Encoding Type: Tension (T, derived)

For months, oddkit_encode surfaced tensions as a side effect: writing a project journal in prose, the model would notice that two captured items disagreed and write about it — but the contradiction had no type, no schema, and no home. It lived in prose or vanished. Tension makes that emergent behavior first-class.

Tension is the first second-order DOLCHEOT type. Every other letter is asserted — an author or agent states a Decision, an Observation, a Constraint as content. Tension is inferred — computed by a detection pass over the other captured artifacts. That is what makes it a projection off the source map rather than a fact entered into it: regeneratable, advisory, and never sovereign unless an author asserts it in their own voice. See canon/definitions/dolcheo-vocabulary.md for how Tension joins the core letter set and why it is core (universal) rather than a domain extension.

When encoding a Tension, the model outputs a row with the following fields (serialization format governed by odd/encoding-types/serialization-format.md):

T	{title}	{body}	{between}	{kind}	{status}

Example:

T	Per-artifact encode output vs observed batch collapse	Canon requires oddkit_encode to return a per-artifact array for batched input; an observed run collapsed six prefix-tagged artifacts into one Decision blob.	canon/definitions/dolcheo-vocabulary#tool-level-implication, encode-run-2026-06-24	drift	open — closes when the tool ships per-artifact output, or the requirement is retracted

When encode input is unstructured (not TSV), these trigger words classify a paragraph as Tension:

contradicts, conflicts with, in tension, at odds, doesn't square, inconsistent with, can't both, mutually exclusive, trade-off, tradeoff, pulls against, disagrees with, contradiction, conflict between

Classification preference: a paragraph prefixed [T] is classified as Tension. Because a Tension is derived, the primary way it enters a journal is not an author prefix but the detection pass (below) emitting T rows over the other artifacts.

These words build the dynamic fallback regex only. On the primary TSV path, the type letter T is the classifier.

Each criterion adds 1 to the quality score (max 5):

Quality levels:

Because a Tension is synthesized by default, it is usually produced by a pass rather than an author. After the assertable artifacts (D, O, L, C, H, E, Open) are typed for a session, the encoder runs one scan across them — and across any cited source documents — and emits a T row for each genuine cross-artifact contradiction. Guidance:

• Emit a Tension only when ≥2 captured artifacts (or an artifact and a cited source) genuinely conflict. Two unrelated facts are not a tension.
• Keep it signal: cap emitted tensions per session and require the opposition and sourced-pole criteria. A detector that flags everything is worse than the prose habit it replaces.
• Mark custody synthesized. A Tension an operator asserts in their own voice is authored and sovereign; a Tension the pass infers is advisory and dismissable.
• Bind it to its poles. A Tension is sha-bound to the artifacts in between; when any changes, it goes stale and is re-derived. Re-derivation is not guaranteed identical — detection is an inference, not a deterministic transform.

A strong Tension answers four questions: What two (or more) things disagree? Where is each side sourced? Why can't both stand as written? What would resolve it? The most common gap is a single-pole "tension" that is really just an Observation — if there is only one side, it is not a tension. The second most common gap is a vague opposition ("these are in tension") with no statement of why both cannot hold.

Three senses of "tension" must not be confused. The quality-attribute tradeoff (canon/principles/quality-attributes-are-in-tension) is one kind of Tension. The challenge-vs-canon contradiction surfaced by oddkit challenge is the challenge-time sibling. The DOLCHEOT T is the encode-time, within-source primitive: a contradiction across the captured artifacts. They share machinery; they are not the same artifact.

A Tension earns its place only if it stays honest about its own confidence: it is a derived guess at a contradiction, valuable precisely because it is cheap to emit and cheap to dismiss. If the detector becomes noise, raise the bar or retract the type (see the vocabulary's retraction conditions).

• DOLCHEOT Vocabulary — the eight-dimension framework this type belongs to; why Tension is core, not a domain extension
• How to Write an Encoding Type — the meta-governance this doc follows
• Quality Attributes Are In Tension — the tradeoff kind of Tension, as a structural principle
• Encoding Type: Encode — the meta-level letter for encode-action receipts
• Prompt Over Code — why this governance doc exists instead of server code