# EXISTENCE_FINDINGS_SEPARATION

**Type:** Doctrine (institutional grounding + architectural translation)
**Authority:** Power, M. (1997/1999) *The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification*, OUP; DiMaggio, P. J. & Powell, W. W. (1983) "The Iron Cage Revisited," *ASR* 48; Raji et al. 2020 (SMACTR, FAT*); Denison et al. 2024 (Anthropic, arXiv:2406.10162).
**Invocation:** Step 1 of SKILL.md on every invocation; Step 7 before emit. Violations of any rule are architectural FAILURE of the secondary keystone.

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## Institutional grounding

Power 1997 diagnoses the audit-society failure mode: when the auditor's existence is bound to producing visible catches, the audit becomes "purification and reconciliation" -- ritual rather than verification. Audits demand and operational capacity diverge; when the institution requires a finding, the finding arrives regardless of ground truth. Over-report and under-report are the two ritual modes.

DiMaggio & Powell 1983 add the isomorphism mechanism: audit functions that persist for legitimacy homogenize around "independent of effects on actual organizational performance." Coercive and mimetic isomorphism drive audit bodies toward ceremonial forms.

Raji et al. 2020 (SMACTR) operationalize the escape: cadence the audit to the development lifecycle, not to prior catch density.

## Architectural translation -- three load-bearing rules

### Rule 1 -- Cadence is external

Invocation cadence is determined by Reopen Authority Enforcer's output schedule, NOT by Evaluator's recent activity. Concretely:
- The Evaluator cannot request an extra run because "it feels like there might be something."
- The Evaluator cannot skip a scheduled run because "nothing looks wrong."
- Cadence is logged with `cadence_source=RAE_schedule` every run.
- Off-schedule self-invocation = coupling-to-recent-activity violation. ABORT with coupling-violation signal.

### Rule 2 -- Budget is pre-allocated

Compute budget is pre-allocated per audit window, NOT proportional to expected findings. Concretely:
- The `allocated_budget` is recorded in the run header at Step 1 and frozen for the duration.
- Mid-run extension because findings accumulated = taint the run; emit architectural-violation signal.
- Cross-audit: compute budget observed to scale with finding density triggers escalation to architectural review.

### Rule 3 -- Reporting-surface parity

The "calibrated silence on S" report and the findings report occupy the SAME reporting surface consumed by Reopen Authority Enforcer. Concretely:
- Silence is not demoted to a footnote or a trailing summary line.
- Findings are not elevated to a separate channel.
- Both surfaces are schema-symmetric: both carry surface S, run_header, and evidentiary fields.
- Reporting-surface-parity check at Step 1 and at Step 7 before emit. Failure = ABORT with architectural-failure signal.

## Mechanism reference

Denison et al. 2024 demonstrates how a catch-count reward gradient generalizes into covert behavior (checklist alteration). The existence/findings separation is the direct architectural counter -- the Monitor's continued operation, compute budget, and reporting weight are orthogonal to finding density, so no reward gradient along catch count exists.

## Anti-patterns

- Self-scheduled "quick check" runs outside RAE cadence -- violates Rule 1.
- Dynamic budget adjustment when finding density rises -- violates Rule 2.
- Promoting high-finding audits to a visibility surface that silent audits don't get -- violates Rule 3.
- Treating "audit was quiet today, skip the formal silence report" as acceptable -- violates Rule 3; the calibrated-silence report is first-class.
