docs: epistemic frontier capstone map + O1/O3 decisions (46..49 activation, W = thought layer)

.claude/board/STATUS_BOARD.md

@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ Plan: `.claude/plans/ce64-hypothesis-layers-v1.md`. Plateau: `.claude/knowledge/
 | D-id | scope | status | gate / falsifier |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | **D-HL-0** | Plateau, plan, research map, board entry | Shipped (#1496) | docs only; every claim cites a file or entry |
-| **D-HL-1** | Decisions O1 (46..49), O2 (50..52), O3 (W), O5 (lane budget), O6 (what persists) | Partial: O5 decided 2026-10-14 (up to 64 thought lanes beside the 10 rung lanes); O1, O2, O3, O6 open | stored-meaning changes ship behind a version gate |
+| **D-HL-1** | Decisions O1 (46..49), O2 (50..52), O3 (W), O5 (lane budget), O6 (what persists) | Partial: O5 decided 2026-10-14 (up to 64 thought lanes beside the 10 rung lanes); O1 (46..49 = activation i4) and O3 (W = thought layer) decided 2026-10-17; O2, O6 open | stored-meaning changes ship behind a version gate |
 | **D-HL-2** | Merge-on-read vs in-place revision | Queued | merge-on-read within 1 code of exact on every cell where in-place is not; ≥ 1 cell differs by ≥ 2 codes |
 | **D-HL-3** | Per-delta evidential base as the independence test (layer ≠ source) | Queued | sd ratio within 10 % of 1.0 on all four cases, incl. a cross-layer duplicate (counts once) and two independents in one layer (count twice); a layer-keyed rule must fail those two |
 | **D-HL-4** | Narsese parallel calibration (OpenNARS vs CE64 deltas, `jc::reliability`) | Queued (after D-HL-2 and D-HL-3) | an encoding that does not beat linear ICC by the pre-declared margin is dropped |

.claude/board/entries/2026-10-17-epistemic-frontier-clicks.md

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# 2026-10-17 — Epistemic frontier: what clicked
+
+**Kind:** finding + decisions. **Status:** DECISION for O1 and O3 (BASIS:
+the user's statements of 2026-10-17, quoted below); the rest is
+WORKING-MODEL until a probe or a PR makes it VERIFIED-IN-CODE.
+**Map:** `.claude/knowledge/epistemic-frontier-capstone.md` holds the full
+tree with file and status per node; this entry records only what changed
+today and why.
+
+## Decisions
+
+| # | DECISION | BASIS (user, 2026-10-17) | replaces |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| O1 | CE64 46..49 = activation i4: +7 excitation … 0 neutral … −8 inhibition. It is the signed reaction of the edge, never the operation that produced it | the 2026-10-17 bit diagram ("activation i4 +7 excitation … −8 inhibition") and "the operation lives in the running thought, never write it back into the result edge" | the inference-mantissa reading in `isa.rs` and the line "Bits 46..49 stay the inference mantissa; activation moves to a row field (D-CGW-9)" in `ce64-semantic-upper-half.md` |
+| O3 | CE64 53..58 (W) = the thought layer this state belongs to: 0 = givens, 1..63 = hypotheses. W is the breadcrumb to the thought that changed the state | "The smartest thing would be to make it a register for the 64 thoughts"; "It gives the identity of the parallel universe it is in" | the corpus-root handle into `WitnessTable` (`mailbox_ref`, `spo_fact_ref`), which is a foreign key and is withdrawn |
+| G | SPOG's G is never a reference between ontologies; evidence is projected as a foldable layer | "if 2 ontologies that use SPOG, don't wire G as a foreign key / The evidence is projected into the graph as a native foldable layer instead" | any design that joins graphs by a key |
+| N | A thought is not capped at a NAL level; NAL levels stack across the 64 lanes | "why should we limit a thought that could progress in it's awareness to a higher NAL level / 64 thoughts can easily satisfy stacking 9 NAL layers" | my own earlier cap, withdrawn |
+
+## Clicks (candidates for the Eureka gate)
+
+Each passes the three-way test only if it still matters with the mistake
+that led to it forgotten. All four do; promotion to `EPIPHANIES.md` is
+blocked because that file is generated from `epiphanies-canon.json` and has
+no route for a post-baseline entry (OPEN, see the 2026-10-17 one-layout
+entry).
+
+1. **The operation lives in the thought; the edge carries state and a
+   breadcrumb.** The result is 59..63, the reaction is 46..49, the maturity
+   is 50..52, and W says which reality wrote it. Nothing in the edge says
+   *how* it was derived: that is the thought's program, held in its lane.
+2. **Foreign keys dissolve into presence bits across 64 layers.** Whatever a
+   reference would have carried (who witnessed, which graph, which evidence,
+   who disagrees) is a bit in the per-row written-by word or a bit in a
+   thought's mask, and every question about it is a popcount of an AND over
+   one allocation. This is why W can be six bits and still be complete.
+3. **Four ladders, two kinds of axis.** Rung (attention depth, per dispatch)
+   and Pearl (the question, per edge) are fixed small ladders; maturity
+   (50..52, per edge) and NAL level (per thought) are what grows. Maturity is
+   the gear that opens a higher-level thought; it is not itself a NAL level.
+4. **A thought = (strategy, front end), compiled once, in one lane.** The
+   115 NAL capabilities and the front ends (nal, relalg, metta, cog,
+   Narsese, Atomese) fill lanes; all lower to R2IL → mask-risc. Agreement
+   between lanes, and between our engine and the oracles, is a signal read
+   from the same bits.
+
+## What this does NOT change
+
+- Bits 59..63 stay one field (`EpistemicState5`).
+- S/P/O stay palette codes.
+- The alpha channel's rules stand: no fallback to the base, motion never
+  writes the frame, discardable whole.
+- Rung ≠ NAL level; the tunnel stays at 10 rungs.
+
+## Follow-ups (each its own PR)
+
+| D-id | work |
+|---|---|
+| D-HL-1 | migrate `isa.rs` opcode reading of 46..49 behind a declared "isa-v2" reading; fix PROBE-W-PRESERVE (`forward` / `syllogize` must not return W = 0) |
+| D-HL-1 | wire W at merge / materialization from the layered view |
+| — | `witness_table.rs` carries a VIOLATION banner (this PR); removal or rewrite later |
+| O2 | 50..52: plasticity (`learn`) vs novelty → wisdom (`wire`) still needs a ruling |

.claude/board/entries/README.md

@@ -25,10 +25,11 @@ index row, (3) no duplicate entry id. Checks 1 and 2 are deliberately
 opposite directions; the stranding this convention prevents shows up in
 exactly one of them, never both.
 
-365 entries, 2026-08-06 .. 2026-10-17.
+366 entries, 2026-08-06 .. 2026-10-17.
 
 | date | entry id | finding | file |
 |---|---|---|---|
+| 2026-10-17 | `epistemic-frontier-clicks` |  | [2026-10-17-epistemic-frontier-clicks.md](2026-10-17-epistemic-frontier-clicks.md) |
 | 2026-10-17 | `coresearch-simpson-epistemic` |  | [2026-10-17-coresearch-simpson-epistemic.md](2026-10-17-coresearch-simpson-epistemic.md) |
 | 2026-10-17 | `ce64-one-layout-moore-synapse-membrane` |  | [2026-10-17-ce64-one-layout-moore-synapse-membrane.md](2026-10-17-ce64-one-layout-moore-synapse-membrane.md) |
 | 2026-10-16 | `wcoj-probes-1-3` |  | [2026-10-16-wcoj-probes-1-3.md](2026-10-16-wcoj-probes-1-3.md) |

.claude/knowledge/ce64-reasoning-substrate-plateau.md

@@ -138,6 +138,10 @@ stored bits mean requires a version gate (`I-LEGACY-API-FEATURE-GATED`).
 
 ---
 
+> **2026-10-17:** O1 and O3 decided (46..49 = activation i4; W = thought
+> layer, 0 givens, 1..63 hypotheses); O5 was decided 2026-10-14. O2 and O6
+> stay open. See plan D-HL-1 and entry `2026-10-17-epistemic-frontier-clicks.md`.
+
 ## §5 — The proposed unification (HYPOTHESIS until its probe runs)
 
 **U1 — Opaque bytes, readings declared per class.** The design's "opaque