Nine ADRs (0254, 0256-0263) were merged into main and left stamped Proposed.
Two carried an explicit ratify-on-merge predicate their own merge had already
discharged, and ADR-0256 governs deduction_serving_enabled, which was ratified
True on 2026-07-24 and is serving live traffic. So the governance record
asserted "not yet decided" about a decision already in force.
That is the asymmetry the assessment arc (#113) found one file over in
workbench/api.py: the honest path degrades, the stale record lies. An unwritten
ADR is a visible gap; a Proposed one that is actually in force is a false
statement.
Each stamp records the ACTUAL ratifying act -- "Accepted, ratified by Joshua
Shay via <merge> (<sha>, <date>)" -- derived from the commit that added the file
and verified an ancestor of main, not assumed. Merge authority is Shay's alone
(AGENTS.md: no merge automation), so the merge IS the ratifying act.
No ADR content changed. No flag changed. ADR-0262's stamp says so explicitly:
accepting it does NOT enable curriculum_serving_enabled, which stays False
pending ratified volume -- eleven bands re-measured today, still 24x-73x short.
tests/test_adr_status_governance.py pins two independent invariants in the
smoke (pre-push) suite:
1. A default-ON flag is not governed by a Proposed ADR. The flag -> ADR mapping
is DERIVED by walking core/config.py for `<name>: bool = True` and reading
ADR refs from the preceding comment block -- not a hand-written table, which
would be the same second-copy-of-a-closed-set defect ADR-0256's arc fixed.
2. A ratify-on-merge predicate cannot coexist with Proposed. Self-discharging:
the file being on main IS the merge having happened.
Plus a vacuity guard, because a derivation that parses zero flags would make
every other assertion pass on an empty set.
Registered two orphans found in passing: test_adr_index.py (5) and
test_ratification_ceremony.py (14) landed in #113 in NO curated suite, so 19
tests -- including the one mechanism that can move curriculum volume -- ran
only under `full`, which gates nothing. Fifth instance of this shape.
Deliberately NOT fixed, recorded in the research doc: the 312-file corpus has
27 unparseable status lines and draft/ratified/active variants. A closed-vocab
assertion would fail on ~35 pre-existing files and get muted, and a muted gate
reads as coverage.
[Verification]: smoke 555 passed in 137.73s (236 baseline + 314 + 5, +1.2s);
governance pin 314 passed in 1.18s standalone and MUTATION-CHECKED -- reverting
ADR-0256 to Proposed fails both invariants independently (2 failed/312 passed);
orphans 19 passed; ruff clean. Canonical Python 3.12.13, uv sync --locked.
Completes the all/no/some square. `some` is read for the first time:
"All mammals are vertebrates. Some whales are mammals. Therefore some
whales are vertebrates." is decided entailed; "All unicorns are horned.
Therefore some unicorns are horned." is decided unsettled, with the
no-existential-import reading disclosed in the surface.
Mechanism (generate/proof_chain/exist.py): v5-VP's per-individual
lowering over a domain widened by one Skolem witness per existential
premise and — the load-bearing part — one ARBITRARY element per
existential conclusion, at which every universal still instantiates and
about which no premise asserts anything. Refuting an existential means
deriving a universal, and the arbitrary element is what makes that
derivation genuine instead of an assumption of domain closure: without
it "Rex is a wolf. Rex is not tame. Therefore some wolves are tame."
reads as REFUTED from a domain of one wolf. With it, UNKNOWN.
Four `en_exist_*` bands earned SERVE at 720x wrong=0 on the first arena
seal (25-band ledger); the 32-case hand-authored v2_exist split passed
32/32 first run; full lane 166/166 wrong=0 across six splits.
Also fixes a wrong-answer path this work uncovered in Band v1b
(ADR-0261 §5.1): `to_syllogism` FILTERED premises it could not express
out of the projection and answered from the remainder, so "Aristotle is
a philosopher. All philosophers are scholars. Therefore some scholars
are philosophers." lost its only witness and was served "that doesn't
follow". It now refuses — matching its propositional sibling
`to_deductive_logic`, which always has — and the argument falls through
to the bands that can hold a singular fact. The categorical band
re-earned SERVE 720/720 after the change; both examples are pinned as
regression cases.
Promotion: `ds-mem-0020` declined -> unknown (ADR-0258's existential
scope-out, now read; an anonymous witness never transfers to a named
individual, so UNKNOWN is its honest verdict, not entailed).
[Verification]: core test --suite deductive 232 passed; reader tests
33/33; register+surface tests 52 passed; arena 25 bands x 720 wrong=0
(all SERVE); lane 166/166 wrong=0; lane SHAs 9/10 match (public_demo
drift is pre-existing on the base commit and unrelated — evidence in
the Tier-S brief).
Shay