TCFC-02 — Action, Trace, and Horizon under Finite Capacity: From Accountable Conduct to Accountable Continuation

This paper introduces Action, Trace, and Horizon under Finite Capacity as the second record in the Trace–Continuation under Finite Capacity (TCFC) series of the Synkyria Project. TCFC-01 developed witnessed continuation by showing that admissibility-relevant traces must either be witnessed, safely discharged, or persist as unreviewable burden. This paper extends that result by clarifying the relation between action, trace, and future horizon. Under finite capacity, action is not exhausted by its immediate execution. Each action leaves a trace, and each trace reshapes the field of admissible next continuations. The paper introduces a finite-capacity grammar in which action is understood as conduct that modifies a continuation horizon. It distinguishes accountable conduct from accountable continuation: an action may be locally admissible while still leaving trace debt, narrowing future admissibility, or closing later possibilities of reviewable continuation. The central question therefore shifts from “Was this action admissible?” to “What trace did this action create, and what continuation horizon did it open, constrain, or foreclose?” The note connects this grammar to AI generation, runtime evidence, human-scale translation, and learning. In language-model generation, produced form becomes contextual trace and constrains subsequent continuation. In TER field-lab terms, a trace-aware runtime would not only ask whether the system can continue now, but also what kind of future its continuation is producing. In human-scale and SFV translation, unwitnessed or anticipatory traces may narrow contactability before explicit action occurs. The “No AI before trace” principle is treated as a temporal discipline for protecting human or field trace formation before artificial completion. The paper is an orientation and bridge note, not a complete theory of AI generation, phenomenology, or runtime verification. Its contribution is to name a structural transition: under finite capacity, action cannot be separated from the trace it leaves or from the horizon it shapes. Series: Trace–Continuation under Finite Capacity (TCFC)Series code: TCFC-02