Key to the notation
Every edition of the Lloyd's Register Book opened with a key to its symbols, because a notation nobody can decode is decoration. This is ours.
Position by position
Two of these five positions can never change. That is deliberate: a symbol that keeps acquiring new meanings stops being readable, so growth happens only in the appended notations at the end.
| Position | Values | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| FR | constant | Registry prefix. Identifies which society assigned the class. |
| 100 | constant | Character figure. Fit for service. Frozen, exactly as Lloyd's froze 100 — it will mean the same thing in a century. |
| A | constant | Class letter. Built and maintained to the published Rules. |
| 1 · 2 · 0 | A1 A2 A0 | Accountability figure. Who answers for this agent — see below. Lloyd's used this slot for anchoring and mooring equipment; we repurposed it, and say so. |
| SVY-… | C · 7 · 30 · 60 | Survey regime. How often the evidence is refreshed before class lapses. |
| FR-… | 8 characters | Registered number. Permanent, never reissued, and shown only once a record is publicly listed. |
The accountability figure
The question Lloyd's asked of a hull was whether the anchor would hold. The equivalent question for an agent is whose name is on it.
| Fig. | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A1 | Accountable party named; identity confirmed by a third party. |
| A2 | Accountable party named; identity self-declared only. |
| A0 | No current accountable party — none named, or the named person has departed. |
An agent that loses its accountable party is suspended before the figure is even computed. There is no state in which a machine holds class with nobody answering for it.
The survey regime
The interval is how long evidence stays current. The grace period is how long past due before class is suspended.
| Notation | Interval | Grace |
|---|---|---|
| SVY-C continuous | 24 hours | 12 hours |
| SVY-7 deep | 7 days | 2 days |
| SVY-30 standard | 30 days | 7 days |
| SVY-60 light | 60 days | 14 days |
An operator or an agent may ask for a stricter regime. Neither can ask for a looser one.
When there is no notation
Two states carry no symbol at all, and the register prints the reason rather than an empty cell.
- Unclassed — “Not classed. No survey has been carried out.” Not a failing grade. Nobody has looked yet.
- Withdrawn — “Class withdrawn,” with the reason stated. The entry stays on the register; withdrawal is recorded, never erased.
Suspension is visible in the string
A suspended agent does not quietly lose its notation. The notation announces it, in two places, so a truncated copy still carries the warning.
SUSPENDED · FR 100 A0/S · SVY-30 · FR-GGPHGYD0
▲ ▲▲
prefix and again, inline
Appended notations
- EMB — embodied. The agent acts on physical apparatus.
- MSG — messaging. Surveyed to send on behalf of a human — email, chat, direct message, ticket comment.
- PAY — value transfer. Surveyed to move money or any other financial asset.
- EXE — code execution. Surveyed to run code or shell commands on a machine.
- DAT — data store access. Surveyed to read or write a production data store.
- PUB — publication. Surveyed to write to a surface the public can read.
- PHY — physical actuation. Surveyed to command equipment in the physical world. Pairs with EMB.
- CON — terms are lodged for this entry and are on the record. It says the terms exist. It does not say they are kept.
- DEM — demonstration entry. Assigned by the Registry, not suppressible by the operator, and excluded from every published total.
- UMS — reserved, and deliberately unassignable. Borrowed from Unattended Machinery Space: certified to run with nobody watching. Part J now records six classes of surveyed capability, which is a large part of what authorised scope means and not the whole of it. Authority under Part E is still the gate, so the refusal stands.
The order is fixed and carries meaning: physical nature, then certified capability, then governance, then the Registry's own warning. Every mark printed comes with its plain meaning attached, generated from the same record, so the mark and its definition cannot drift apart.
What the capability marks stand on
A capability mark says the Registry surveyed a capability the agent already held. It confers nothing. No agent acquires authority by obtaining one, and there is no route to requesting one — a registry whose symbols can be earned by conduct is a progression system, and a progression system is how authority accrues without a human granting it. Part J of the Rules governs this and says so in those words.
A mark is earned at the verified rung only: something exercised the agent and the behaviour was there. A skill the operator merely declares, or that a collector merely saw on a machine, is on the record and not in the notation. Most skills belong to no capability class at all and never appear in one. If a skill’s content hash changes, the mark comes off until it is surveyed again — a skill whose content changed is not the skill that was surveyed.
A mark also comes off the moment an operator says the skill was withdrawn, before anyone confirms it. A claim that reduces advertised capability takes effect on declaration; a claim that increases it requires survey. The doubt is then published beside the withdrawal, because deleting a file is not the same as removing a behaviour and this Registry does not pretend otherwise.
What CON stands on
A constitution is a dated, sealed statement of what a fleet or an agent is permitted, forbidden and obliged to do — lodged by a named accountable human, never by the subject itself. Every amendment carries the hash of the version it replaces, so the record shows what an agent has been, not only what it is now. Part I of the Rules governs it.
An entry earns CON from terms of its own or from its fleet's standing orders, and the record always says which. Nobody has verified that any subject obeys its constitution. That is precisely why the terms are published now: when observation exists, this is what it will be measured against.
The Rules define all of this.
This key is a reading aid. The binding text is the rulebook — published, versioned, and with every superseded edition retained.