D649 - Unconfirmable names are knowledge, not symbols

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-09

A name attributed to a hash by published tables but which does not hash to that value is recorded as a knowledge entry at known_by: published, stating that it cannot be confirmed. It never enters the symbol database or the name-search vocabulary.

Why: every name in the symbol database is confirmed by its hash, so nothing there can be wrong in a way that produces a false name. Admitting one unconfirmable name would replace that structural guarantee with a policy. Some libraries carry alias identifiers that no name reproduces, and a reader meeting the bare hash still needs to know what it is believed to be.

Rejected:

• Adding the name to the symbol database: breaks the hash-confirmed guarantee.
• Adding it to the vocabulary: a word that does not hash to the target contributes nothing to a search.