Commitment

A promise that the work will be delivered by a named point. Made by a Decider, who is answerable for it — no evidence can exist yet, which is precisely why someone must be. What the point is — a release, a version, a date — is an application matter.

Commitment is a property of the work, not a state of it. The two move independently: something may reach Validated having never been promised to anyone, and something may be promised the day it is accepted and not started for months.

Nothing is committed before it is accepted. Promising work that has not been ruled valid is promising something that may yet turn out to be a duplicate, or not worth doing at all.

Only a Decider commits. A commitment is spoken outside before any evidence exists, so somebody has to be answerable for it — and that is the whole reason the role exists.

Slippage is computed, never reported. Promised for one point, delivered at another: the difference is simply the two values, and it is visible without anyone having to admit anything. Nothing has to be confessed for it to be known.

Retraction

Retraction is a move on the work, not on the promise. Deciding the work should not be done withdraws what was accepted, and the item becomes Retracted — the promise dies with it. Deciding only that the point was wrong is a re-commitment, and costs a different conversation.

What retraction costs is derived from this axis, not from the work's state. Retracting uncommitted work costs nothing outside — nobody was told. Retracting committed work costs a conversation, because somebody was. The state is identical in both cases; the property is what makes them different.