Anti-pattern catalog — overview

The Architectural Type System for Verum maintains a canonical catalog of architectural defects, each registered as a refinement-level predicate the compiler checks. This page indexes the catalog and explains its structure. Each anti-pattern has its deep entry in one of the four band-specific pages.

The catalog itself — the closed enumeration of canonical anti-patterns — is the canonical source. The website mirrors the catalog exactly; adding a new pattern is the only way to extend the surface, and the docs follow the catalog, never the other way round.

The catalog is enumerable — verum audit --arch-discharges prints every entry with its current verdict for the project at hand. The catalog is also append-only: a future Verum version may add patterns; existing patterns are never renumbered or removed.

1. The four bands

The forty patterns split into four bands by what kind of architectural concern they address. The bands are documentary categories — they all share the same diagnostic infrastructure, the same RFC code format (ATS-V-AP-NNN), and the same audit pipeline.

Band	Range	Concern	Page
Capability / composition core	AP-001 .. AP-010	Capability discipline, composition algebra, lifecycle ordering, foundation drift, register mixing, transaction / resource straddling, CVE-closure completeness	classical
Boundary / lifecycle / capability ontology	AP-011 .. AP-026	Stratum admissibility, boundary invariants, wire encoding, authentication, deterministic-test discipline, linear / affine / relevant capability flavours, persistence and time-bound contracts, transitive lifecycle, declaration vs body drift, foundation-content alignment	ontology
Modal-temporal architectural calculus	AP-027 .. AP-032	Temporal stability, counterfactual brittleness, refactoring adjunctions, universal-property uniqueness, evolution-trigger satisfiability, Yoneda observer-functor invariance	mtac
CVE articulation-hygiene	AP-033 .. AP-040	Operationalises CVE-architecture primitives: retracted-citation use, hypothesis without maturation plan, interpretation in mature corpus, observer impersonation, boundless audit, implicit substrate, anchoring overextension, self-reference without operator+fixed-point	cve-ah

The classical and ontology bands together cover what the ATS-V specification calls static-architecture defects — violations the compiler can decide without simulating time or counterfactuals. The MTAC band handles the modal-temporal surface (per spec §20–§23): time as a non-linear lattice, counterfactuals as paired decision swaps, refactorings as adjunctions, observers as Yoneda functors. The CVE-AH band operationalises the cve-architecture spec's load-bearing concepts that the canonical 32-pattern release omitted: the three senses of E (§2.3.0), declared purpose for audit termination (§14.6), cognitive substrate disclosure (§1.5), formal anchoring boundary (§4.5), and the CVE-violator discipline of [I] / [H] / [✗] (§3.5).

2. The catalog at a glance

Code	Name	Band	Triggered by
AP-001	CapabilityEscalation	core	body uses capability not declared in `requires`
AP-002	CapabilityLeak	core	linear / affine capability passed beyond its declared scope
AP-003	DependencyCycle	core	`composes_with` graph contains a cycle
AP-004	TierMixing	core	tier-N cog calls into tier-M without a bridge
AP-005	FoundationDrift	core	composing cogs with incompatible foundations and no bridge
AP-006	RegisterMixing	core	proof / discharge mixes incompatible MSFS registers
AP-007	TxStraddling	core	transaction lives across an `await` boundary without scope
AP-008	ResourceStraddling	core	linear resource (file handle, db connection) outlives its scope
AP-009	LifecycleRegression	core	citation chain regresses to a strictly-lower lifecycle rank
AP-010	CveIncomplete	core	strict-mode cog with at least one missing CVE-closure axis
AP-011	AbsoluteBoundaryAttempt	ontology	cog declares `MsfsStratum::LAbs` (AFN-T α violation)
AP-012	InvariantViolation	ontology	declared `BoundaryInvariant` is not preserved by the boundary's traffic
AP-013	DanglingMessageType	ontology	message type declared without a wire encoding
AP-014	UnauthenticatedCrossing	ontology	`Network` boundary without `BoundaryInvariant::AuthenticatedFirst`
AP-015	DeterministicViolation	ontology	DST / replay test depends on non-deterministic primitives
AP-016	CapabilityDuplication	ontology	`Linear` capability used twice (multiplicity violation)
AP-017	OrphanCapability	ontology	`Relevant` capability declared but never exercised
AP-018	MissingHandoff	ontology	composition capability not listed in `composes_with`
AP-019	FoundationDowngrade	ontology	strong foundation passed through a weaker one without bridge
AP-020	TimeBoundLeakage	ontology	`TimeBound` capability outlives its declared TTL
AP-021	PersistenceMismatch	ontology	`Persist` capability for an operation that is not actually durable
AP-022	CapabilityLaundering	ontology	multi-hop privilege escalation through unmarked boundary
AP-023	FoundationForgery	ontology	declared foundation contradicts the cited axiom corpus
AP-024	TransitiveLifecycleRegression	ontology	transitive `[T] → … → [H]` citation chain
AP-025	DeclarationDrift	ontology	declared `@arch_module(...)` shape diverges from inferred shape
AP-026	FoundationContentMismatch	ontology	code body uses constructs from a foreign foundation
AP-027	TemporalInconsistency	mtac	invariant fails to hold across two sampled time-points
AP-028	CounterfactualBrittleness	mtac	verdict is fragile under counterfactual decision swap
AP-029	MissedAdjoint	mtac	refactoring claimed without its inverse adjoint pair
AP-030	UniversalPropertyViolation	mtac	universal-property uniqueness claim with no witness
AP-031	PhantomEvolution	mtac	declared evolution path passes through an unsatisfiable trigger
AP-032	YonedaInequivalentRefactor	mtac	refactor changes the observer-functor (Yoneda inequivalent)
AP-033	RetractedCitationUse	cve-ah	citing a `[✗]` Retracted artefact (cve-architecture spec §3.5)
AP-034	HypothesisWithoutMaturationPlan	cve-ah	`[H]` Hypothesis without `@plan(...)` (cve-architecture spec §3.5)
AP-035	InterpretationInMatureCorpus	cve-ah	`[I]` Interpretation in strict-mode / mature corpus (cve-architecture spec §3.4)
AP-036	ObserverImpersonation	cve-ah	observer role mismatches assertion register (cve-architecture spec §6.7 L6)
AP-037	BoundlessAudit	cve-ah	strict-mode audit against Shape with no declared `Purpose` (cve-architecture spec §14.6)
AP-038	ImplicitSubstrate	cve-ah	strict `[T]` cog without declared `CognitiveSubstrate` (cve-architecture spec §1.5)
AP-039	AnchoringOverextension	cve-ah	`[T]` cog under non-CHL foundation without declared `FormalAnchoring` (cve-architecture spec §4.5)
AP-040	SelfReferenceWithoutOperator	cve-ah	self-referential `Shape` pattern (self ∈ composes_with / capability target) without declared `SelfReferenceWitness` (cve-architecture spec §16; closes architectural-revision invariant R4)

3. The anatomy of an anti-pattern

Each entry in the catalog is structured identically. The catalog is a refinement-type-level specification — every pattern is a predicate, every diagnostic is a counterexample.

┌─ AP-NNN — name ──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                               │
│  Severity:    error / warning / hint                          │
│  Band:        core | ontology | mtac                          │
│  Phase:       arch-check | post-arch | bundle                 │
│  Stable:      yes (RFC-locked)                                │
│                                                               │
│  Predicate:   forall Shape s, DiagnosticContext ctx.          │
│               P(s, ctx) → defect                              │
│                                                               │
│  Diagnostic:  [error template with span pointers]             │
│                                                               │
│  Remediation: [canonical fix recipe]                          │
│                                                               │
│  Pin test:    smallest synthetic Shape that reproduces        │
│                                                               │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Three properties are load-bearing:

The RFC code is stable. AP-001 always means CapabilityEscalation, even if the prose explanation is rewritten. Tooling that consumes audit reports can rely on the code as a permanent identifier.
The predicate is published. Every anti-pattern's predicate is part of the catalog's externally observable surface. There are no hidden patterns that fire without an entry in this table. The catalog's predicate is the canonical reference; the docs paraphrase it.
The pin test exists. Every catalog entry has a regression-pin synthetic example. The audit gate would surface a false negative if the pattern stopped triggering on its pin — the pin protects the catalog against silent degradation.

4. Severity levels

Patterns trigger at one of three severity levels:

Error — the build fails. Most core and ontology patterns are errors when the cog is in strict mode. The compiler refuses to emit code.
Warning — the build proceeds but verum audit reports the pattern. Used for patterns that may have legitimate workarounds in soft mode (e.g., AP-001 CapabilityEscalation is a warning when strict = false, error in strict mode).
Hint — informational only; the pattern is a candidate, pending confirmation by additional context. Used for inference hints (e.g., "consider declaring this capability explicitly").

Severity is per-pattern × per-cog: many patterns escalate to error in strict: true and remain warnings in soft mode. The escalation is encoded in each check_* function's Severity selection. verum.toml allows project overrides via [ats_v.severity]:

[ats_v.severity]
ap_005_foundation_drift = "warning"   # ← demote from error
ap_019_foundation_downgrade = "error" # ← always error

Some patterns cannot be demoted below "warning" — those that would compromise soundness if silenced (most ontology patterns that touch the trusted base, all MTAC patterns).

5. Phases

Patterns trigger in three phases of the build:

arch-check — during the architectural type-checking phase, cog-by-cog. Most core patterns fire here.
post-arch — after every cog has been arch-checked, walking the cross-cog graph. Transitive patterns (AP-024 TransitiveLifecycleRegression, AP-022 CapabilityLaundering) and corpus-level invariants fire here.
bundle — at audit time, when verum audit --bundle walks the entire project. MTAC patterns fire here, because they require the full project graph plus the temporal / counterfactual / observer samples as input (see DiagnosticContext::temporal_samples / counterfactual_pairs / yoneda_observer_diff).

A pattern's phase is fixed; the audit pipeline runs phases in order and aggregates verdicts.

6. Suppressions and exceptions

ATS-V provides a single, audit-visible suppression mechanism:

@arch_module(
    requires: [...],
    @suppress(AP_005_foundation_drift, "explicitly bridged via core.proof.bridges")
)
module my_app.cross_foundation_proof;

The @suppress attribute:

Names the specific RFC code (no wildcards).
Carries a mandatory rationale string. The rationale is preserved in the audit chronicle.
Does not hide the pattern from verum audit; the audit report shows suppressed patterns separately, with their rationale.

There is no global suppression flag. There is no #[allow(...)]. Architectural defects are always observable.

7. Catalog growth

The catalog is append-only:

New patterns may be added in any release. They take the next unused RFC code.
Existing patterns may have their prose rewritten or their diagnostic improved.
Existing patterns may be split into two more-precise patterns (the original code is preserved as a deprecated alias).
Existing patterns may be demoted in severity but never removed.
Existing patterns may be promoted from warning to error only in major releases, and only with a deprecation cycle.

This discipline gives downstream codebases a stable target. A build that passes verum audit --arch-discharges today will continue to pass under future versions, modulo strict opt-in patterns.

8. The audit gate

verum audit --arch-discharges runs the catalog and emits a structured JSON report:

{
  "schema_version": 2,
  "verum_version": "0.x.y",
  "patterns": [
    {
      "code": "ATS-V-AP-001",
      "name": "CapabilityEscalation",
      "severity": "error",
      "verdict": "ok",
      "occurrences": []
    },
    {
      "code": "ATS-V-AP-009",
      "name": "LifecycleRegression",
      "severity": "error",
      "verdict": "violations",
      "occurrences": [
        {
          "citing": "my_app.checkout",
          "cited":  "my_app.experimental.zk_proof",
          "citing_lifecycle": "Theorem(\"v1.0\")",
          "cited_lifecycle":  "Hypothesis(Medium)",
          "rank_diff": 4
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "total_patterns": 32,
    "ok": 31,
    "violations": 1,
    "suppressed": 0
  }
}

The report is suitable for archival in audit chronicles. Schema version 2 is the current schema; older schema versions are preserved as adapters.

9. Default severity at a glance

A common question: "how many of the forty are errors by default?" The default is encoded in each check_* function; many patterns escalate when Shape.strict == true. The summary below is the strict-mode picture:

Severity	Count	Patterns
Error	24	AP-001..AP-009 (core), AP-011, AP-012, AP-014, AP-015, AP-016, AP-018, AP-019, AP-022, AP-023, AP-024, AP-025, AP-027, AP-028, AP-029, AP-031
Warning	6	AP-010 (CveIncomplete in soft mode), AP-013, AP-017, AP-020, AP-021, AP-026
Hint	2	AP-030 (UniversalPropertyViolation candidate), AP-032 (YonedaInequivalentRefactor candidate)

A clean default-mode build emits zero warnings; a clean strict-mode build also has zero hints. Many codebases adopt strict mode incrementally per cog (via @arch_module(strict: true)).

10. Verum-side surface

The 40-pattern catalog is exposed on the Verum side as a first-class enum in core.architecture.anti_patterns:

public type AntiPatternCode is
    | CapabilityEscalation        // AP-001
    | CapabilityLeak              // AP-002
    // ... 30 more variants
    | YonedaInequivalentRefactor; // AP-032

public fn anti_pattern_code_str(c: AntiPatternCode) -> Text       // "ATS-V-AP-NNN"
public fn anti_pattern_name(c: AntiPatternCode) -> Text           // "PascalCase"
public fn anti_pattern_full_roster() -> List<AntiPatternCode>     // all 32
public fn anti_pattern_roster_size_invariant() -> Bool            // pin: == 32

Verum cogs may iterate anti_pattern_full_roster() to build runtime walks (e.g. an in-process audit cog that records which patterns its codebase has cleared). The roster size is pinned by the cross-side test in crates/verum_kernel/tests/k_arch_v_alignment.rs — adding a 33rd code requires updating both the kernel-side AntiPatternCode::full_list() and the Verum-side roster in the same change-set.

Companion types:

public type Severity is | Error | Warning | Hint;
public fn severity_tag(s: Severity) -> Text;

public type AntiPatternViolation is {
    code: AntiPatternCode,
    severity: Severity,
    summary: Text,
    human_message: Text,
    auto_fix_suggestion: Maybe<Text>,
};

public type DiagnosticContext is {
    cog_name: Text,
    parent_module: Maybe<Text>,
};

AntiPatternViolation carries the dual-audience payload — both human-readable text and machine-readable RFC code — surfaced by the ATS-V phase as a structured compiler diagnostic.

11. Implementation status

Every code in the canonical 40-pattern roster has a corresponding check_* function on the kernel side. The mapping is:

AP code	Check function	Lives in
AP-001	`check_capability_escalation`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-002	`check_capability_leak`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-003	`check_dependency_cycle`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-004	`check_tier_mixing`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-005	`check_foundation_drift`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-006	`check_register_mixing`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-007	`check_tx_straddling`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-008	`check_resource_straddling`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-009	`check_lifecycle_regression`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-010	`check_cve_incomplete`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-011	`check_stratum_admissible`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-012	`check_invariant_violation`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-013	`check_dangling_message_type`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-014	`check_unauthenticated_crossing`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-015	`check_deterministic_violation`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-016	`check_capability_duplication`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-017	`check_orphan_capability`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-018	`check_missing_handoff`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-019	`check_foundation_downgrade`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-020	`check_time_bound_leakage`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-021	`check_persistence_mismatch`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-022	`check_capability_laundering`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-023	`check_foundation_forgery`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-024	`check_transitive_lifecycle_regression`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-025	`check_declaration_drift`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-026	`check_foundation_content_mismatch`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-027	`check_temporal_inconsistency`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-028	`check_counterfactual_brittleness`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-029	`check_missed_adjoint`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-030	`check_universal_property_violation`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-031	`check_phantom_evolution`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`
AP-032	`check_yoneda_inequivalent_refactor`	`arch_anti_pattern.rs`

All 32 functions return Option<AntiPatternViolation> — None means the predicate holds (no violation), Some(v) carries the structured diagnostic. check_all_anti_patterns walks every function and aggregates violations. The cross-side pin test in crates/verum_kernel/tests/k_arch_v_alignment.rs::pin_all_thirty_two_codes_have_check_function asserts every entry in this table has a matching pub fn check_* in the source — adding a 33rd code requires updating both the enum and the table in lockstep.

12. Adversarial-closure axioms

Beyond the 32 declarative patterns, the Verum-side cog core.architecture.anti_patterns declares four kernel-discharge axioms that close known attack vectors against the declarative surface:

kernel_arch_capability_ontology_check (closes AT-1) — registry validation for Capability.Custom { tag, schema }.
kernel_arch_theorem_cve_required (closes AT-2) — Lifecycle.Theorem(...) requires CVE-closure regardless of strict.
kernel_arch_yoneda_canonical_roster_complete (closes AT-3) — Yoneda verdicts demand the full canonical 5-roster.
kernel_arch_consumes_format_check (closes AT-5) — consumes field format enforcement.

See adversarial threat modelling for full attack-vector analysis.

13. Cross-references

Capability / composition core (AP-001 .. AP-010)
Boundary / lifecycle / capability ontology (AP-011 .. AP-026)
Modal-temporal anti-patterns (AP-027 .. AP-032)
Audit protocol — running the gates.
Adversarial threat modelling — ten attack vectors and their closure axioms.
Operationalisation surface — full catalog of pure-data helpers including the anti-pattern enumerable surface.
Cross-side pin tests — kernel ↔ Verum alignment discipline pinning the roster size to 32.
Three orthogonal axes — why AP-001 catches a different class of defect than the property system.

1. The four bands​

2. The catalog at a glance​

3. The anatomy of an anti-pattern​

4. Severity levels​

5. Phases​

6. Suppressions and exceptions​

7. Catalog growth​

8. The audit gate​

9. Default severity at a glance​

10. Verum-side surface​

11. Implementation status​

12. Adversarial-closure axioms​

13. Cross-references​