"A name can be part of voice; provenance must be part of state."
Separate the powers
A warm name can make generated prose feel accountable without actually identifying the work. Inkwell needs provenance: which route authored, which route reviewed, which prompt version ran, and which source fingerprint each act saw.
Let state name the role
A soul or model identity may shape the experience, but the stored record names operational roles and identifiers. UI can present a humane label while the database preserves enough detail to reconstruct the chain.
The convenient overreach
Persona-only attribution turns a reroute into invisible history. Model-only attribution misses the role. Provenance joins entry, job, role, route, version, and input so a later reader can tell what happened.
Follow one sentence through four acts
Test “Provenance, Not Persona” by tracing original authorship, translation authorship, blind review, and author revision. For each act list inputs, outputs, visible evidence, writable fields, and the proof handed forward. One brain may perform two roles at different times; the job and authority must still remain distinct.
Make the judgment
Draw the provenance chain for original, translation, blind review, and author revision without using a persona name as the only key. If you cannot answer who chose the final wording in one sentence, provenance is too thin. A note that silently edits text or a stet whose reason disappears changes who holds the pen.
Narrow roles sharpen quality
Giving a reviewer every truth is not always an improvement. Restricting evidence and action makes the naturalness question answerable. The author uses that answer as material while retaining responsibility for the final choice.