Etymology & Resonance — three layers of meaning

The name was proposed and accepted on the same day. Its claim to canonical status rests not on a single semantic fit but on three concentric layers of meaning, each of which would have justified the choice on its own. Together they make the name structural rather than ornamental.

1. 函 — the formal missive
   At surface, 函 carries exactly the sense the design wants: a sealed missive, a formal dispatch, an envelope-as-case. The character does double duty in classical usage as both physical container and formal correspondence (公函 — official letter). A flow_case is therefore not data adrift; it is a commissioned unit of work — sealed, signed, and addressable, with a phase vocabulary (issued, in flight, resolved) that reads against 函 as cleanly as a writ moves through a court.
2. 函数 — the mathematical pun
   函 is the same character used in 函数, the standard Chinese term for a mathematical function. To any reader with mathematical training, 流函 therefore reads as a quiet pun on flow-function. Given that the Haskell side of the larger work is fundamentally about composing typed functions across domain boundaries, having the dispatch envelope itself encode flow-function in the lattice's other native tongue is structurally on the nose. The name knows what it is carrying.
3. 流函数 — the stream function
   流函数 (liúhánshù) is the Chinese term for stream function in fluid dynamics — a scalar field whose level curves describe the flow itself. 流函 therefore sits one character shy of the function that is the flow. The Flowing Path as river, the flow_case as the unit drifting on it, and the name encoding the very mathematics of that drift. The metaphor and the mechanics rhyme.

One overlap is worth naming, not as objection but as reinforcement: case in English collides with the securities domain (Reg D / Reg S), where a case carries legal weight — a self-contained matter under deliberation, with provenance, evidence, and resolution. The collision is generative, not corrosive; it confirms what a flow_case is.

Schema — version 0.1

The schema is fixed at version 0.1 to make subsequent drift legible. Required fields establish identity, accountability, and resolvability; optional fields carry lineage and the safety levers required by The Manifest's prior canon on agency.

{
  "kind": "flow_case",
  "schema_version": "0.1",
  "trace_id": "fc-2026-05-01T02:45:00Z-001",
  "phase": "issued",     // issued | in_flight | resolved | recalled | aborted
  "origin": "terminl.main",
  "target": "council.perplexity",
  "sponsor": "pd9.human",
  "task_type": "<held open>",
  "payload": { },
  "constraints": { },
  "expected_return": { },
  "parent_case": null,           // trace_id of ancestor, if any
  "transit_log": [ ],            // append-only chain of custody
  "recovery_path": null           // route on phase = aborted
}

Rituals — three verbs in 函's dialect

The case is moved by three operations, each named from the same formal-correspondence semantic field as 函 itself, so the vocabulary holds together. Two are the happy path; the third is the safety lever.

Sponsor Grammar — name.kind

The sponsor field uses a two-part identifier. The dot is not decorative; it is load-bearing for the prior canon on chain of delegation. When a flow_case spawns a sub-case, the sub-case's sponsor may be an agent rather than a human. Without the kind suffix, no single case can be read as terminal or intermediate at a glance. With it, the chain is legible from any case alone.

• .human Terminal. Responsibility roots here. The chain has hit bedrock. Canonical: pd9.human.
• .agent Delegated. Grounded by a parent_case or documented standing authorization that traces back to a human. Never terminal.
• .org Institutional. Carries a companion authorizing_human field on issuance. Responsibility passes through; org sponsors are never terminal.

The structural rhyme with the securities work bears noting: this distinguishes natural persons from juridical persons from agents acting under authority — the same grammar Reg D / Reg S require for issuers and signatories. The sponsor format is the lattice's local dialect of that legal distinction.