construct-hierarchy

Purpose

Construct an acyclic is-a/part-of/instance-of hierarchy with explicit roots, depth, and transitivity constraints.

Input contract

required: [entity_set, relation_assertions, hierarchy_scope]
optional: [root_policy, multiple_inheritance_policy, depth_limit]
constraints: [relations use declared types; cycles are invalid]

Procedure

1. Normalize entity identifiers and relation types.
2. Insert high-confidence edges and infer only declared transitive edges.
3. Detect cycles, orphan nodes, missing intermediate levels, and root violations.
4. Repair or quarantine invalid edges, then emit roots, depth, and edge rationale.

If the hierarchy is complete enough to test for cycles, orphans, and incompatible parentage, consider audit-structure-consistency as the next tactic.

Output contract

produces: [hierarchy_graph, roots, depth_report, cycle_report, edge_rationales]
delta_fields: [findings, evidence_updates, uncertainties]

Quality gates

• Graph is acyclic and every node has an allowed path to a root or an explicit orphan status.
• Transitive closure does not introduce relation-type violations.
• Depth is reported; depth >5 requires explicit justification.

Parameterization

Caller supplies entity schema, relation ontology, root and multiple-inheritance policies, transitivity rules, and depth limit.

Failure and counterexamples

Reject an edge that creates a cycle or conflates is-a with part-of.

Provenance map

• resolved: hierarchy-construction
• intermediate: Pass4/map-field-taxonomy

Preserved source criteria ledger

source	criterion
hierarchy-construction	Acyclic always; cycles are logical errors.
hierarchy-construction	Multiple inheritance is allowed.
hierarchy-construction	Depth <=5 unless explicitly justified.