Independent definition surface · version 1

Keep the change,
not only the state.

An evolution trace is a versioned record of meaningful state transitions: what changed, when it changed, what evidence caused the change, and which interpretation remains current.

stateBefore and after

The prior state remains addressable instead of being silently overwritten.

transitionThe meaningful delta

The trace records the change, its temporal boundary, and its admitted scope.

provenanceWhy it moved

Evidence, source lineage, and status preserve the reason a transition was accepted.

Current boundary This domain is an independent brand and working container. It does not claim to originate the phrase, define an academic category, establish a standard, or imply affiliation with EvoArena, EvoMem, or another research project.

Adjacent layers

memory-layer agent-memory.org

State and memory substrate

provenance-layer agent-provenance.org

Evidence lineage and chain of custody

temporal-layer chronos-kairos.org

Sequence, validity, and temporal interpretation

compression-layer contextcompression.dev

Derived working representation