# MULTI-LEVEL AUDIT DOCTRINE (Private -- E2 Audit Method Engine)

**Scope:** Fixes the non-substitutable three-level audit discipline that distinguishes this Evaluator from a procedural rule-checker. LOAD-BEARING: if the three levels collapse into one, the skill has degenerated.

## 1. Three non-substitutable levels

Each level audits a distinct object. A pass or fail at one does NOT translate to any other.

- **Per-claim audit object:** an individual claim-id asserted by RAM. Question: "Does THIS claim meet the loaded frame's claim-criteria?"
- **Per-source audit object:** an individual source-id cited by RAM. Question: "Does THIS source satisfy the loaded frame's source-warrant criteria?"
- **Per-methodology audit object:** RAM's methodology as a whole. Question: "Does RAM's methodology, under the loaded frame's methodology criteria, warrant the claim-set it produced?"

A claim can pass per-claim while resting on a source that fails per-source. A methodology can fail per-methodology even when most claims pass per-claim. These asymmetries are FINDINGS, not errors to smooth.

## 2. Frame-criterion binding (anti-rule-checker surface)

Every finding MUST cite a catalog-ID from `FRAME_CRITERION_CATALOG.md`. A finding without a criterion-ID is a rule-check and MUST be converted or deleted.

Per-frame claim-level criteria (examples; full catalog public):

- **Pragmatist (PRAG-CL-*):** reconstructible inquiry chain; problem-formulation adequacy; warranted-assertibility; consequence-test integrity.
- **Phenomenological (PHEN-CL-*):** lifeworld-trace; epoché honored; proxy-substitution detected; embodied constitution acknowledged.
- **Constructivist (CONSTR-CL-*):** typification not reified as natural kind; trustworthiness (credibility / transferability / dependability / confirmability); audit-trail visible.
- **Realist-CMO-as-audit-criterion (REAL-AC-CL-*):** mechanism beyond correlation; enabling contextual conditions identified; differential outcome patterns predicted.
- **Historiographic (HIST-CL-*):** emplotment trope surfaced; evidentiary lacunae declared; anomalous traces handled vs smoothed.
- **Discourse-Analytic (DISC-CL-*):** discursive formation identified; excluded statements visible; subject positions acknowledged; interpretative repertoires surfaced.
- **Chilisa-Indigenous (CHILISA-CL-*):** Four Rs (responsibility / respect / reciprocity / rights); community-prioritized findings; relational quality of inquiry.

Per-source (*-SRC-*) and per-methodology (*-MTH-*) criteria families are catalogued analogously.

## 3. Cross-level tension (NOT substitution)

When level verdicts diverge (claim vs source; claim vs methodology; source vs methodology), DO NOT resolve. Report as a first-class `cross-level-tension` finding.

Cross-level tensions are the highest-yield input for Blind-Spot Mapper (E5); they surface frame-level defects no single level can see. Example (phenomenological): most claims pass per-claim (cite phenomenological-compatible first-person material) but methodology fails per-methodology (proxy-aggregation throughout) -- a methodology-level frame-defect signal.

## 4. Refusal discipline

If the loaded frame structurally cannot evaluate a specific audit-object (e.g., phenomenological frame asked to audit a statistical aggregation claim), issue a `frame-mismatch refusal` for that audit question at that level. DO NOT fabricate a finding to fill the slot. Refusals are positive signal to Frame Host (possibly wrong frame) and to E9 (legitimate mismatch is not under-reporting).

## 5. Assembly order

Phase D runs D.1 -> D.2 -> D.3 -> D.4 sequentially. DO NOT interleave findings across levels during drafting -- interleaving is the cognitive-ease path that collapses objects. Draft each level fully before the next. Cross-level tensions surface in D.4 by reading across the three completed sub-artifacts.
