Overview

PreFlight — Deterministic Upstream Data Ingestion Gate

Definition

PreFlight is a deterministic upstream ingestion enforcement engine.

It evaluates mechanically provable structural ingestion risk prior to downstream execution and issues a fixed verdict.

PreFlight declares ingestion state only.
Execution authority remains external.

System Position

PreFlight operates between dataset acquisition and downstream environments.

• Executes after data production or export
• Executes before ingestion into storage, analytics, or model systems

No execution occurs inside downstream systems.

 
PRE-FLIGHT SYSTEM POSITION — v1.01

Role:
Deterministic upstream ingestion enforcement engine.

Placement:
Dataset Acquisition
        │
        ▼
PreFlight Deterministic Boundary
        │
        ├── PASS  → Downstream execution permitted
        ├── WARN  → Downstream execution permitted with exposure
        ├── BLOCK → Downstream execution not recommended
        └── ANALYSIS_INCOMPLETE → Admission not proven
        │
        ▼
Downstream Systems
(Storage / Warehouse / Analytics / Models)

Execution Properties:
• Fixed execution order
• Mechanical verdict reduction
• No probabilistic logic
• No adaptive behavior
• No semantic interpretation

Deterministic Verdict Boundary

Each evaluation reduces mechanically to one of four outcomes:

• PASS
• WARN
• BLOCK
• ANALYSIS_INCOMPLETE

• No scoring
• No heuristics
• No probabilistic logic
• No adaptive behavior

Identical inputs yield identical outcomes.

Problem Class

Ingestion defects can propagate silently.

• Data loads
• Systems execute
• Outputs appear plausible
• Structural faults persist

PreFlight exists to expose ingestion risk before downstream execution begins.

Structural Evaluation Domain

Evaluation is limited to mechanically observable ingestion properties:

• Schema structural integrity
• Row traversal viability
• Numeric type stability
• Representation consistency
• Null density behavior
• Record continuity
• Encoding determinism

No semantic interpretation.
No business validation.
No transformation or remediation.

Evaluability Rule

Ingestion safety must be mechanically verifiable.

If structural evidence is insufficient under deterministic execution rules, ANALYSIS_INCOMPLETE is issued.

Absence of proof does not reduce to PASS.

Scope Constraint

PreFlight governs ingestion safety only.

It does not:

• Modify datasets
• Orchestrate workflows
• Infer intent
• Score quality
• Perform semantic validation

Function is enforcement — not governance.

System Posture

• Upstream
• Deterministic
• Mechanical
• Auditable
• Non-interactive
• Conservative by design