What is a bounded mandate?

A bounded mandate is an institutional question transformed into a governed, scope-limited analytical instruction.

It defines what SDX may assess, what must remain outside scope, and which outputs are prohibited. The bounded mandate is the point where an open institutional need becomes operationally eligible for evidence generation.

A bounded mandate is not a recommendation request. It cannot authorize the system to decide, rank, allocate, or prescribe action unless such use is explicitly governed and permitted by the relevant protocol layer. Instead, it establishes the defensible field of inquiry: what evidence may be produced, which claims may later be considered, and where non-use boundaries apply.

In SDX, the bounded mandate is upstream of the sealed run. It constrains the evidence chain before computation begins and ensures that downstream outputs remain tied to the original authorized scope.