---
id: MEM-9
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-9
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# MEM-9 — Driving a session is a write, and an absent identity owns nothing

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

A turn spends the owner's memory, so the right to watch a conversation is not the right to continue it. And the caller with no identity is not a caller whose identity happens to be zero.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. Authorization to read a session does not authorize driving it.
>
> 2. A principal that may only view a session must not be able to send it a turn, stop it or reset it, because the turn runs under the session owner's identity and reads and writes the owner's memory (MEM-8).
>
> 3. Every ownership test requires a real identity on both sides.
>
> 4. A principal carrying no identity never owns anything, and a session carrying no owner is owned by nobody rather than by everybody, so an unidentified caller never acquires ownership of a session, a transcript or a run snapshot by matching one absent identity against another.

## Related rules

- Names: MEM-6, MEM-8, MEM-15
- Referenced by: MEM-15

---

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.