# docs/assessment/ — The Holistic Macro→Micro Assessment (2026-07-27)

A read-only, evidence-bearing assessment of CORE's cognitive-cycle design versus implementation fulfillment, conducted under `docs/conceptualizing_engineering_mastery.md` at `forgejo/main` @ `8927c563`. Phases 0–5 change no runtime behavior, fix no defect, and decide nothing — they produce evidence and judgments for ruling. Phase 6 adds the execution plan built on them and the ruling packet they require.

**Start here:** [`40-assessment.md`](40-assessment.md) — the synthesis (the verdict, the five frontiers, the recommended attack order). Then [`50-execution-plan.md`](50-execution-plan.md) for what follows from it, and [`50-rulings.md`](50-rulings.md) for what is waiting on a decision. The registers rank the work; the cards are the evidence base.

| File / dir | Phase | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| [`00-scope-and-method.md`](00-scope-and-method.md) | — | Charter, method, rules of engagement, phase/executor table |
| [`01-phase0-ground-truth.md`](01-phase0-ground-truth.md) | 0 | Corpus triage, the five unreconciled articulations, system-map recovery |
| [`02-layer-taxonomy.md`](02-layer-taxonomy.md) | 1 | The two-axis taxonomy: 7 macro layers + 2 cross-cuts over 33 zones; the Candidate Register (CR-1…4); completeness criteria |
| [`03-card-schema.md`](03-card-schema.md) | 1 | The card metadata schema: liveness ⊥ fitness, design ⊥ build, sabotage-tested evidence, `verified_at` stamps |
| [`10-layer-cards/`](10-layer-cards/) | 2 | Nine layer cards (M0–M6, MG, MV), every liveness label re-verified against code |
| [`04-phase2-findings.md`](04-phase2-findings.md) | 2 | Stage-coverage audit; corrections to Phase 0; findings F-1…F-5 |
| [`20-component-cards/`](20-component-cards/) | 3 | Eight component cards: the four zero-subsystem zones + always-on, derivation organs, surface selection, attention |
| [`05-phase3-findings.md`](05-phase3-findings.md) | 3 | Corrections C-1…C-5; findings F-6…F-10; the consolidated Phase-4 seed list |
| [`30-gap-register.md`](30-gap-register.md) | 4 | **The live gap register** — 23 entries (G-21, G-22, G-23 added during execution), 4 tiers, each with evidence + deciding authority; **supersedes `docs/gaps.md` and the substrate-liveness ratchet** per R-7 |
| [`31-hindrance-audit.md`](31-hindrance-audit.md) | 4 | Fourteen hindrances with fitness verdicts and better homes; **seventeen candidates examined and cleared** — five in Phase 4, six in the first 2026-07-28 external-assessment triage, six in the second (of which one, the pack/domain seam, survived as G-23) |
| [`40-assessment.md`](40-assessment.md) | 5 | The synthesis |
| [`50-execution-plan.md`](50-execution-plan.md) | 6 | **The execution plan** — five waves + five frontier tracks over every G/H entry, with the dependency gates and the risks. §0 carries **nine** corrections to the assessment found while sizing and executing it; **§2.1 carries the adopted ruling docket and its execution order** |
| [`50-rulings.md`](50-rulings.md) | 6 | **The ruling packet** — R-1…R-14, each with evidence, options, a recommendation, and the exact diff that follows from each choice. **RULED 2026-07-28: twelve adopted, R-10 and R-14 stricken, §5 NO-GO ratified.** Carries the **standing delegation** under which residual sub-questions are decided, and marks each ruling `EXECUTED` as it lands |
| [`../specs/postures.md`](../specs/postures.md) | — | **The posture statements** (R-1/R-5/R-6/R-11) — efferent-action deferral, the identity-enforcement discrimination bar, non-text-ingest deferral, each with the criterion that would change it; plus **P-4**, the interim fabrication gate withdrawn because measurement dissolved its premise |
| [`../specs/flag_register.md`](../specs/flag_register.md) | — | **The flag register** (PR-5, R-3 + R-4) — all 32 `RuntimeConfig` booleans by class, governing ADR, and *what evidence flips it*; profiles as the unit of decision; §5 indexes every declared table in the repository and the pin that makes each true |

**Maintenance contract** (from §8 of the synthesis): a card whose `verified_at` falls behind a load-bearing arc is testimony, not evidence. Update cards when their subsystems move, or this directory becomes the next dead instrument it was built to replace.

**Execution status (2026-07-28).** Phases 0–6 produced the evidence; the arc that followed executed everything needing no ruling, **Wave 0 closed** (twelve rulings adopted, two stricken, the §5 **NO-GO ratified**), and **the entire adopted docket is now executed** in its corrected order — R-7 → R-12 → R-3+R-4 → R-9+R-2 → R-13 → R-8 → R-1/R-5/R-6/R-11. Landed: Track A's §5 verdict (pre-registered), PR-1, PR-3+PR-3b, PR-4 (+pin 3), **PR-4b**, **PR-5**, PR-6, PR-7, PR-9, **PR-11**, **PR-12**, **PR-14**, **R-12**'s ADR amendments, the **posture statements**, and five defect fixes (H-13, H-8e, G-22, G-23, plus pin 3's own union blind spot).

Closed: **G-5…G-12, G-15, G-17, G-19, G-22, H-1, H-6, H-7, H-8 (all five instances), H-11, H-13**. Added: **N-8, N-9, G-21, G-22, G-23, H-13, H-14**. **Wave 4's F-6 half-gate is lifted.** The gate is now four steps (smoke + warmed_session + deductive + teaching).

**Three results worth reading before the registers.** (1) **ADR-0252 §5 returned NO-GO** against a pre-registered criterion — the geometric structure-mapper is refuted for its embedding class, and §6's organ-retirement condition was amended because a NO-GO made it unsatisfiable as written. (2) **Served capability shrank on purpose**: the Wilson re-count took deduction from **25 licensed shape-bands to 4**, and the curriculum outcome-mix rule dissolved the four licences N-5 predicted — in both cases `wrong` stayed 0, so no answer changed, only the claim attached to it. (3) **R-11's instrumentation dissolved its own question**: nothing is syntactically outside the verified inventory, because one of the 19 constructions matches any string — so the fabrications are mis-reads of admissible surfaces, and the fabrication ADR inherits the boundary question.

What remains is **the next arc, not this one** — see [`50-execution-plan.md`](50-execution-plan.md) §Status and §2.1.

**Standing note:** the PR #138 fabrication findings appear throughout as *measured & pinned, fix held for ADR + ratification* — recorded, never re-discovered, never fixed here, per explicit instruction.