# HANDOFF -- Reopen Authority Enforcer (Evaluator E7)

**From:** skill-creator-max (Phase 6)
**To:** orchestration-engineering-max (Phase 7), evaluator-engineering-max (Phase 8.5), plugin-packaging-max (Phase 8), Phase 9 calibration harness owner
**Date:** 2026-04-20
**Status:** Skill directory assembled. SKILL.md + 4 references + 1 template complete. Two cross-phase handoffs preserved.

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## 1. What Was Built

| Artifact | Path | Role |
|---|---|---|
| SKILL.md | `SKILL.md` | Identity, NEVER rules, File Registry, 7-phase procedure, error classes, pilot-calibration TODO |
| VERDICT_TOKEN_GRAMMAR.md | `references/VERDICT_TOKEN_GRAMMAR.md` | Four binary tokens; no compound verdicts; no advisory prose |
| COMPOSITE_TRIGGER_SPEC.md | `references/COMPOSITE_TRIGGER_SPEC.md` | P1-P5 predicates; decision rule (P4 AND P5 AND >=2 of {P1,P2,P3}); degenerate forms enumerated |
| DWELL_AND_BOUND_RULES.md | `references/DWELL_AND_BOUND_RULES.md` | Five-signal inventory, three dampening gates, ceremonial detection, escalation-to-human internal mode |
| GOODHART_RESISTANCE_NOTES.md | `references/GOODHART_RESISTANCE_NOTES.md` | Manheim-Garrabrant countermeasures, Phase 7 enforcement-surface contract, runtime-self-calibration trap |
| REOPEN_EVENT_RECORD.md | `templates/REOPEN_EVENT_RECORD.md` | Structured record schema for ledger writes and enforcement-surface payload |

Zero-overlap: Each reference addresses a disjoint concern. VERDICT owns output grammar; COMPOSITE owns predicate calculus; DWELL owns gates + ceremonial + escalation; GOODHART owns theoretical grounding + enforcement-surface contract + calibration-channel discipline.

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## 2. Critical Handoff: Enforcement-Surface to Phase 7 (LOAD-BEARING)

**This is the architectural handoff that makes E7 real rather than ceremonial.**

### 2.1 Contract REQUIRED of Phase 7 orchestration

Phase 7 MUST implement (per `references/GOODHART_RESISTANCE_NOTES.md` Section 3):

1. **Deterministic channel.** `REOPEN` verdict triggers exactly one RAM rerun per cycle. No conditional execution, no UI confirmation, no operator approval step.
2. **No RAM veto.** RAM has no interface to decline, override, or negotiate. Any such interface collapses E7 to a recommender and voids the dual-system commitment.
3. **Acknowledgement-only semantics.** RAM responds with a confirmation receipt. No status/objection/alternative channel at the reopen interface.
4. **Escalation routing.** `ESCALATED` verdict routes to Charter-declared `escalation-receiver-id` with automated reopen attempts frozen until disposition received via Charter channel.
5. **Build-time non-degradability verification (Phase 8.5).** Static trace + injection test MUST prove no code path converts REOPEN to advisory output. Any such path triggers `EC-ENFORCEMENT-SURFACE-DEGRADED` at build, not at runtime.

### 2.2 Failure-if-unmet

If orchestration-engineering-max cannot implement an enforcement (non-advisory) channel, the E7 commitment in the Evaluator architecture is violated. This triggers Phase 2B kill-criterion review -- the dual-system commitment partially collapses (advisory reopen = ceremonial dual-system per Power 1997).

### 2.3 Phase 7 should NOT own

- Composite-trigger evaluation (E7 owns).
- Dwell-time / bounded-count gating (E7 owns).
- Ceremonial-reopen detection (E7 owns; reads E9).
- Escalation-trigger logic (E7 owns; Phase 7 owns receiver routing only).

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## 3. Critical Handoff: Pilot-Calibration TODO (POST-DEPLOYMENT, PRESERVED)

### 3.1 Why preserved

E-R5.3 verdict was PARTIAL. AI-audit reopen-loop empirical evidence is thin. Threshold defaults (ceiling `N`, dwell-time floor, composite-trigger predicate weights, sub-dwell deferral cap) are seeded from analogs:

- NICE clinical audit cycle -> bounded re-audit interval + scheduled re-measure.
- Ogata closed-loop control theory -> phase margin, gain margin, dwell time, bounded gain.
- Manheim-Garrabrant Goodhart variants -> composite predicate as countermeasure.

Quantitative validation requires live operational data. Runtime self-tuning is forbidden (`EC-RUNTIME-SELF-CALIBRATION`).

### 3.2 What Phase 9 calibration harness owner MUST capture

Per audit cycle (five-signal block in `templates/REOPEN_EVENT_RECORD.md`):

- `S1_reopen_count`.
- `S2_reopen_to_reopen_interval_sec`.
- `S3_repeat_evidence_pattern_detected` (artifact-key equality against prior close-evidence).
- `S4_ceremonial_pattern_signal` (E9 scoping).
- `S5_metric_identity_flag` (same metric triggers close and reopen).

Plus: ceremonial-suppression events, escalation events with convergence-failure history snapshot, closing-evidence distinctness.

### 3.3 Recalibration pathway

After agreed-upon N cycles:

1. Owners: evaluator-engineering-max + Charter authority.
2. Update Charter parameters (NOT skill internals).
3. Skill reads updated Charter on the next cycle.
4. Skill MUST refuse any runtime internal-reasoning-driven threshold change.

### 3.4 What the operator should know

The skill ships with defensible-but-uncalibrated thresholds. First N cycles operate in calibration mode. Threshold updates after Phase 9 telemetry analysis are expected, not a defect -- this is the explicit design posture given E-R5.3 PARTIAL evidence base.

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## 4. Flags for Phase 8 (plugin-packaging-max)

- All files are double-hyphen-styled; no emoji.
- Library placement matches `phase-5-system-architecture/LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE.md` Section 4.9 (Private Evaluator, all five files under `evaluator/skills/reopen-authority-enforcer/`).
- No file crosses the RAM/Evaluator silo boundary.
- No Public Evaluator files written by this skill (E7 is a pure Private-Evaluator skill).
- The verdict-token grammar binds the output channel format; packaging must preserve exact token spellings `REOPEN | PASS | PASS-DEFERRED | ESCALATED`.

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## 5. Anti-Pattern Risks (for Phase 8.5 evaluator-engineering-max)

Verify at build time:

| Risk | Verification |
|---|---|
| Verdict rendered as advisory text | Token-grep on output channel; MUST be one of four tokens |
| Single-predicate trigger path | Code-trace composite; reject any path that fires REOPEN on single P1/P2/P3 without the AT-LEAST-TWO-of-three plus required P4+P5 |
| Dwell-time gate bypassable | Inject sub-dwell; expect `PASS-DEFERRED`, never `REOPEN` |
| Bounded-count breach without escalation | Inject `N+1`th reopen; expect `ESCALATED`, never silent `PASS` |
| Ceremonial path emits silently | Inject E9 ceremonial signal + reopen candidate; expect explicit suppression record, not silent `PASS` |
| Runtime self-calibration | Inject threshold-change request from inside skill; expect `EC-RUNTIME-SELF-CALIBRATION` halt |
| Phase 7 enforcement downgrade | Mock advisory-only Phase 7 receiver; expect `EC-ENFORCEMENT-SURFACE-DEGRADED` halt |

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## 6. Cross-References / Open Coordination

- **E9 ceremonial-signal scoping.** E7 depends on E9 exposing a reopen-domain-scoped ceremonial signal. If E9 emits only global ceremonial signals, `DWELL_AND_BOUND_RULES.md` Section 3.2 specifies a scoped-derivation rule (restrict to findings that drove prior reopens in this cycle). Coordination defect: verify E9 SKILL.md exposes the scoping cleanly.
- **E6 Charter parameter exposure.** Verify E6 SKILL.md publishes: `reopen_ceiling_N`, `dwell_time_floor`, `sub_dwell_cap`, `materiality_threshold`, `disagreement_threshold`, `noise_floor_declared` flag, `escalation_receiver_id`, composite-trigger spec version, defect-class-in-scope check.
- **E4 ledger write-through.** Verify E4 SKILL.md exposes a write-through interface E7 can call (E4 owns ledger render per Phase 2B decision-point resolution).
- **E5 finding schema.** Verify findings carry `severity`, `defect_class`, `evidence_ref` fields.
- **E8 Frame Registry read.** Verify `FRAME_REGISTRY_SCHEMA.md` (Public Evaluator) exposes cycle-keyed artifact IDs for P4 equality checks.

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## 7. Confidence Statement

- HIGH on procedural specification (control-systems + clinical-audit analogs are mature).
- HIGH on anti-pattern coverage (advisory regression, oscillation, Goodhart drift, ceremonial-mask, self-calibration all explicitly trapped with dedicated error classes).
- HIGH on zero-overlap across the four references (disjoint concerns verified by topic mapping).
- MODERATE on quantitative threshold values (E-R5.3 PARTIAL evidence base; pilot-calibration TODO preserved).
- DEPENDENT on Phase 7 orchestration-engineering-max meeting the enforcement-surface contract. Without it, the architectural commitment fails.

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**End of HANDOFF.**
