docs(adr-0183): stub ADR for the lawful audio→lexeme path

Records the fork for getting words from audio WITHOUT a serving-time learned
model: (A) words-as-text, or (B) deterministic formant/phonetic decode + taught
vocabulary. Status: Proposed (stub) — deferred, not a committed design. Captures
the problem, the 0-param/decode-not-borrow/refuse-over-fabricate/reviewed-growth
constraints, and the open questions a full ADR must answer. Exists so the
serving path doesn't silently reach for Whisper. Cross-linked from
docs/audio_pipeline_overview.md §9.

docs/audio_pipeline_overview.md

@@ -300,6 +300,10 @@ carries what the teacher bootstrapped. Two ways that holds:
   front-end + taught vocabulary lets the engine recognise words itself, lawfully,
   0-param. Whisper was just the bootstrap that helped build that vocabulary.
 
+Paths (A)/(B) are the subject of
+[ADR-0183 (stub)](decisions/ADR-0183-lawful-audio-lexeme-path.md) — deferred, but
+on the record so the serving-path boundary isn't crossed silently.
+
 **The trap to avoid:** teaching with a model does **not** automatically transfer
 word-recognition into a 0-param engine the way distillation transfers into a
 student network. Nothing transfers unless path (A) or (B) actually exists to use

docs/decisions/ADR-0183-lawful-audio-lexeme-path.md

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+# ADR-0183: Lawful Audio→Lexeme Path (stub)
+
+**Status:** Proposed (stub — placeholder to record the fork; not yet a full design)
+**Date:** 2026-05-29
+**Authors:** Joshua M. Shay, Core R&D Engine
+**Domains:** `sensorium/audio/`, `language_packs/`, (future) `generate/`
+**Depends on:** ADR-0013 (Sensorium Protocol), ADR-0181 (Audio Compiler), ADR-0180 (Delta-CRDT substrate)
+**Related:** [`docs/audio_pipeline_overview.md`](../audio_pipeline_overview.md) §9 (teacher boundary), [`docs/plans/audio-compiler-eval-plan.md`](../plans/audio-compiler-eval-plan.md) §4 (teacher policy)
+
+---
+
+## 1. Why this ADR exists (context)
+
+The audio compiler (ADR-0181) decodes the **paralinguistic** layer of speech
+lawfully and deterministically: energy, voicing, pitch contour (prosody),
+pauses, turn boundaries, emphasis, non-speech events. It is **deaf to lexical
+content** — it hears *how* something is said, never *what words* were said.
+
+ADR-0181 admits learned ASR (Whisper/NeMo) as **teacher/shadow lanes only** —
+typed transcript *labels*, never substrate, never folded into the versor. The
+serving path is and must remain Whisper-free
+([overview §9](../audio_pipeline_overview.md)): **the teacher teaches; the lawful
+path serves.**
+
+That doctrine only holds in production **if a lawful runtime path exists to carry
+the words** the teacher bootstrapped. This ADR is the placeholder for designing
+that path. It is a **stub**: it records the fork and the constraints so whoever
+reaches the words problem does not silently reach for Whisper in the serving
+path. It is **not** a committed design yet.
+
+> **This is the PR to scrutinise hard** (per the overview's warning): the moment
+> a real consumer turns audio into words at serving time, the 0-parameter,
+> decode-not-borrow doctrine is on the line.
+
+## 2. Problem statement
+
+Define a **deterministic, 0-parameter, replayable** path from a canonical audio
+signal to **lexical content** (words / lexemes) that:
+
+- never calls a learned model in the serving path;
+- preserves the ADR-0181 invariants (versor condition < 1e-6; merge-key
+  determinism; no PCM in traces; no normalization outside allowed sites);
+- recovers what it can from physical facts in the wave (decode, not borrow), and
+  refuses honestly where it cannot (no fabricated words — the `wrong = 0`
+  discipline generalises here);
+- can be *taught* (vocabulary grown through the reviewed corridor) without the
+  teacher becoming a runtime dependency.
+
+## 3. Candidate directions (to be evaluated, not yet decided)
+
+Two non-exclusive paths, named in the overview:
+
+- **(A) Words-as-text.** Audio stays a paralinguistic-plus-coarse-phonetic sense;
+  the *what* arrives through the existing **text modality**. No serving-time ASR
+  at all. Cleanest and lowest-risk; may be sufficient for many use cases.
+- **(B) Deterministic audio→lexeme decode.** Extend the acoustic front-end toward
+  **lawful phonetics** — formant tracking, spectral-band energies — to recover
+  vowel quality and broad consonant classes, then match against **taught
+  vocabulary** (acoustic-pattern ↔ lexeme associations grown via the reviewed
+  teaching corridor). 0-parameter, fully replayable; real-speech ceiling is lower
+  than learned ASR, and that cost must be stated honestly.
+
+A teacher (Whisper, reviewed) may **bootstrap** the taught vocabulary for (B),
+then be removed — it is scaffolding, not a component
+([overview §9](../audio_pipeline_overview.md)).
+
+## 4. Constraints any accepted design must honour
+
+- **0 learned parameters in the serving path** (track in
+  [`docs/model_dependency_size_tally.md`](../model_dependency_size_tally.md)).
+- **Decode, not borrow** — features must be physically present in the wave; no
+  opaque latents (ADR-0181 §5 rejects embeddings as substrate).
+- **Refuse over fabricate** — where phonetic evidence is insufficient, emit no
+  lexeme rather than a guess; reuse the `wrong = 0` / honest-refusal discipline.
+- **Lexeme growth is reviewed** — new acoustic↔lexeme associations enter only
+  through the contemplation → proposal → HITL corridor (cf. ADR-0164/0165's
+  treatment of lexicon/primitive growth), never as raw model output.
+- **Determinism / replay** — same canonical bytes ⇒ same lexemes ⇒ same trace
+  hash; quantize before semantics (ADR-0181 spec §7).
+
+## 5. Open questions (for the full ADR)
+
+- Is (A) alone sufficient, deferring (B) indefinitely? What use cases actually
+  require serving-time audio→words?
+- What is the minimal lawful phonetic feature set (formants? MFCC-like bands? —
+  noting MFCC must stay deterministic and inspectable, not a learned frontend)?
+- How are acoustic↔lexeme associations represented in a pack, and how are they
+  taught/reviewed/versioned/checksummed?
+- What is the honest accuracy ceiling of (B), and how is it measured (a sealed
+  audio eval lane analogous to the GSM8K sealed test)?
+- Speaker/accent/noise robustness without learned models — scope or explicitly
+  out-of-scope for v1?
+- Does (B) compose with the binding-graph / comprehension reader the same way the
+  text path does, so downstream is unchanged?
+
+## 6. Decision
+
+**Deferred.** This stub records the fork and the constraints. No path is selected
+yet. The serving path remains Whisper-free and audio remains paralinguistic until
+a full ADR selects and specifies (A) and/or (B).
+
+## 7. Consequences
+
+- Until this is taken up, audio comprehension is **prosody/turn/affect only** at
+  serving time; lexical content for audio is unavailable in production (text
+  modality carries words).
+- Recording the fork now prevents the silent failure mode: someone wiring a
+  teacher into the serving path because "audio needs words" without confronting
+  the doctrinal cost. That decision must go through *this* ADR's successor.
+
+## 8. References
+
+- ADR-0181 — Audio compiler; teacher/shadow policy; embeddings rejected as substrate.
+- ADR-0180 — Delta-CRDT substrate; trace/merge determinism the lexeme path must preserve.
+- ADR-0164 / ADR-0165 — reviewed growth of lexicon entries and lexeme primitives (the corridor a taught audio vocabulary would reuse).
+- [`docs/audio_pipeline_overview.md`](../audio_pipeline_overview.md) §9 — teacher = scaffolding; serving path stays Whisper-free; paths (A)/(B).
+- [`docs/model_dependency_size_tally.md`](../model_dependency_size_tally.md) — the 0-parameter tally this path must not move.