Context Lake
A System Class Defined by Decision Coherence
Formal definition published in — arXiv:2601.17019 (cs.DB)
Definition in English
A Context Lake is a system class that ensures interacting decisions are evaluated against the same coherent representation of reality.
It exists because decisions today are often made on incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent context — producing conflicting or irreconcilable outcomes.
What It Enables
When multiple systems or agents decide at the same time, a Context Lake ensures they are evaluated against a single accurate view of the underlying facts.
That means outcomes can be explained coherently, even when decisions interact and effects are irreversible.
Example
A fraud model, a pricing engine, and an inventory system all evaluate the same order. If each uses a different snapshot of user risk, demand, or stock, the outcome is incoherent. A Context Lake ensures those decisions are evaluated against the same underlying facts before they act.
Why It Matters
Agents act continuously and in parallel. Once they act, results are hard to unwind. If their decisions are based on incompatible facts, there may be no single explanation for what happened.
Context Lake defines the correctness requirement (Decision Coherence) that makes interacting decisions jointly explainable.
Why It Exists
- Incomplete context leads to brittle or unsafe decisions.
- Outdated context causes decisions to diverge from current reality.
- Inconsistent context across agents breaks shared understanding.
- Interacting decisions require a single accurate basis to be jointly explainable.
Canonical Definition
The canonical page provides the reference definition and core properties of a Context Lake, with links to the formal treatment in the arXiv paper.
Scope
This site defines a system class.
It does not describe a product, implementation, or vendor.