What it is. The one-word answer to “what is this actor doing right now?” — expanding, consolidating, hedging, contracting, dormant. Deliberately qualitative: the axes say what an actor has and moves; posture says what it is trying to do.

How we assign it. Read from the actor’s threads and moves — the direction of thrust, announced commitments, retreats, hedges — and kept under standing review rather than computed. A posture starts provisional, gets confirmed or corrected through the steering loop, and every posture claim cites the developments it rests on.

How it relates to the axes. Posture is the narrative layer the numbers beg for. Oracle’s numbers (buybacks collapsing, capex doubling) are a posture change — rentier turning builder — but the word is asserted, not derived, because numbers lag intent and management headlines lead it.

Honest limits. Posture is the most interpretive claim on the board. It’s also the frame that most rewards attention: a wrong posture is more informative to correct than a wrong decimal. Treat it as a standing hypothesis per actor, held to the same receipt discipline as everything else.