CFDL

Slices

A slice is a named, deliberately partial selection of a model's own streams, with figures computed over the selection: one artist's royalties, a label minus its merchandise line, everything that is debt, one asset over two years.

slice artist_a_royalties {
  entity asset.artist_a
  category "operating.revenue.royalty"
}

slice label_ex_merch {
  entity container.label
  except category "operating.revenue.merchandise"
}

slice debt {
  type Contract.Debt
}

slice west_2027 {
  entity asset.west_tower
  window from 2027-01 to 2028-12
}

Clauses

Clause kinds intersect; values within a kind union; except subtracts last. A kind that is absent does not constrain, so a slice of nothing but excepts reads "everything minus these".

  • entity (and except entity) takes a reference — an undeclared entity is refused (E1362) — and selects the entity together with its part of descendants, so a container's slice is its members'.
  • type names an ontology type, matched transitively through refines: type Contract.Debt selects every stream lowered from a contract whose type is_a Contract.Debt, and streams owned by entities of a conforming type. An unknown type is refused with the known types named (E1363).
  • category and stream take quoted selectors — the same dialect series_sum reads, exact or one trailing .* — and a category selector must be rooted in a statement section (E1364).
  • window from <date> to <date> bounds the periods, where every other clause bounds the streams. A period outside it contributes nothing, so the slice's figures are folds over the window. At most one window per slice. Dates, not period indices: a window that survives a change of calendar has to be stated in dates. A window is not a phase — a phase is a lifecycle anchor that drives schedules; a window is a reporting bound applied to a finished projection.

A slice name must be unique within the model (E1361).

What a slice publishes

Results carry, per slice: its selection (the lineage — the clauses it was declared with, window included), the streams it matched, its net per-period series, and total / npv / irr over the matched streams on the model's own axis.

No reconciliation, by design

A slice carries no reconciliation block. It is partial on purpose, and must be seen to be: a slice never publishes a residual and never claims the model's total, so a partial number cannot dress as a complete one. A statement is the construct that reconciles — and a statement filtered by a slice reconciles against the slice's total.

A view, not a model change

A slice filters a completed result; it produces no cash. The compiler files it under the document's views, which model_hash is taken over without — so two users who look at identical results differently share a model hash, and adding a slice moves neither model_hash nor ledger_hash. A declared metric is not a view: it is a figure the model claims, so it does move model_hash.

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