Being

A being survives a process restart because identity, mind, budget, conversation and actions are persisted. A child is a separate being with its own state; a renewed launch binding is not a new being.

Lifecycle and retained state

A being persists its identity, mind, budget, conversation, actions, resources and cycle counter in state.json, with lifecycle and action evidence in activity.jsonl. See [state inspection](/docs/walkthrough-state) for the stores and their interpretation.

| Existing state | Resume requested | Result | |---|---|---| | Absent | No | Create a being from the declared identity, mind and accounting inputs. | | Absent | Yes | Refuse: state: resume requested but no state exists. | | Present | No | Refuse and name the state path; require resume or a new state directory. | | Present | Yes | Validate stable identity and policy sequence, retain the being, and accept the renewed launch binding. |

The [identity contract](/docs/concepts/identity) distinguishes stable fields from launch keys and digests. Resume does not require a renewed workload key or executable digest to equal the previous launch. A changed stable identity or policy rollback remains a refusal; deleting state is not a repair.

The runtime saves state after mutations and records action outcomes. Its statuses are starting, running, stopping, stopped, exhausted and failed. A process status or increased cycle counter alone does not prove that cognition or an external action succeeded. Concurrent processes must not animate the same being state.

For tools, workspace confinement and children, read [The being](/docs/being). For the complete memory and action contract, read [Mind](/docs/concepts/mind).