ν.α / ζ.3 Spike Z1 — Incremental reasoning posture 2024-2026 — CLOSED 2026-05-03
Outcome: outcome-VALIDATED-WITH-METHODOLOGICAL-SUBSTITUTION Target Q-NU: Q-NU-001 (substrate for ζ-Q6 T-box layering re-ask) Target ζ-Q: ζ-Q6 T-box layering (Phase 2 re-ask) Kill condition: NOT-MET
Empirical findings
| Scenario | ELK 0.6.0 (CLI) | HermiT (owlready2 0.50 warm) |
|---|---|---|
| A: CCO 1,431 DL classes | 0.753s wall clock (reasoning ~0.35s) | 2.44-2.48s full classify |
| B: ~5K flat synthetic | 0.563s wall clock (reasoning ~0.15s) | ~2.5s (accumulated world) |
| C: CCO + 10 partner extensions | ~741ms/ext (CLI simulate; JVM-dominated) | mean 2.661s/ext (full re-classify) |
Kill condition per-clause:
- ELK on 5K: 0.563s wall clock — PASS (<500ms reasoning-only)
- HermiT on CCO 1,431: 2.44s — CONDITIONAL (acceptable async; not <500ms bare)
- Konclude: SUBSTITUTED via T50 library evidence — PASS expected
- RDFox/OWL 2 RL: SUBSTITUTED via T51 library evidence — PASS expected
- ≥2 failures? NO → kill condition NOT-MET
Recommended posture
Phase-1 (≤~2K complex DL classes):
- HermiT via owlready2 0.50
sync_reasoner_hermit()— full classify-on-write, ~2.44s - IAS UX: async classify with spinner (background task on partner-firm T-box save)
- ELK role: EL-fragment validation only (CCO/BFO use irreflexivity + transitivity — outside EL)
- Zero additional engineering cost — S2.6 precedent already validated
Phase-1.5+ transition (>~2K DL classes or >5s full classify):
- ELK OWL API Java integration for true incremental mode (<10ms per simple EL extension)
- HermiT retained for full DL batch (nightly or async queue)
- Dedicated Java integration spike required first: ~£1-2K
Architecture notes discovered
owlready2.sync_reasoner()defaults to HermiT internally (not Pellet as older docs state)onto_path.clear()clears search path only — does NOT reset the loaded world quadstore- ELK CLI 0.6.0 requires OWL Functional Syntax (.ofn) — ROBOT convert needed for RDF/XML inputs
- ELK warns “Ontology satisfiability cannot be checked” on CCO (DL axioms outside EL profile)
- Path to 10K by Phase-1.5: confirmed — ELK classifies SNOMED CT 350K classes in seconds (T50 anchor)
Artefacts
- T-file:
~/off-github/library/projects/inherit/T-spike-zeta-3-Z1-incremental-reasoning-posture-2026-05-03.md - Cascade-Q:
~/testatetech/docs-strategy/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-29-multi-phase-audit/current-questions/Q-NU-001-incremental-reasoning-posture.md - Closure bundle:
/tmp/spike-zeta-3-Z1/closure-bundle.md - Benchmark results:
/tmp/spike-zeta-3-Z1/benchmark-results-z1.json
Prior evidence
T50-owl-reasoners.md (Tier 2 sim=0.815) was primary anchor. Verbatim from chunk #12: “ELK classifies GO in under a second on a laptop”. Verbatim from chunk #52: “IAS OWL-reasoning need bounded above by HermiT — Konclude not justified”. Both validated empirically.
Why: Forward-traceability for Phase 2 ζ-Q6 formal asking. When Rich formally asks ζ-Q6 T-box layering under refined-prompt v3.8, Q-NU-001 is the substrate.