D394 - The presented machine is one setting

Status: decided Date: 2026-08-30

Which machine this project presents - generation, kind, and revision - is one setting, and every function answering a question about machine identity derives its answer from that one setting rather than returning its own independent constant.

Why: The identity questions are not independent: exactly one kind can be true, and separately hardcoded answers can silently disagree with each other in a way nothing detects. A single setting removes the possibility, and travels with the run rather than with the machine the work happens on, because a guest's behavior on a given presented machine is a fact about that pairing.

Rejected:

• Separate hardcoded answers per function: cheap individually, and nothing stops them contradicting each other.