Minimal SMT Example: Admissibility-Gated Retrieval

Semantic similarity can retrieve two nearly identical artifacts without establishing that one continues, supersedes, rebinds, or inherits authority from the other. This technical companion gives a minimal Semantic Manifold Topology (SMT) example in which two documents are individually admitted under different policy versions but no admissible continuity edge connects them. The result is not that the second document is necessarily inadmissible. It is that retrieval, node admission, continuity, and participation in a governed traversal are separate judgments. Similarity proposes candidates; a versioned schema evaluates nodes, relations, and paths. When the transition evidence is absent, the system returns CONTINUITY_UNKNOWN rather than projecting continuity or fabricating a preferred interpretation. The example is hypothetical. It specifies expected semantics and tests, not an implemented retrieval result.