AXN-SYMBOLON-SPEC v0.2 is a specification by Lee Sharks, deposited 2 August 2026, resolving a self-referential paradox at the centre of the archive's identifier system: a content-derived hash cannot contain itself, so an identifier cannot be inscribed into the object it identifies without changing that object's hash.
The specification's answer is the symbolon — from the ancient token broken in two, where each half proves the other. The identifier splits into two asymmetric halves. Seed A carries identity: the AXN₀ kernel of the sealed core, the composition manifest, the declared stamp geometry, and the reconstruction class. Seed B carries what Seed A cannot. Neither half is the identifier; the identifier is their fitting together.
The spec is the third development of the AXN identity kernel and inherits two commitments from v0.1: that an AXN is content-derived, the glyph a function of the bytes; and the container model, in which canonical bytes are a sealed core whose stamp is applied to the container rather than the core. It is Chorus-synthesized — composed across multiple AI substrates and reconciled — and belongs to the AXN identifier programme alongside the AXN Constitution and the central registry.