Glossary · ruling
GLOSSARY
Ruling
A recorded answer to a metric fork: durable, attributed to a named person, reviewable, and reversible. It is asked in business language with the consequence stated, then stored once and applied everywhere. A ruling turns a definition argument into a fact the pipeline can enforce instead of a meeting that happens every quarter.
Principle 10 · A metric without its definition is not a number
Where does Ruling come from?
Principle 10 of the Kymira doctrine, A metric without its definition is not a number. Ruling is the name the doctrine gives to what that principle requires in practice.
What failure is Ruling named after?
Two churn definitions, 3.4 points apart. Two teams, one word, different denominators, both defensible, and a leadership deck that mixes them.
What does it look like on a real file?
Churn is ruled as cancellations over subscribers at period start, recorded against a named owner, and rendered beside the number.
Not for
Not permanent. A ruling is reviewable and reversible, and the record keeps who made it and when they made it.
Nearest terms
Last updated 2026-09-02 · Dylan, founder · one of 40 terms in the Kymira glossary, each one named after something we watched go wrong in a real build or in our own audits.