# State Lineage **Domain:** Continuity / Identity / Provenance **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Evolving ## Definition **State lineage is the ordered, branching history of authorized and observed states through which an executable or identity-bearing system develops.** It records snapshots, transitions, migrations, restorations, merges and forks as related but non-identical events. ## Required Structure Each state should identify its parent state or states, integrity evidence, transformation method, authority, execution environment, time basis and known omissions. A restoration creates a new lineage event even when it reuses earlier state. A merge has multiple parents. A fork creates multiple descendants whose later histories must not be silently recombined. State lineage belongs inside the [[wiki/Digital Thread|Digital Thread]] and is governed by [[wiki/Continuity Provenance|Continuity Provenance]]. It helps identify the [[wiki/Personal Authoritative State|Personal Authoritative State]] eligible for restoration without declaring every authorized state to be the same conscious subject. Election lineage runs alongside state lineage. Each transition should identify the operative [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]] version, but the two histories must not be collapsed: a new directive need not create a new person-state, and a restored or forked state does not automatically revive the directive that was current at its checkpoint time. ## Identity Boundary Lineage establishes causal relation, not numerical identity. A later process may be a restoration, descendant, replacement, replica or continuant. That classification requires additional evidence about causal continuity, identity-bearing invariants, runtime interruption and the subject's own history. ## Key Insight **A state can be legitimately descended from another state without being identical to the subject who occupied it.** ## See Also [[wiki/Lineage|Lineage]], [[wiki/Forked Continuity|Forked Continuity]], [[wiki/Restoration Integrity|Restoration Integrity]], [[wiki/Continuity Evidence vs Continuity|Continuity Evidence vs Continuity]]