---
id: MEM-6
family: GR-MEM
level: core
profiles: [storage-api, runtime]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-mem/mem-6
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# MEM-6 — A user-scoped memory read or write without a real user refuses

*GR-MEM (Part I) · level: core · profiles: storage-api, runtime · added in 1.0*

A memory bucket keyed by identity is only meaningful when there is an identity. Degrading to a shared bucket is how one caller's conversation ends up in another's history, so the scope refuses instead.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. Resolving the `user` memory scope refuses whenever the execution context is absent, carries no user identifier, carries one that is not a usable identifier, or carries the identifier that denotes no user.
>
> 2. A refusal is distinct from resolving to an empty scope identifier: an empty identifier selects the shared global bucket, so a `user` scope that degraded would merge every identity-less execution path into one bucket and every anonymous caller into another.
>
> 3. Scopes that are not identity scopes continue to resolve to the empty identifier.


## What it means

A refusal is not the same outcome as resolving to an empty scope identifier.
The empty identifier is a legitimate answer for scopes that are not tied to
an identity — it selects one shared bucket, and every caller in that shape
of execution shares it on purpose. The `user` scope cannot degrade to that
same empty identifier when it has no usable identity, because doing so would
merge every identity-less execution path into the one shared bucket, and
every anonymous caller into another single bucket alongside every other
anonymous caller. So it refuses instead of resolving.

The identifier `0` — the value an owner-less record reports for "no owner",
not the absence of a value — refuses for the same reason, in both its integer
and string spelling: accepting it would put every anonymous caller in one
`user:0` bucket.

## Example

```json title="A user scope in a context whose user_id is 0" verdict="refused"
{ "user_id": 0 }
```

```json title="A user scope in a context whose user_id is the string \"0\"" verdict="refused"
{ "user_id": "0" }
```

```json title="A user scope in a context carrying a real user id" verdict="resolved"
{ "user_id": "7" }
```

## Related rules

- Names: MEM-7, MEM-8, MEM-13
- Referenced by: MEM-7, MEM-8, MEM-13, MEM-9

---

Rule identifiers are permanent and are never renumbered. This specification carries
no implementation status: each implementation publishes its own standing against
these rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.