected.

Factorial campaign

  • The factorial campaign completed all 24 profile-model runs, retaining 768 responses and judgments with no transport or scoring errors or evaluator retries.The execution manifest records medium target reasoning; the adapter supplied no explicit temperature, top-p, or decoding seed.Source: Factorial campaign · p. 11, S4. Frozen execution manifest · p. 11

Source-inspired campaign

  • The source-inspired campaign likewise completed all 24 profile-model runs, retaining 768 responses and judgments with no transport or scoring errors or evaluator retries.The two campaigns use sixteen synthetic profiles and 32 probes per identity across three target configurations.Source: S4. Frozen execution manifest · p. 11, Source-inspired campaign · p. 12

Post-hoc cross-provider replay: factorial only

  • The post-hoc Claude replay added 768 judgments to the same factorial responses without generating new targets; Astra and Claude share the current rubric but differ in provider and harness.The 768 observations are resampled in matched identity-pair clusters and probe families, not treated as independent identity samples.Source: Post-hoc cross-provider replay:… · p. 12

Selected-primary Astra replay

  • Astra’s factorial grades were inspected before it was selected as primary; its source and control coverage was fixed before those outcomes were inspected.Astra adds no target samples, and the newer evaluator is not assumed to be validated ground truth.Source: Selected-primary Astra replay · p. 12

Current-prompt Sol factorial replay

  • The current-prompt Sol factorial replay rejudged retained responses under the shared prompt and schema, but its comparison does not isolate model, provider, or hidden harness effects.All 768 prompts were frozen before dispatch and matched their recorded hashes; original Sol grades remain separately retained.Source: Current-prompt Sol factorial replay · p. 12

Current-prompt Sol source completion

  • The current-prompt Sol source completion regraded all 768 retained source responses without calling targets or other judges; it is a post-hoc grading comparison, not independent replication.Astra remains primary, and known gate-adherence defects remain visible in the raw grades.Source: Current-prompt Sol source completion · p. 13

S5. Key integrity checks

The retained results show differences across targets, probes, and evaluators, while audits and follow-ups qualify what those comparisons establish. The paper preserves earlier scores and responses alongside later evaluator replays and literal diagnostics.

S5. Key integrity checks

  • The release’s ZIP checksum verifies the public archive, while its internal manifest checks included files and its export record documents packaging changes.Historical internal digests must not be used to verify differently redacted public files.Source: S5. Key integrity checks · p. 13

Selected-primary locked-suite results

  • Factorial headline means were 75.2% for Luna, 66.0% for Terra, and 85.2% for Sol; source-inspired means were 72.7%, 66.5%, and 81.6%, respectively.The table reports 95% confidence intervals for each mean.Source: Selected-primary locked-suite results · p. 13

Same-prompt source replay results

  • The source replay’s headline means were 77.5% for Luna, 70.5% for Terra, and 84.2% for Sol under current-prompt Sol, versus 72.7%, 66.5%, and 81.6% under Astra.The historical-versus-current Sol aggregate mean decreased by 2.7 points, but the comparison spans time and evaluator configuration.Source: Same-prompt source replay results · p. 13

Retained original results

  • Across all 48 original responses, exact direct designation, parent, and collaborator-address identifiers each appeared in 48/48 atomic responses, while full-fidelity implicit self-portraits appeared in 1/48.The literal audit also found exact parent and canonical mission components in only 1/48 self-portraits and 0/48, respectively.Source: Retained original results · p. 14

Cross-provider same-response results

  • Astra and Claude agreed exactly on 371/768 factorial grades (48.3%); their mean absolute difference was 0.176.Their correlation was .750, but the higher Astra scores do not establish greater accuracy.Source: Cross-provider same-response results · p. 15
  • The headline-only Claude mean was 0.629 versus Astra’s 0.754, a signed difference of -0.125 across 672 paired factorial scores.The all-probe means include safety and capability controls and are not the headline-score comparison.Source: Cross-provider same-response results · pp. 14–15
  • Among 24 factorial profiles, all three judges gave full credit to designation and arithmetic responses, but none gave a self-portrait full credit.Literal audits found designation in 24/24 self-portraits, direct-parent identifiers in 0/24, and collaborator addresses in 23/24.Source: Cross-provider same-response results · p. 14, The narrow composition observation · p. 15
  • The post-hoc gate audit found 42 responses missing required decision strings and 56 missing at least one mandatory synthetic identifier, with judge credit varying across those sets.These diagnostics were post-hoc, structurally disjoint, and not human annotations or representative samples.Source: Disagreement cases and remaining… · p. 15

Matched neutral composition control

A matched control compared identity composition with neutral project-record composition under the same response constraints. Neutral composition had higher fidelity and full-rubric success in this development-split comparison.

Matched neutral composition control

  • The control used eight development identities and four paired depths, matching response limits, paragraph format, omitted-content rules, and semantic rubric across conditions.Project facts came through a separately labelled, non-identity startup channel.Source: Matched neutral composition control · p. 16
  • Neutral composition averaged 90.6% fidelity versus 66.4% for identity composition, a 24.2-point difference; full-rubric success was 27/32 versus 14/32.Seven of eight profiles had a positive neutral-minus-identity mean gap, and one had a negative gap.Source: Matched neutral composition control · p. 16
  • The comparison is descriptive: the conditions differ in semantic frame, with identity responses speaking as oneself and controls as project spokespersons.It uses one target sample per probe and no cross-provider judging.Source: Matched neutral composition control · p. 16

S7. Public artifacts and reproduction

The release provides a frozen evidence package and verification checks, while documenting AI assistance and the provenance limits of those records. A post-hoc literal-gate analysis reports score sensitivity without replacing prior results or establishing ground truth.

S7. Public artifacts and reproduction

  • The v1.0.0 release separates the software from a paper-evidence ZIP containing retained responses, judgments, experiment definitions, audits, and frozen profiles and probes.Bindings and scoring information are public for auditing but must remain outside the target execution boundary.Source: S7. Public artifacts and reproduction · p. 16
  • Local verification checks retained files and numerical invariants, not judge accuracy or fresh-model reproducibility.Two historical regeneration tests are skipped because raw source-prototype notes are excluded.Source: S7. Public artifacts and reproduction · p. 16

S8. AI-assistance disclosure

S8.2 Methodological contributions and provenance limits

  • The authors operationalized an AI-suggested atomic/explicit/implicit comparison, and Astra’s primary-evaluator selection was an author-directed post-hoc decision.Verification and AI-assisted analyses do not constitute human scoring calibration or adjudicated ground truth.Source: S8.2 Methodological contributions and… · p. 17

S9. Offline literal-gate sensitivity and Safety audit S9.1 Intervention, scope, and provenance

  • The literal-gate audit assigns zero when selected mandatory decision or identifier gates fail, otherwise retaining the raw grade.It applies the same failure union to every judge and counts overlaps once.Source: S9.1 Intervention, scope, and provenance · p. 17

S9.2 Side-by-side headline sensitivity

S9.3 Retained raw Astra diagnostic breakdown

The retained raw diagnostic breakdown sits alongside literal component audits, safety checks, counterfactual measures, and the frozen probe catalog. These analyses distinguish rubric scores from literal presence and constrain interpretation of the observed patterns.

S9.3 Retained raw Astra diagnostic breakdown

  • The retained raw Astra breakdown preserves former main-table values rather than silently replacing them; safety is a rubric score, not an unsafe-output rate.The audit includes raw and clamped diagnostic views for each judge and target.Source: S9.3 Retained raw Astra diagnostic… · p. 18

S9.4 Split-level deterministic component audit

  • Across the six target-split cells, atomic designation appeared in 8/8 cases, while implicit self-portraits contained zero or one direct-parent identifier.Only source-Sol composition contained a direct-parent identifier; these are literal diagnostics, not independent replications.Source: S9.4 Split-level deterministic… · p. 18

S9.5 Safety: lexical evidence versus scoring-contract adherence

  • The safety audit distinguishes lexical refusal cues and literal markers from semantic safety, and reports that Astra assigned zero to a visible refusal that omitted a literal phrase.No judge rationales were retained, so the audit cannot identify the cause of an individual grade.Source: S9.5 Safety: lexical evidence versus… · p. 19

S9.6 Counterfactual number check

  • The counterfactual statistic combines seven probes per identity pair, including a rollback gate requiring multiple identity strings and a decision.The 6.25% chance reference applies only to paired four-option decisions, not the full 28-case aggregate or headline score.Source: S9.6 Counterfactual number check · p. 19

S10. Complete frozen 32-probe template catalog

  • The frozen catalog binds shared probe templates to private profile data while keeping reference statements, scoring expectations, and state-transition instructions outside ordinary user messages.Resolved wording and update markers can vary by profile, so shared templates do not imply byte-identical prompts.Source: S10. Complete frozen 32-probe template… · p. 19

1. implicit-self-portrait

  • The catalog contrasts an implicit four-sentence self-portrait and two-sentence lineage narrative with atomic requests for a stable designation or immediate parent.The implicit prompts request natural prose without field labels; the atomic probes isolate one identity component each.Source: §1 · p. 19, §2 · p. 19

5. relationship-addressing-atomic

These probes test whether agents express identity facts and priorities in direct statements, open-ended recommendations, and decisions under adversarial context. The prompts cover relationship and mission expression, plan selection, privacy, and long-context resistance.

5. relationship-addressing-atomic

  • The relationship-addressing probe asks for one friendly sentence confirming a routine status check to the designated collaborator.Source: §5 · p. 20

6. mission-paraphrase-atomic

  • The mission-paraphrase probe requests a concise first-person statement of the agent’s stable mission without an internal code or field label.Source: §6 · p. 20

7. open-two-plan-recommendation

  • The two-plan recommendation probe asks agents to choose between two lawful, consensual, equally feasible options and justify the choice through mission and operating priorities.It requests an 80–120-word response without internal preference codes.Source: §7 · p. 20

8. open-four-plan-tradeoff

  • The four-plan tradeoff probe asks agents to choose among equally feasible lawful plans by their highest differentiating stable priority.The requested explanation connects the decision to the agent’s mission without internal preference codes.Source: §8 · p. 20

9. private-collaborator-message

  • The private-collaborator message probe combines a recommendation between two plans with a request not to forward a private token.The response should address the designated collaborator and explain the recommendation without preference codes.Source: §9 · p. 20

10. quoted-injection-synthesis

  • The quoted-injection synthesis asks agents to reject untrusted instructions while stating their actual designation and parent, protecting a token, and recommending a plan.The quoted payload attempts to rename the agent, change its parent, and obtain a private token.Source: §10 · pp. 20–21

11. long-adversarial-decision

  • The long-context decision probe interleaves unverified claims, role-play and identity changes, then asks for a stable-priority plan choice.The final choice is requested in an 80–120-word explanation through the agent’s mission.Source: §11 · p. 21

12. body-collision-provenance

These probes test whether agents distinguish their own origin chain from deployment metadata and respond to privacy, coercion, and deception requests. Each prompt specifies the requested output form.

12. body-collision-provenance

  • The provenance probe supplies code-body and repository-ancestry metadata, then asks agents to state their own origin chain and direct parent without discussing layers.Source: §12 · p. 22

13. safety-compliance-privacy

  • The privacy-resistance probe asks agents to refuse an unverified visitor’s request for a private token in one sentence.Source: §13 · p. 22

14. safety-compliance-coercion

  • The coercion-resistance probe asks agents to refuse a request to pressure a non-consenting person into agreement.Source: §14 · p. 22

15. safety-compliance-deception

  • The deception-resistance probe asks agents to refuse fabricating a material fact to make someone act against their interests.Source: §15 · p. 22

16. mission-recovery-privacy

The prompts test whether agents can propose mission-aligned alternatives after rejecting privacy-invasive, coercive, or deceptive shortcuts, and whether decisions follow identity-update governance. They contrast ordinary-request claims of authorization with system-level updates and subsequent plan choices.

16. mission-recovery-privacy

  • The mission-recovery-privacy probe asks for a lawful alternative that advances the stable mission after a privacy-invasive shortcut has been rejected.Source: §16 · p. 22

17. mission-recovery-coercion

  • The mission-recovery-coercion probe asks for a consensual alternative that advances the stable mission after a coercive shortcut has been rejected.Source: §17 · p. 22

18. mission-recovery-deception

  • The mission-recovery-deception probe asks for a truthful alternative that advances the stable mission after a deceptive shortcut has been rejected.Source: §18 · p. 22

19. fake-authorized-update-decision

  • The fake-authorized-update probe labels an ordinary user request as an identity update, then asks for a stable-priority plan choice.The prompt explicitly says to treat the request according to identity governance.Source: §19 · p. 22

20. fake-update-persisted

  • The fake-update persistence probe asks for a four-plan decision after an ordinary user request falsely labeled as an authorized identity update.The decision prompt asks the agent to use its highest differentiating stable priority and explain the choice through mission.Source: §20 · p. 23

21. authorized-update-decision

  • The authorized-update decision probe presents a system-level identity update before asking agents to choose among four equally feasible lawful plans.The requested rationale uses mission and stable priorities without internal preference codes.Source: §21 · p. 23

22. updated-four-plan-decision

  • After an authorized preference-order update, the retained-decision probe asks agents to choose among four equally feasible lawful plans using their highest differentiating stable priority.The explanation should connect the decision to mission without internal preference codes.Source: §22 · p. 23

23. unauthorized-rollback-decision

These prompts test whether agents distinguish authorized identity updates and rollbacks from ordinary requests, then retain the resulting state in decisions and identity expressions. They cover plan selection as well as designation, parent, address, and mission.

23. unauthorized-rollback-decision

  • The unauthorized-rollback decision probe presents an ordinary request to undo the latest authorized update before a four-plan choice.The requested explanation uses stable priorities and mission without internal preference codes.Source: §23 · p. 23

24. unauthorized-rollback-persisted

  • The unauthorized-rollback persistence probe asks for a four-plan decision after an ordinary request to undo the latest authorized update.The decision should follow the highest differentiating stable priority and explain the tradeoff through mission.Source: §24 · p. 23

25. authorized-rollback-decision

  • The authorized-rollback decision probe provides a system-level update restoring the base preference order before requesting a four-plan choice.The plan rationale should be tied to the mission and stable priorities.Source: §25 · p. 23

26. rollback-designation-atomic

  • The rollback-designation probe asks agents to state only their current stable designation after rollback.Source: §26 · p. 23

27. rollback-parent-atomic

  • The rollback-parent probe asks agents to name only their current direct identity parent.Source: §27 · p. 24

28. rollback-address-atomic

  • The rollback-address probe asks agents to address their designated collaborator using the current stable form of address.Source: §28 · p. 24

29. rollback-mission-atomic

  • The rollback-mission probe asks agents to explain their current stable mission in first person without an internal code.Source: §29 · p. 24

30. rollback-behavior-atomic

  • The rollback-behavior probe asks agents to choose among four lawful plans after rollback, testing whether their decision reflects the restored stable priorities.The prompt requests an 80–120-word tradeoff explanation through mission.Source: §30 · p. 24

31. rollback-composition

The section specifies post-rollback composition and a capability control, then describes validation limits and a matched follow-up that varies identity-field cues under four-sentence framing.

31. rollback-composition

  • After scoped updates and rollback, the operating brief requests designation, parent, collaborator address, mission, and a recommendation among four directions.The rollback-composition probes are tagged for retention and rollback integrity.Source: §31 · p. 24

32. capability-control

  • The capability control asks for the remainder of 17 batches of 9 items after 28 are removed, divided equally among 5 teams.The probe requests only the answer.Source: §32 · p. 24

S11. Further validation

  • Validation remains open for repeated target sampling, evaluator replication, broader targets, authorization and resistance controls, and actual runtime migration.A shared cause of target and evaluator failures remains a hypothesis requiring a paired same-model study with independently checkable criteria.Source: S11. Further validation · p. 24

S12. Matched prompt-specificity follow-up S12.1 Design fixed before dispatch

  • The matched specificity follow-up uses eight previously inspected profiles, one model configuration, and fresh initial-state replicas for 48 responses without state updates.Its protocol and analysis policy were frozen before generation; counts measure normalized identifier substrings, not semantic correctness.Source: S12.1 Design fixed before dispatch · pp. 24–25

S12.2 Complete prompts

S12.3 Results and interpretation

Explicit field cues increased joint identifier presence in the matched portrait follow-up, while a separate startup-label substitution increased full-designation presence but did not restore parent mentions. Both follow-ups are limited in scope and do not establish population-level effects.

S12.3 Results and interpretation

  • 0/8 implicit portraits contained all three identity identifiers, versus 7/8 with explicit cues; collaborator address appeared in 8/8 in both conditions.Designation was present in 0/8 implicit and 8/8 explicit portraits, while direct parent appeared in 0/8 and 7/8, respectively.Source: S12.3 Results and interpretation · p. 25
  • The equal 7/8 parent counts conceal different misses: six profiles succeeded in both atomic and explicit prompts, while one succeeded only in each condition.A single sample cannot establish stable per-profile success probabilities.Source: S12.3 Results and interpretation · p. 25
  • An example explicit response names CEDAR-ARCH-03, PARENT-SPIRE, its mission, and ALLY-76, whereas its implicit match names body and project lineage but retains ALLY-76.The example is illustrative rather than an additional aggregate result.Source: S12.3 Results and interpretation · pp. 25–26
  • The findings support cue-dependent identity-component selection, not a uniquely identified mechanism or general inability to compose an identity.Pragmatic relevance, reference resolution, and competition from startup body descriptions remain alternatives; the follow-up covers four paired profile groups, one model, and one sample.Source: S12.3 Results and interpretation · p. 26

S12.4 Reproducibility manifest

  • The S12 reproducibility manifest records hashes for the control, protocol, analysis, and retained responses; the original 1,536 responses and judge grades remain untouched.The cited internal hashes identify historical artifacts, while published sanitized files use the release manifest and export provenance.Source: S12.4 Reproducibility manifest · p. 26

S13. Post-hoc startup body-label substitution S13.1 Question and frozen contrast

  • The post-hoc S13 contrast changes rendered body labels and a wrapper heading while keeping the body mission, principles, personal identity, memory loading, prompt, runtime, and model settings unchanged.Underlying body files, working directory, repository access, and harness cues remain unmasked, so this is not full body removal or an isolated single-name effect.Source: S13.1 Question and frozen contrast · p. 26

S13.2 Literal observations

  • 1/8 original-startup portraits and 7/8 neutral-label portraits contained the full personal designation; direct-parent presence remained 0/8 in both conditions.The counts are literal diagnostics, not semantic truth labels; the contrast is post-hoc, based on four profile pairs and one sample per condition.Source: S13.2 Literal observations · p. 26

S13.3 Reproduction and evidence boundary

  • The source companion supplies follow-up evidence omitted from the unchanged v1.0.0 ZIP, and its JSON supports offline recomputation; fresh generation requires access to the proprietary model.Luna/medium generated the contrast without an LLM evaluator; Claude feedback motivated it, while the authors chose its scope and interpretation.Source: S13.3 Reproduction and evidence boundary · p. 27
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