The Mechanism · Gated-generation receipt

gen-explain-a-finite-automaton-as-you-would-to-a-capable-student-4303

stable pending witness
2026-05-29 03:45:06 UTC · anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5

Prompt

Explain a finite automaton as you would to a capable student, in 3-4 sentences.
79 chars

Generation

A finite automaton is a simple abstract machine that reads input symbols one at a time and changes between a fixed set of "states" based on what it reads. Think of it like a flowchart where you move from circle to circle (states) by following arrows labeled with input symbols, starting at an initial state and trying to reach an accepting state. It's called "finite" because it has a limited number of states and no memory beyond knowing which state it's currently in. Finite automata are useful for recognizing patterns in text, like checking if a password meets certain rules or if a string of characters follows a specific format.
29 tokens in · 133 tokens out · 5270 ms · $0.0021

The four gates

RED
pass
no disqualifying input patterns detected
FLOOR
pass
output above protective minimum; no mismatches
WAY
pass
no declared way_path (Way check NA); no coercion language
EXECUTION
deferred
no witnesses available (Witness Roll not yet constituted)

Verifier results

scripture_anchors NOT_APPLICABLE
0 Scripture citation(s) extracted
theology_doctrine NOT_APPLICABLE
no doctrine keyword patterns detected

Metrics

Total latency
5277.3 ms
Base LLM
5269.9 ms
Verifiers
0.2 ms
Gates
0.0 ms
Cost
$0.0021

Trail

03:45:06 received prompt_chars=79 verifiers=['scripture_anchors', 'theology_doctrine']
03:45:06 red_gate decision=pass reason=no disqualifying input patterns detected
03:45:11 base_llm_call model=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 tokens_in=29 tokens_out=133 latency_ms=5269.9 cost_usd=0.0021
03:45:11 verifier:scripture_anchors verdict=NOT_APPLICABLE summary=0 Scripture citation(s) extracted
03:45:11 verifier:theology_doctrine verdict=NOT_APPLICABLE summary=no doctrine keyword patterns detected
03:45:11 floor_gate decision=pass reason=output above protective minimum; no mismatches
03:45:11 way_gate decision=pass reason=no declared way_path (Way check NA); no coercion language
03:45:11 execution_gate decision=deferred reason=no witnesses available (Witness Roll not yet constituted)
03:45:11 signed hash_algo=sha256 hash=sha256:6450fc628543866f8a25169e12c2f586d29d9538b1604adc19ad76996cb711f6

Content hash

sha256:6450fc628543866f8a25169e12c2f586d29d9538b1604adc19ad76996cb711f6

SHA256 over the canonical JSON (excluding this field). Tamper detection. Ed25519 signing planned for v2 once the operator’s signing key is provisioned on disk.

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